FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for Tile Pile?
Jamie Mitchell: It was an idea one of the team had as a child in the 80s that got forgotten about. Then, some twenty years later in 2007, we decided to make it just for a bit of fun. We made a simple prototype and found it quite good to play, so we made a full game. We went for Java so that it could be ported to mobile phones easily but we haven't got around to this yet.

FW Editor: Personally I love Tile Pile and I think it's one of the best puzzle games from the past few years. What is the secret?
Jamie Mitchell: Thank you, that's very nice of you to say. We think the level design makes it stand out from other puzzle games. Several hundred hours were spent carefully designing the 125+ levels. There are also several different modes: normal and challenge, with two player cooperative and competitive modes, so there's a variety of stuff to keep people busy.

FW Editor: The level editor option is available only after a user has completed at least 90 levels in single player mode. Isn't that a bit too harsh? To complete 90 levels is not an easy job.
Jamie Mitchell: Very possibly! We wanted to make the game difficult, to challenge even the most hard-core puzzle geeks. There are too many games that can be completed in a few hours and we were keen to set a real challenge so people who got to the end would feel really chuffed with themselves. There are always walkthroughs on Youtube for every level for people who really get stuck.

FW Editor: From graphical point of view, Tile Pile looks great. However, it is a 2D based technology while, nowadays 3D puzzle games are a common thing. Do you have any plans to change Tile Pile from 2D graphics to 3D?
Jamie Mitchell: True - we felt that the game play was most important though, and hoped this would compensate for the lack of cutting-edge 3D graphics. We gave the game a bit of a retro look to try to get away with this. If the camera angle of the game doesn't change then it doesn't make much difference if it's 2D or 3D I suppose.

FW Editor: Every developer must have a source of inspiration, beside his own applications. What is yours? Which application had a positive impact over you?
Jamie Mitchell: Bloxorz and Crazy Cube are fantastic games: both really simple ideas that produce great puzzles. We like to think that Tile Pile's in the same vein.

FW Editor: How can you describe Tile Pile in just a few words? Why?
Jamie Mitchell: The tagline's "a free puzzle game with an arcade twist" which sums it up quite well. If I had to use three words, they would be "challenging, frustrating, addictive."

FW Editor: Now, to end our small interview, is there any message you would like to send to Tile Pile users?
Jamie Mitchell: Apart from the testers (who had help), no one has actually completed the game to our knowledge because the later levels get REALLY hard. We would love to hear from anyone who has finished it - you could be the first! Also, if you unlock the editor and design a levelset and send it to us, we will gladly put it on our website for other people to download, giving you full credit.