FW Editor: Spike Dislike had some important improvement since its first release. Can you tell us some of these improvements?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): The first release was rather plain and minimal. It was a basic ball and spike game, without any extras. Release 1.1 contained a variety of themes and some gameplay options, while 1.2 built upon that, and added little badges as you scored higher and higher.
FW Editor: I think the only thing that misses Spike Dislike is an online score board. Do you have any plans to add something like that in the future?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): The next release of Spike Dislike will contain an all new Challenge mode. That's my current focus, but shortly after that I'll start work on adding GameCenter into the game. It's definitely planned, I just haven't got to it, yet!
FW Editor: Is there any final goal in Spike Dislike? Does the game ever end?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): Currently no. The spikes are generated ingame, and will continue forever! Or at least not until the iPhone reaches some sort of number limit and starts to freak out! The forthcoming Challenge mode will contain a variety of shorter challenges, each with a beginning and an end.
FW Editor: Spike Dislike comes with a features that basically allows a player to use some 'random generated levels' (spikes are randomly placed). Is that true? How that does affects the overall gaming experience?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): Actually all the modes are randomly generated! They're pseudo random, based upon a couple of seeds. The Classic and Alternative modes use 2 different seeds, and random simply plucks seed numbers out of thin air. Other than that, everything's nice and random, to keep the game going.
Gameplay wise, it depends on what sort of player you are. If you prefer to learn the path, stay away from Random mode! If, however, you prefer not to know what's coming, go Random!
FW Editor: Spike Dislike comes with 4 different skins. What inspired you in creating these skins?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): The original skin uses sprites that were lifted directly from Platdude's Retro Collection, a NintendoDS homebrew game collection I wrote a few years ago. Simple sprites for a simple mode. After that there's the JNKPlat theme which takes sprites from my JNKPlat games. The third uses a checkered ball sprite looking like the old Boing ball from the Amiga, and the Fourth was simply a bunch of empty tiles that looked incredibly old-skool when I accidentally tested with them!
After those, 1.2 added an extra four themes. These were mostly all test themes differences. A sporty Basketball theme testing the nice reflections. A Vector theme to test multicoloured ball sprites. A Paper theme to test parallax removal. And then there's RobF's theme, (from RetroRemakes.com) which tests whether I can add other people's themes. That worked out nicely!
FW Editor: You have quite a portfolio at this moment: Retro Raider, Box Adventure, Box's Romp, Royal Rescue or Inferno-Jayenkai, just to name some of them. What are your plans for the future?
Jayenkai (James Gamble): I'll just keep on making games!
At AGameAWeek.com, it's all about trying different things, so I'll keep on trying until I'm completely out of ideas.
Then if anything catches on, I guess it'll be time to make another iPhone game!
About this interview
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