An Interview with damijin

Hey everyone- it's been a while since we last posted an interview- but I managed to get one with famous developer and former Kongregate employee damijin!

hokage4354: Howdy damijin.
damijin: Hiya
hokage4354: So, you're the developer behind the brilliant Pyro series?
damijin: It's not that brilliant. It did very well for our first game, but by the standards of the great games out there, it's very mediocre
The design itself is strangely enough based on Bloons. I wanted to make a game like Bloons using a fireball, and it occurred that throwing darts at balloons is similar to throwing fireballs at torches.
The physics and theme make it seem quite different, but it's really Bloons, in all of Bloons pixel hunting glory (especially in the harder games of the series).
hokage4354: It really is a great game though.
damijin: Thank you.
hokage4354: So great that it even got badges....
How did you feel when that happened?
damijin: Because the Kongregate community only really cares about badged games, and because the revenue share for developers on Kongregate is so high... I felt like I just made a lot of money.
All in all, they earned $2,000 a piece just on ad revenue share.
Granted, unlike most games we got 50% share, since we were sponsored by Kongregate. A lot of games only get 35%.
But it's just... yeah... if you get badges on Kong, it's a massive boost to your game's total earnings.
Aside from that -- I to this day have not earned the impossible badge in the original Pyro. I think it's insane that anyone can, but kudos to those of you with more fortitude than I.
hokage4354: Do you have any plans on continuing the series any further?
damijin: Eventually we'll do Pyro III, which will feature significant upgrades to gameplay. More physics, so that when you hit a crate you not only light it on fire, but can knock it off a ledge and send it falling onto a torch. Other ideas are objects teathered by ropes that can be burned to make the object fall, and just... general stuff like that to make it more interesting.
Also a graphical update.
And we'll try to make sure the level editor remains easy to use, even with those new features.
hokage4354: Sounds pretty awesome.
Earlier this year you posted a thread about your next project, Starfall: 2312. Is that game still being worked on?
damijin: We worked on Starfall between Pyro and Pyro II. It was intended to be completed before Pyro II. Unfortunately the project stalled because our original vision for it was too large, with too much content, and we simply couldn't get it finished fast enough to have the game make good revenue.
Since Arkatufus and I are a full time flash game team, we needed to cut our losses and do Pyro II instead of finishing it.
After Pyro II, we intended to return to it, but we concluded that it would still be too much work to make it a good investment. We've started a new project, but since this Stride Gum competition came out, we decided to enter a smaller version of Starfall into it where you play until you die and try to get a high score.
It has no levels or bosses, but it is better than letting our game go to waste. It'll be called Starfall: Survivor, and we'll launch it in the first half of December.
hokage4354: Can't wait to see that be released- What type of game is it going to be?
damijin: Starfall is a forward scrolling shooter along the lines of Frantic, but the movement is a bit more realistic, and you can dodge attacks by barrel rolling as they are about to hit you. It's done in a 3d engine so that the further away the enemies are, the smaller they get.
It has a pretty unique look to it.
hokage4354:
Doing barrel rolls? 3D engine? Are we talking about starfox here? ;P
damijin: The game and style are inspired by Star Fox. The gameplay is more like a normal shooter than the obstacle-course Star Fox gameplay, but the opening 3d sequence is very much borrowed from the starting cinematic in Star Fox for the SNES.
The "Scramble" scene, I think it's called -- where you launch out of the mountain. In our version you launch out of a large carrier into space though
hokage4354: This upcomiing games sounds pretty cool, but what about future releases after this one? Do you have any concepts or designs made?
damijin: I'm also working with An Lieu (Ge.Ne.Sis) and David Robinson for the design of their entry to the Stride Gum contest. It's currently titled "Bear Rampage Island" and you play a mutant/cyborg bear created by a mad scientist that charges through an island resort park and brutally destroys the vacationing populace.
While rampaging, you dodge pits, crazy giant bear traps, and military helicopters (that you can swat out of the sky with your giant bear paw.)
After this contest is over, we'll all get back to work on our biggest project ever, which was started back in September. This has been a little break from that.
It's an online card game, and it's going to rock, but I can't say much more than that yet.
Unlike the other card games you might be used to, our game will allow trading, have avatars that you can advance, and hundreds of rare, uncommon, and common cards to collect.
hokage4354: It sounds like it's going to be epic! It seems like we're all out of time, but before we go I need to ask one final question...
damijin: Sure
hokage4354: A question so devasting, that it has even made the toughest men break into tears and scream like little girls...
damijin: Mmhmm...
hokage4354:
Sugar gliders or pygmy hedgehogs?
Well?
Hey, uh, damijin, you there buddy?
damijin: I got bored during the windup to that question
and took a nap
Sugar Gliders all the way.
I almost made a Sugar Glider bomber game where you drop bombs strapped to the belly of your Glider hero and destroy the terrible hedgehogs that infringe on your land.
hokage4354: You sould have. ;)
Well, thanks for your time damijin.
damijin: You're quite welcome.