Developer Playlist is The Black Panel’s occasional column devoted to industry figures and the games that inspire them. Each instalment features a ‘playlist’ of influential titles hand-picked by a talented creator.

Developed by a studio based right here in Australia (Land Down Under, Great Southern Land, etc), Dustforce presents us with a rather daring hypothesis, i.e. that we can have as much fun with a broom as we can with a shotgun. Among the indie success stories of 2011, this innovative platformer continues to attract new players. Now, as the first major update for Dustforce is arriving, we catch up with Hitbox Team’s Terence Lee. The man responsible for the game’s sound effects and music talks about two titles (one a single player epic, the other a multiplayer staple) that he just can’t get enough of.

—– Terence Lee’s Playlist —–

The Super Nintendo years are widely considered the golden age of JRPGs and few games exemplify the staggering ambition of the era more than CHRONO TRIGGER. Created by an all-star line-up of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest veterans, Square’s time travelling saga arrived on the SNES in 1995. Lee is a devoted fan, describing it as “an interactive blend of the best learnings from other art forms – visual, motion, music, and story. The result is a genuine feeling of adventure, loss, and completion. Every time I play it again,” he says, “I get new inspiration from the emotions it creates.”

A dozen years have passed since the release of the much loved Half-Life mod, but the Counter-Strike phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down. Lee identifies the COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE version of the game as his FPS drug of choice. Developed by Valve in collaboration with Hidden Path Entertainment, this 2004 remake gave the still popular original a fresh coat of paint, while retaining fan favourite maps and modes. “I return to Counter-Strike simply because I am addicted to it,” Lee says. “The chance to display personal skill is a rewarding aspect of games and it’s definitely a quality present in Dustforce.”

What’s next for Hitbox Team?

The four man studio is currently rolling out a substantial update for Dustforce. According to Lee, players can look forward to “new content, a level editor and a level sharing server”. Mac and Linux editions of the game are also on the menu. You can learn more about Dustforce at the game’s official website.

Where can I hear Lee’s music?

Lee issues his work under the Lifeformed moniker and his retro influenced electronica is well worth a listen. You can sample and/or purchase Fastfall: Dustforce OST on Bandcamp. Lee is currently scoring a documentary series chronicling the development of Double Fine Productions’ new adventure game.

Chrono Trigger image credit: MobyGames

Developer Playlist is The Black Panel’s occasional column devoted to industry figures and the games that inspire them. Each instalment features a ‘playlist’ of influential titles hand-picked by a talented creator.

Brawsome founder Andrew Goulding is carving out an enviable reputation in the indie adventure space. He has received two FreePlay awards in as many years, winning Best Australian Game for his canine pirate caper Jolly Rover in 2010 and Best Game Writing for his forthcoming lycanthropic puzzler MacGuffin’s Curse in 2011. We ask the Melbourne based developer to tell us a little about the titles that that have influenced him and he doesn’t disappoint, citing some of the greats of the genre.

—– Andrew Goulding’s Playlist —–

Asked to identify three of his favourites, a mischievous Goulding nominates series’ rather than individual entries. “I know, I was a bit cheeky with my selection,” he says, “but I have to play them one after the other once I start.” He describes the quirky sense of humour evident in these adventure games as “a massive influence”.

Goulding’s’ first selection is QUEST FOR GLORY, a series fondly recalled for its blend of role playing and adventure elements. Developed by point and click pioneers Sierra, this five game fantasy saga ran from 1989’s Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero (AKA Hero’s Quest) to 1998’s Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. The series was notable not only for permitting its players to customise and enhance their characters, but also to retain them from one instalment to the next.

His second selection emerged from the same stable as the first. Sierra’s SPACE QUEST games charted the misadventures of Roger Wilco, cosmic janitor. The series commenced in 1986 with Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter, the success of which lead to no fewer than five sequels. By the time his adventures drew to a close in 1995, the bumbling Wilco had travelled through time, battled an intergalactic plague and been reduced to the size of bacteria.

The long running MONKEY ISLAND series remains active to this day, but Goulding sees the first two games as definitive. Issued by LucasArts in 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island introduced would-be pirate protagonist Guybrush Threepwood. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge followed in 1991 and cemented the hapless Threepwood’s status as one of gaming’s most iconic figures. The Monkey Island Games are also notable for establishing designers Tim Schaeffer, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman as legends of the genre.

Goulding acknowledges that some classic adventure games can be a hard sell, but he remains enchanted by their achievements. “Looking back, some of the mechanics and puzzles in these games were horrible, brutally hard, and sometimes unfair (I’m looking at you Space Quest!), but the stories and characters in these games make me look past the flaws in a way that people who haven’t experienced them before might have a hard time understanding.”

What’s next for Andrew Goulding?

Goulding is currently hard at work on MacGuffin’s Curse, which he describes as “a top down 2D puzzle game, like Zelda meets Sokoban meets point-and-click adventure.” Players will take on the role of Lucas MacGuffin, a “magician-turned-thief-turned-werewolf” who certainly regrets swiping that shiny amulet. In order to lift his hairy curse, MacGuffin will need to complete a series of quests and puzzles, as well as interact with the oddball inhabitants of a mysterious town. “The game boasts over 150 rooms, spread across 11 unique locations”, Goulding says, noting that it should keep players busy for more than a dozen hours. MacGuffin’s Curse is set to arrive on Steam (PC and Mac) and iOS devices in early 2012. Learn more at the game’s official website.

Looking for more Developer Playlists? View previous instalments here.

