Hey folks, I just got word back from Twisted Pixel regarding your questions. Now, not everyone got their questions answered, but I want you guys to thank Jay Stuckwisch for getting our questions out there and thank CEO of the company, Mike Wilford, for taking the time to answer our questions. I was going to send off another set of questions, but hey, it's the holidays. We got our questions answered just in time for Christmas, so I think we're good. But hey, no need to stall, let's get down to business...
Before we get started, just tell us a little about yourself. What do you do at Twisted Pixel, exactly?
My name is Michael Wilford, and I’m a co-founder of Twisted Pixel. I wear a lot of hats, but I primarily work as the company’s CEO and producer.
Where's your studio located?
We are in Austin, Texas, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. Also, the tacos are damn good.
What got you guys together and making games in the first place? Just share any information you think fans might find interesting.
The other founders, Josh Bear and Frank Wilson, and I were all working together for a studio in Chicago, and we started hanging out and becoming close friends and realized that we shared the same thoughts about going off on our own to make games. The more we talked the more we discovered that we made a good fit together, and ultimately we took the plunge and quit our jobs to start Twisted Pixel. It was a scary time, especially since it took over a year of writing pitches and building demos in a freezing brick room with fingerless gloves before we landed our first project greenlight.
Unfortunately, not everybody's getting credited for their question, sorry, but g1 GameJudge gets a special mention here for being kind enough to nominate me for g1 of the year here on ScrewAttack. So what, I'm an attention *****, is that so wrong?
Hey man, who am I to judge, I’m the one being interviewed like as if I have something important to say.
Anyway, GameJudge wants to know about your name. What made you guys settle on Twisted Pixel? Was it something that just sounded cool to you, or is there some kind of story behind it?
We struggled with this quite a bit. It took a few days where we sat and talked and threw out ideas. We wanted a name that could be taken seriously but also show that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. It needed to be a name that someone could easily remember, but not be too goofy. Nothing sounded quite right, so we almost went with “Metal Guitars” just because it made us laugh. But finally, right before we wrapped up another meeting, my screen saver went off, which is basically millions of tiny multi-colored particles swirling around, and the name “Twisted Pixel” sprang to mind.
A raging Canadian friend of mine was a little particular about his question. To be safe, I'm just going to copy and paste his message here...
"You might want to ask them something along the lines of how to get a small indie studio going. Not "Hey, how did you guys get into developing indie titles?" but something more along the lines of how to get involved in indie development, as it's often the best place to start for those of us interested in development."
"You might want to ask them something along the lines of how to get a small indie studio going. Not "Hey, how did you guys get into developing indie titles?" but something more along the lines of how to get involved in indie development, as it's often the best place to start for those of us interested in development."
There’s really only one answer to this question, and I think most developers would agree... just start making stuff. In today’s day and age, with so many platforms with massive user bases and almost zero barrier of entry, there’s no one to blame but yourself for not firing up your computer, making your own games, and getting them out there. The more you do it, the better you’ll get, the more developers you’ll meet, and the closer you’ll get to living off the games you make. Just go do it.
I got a lot of questions from PS3 owners who haven't had a chance to play your games. Do you guys have some kind of contract with Microsoft or do you just prefer developing for the 360 right now? Do you have any plans for multiplatform releases in the future? Do you have anything to say to the PS3 fans who are waving their cash around begging for your games?
Hahah, we love the PS3 and would totally love to give everyone access to our games. But yes, the reality is that each game has it’s own distribution agreements, and in some cases we are required to give up some amount of exclusivity. Combine that with the fact that we are a small shop that likes to work on new stuff all the time, and it’s hard for us to find the time and the ability to port all of our games to other platforms.
Comic Jumper and its characters were created long before Twisted Pixel was even around, but what exactly gave you guys the ideas for The Maw and 'Splosion Man?
The Maw was an idea that our CCO Josh Bear and Art Director Dave Leung came up with when they were trying to think of cool things you could do with the Nintendo DS when it first came out. The idea was to call to Maw and use the stylus to control the leash. When we started Twisted Pixel, we adapted the idea for WiiWare first, actually. But Microsoft ended up liking the idea first.
Splosion Man came about from a group lunch that we had in the office. We bought everyone some pizza and just threw out crazy ideas for what would make for a cool new 2D platformer. Our lead designer Sean Riley tossed out the idea of a character that just splodes around and shatters a lot of glass, and we all thought it was hilarious. But it quickly went from being a joke to something we thought could be a really cool game.
Speaking of Comic Jumper. I have to say, it's probably my personal favorite of the games you've released. Can you talk about any future plans for the game or its character? I'd love to see some DLC or a full blown sequel.
Comic Jumper holds a special place in our heart since it was in many ways the game that we set out to create when we first formed Twisted Pixel. I’m sure we’ll find a way to use those characters again someday.
Another personal question... I'm a toy collector - do feel free to check out some of my toy reviews /advertisement - so I've been wondering about the stuff you sell on the site. The statues and plushes look great, but have you ever considered some regular action figures? I know I'd love to see a mini 'Splosion Man, Smiley, or Frank and Maw figure sitting on my shelf.
Almost everyone at the studio is a huge fan of action figures too, and we’d love to make some. But it’s hard to make them awesome without costing a ton of money, and not everyone would be interested in buying them.
Someone asked how you respond to criticism when it comes to your game. To me, it seems like Star in Comic Jumper was sort of a light jab at some complaints about your past games, especially with his comments about The Maw's length and DLC. Is it safe to say that you guys tend to keep a comedic attitude about things like that?
