EPISODE 35: Andrejs Kļaviņš

YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY

A brand new episode for all you great murder mystery loving detectives out there is here!

This time I am joined by Andrejs Kļaviņš from Color Gray Games. Andrejs and his brother are the creators of the Case of the Golden Idol, one of the best indie games of recent memory. We discuss making the game, how to find the right difficulty for a puzzle game and how becoming a father impacts your sleep schedule.

Furthermore, we go into detail on designing a word based game for an international audience, cut content of the game and if AI can help to create interesting puzzles.

Time – Topic Discussed:

0:00 - Intro

02:20 - Guest topic: Mobile games

04:50 - What is The Case of the Golden Idol?

06:15 - The starting screen

09:00 - Growing up with point and click adventure games

10:44 - Ramping difficulty

18:10 - Localization

20:50 - Testing and adding smaller features to help with difficulty

24:15 - When is something done?

26:30 - Cut content

29:15 - The prototype of The Case of the Golden Idol

31:15 - The post mortem of the game

35:25 - Using AI for the story of the next game

38:00 - Difficult aspects of game development that gamers underestimate

40:10 - Known developers that reached out to Andrej

43:15 - Latvian culture in the game

46:30 - The importance of disagreement

49:52 - Outside aspects of a game that impacts its success

54:20 - Balancing personal creative satisfaction and creating a commercially viable product

57:30 Getting a dog and a daughter

59:35 - Outro

Things mentioned on the show:

Slice & Dice

Social Media:

Color Gray Games

Andrejs Kļaviņš on Twitter (@AndrejsKlavins)

Color Gray Games on Twitter (@ColorGray7)

The Case of the Golden Idol Homepage

YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY

YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY on Twitter (@youmeindustry)

Dorian on Twitter (@DorianChou)

YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY on Instagram (@youmeindustry)

Dorian on Instagram (@dorian.chou)

Intro/Outro by FreshMcZone

Artwork by Thomas Martin (Instagram: @thomas.martin.martin)