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.

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.

Having a career in the games industry is one thing, but having a career that spans more than 10 years is something else, and that is exactly what Mark Rowley, technical director at SEGA Studios Australia, has managed to do. Having worked on massive hits such as Assassins Creed, Prince of Persia and Prey, Rowley has brought his knowledge, expertise and experience to SEGA to guide and develop their future licence based products including the upcoming London 2012 Olympics video game. With a pedigree such as this, his playlist makes for interesting reading.

—– Mark Rowley’s Playlist —–

The first game Rowley mentions is 1997’s PC classic ULTIMA ONLINE. He recalls being instantly addicted to Origin Systems’ trailblazing MMO and spending “a silly amount of money” on ISDN phone lines. He credits the game for drawing him away from “the industrial sector and into game development.” Rowley poured hours into his passion, even volunteering his own time to provide in game customer support. “For those who play UO, I was a counsellor on the Euro shards,” he says. “To this date, I still wish for an MMO that has such a freeform mechanic that can keep its players drawn in.”

The next game Rowley mentions is Sir-Tech Software’s seminal 1999 PC release JAGGED ALLIANCE 2. “I love board games, and these kinds of turn based strategy games give me the same sense of planning and achievement. Jagged Alliance 2 is a shining example of that style of game executed well. It has so much depth to it that every play through I find something new.” He also manages to sneak in some praise for a much more recent entry in the genre. “Big shout out to the team behind Frozen Synapse. I think they have taken this style of game and given it a new lease of life as over the past few years it’s been hard to find games like this!”

Rowley’s final choice is one that is dear to many of us and I imagine it won’t be until about October 27 that (in all likelihood) it will be replaced. That title in question is last year’s multiplatform BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 from Swedish EA subsidiary DICE. Mark puts it simply “This game is so addictive. The mix of FPS action and team based tactics always draws me back when I see friends online.”

What’s next for Mark Rowley?

Currently he is working on the official game of the 2012 London Olympics and while he can’t say too much about the features of the game, he hopes that it will allow people to be a part of the history associated with the Olympics and relive it with friends and family both online and off. He also identifies an added benefit likely near and dear to gamers’ hearts. “The best part is, they won’t need to train for years to take part!”

Other editions of Developer Playlist: John Halloran (PopCap); Jon Paquette (Insomniac Games); Daniel Visser (Wicked Witch Games)

Image Credit: Alhem (Ultima Online)