Everyday Gamers

Interview With Nathan Hunley of Igloo-Games

Posted by Patrick Adams on Thursday, August 07 - 2008

I interview Nathan Hunley of Igloo-Games, the developer behind Dizzy Bee for the iPhone.

Everyday Gamers: How did you come up with the concept for Dizzy Bee?

Nathan Hunley: After deciding to make an iPhone OS game, I thought about what would be a really unique experience. The accelerometers are still new, so I decided to focus on that. I felt there would be lots of ‘roll the marble’ type games, so I wanted to do something different. I really loved the idea of controlling many things at the same time, so I tried starting with a lot of main characters free at first, but it was hard to tell what was going on. Now you start with the bee, change into a fruit, get more fruit friends, and later on realize the enemies are controlled by you, too. It’s much more accessible. It took lots of revisions, and lots of play testing. We weren’t accepted into the developer program right away, so I’d have people play the game on the PC with a WiiMote to try it out.

Have any current games influenced you? If so which games.

Mario vs DK 2 for the DS, which I programmed the in-game level editor for, has a similar chain exit mechanic, so I’d have to say I was influenced by that one. Of course the flower collection, is a lot like the coins in Super Mario Bros. A lot of people say it reminds them of Pacman, actually when I was developing there was “get to the exit” type levels, and “get all the flowers” type levels. Those ones were much more Pacman like then the current version. Lots of people are comparing us to LocoRoco. The fruits do look like they would fit in in that game, and there are similarities in that you kind of tip the world. Everyone was comparing us to Rolando. It was pretty funny. Rolando released his promo video, about a couple weeks before we released ours, so it looked like we were copying him, even though it took us months to get the look and play just right. Actually I wanted to do a touch based game next, it would have probably been a lot like Rolando!

How many people does Igloo Games consist of?

1.5 - I’m the full time member, I did all the programming and level design in Dizzy Bee. The artist checks in at about half time. We contracted out the sounds.

What made you want to develop for the iPhone?

The iPhone is cool! The main thing that enticed me is apple’s distribution method. It’s what I’ve been wating for for years. They let you put whatever you want up, then host it, handle the payments, and downloads, and the users decide what they want to pay for. It’s beautiful! Also having a ton of users, and a really powerful device didn’t hurt at all.

Will iPhone always be your platform of choice?

The companies focus will remain with the iPhone as long as people keep buying our games!

Do you plan on any expansions to Dizzy Bee or full-fledged sequels and should we keep an eye out for any other titles coming from Igloo Games?

There are some things in the works, but nothing to announce yet.

I am a big fan of Dizzy Bee, I think the thing that sticks out most for me is the art, who did the art in this game? Did you have any impact on the style or did you just leave that up to the artists?

I like to get input and opinions and decide what’s best as far as game design goes, that’s they way we did it with the art, too. I would give some direction, and some requests, but at the end of the day the artist created everything and had final say of what everything looks like. Many people asked if my artist is a girl because of the cutesy style, but no he’s a guy. He was shooting for a style that would appeal to a large audience.

Other than Dizzy Bee what are your favorite iPhone games?

Can I say Rolando, even though it’s not out yet?

Last question, if you have Facebook will you become a fan of Everyday Gamers?

I already did! Feel free to follow me on Twitter. I’m IglooGames

Make sure you check out our full review of Dizzy Bee here.

Interview With Nathan Hunley of Igloo-Games

Posted by Patrick Adams on Thursday, August 07 - 2008

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