Ten Questions With… Paul Barnes (Kinelco) & Christian Holland (Lone Elk Creative)
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Vertiginous Golf is an Early Access title that caught our attention with its unique setting and storyline. The game is in development by Kinelco along with sister company, Lone Elk Creative and is already shaping up to be something special. Paul Barnes from Kinelco and Christian Holland were kind enough to answer some of our questions about the game.
Can you give our readers a quick introduction of yourself and the studio?
Paul: My name is Paul Barnes, I run Kinelco, and I work in partnership with Christian at Lone Elk Creative to develop games for the web, mobile and PC.
Christian: My names Christian Holland, I run Lone Elk Creative and work together with Paul at Kinelco to make games.
What made you decide to create Vertiginous Golf?
Paul: We developed the first two Vertigolf games over 10 years ago and always loved the games and wanted to create a follow up. Using the Unity game engine we now could really do the game justice so felt this was the right time to develop the game.
Christian: We found ourselves in that great position of coming up with a project of our own so we decided to reboot an old creation of ours “Vertigolf” and bring it up to date.
What are the games that influenced you and how?
Paul: I have to confess that I’m not a massive gamer so couldn’t reel off a list of influential games. As I’m a coder I tend to be more interested in the gameplay mechanics of games, so just end up studying how they physics works or how they’ve implemented the cameras. I did love Dear Esther though.
Christian: I think every single game I play whether I like it or not influences me. It’s hard to nail down exactly which games influenced Vertiginous Golf to be honest, but I’m sure lots do.
What features of Vertiginous Golf are you the most proud of?
Paul: I like the after-touch “influenza bug”. It was a late addition to the gameplay, and though it’s very simple feature, it adds a great new dimension to gameplay and strategy for completing a course.
Christian: For me I think I’m most fond of the hummingbird that keeps you company and helps you navigate.
What is the biggest challenge creating Vertiginous Golf?
Paul: It’s been a challenge to get it to where it is now, but I think the biggest challenges are ahead.
Christian: It’s not so much the creation as the process of getting the game out there in front of people that has been the biggest challenge, which has been made so much easier since Surprise Attack came on board.
What aspect of creating the game was the most fun?
Paul: The past couple of weeks have been fun playing with the Oculus Rift and being completely immersed inside the game.
Christian: By far it’s the creation of the levels and play testing them.
How is your experience with Steam Early Access?
Paul: It’s been great that the game has been so well received so far. The growing community is helping to shape the game and providing invaluable feedback to fix bugs and coming up with new ideas.
Christian: So far reactions have been great so we’re really happy with that. We seem to have a good core community developing around the game and since that’s not something that’s really in your control its good to know initial reactions have been positive and constructive.
What are the future plans for Vertiginous Golf?
Paul: It’s going to be community driven so it’s up to everyone who plays the game.
Christian: The future of Vertiginous Golf lies in the hands of our players, our plans are to take the game as far as we can but we can’t do that alone.
What is the most unusual thing on your desk right now?
Paul: A warthog coaster.
Christian: Ha ha, errm.. I think it’d have to be my small dashboard Buddha wearing a Canucks helmet.
Anything else you would like to add?
Paul: Just a thanks for everyone’s interest and enthusiasm for the game so far.
Christian: Thank you for your interest in our little game, I can’t wait to see where Vertiginous Golf goes with the added input from our players.
A big thank you to Paul and Christian for taking the time to answer our questions about Vertiginous Golf. The game is available right now on Steam Early access so grab yourself a copy and get involved. If you are not yet convinced about the merits of a Steampunk golf game, check out our Early Access Preview HERE for more information or visit the official website.
GAMERamble September 20, 2014
Comments (Reposted for preservation)
MoonglowS
Buddha wearing a Canucks helmet? Man I would love to see that, Google Image search is turning up nothing!
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MonkeyDooh9304/17/2014 4:23am
Nice interview. This is also a nice remnider that not everyone involved with gaming are hardcore gamers themselves. Programming is very labour intensive and there isn’t always time to sit around playing games all day. I’ve always wondered if programmers actually do enjoy the games that they play or if they are constantly jolted out of the experience by notcing everything that they would have done differently if they were the person doing the coding.
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Jumpingjude04/17/2014 11:35pm
Yikes I still remember Vertigolf!