Get to know the people who make great videogames
[Sup Holmes is a weekly talk show for people that make great videogames. It airs live every Sunday at 4pm EST on YouTube, and can be found in Podcast form on Libsyn and iTunes.]
A couple weeks ago on Sup Holmes, we welcomed Simon “SnakePixel” Anderson of D-Pad Studios to the show. We talked a lot about a lot of stuff, mostly focused on how glorious and painful it’s been to work on Owlboy for the past seven years, though it seemed like no matter how hard we tried not to, we couldn’t help but return to discussing all of the franchises he’d love to take on if he had the opportunity. Breath of Fire is one series he’s been thinking about a lot lately, but Wario Land and Mega Man X aren’t far behind on his list of titles that he’d love to take a crack at.
In digging into Simon’s past for this post, I discovered that he’s also done mock-ups for sequels for The Cheetah Men, Mega Man, and even Kung-Fu. As it turns out, he also pitched the idea of a Ducktales reboot to Other Ocean for Capcom years ago, well before WayForward took on a similar project. Simon’s plan was to make the game two-player, with one player taking the role of Scrooge and the other as Glomgold. Sadly, that’s not how things ended up shaking out, though it sounds like Simon would still be happy to head up up an new Ducktales game if Capcom and/or Disney is interested.
You may be thinking “Jeez Simon, why don’t you spend less time making mock-ups for other games and spend more time on finishing Owlboy?”. That’s a fair point, but in talking to Simon, it was clear that he’s been spending plenty of time on developing Owlboy as well. It’s sounds like it’s his perfectionism and self criticism, not a lack of work ethic, that’s kept the game from being completed. When Simon makes a mock-up, it’s more to work on honing his skills and rejuvenate his creative energy than to slack off. Hopefully that’s clear from the incredible quality of his work, which I doubt anyone would ever accuse of looking like it was made by a “slacker”.
Thanks again to Simon for hanging out with us, and feel free to circle back to Sup Holmes today at 4pm when we welcome Pippin Barr to the program.