Yeah definitely, we don’t take anything too seriously. Making video games is supposed to be fun.
In the wake of a few video from an infamous ScrewAttack poster (Hi, MovieBob), a lot of g1s have been claiming that creativity is dead when it comes to modern gaming. Being the only team who's made a character with the gimmick of spontaneous combustion, had one of your protagonists eating a planet, and brought to life a gun slinging smiley face, how do you feel about that claim? Do you think smaller teams like yourselves, Team Meat, and others tend to get ignored when it comes to things like this?
Great question. Yeah, I think that comment is more relevant for retail games by bigger publishers. There’s a lot of creative innovation going on in the indie dev scene these days. But unfortunately, it’s hard for smaller teams like ours to get the word out about our projects, especially when it’s original IP that no one has ever heard of before. That’s why we love going to PAX and doing Q&A’s like this where we can talk directly with fans and help spread the word.
Someone had a question about Star from Comic Jumper,and I'm a bit curious about this one myself. What's his connection with Smiley, exactly? Is he fused to Smiley or just a sentient costume decoration?
Hahah, all we say is that he’s part of the costume, and he’s sentient. We don’t really explain it more than that. I think if we did, it would probably be a big let down, like midichlorians.
Lots of folks are hyped for Ms. 'Splosion Man. Can you tell us a little bit about the project?
We’re not getting into many specifics right now, but I can tell you it’s going to be quite a bit different from the original game. That’s why we’re calling it Ms. Splosion Man with a different protagonist, and not just making Splosion Man 2 or some DLC packs.
While we're on the subject, are we going to see a 'Splosion Man Junior one of these days?
You never know what will happen once the Mr. and Ms. get together.
Oh, here's a good one. If you had a chance to take over any established video game series and make your own game with it, which series would it be?
For me personally, it would be Castlevania. Some of my fondest gaming memories are with that series, and it has so much potential, but there hasn’t been a good 3D Castlevania game yet.
If you could, would you make an animated series based on any of your properties?
Heck yeah! I think all of our properties would make great cartoons. Know anyone at Cartoon Network?
There were plenty of clear shout outs to comics like The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, and more in Comic Jumper; what other comics does the staff tend to read? Would you like to see any of your characters make the jump to comics?
A lot of us are life-long comic fans. I’m currently catching up on The Walking Dead, and I’ve been following Invincible for a while. I’ll pretty much buy anything that Jim Lee draws too. It’d be awesome to see our characters in comics.
What'd you do with that 'Splosion Man costume from the 'Splosion Man credit sequence? I know some people who'd sell vital organs to get that thing.
Hahah, we still have it, but I doubt anyone would want to wear it at this point. It has had a lot of big sweaty dudes inside of it for hours at a time. And if that doesn’t sound gross, I don’t know what does.
As great as you guys are, I doubt even you could answer this, but the public wants to know... Magnets. How the **** do they work? Also, forced memes. How do you get rid of them?
Dude, everyone knows that magnets aren’t real. That’s just some crap the government made up and is trying to force a meme. The only way to fight forced memes is with more forced memes.
A certain fan wants to know if you'll bear his children... I don't think that's a question we can really linger on, but I thought you might want to know.
There are a lot of things we would do for our fans, but you may have found our limit. Mostly because I don’t have a uterus.
Have you ever considered releasing a full retail game? Or, at the very least, a compilation disc of your downloadable games?
Yeah, that’s a great idea, and we’d love to do something like that. Going retail is a lot more complicated and costly, though, so there are a lot of parties that need to all get on the same page about it before that can happen. We’re interested though! A Twisted Pixel compilation that had a bunch of specials in it would rock.
We've all got our personal heroes. Me? I'm a follower of the Church of Bruce Campbell. What about you? Are there any people you guys would like to work with eventually? Anyone you would consider your hero?
There are a lot of people I admire, and I’ve had the good fortune of being able to meet a lot of them, even talk about working on things together. For me, I’d much rather have the opportunity to discuss working on something with one of my heroes than I would stand in line just to say hi. Some of my heroes are Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, and lot of other comic icons. Also Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Nolan, Spielberg, the Coen brothers, and a lot of kickass film makers. Huge fan of the Bruce Campbell as well. And of course there are a lot of game developers I admire
I'm gonna close this out with some lovin'. At least five or six people have simply asked me to tell you that they love you, love your work, and want to see you making these great games for years to come. To put it simply, we love you, Twisted Pixel. Do you have any messages for your adoring fans before we part ways for now?
You guys are awesome! If you help spread the word for us, we promise to keep the games coming, and to work with all of you to figure out how our games can be better. And if you hate our stuff, keep the flames stoked high and let us hear you, we think that ****’s pretty funny.
So, there we go, our questions answered by the CEO of Twisted Pixel games. Hopefully some of you learned something today. I think one thing that resonates here is Mike's comment about getting the word out about smaller games and developers to help get them noticed. So do all us Twisted Pixel fans a favor if you aren't really into their stuff, at least give their games a try and get the word out. In fact, do the same for all indie devs that you happen to have a fondness for. These people work hard, they deserve some attention.
Sorry about the lack of a second part, really, but hopefully everyone had fun. I'd like to personally thank Jay and Mike for taking the time to speak to us, and I'd like to thank everyone at Twisted Pixel for the great games they've put out so far. Thanks a lot, guys. If you're interested in hearing anything the team might have to say and what to keep up with their stuff, follow them on Twitter at @twisted_pixel. Thanks a ton for reading.(A Q&A session with Twisted Pixel games from a little while ago. Had a lot of fun talking to these guys.)
