Ten Questions With… Steve & Kylie (The Revills Games) Ten Questions With
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Ten Questions With… Steve & Kylie (The Revills Games)

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Check out the official The Revills Games Website

Greenlight
Vote for Chef Solitaire: USA on  Steam Greenlight

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Buy your copy of Legends of Solitaire: Curse of the Dragons on the Steam Store page 

After playing the very addictive Legends of Solitaire Curse of the Dragons and Chef Solitaire USA we had to find out more about the small team behind these titles. Thankfully, Steve and Kylie from The Revills Games were courteous enough to share some insights about their games and where they draw their inspiration from.

Can you give our readers a quick introduction of yourself and your work?

The Revills Games is a small indie games company based in Adelaide, South Australia. We are a husband and wife team. Steve is the Programmer and Game Designer. Kylie is also a Game Designer, Quality Assistant, Play Tester and Level Creator. We first started creating casual games in 2008 with our first major release Gunslinger Solitaire, from there we have been creating casual games ever since.

We first started creating casual games in 2008 with our first major release Gunslinger Solitaire, from there we have been creating casual games ever since. We have developed 7 commercial games to date with the last couple Legends of Solitaire The Lost Cards and Legends of Solitaire Curse of the Dragons doing exceptionally well in the casual game market.

Our latest game Chef Solitaire USA is also selling very well on casual game portals such Big Fish Games, GameHouse and iWin. We also have a Greenlight Campaign going for Chef Solitaire USA of which we are working hard on PR and advertising to get the game Greenlit and released on Steam.

What made you focus on the casual genre, specifically solitaire titles?

We were inspired by the original Fairway Solitaire designed by John Cutter. It was a challenge for us to see if we could recreate the magic of Fairway Solitaire.

What does a typical workday entail for The Revills Games?

Steve has a full-time job as a software engineer, so working on our games is an evening and weekend gig. Steve is the developer, programming all our games and also a game designer. Kylie however works on research, sounds, PR and level designing throughout the week.

What are the games that influenced you and how?

Fairway Solitaire certainly influenced us as far as Solitaire games go. Classic games such as Lemmings had a big influence and when creating The Bloobles we based some of the Lemmings game mechanics into the game. Also platformers such as Mario and Sonic.

What is the biggest challenge while creating solitaire games?

Always trying to come up with new ideas for the theme, look and feel of the game and to try to enhance the games to include actions that have not been seen or done before, to keep the player entertained throughout the entire game.

What aspect of creating solitaire games do find to be the most fun?

Steve really enjoys programming. He has been coding since he was 8 years old. Kylie enjoys designing the games and creating the levels. Seeing players happy, who enjoy playing our games gives us a lot of satisfaction and makes the creation of our games enjoyable.

What are the future plans for The Revills Games?

We have a few more solitaire games up our sleeves that we will be creating and will also be releasing some more mobile games. We will be branching out a bit more and making some different types of games too which will bring more challenges, something we thrive on.

What is the most unusual thing on your desk right now? 

We keep our desks very neat and tidy, so about the only unusual thing that we have I guess is on Steve’s desk, a tennis ball. He has Plantar Fasciitis which is a heel issue, so he uses the tennis ball to help with that.
Mac work station
PC work station

As a husband and wife team do you have any advice for other developer couples who want to follow the indie route?

It is pretty tough getting your games out there and it seems to be getting harder to get noticed, you have to work really hard on your PR and advertising. The games have to be very polished and what the public want. Stick with it though as it is very rewarding.

Anything else you would like to add?

We are really hoping to get Chef Solitaire USA Greenlit and selling on Steam. Indie game developers really do need all the help the public can give in getting their game on Steam. It is a big challenge, but we managed to get Legends of Solitaire Curse of the Dragons Greenlit, so fingers crossed for Chef Solitaire USA!

We would also like to give a big thank you to all our fans, your support has been amazing over the years. Hoping everyone will enjoy our future releases too.

Thank you to Gameramble for showing so much support for the Indie Game developers and for this interview opportunity 🙂

From our side we want to thank Steve and Kylie for taking the time to answer our questions. Like they mentioned, Chef Solitaire USA is currently on Steam Greenlight, so check out our REVIEW for the game and then go and cast a vote.

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1 Comment

  1. originaleyecorn November 30, 2015
    Reply

    Those are without a doubt the cleanest work stations eva! I cannot even see my desk underneath all the weird things on it so I take my hat off to any programmer that can keep a work environment that sterile!

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