Quest for Glory image credit: MobyGames

Developer Playlist is The Black Panel’s occasional column devoted to industry figures and the games that inspire them. Each instalment features a ‘playlist’ of influential titles hand-picked by a talented creator.

Matt Armstrong has been around the block (not to mention the globe) once or twice before. He worked with the likes of Sony, Rockstar and Blitz before accepting a position with Canadian studio Radical Entertainment. “This journey took me from my native England to Austria and finally the west coast of Canada,” he says. The one time texture artist is now a design director and his next project will be a sequel to Radical’s grim open world action game Prototype.

—– Matt Armstrong’s Playlist —–

Not one to be pigeonholed into a single genre, Armstrong identifies a role playing game, a first person shooter and a military flight sim as the titles he returns to again and again.

His first selection began life as an Xbox 360 exclusive in November 2007. With its sophisticated dialogue system and stunning art design, MASS EFFECT quickly established itself as one of the major new IPs of the current generation. Armstrong lauds BioWare’s galaxy spanning RPG for asking “interesting, meaningful and mature” questions of its players. After playing the game “from start to finish” no fewer than nine times, Armstrong regards Mass Effect as “an object lesson in successful storytelling in video games.”

Among the more influential shooters of the modern era, CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE arrived on 360, PS3 and PC in 2007. While Infinity Ward’s game has been a multiplayer phenomenon, it is the single player campaign that impresses Armstrong the most. He cites the game’s “perfect” pacing the “stunning” integration of “cinematic moments” as among its key strengths. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is just a wonderful example of how you can take the heart of a Hollywood blockbuster and successfully translate it into the video game medium. It sounds easy,” he says, “but it’s actually an incredibly difficult trick to pull off.”

Armstrong’s final choice was released by MicroProse way back in 1998. Though it doesn’t enjoy the mainstream profile of the other entries on this list, aerial combat game FALCON 4.0 (along with the various mods associated with it) still boasts a small but fanatical following. According to Armstrong, Falcon 4.0 features “a well executed core” and “a diverse metagame” over which players have “just the right amount of influence”. He describes himself as among of the last of the “flight sim obsessives” and praises the game for remaining “compelling and addictive for an entire decade”.

What’s next for Matt Armstrong?

Armstrong is currently working on Prototype 2, a savage action game that will, in his words, turn the player into “a Swiss army knife of destruction”. The player will take on the role of James Heller, a man capable of impersonating other characters or reshaping parts of his body into deadly weapons. “We’ve taken everything that made the first game so unique and compelling, built on the successes, completely rebooted any less popular areas and are delivering something really special regardless of whether you’re a huge fan of the first game or someone who’s brand new to the Prototype world.” Prototype 2 is due on 360, PS3 and PC in April 2012.

Looking for more Developer Playlists? View previous instalments here.

Developer Playlist is The Black Panel’s occasional column devoted to industry figures and the games that inspire them. Each instalment features a ‘playlist’ of influential titles hand-picked by a talented creator.

While we’re all quick to hail the new king of our “in-between” gaming time – as iPhones and iPods continue to grow in popularity – it can be easy to overlook just how popular the old kings of the hand-held space were – and continue to be. It’s something David Lally, Senior Programmer at Tantalus wouldn’t likely have forgotten so quickly, with a long history of work on a number of GBA and DS games. With a new project in the works for Nintendo’s latest hand-held, the 3DS, he joins us today to discuss some of the games that have truly stuck with him over the years.

—– David Lally’s Playlist —–

“I have always enjoyed fantasy role playing games” says Lally. “Wielding a sword or powerful magic instead of a gun has always been what I prefer”. It’s a preference which is clear to see in Lally’s list, though given that love of fantasy settings his third and final choice may surprise you.

As what would become the spawning point for an entire RPG sub-genre (as well as the number one driver of new mouse sales), the 1997 PC classic DIABLO is Lally’s first cab off the rank. Like many of us, he is “eagerly waiting for the third instalment to be released”, and he credits the original game for a lot of his development inspiration and philosophy. “Diablo is and always will be my favourite game” he adds, and blames much of his Diablo addiction on an old game he use to play on his 386 called Castle of the Winds. “It was a tile based Windows dungeon crawler”, David explains. “I played it for years, and when Diablo came out, I found it was so much like that old game that I was hooked”.

Continuing the RPG trend is Lally’s next game, Bethesda’s third entry in their Elder Scrolls series – 2002′s MORROWIND. It was the first in the Elder Scrolls lineage to make the move from PC to console and it truly cemented the series in the 3D era. It’s one which he points to as showing that “games don’t have to be perfect”. “Some of the best games I’ve played have small visual issues, cameras cutting through geometry, AI that sometimes does weird things” he says. “but if the game is great to play then you can overlook them”. As someone who’s fallen for Morrowind’s charms, I can certainly agree with Lally on that point.

Lally’s third and final choice deviates away from his love of RPGs, and instead turns to sci-fi with Bungie’s fabled HALO series. The series kicked off on the Xbox in 2001 and it was arguably the first game to make the FPS genre work on console. Lally says he had “never been a massive fan of first-person shooters”. Halo, though, was the one to finally draw him in, a sentiment no doubt shared by many. “I’d played all the old classics, Doom, Quake etc. but it wasn’t until Halo that I realised how fun that genre could be”.

What’s next for David Lally?

Lally can’t disclose too much on his latest project, though he is able to tell us that it’s an original IP, being developed for the Nintendo 3DS. He says that “It’s a very exciting project for us since it is our very own, original game which we have tried long and hard to get a publisher for”. Lally has been working on the project “since its creation” and we wish him all the best as it nears release.

Looking for more Developer Playlists? View previous instalments here.