Monday, September 6, 2010
By: Matthew Doucette

The retro gaming website, Racketboy, interviews myself, Matthew Doucette, of Xona Games in their latest podcast, "#15 - Indie Shmups"! It also features interviews of SideQuest Studios, of Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer and Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype fame, and Rockin' Android, who port kick-ass Japan indie shmups to North America. Check it out:

Racketboy Podcast #15 – Indie Shmups
Download: racketboy-podcast-0015.mp3
(Xona Games interview starts at: 31:08)

Follow Racketboy on Twitter. Respond in Racketboy Forums (Podcast #15 - Indie Shmups). 

Download: racketboy-podcast-0015.mp3

Further Thoughts:

I found it interesting that Rafael Dyll, of SideQuest Studios, spoke about the criticism on the health bar in the Solder X series. As a hardcore fan of shmups, it was the first and biggest "error" I saw in the game, because it removes being continually on the verge of death. This "safe padding" is purposely missing in Duality ZF. If you hit a bullet, you die and lose a large chunk of your powerups (currently half). This type of anxiety closer matches the arcade experience we are after.

About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.