PALGN: Can you tell us a little bit about Endgame Studios and their background?
Grant Davies: Endgame's been around for about four years now. It was founded by myself and Nick Kovac, and we both used to work at Torus Games. Before that I used to work at Melbourne House. Endgame works in the handheld console market, we have a history with the GBA and those sorts of games. Right now we're working on three DS titles. We're eventually going to get into Wii development too.
PALGN: What are the previous titles you guys have worked on?
GD: We've worked with Rayman 3, Spiderman and Pitfall on a console called digiBLAST which was released in Europe only. Last year we worked on Shrek: Smash and Crash Racing and Spiderman: Battle for New York on GBA and Nintendo DS. Right now we've got three Nintendo DS titles in production. One of them is an original IP.
The digiBLAST, a handheld released only in Europe.
PALGN: Can you tell us a little bit about Slidatron: Dual Space?
GD: Slidatron is a unique DS title in that you're using both screens of the DS at the same time to play on. It's a platformer and in order to complete every level you not only have to jump around on the one screen you'll have to move between the two screens as well. That's how we're making use of the dual screens in an innovative way.
PALGN: Why was the decision made to use both screens for Slidatron?
GD: We came up with a number of design ideas when the DS was first launched. We had five ideas of how to make use of the DS in a unique way. In the end we decided to push this one through and as it's happened we've seen the other four come out in the past few years. We really think this concept is a good one because the other ones are doing so well.
PALGN: What stage of development is Slidatron currently at?
GD: It's at a first playable stage. We're currently talking to publishers about bringing it to market. We're looking to have it on the store shelves early next year. The engine is mostly complete, and the game has great looking artwork, it's been really nicely rendered. We're working with a former Lucasarts animator to lead our art team and render the characters.
PALGN: Was it a little bit less restrictive working on your own IP than when you're given an existing IP?
GD: Definitely, being able to do what we want to do with the game rather than what the license dictactes is great fun. You still have to keep an eye on what's going to sell and what's not because that's what the publishers are interested in. But being able to take our own direction with the character and not worry about what colours the character has to be wearing or what abilities they have to use is handy. We can make decisions based on gameplay alone.
Slidatron: Dual Space; a game we're very excited about.
PALGN: Is the game going to be a strictly single player campaign?
GD: No there is going to be multiplayer support, Wi-Fi connectivity so you can play with a friend in cooperative play. You can also compete for the most pickups. Some of the pickups are in hard to get locations so you'll have to make choices about which pickups to go for.
PALGN: You mentioned Wii development, have you started developing Wii titles yet or is it still in an exploration stage?
GD: It's in exploration, we have a concept that again uses the Wii controller in an interesting, innovative way... something we can follow on from Slidatron. We just find that Nintendo consoles allow us to really play around with gameplay and do things that are totally original. We've got a concept and hopefully we'll investigate that later in the year.
PALGN: So you've expanded from two people, how many people are there working for Endgame Studios at the moment?
GD: We have seven people at the moment and if things go well with Slidatron then we can probably expand to twelve people. That's about where we want to keep things for now.
Fantastic graphics.
PALGN: Do you find it's tough to get promotion out about your games being based in Melbourne?
GD: At the moment that hasn't been a consideration. We've deliberately kept a low profile for Slidatron because it was a concern for awhile that someone else could come along and do the idea. Now it looks like we're about to sign we're happy to do a little bit more promotion on Slidatron. It hasn't been a problem up until now. I think it will become more of a concern as the release date comes closer to us.
PALGN It would have been a risk to go out and form your own studio, do you think it was the right decision?
GD: That's a really good question actually. Something I've grappled with for the last four years. For the first two years I thought it was perhaps an ill considered and rash decision and probably not a great idea. But in the last 18 months there's been so much work coming into Australia that it's actually been a really great time to be a startup company in Australia. We're really lucky that it just happened at this time and we were able to stay around because now things are really looking good for Endgame. So now it was one of the best decisions I've made... But if you'd asked me 18 months ago or 2 years ago it would have been one of the worst decisions ever!
PALGN: Just to wrap it up, if you could describe Slidatron to a potential purchaser in one sentence, how would you describe it?
GD: Innovative, original DS platformer that is a totally unique spin on the platform genre.
PALGN: Thanks for your time Grant.
GD: No problems.
PALGN would like to thank Grant Davies at Endgame Studios for the interview. We'd also like to thank Martin Wilkes for setting us up with the interview at the Ballarat GIG.
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