Interview

Black Lab Games is the indie project of Western Australian developer, Paul Turbett, and has already produced the (very good) Star Hammer Tactics. He recently sat down to chat with Digitally Downloaded about the Minis platform, plans for the future of Black Lab Games, and what it’s like being a developer in WA...

An interview with start-up developer and publisher, Nnooo, is up at the Games and Business blog. The developer's creative director, Nic Watt, talks about being a developer in Sydney, and the challenges that creates, has some interesting theories about Nintendo's online strategy for the future, and, surprisingly for a developer with an iPhone game, speaks out in support of classifying Apple App store games.

An interview with Morgan Jaffit has popped up at the Games and Business blog. In it, he reaffirms his opinion that the delays to Team Bondi's L.A Noire is not a sign that the developer is struggling to complete the game.

However, at the same time he does say that the strength of the Australian dollar is creating some problems in the Australian industry, specifically around work-for-hire - and it is that that is hurting some of the other big studios around - such as Krome.

Jungalist caught a post E3, post Puzzle Quest 2 interview with game development veteran, Steve Fawkner, for a three-part feature at Kotaku AU. Kotaku AU readers provided a great range of questions for the Infinite Interactive CEO and Lead designer that touch on the big issues, news, and features concerning Puzzle Quest, Galactrix, and the recently released Puzzle Quest 2. From the Kotaku AU interview...

Why do you think Galactrix didn't do as well as Puzzle Quest?

President of the Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) and CEO of Tantalus, Tom Crago, has made an appearance at Triple R's Byte Into It technology focused radio segment. Tom talks about the upcoming Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2009 which is being held in Melbourne later this year, the trend towards casual gaming, the lack of the R rating classification in Australia, and all the latest at Tantalus.

MB: Do you see the trend towards casual or “snack” type gaming continuing, especially with Apple and the iPhone on the scene?

Speaking of females in the games industry, Kotaku AU have a quick 5 question interview with Ellen Blaha, over at Brisbane's Halfbrick Studios. Ellen is a Qantm graduate and you would have seen some of her handy work in the very delightful racer / platformer Xbox Live Arcade title, Raskulls. From her interview at Kotaku...My name is Ellen Blaha (commonly known as ‘L’, or ‘Ice Queen’).

Kotaku AU has a question time feature with Game Developers Association of Australia president, Tom Crago, with questions coming from Kotaku readers on a range of topics including Australia's place in the global games industry, how to get in and stability, the R Rating classification, and my personal favourite, was the GDAA set up to form a salary cap for the industry...There is no agreement between any Australian development studios in relation to salaries. In fact, we actively compete for talent.

Got some questions for Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) president and Tantalus CEO, Tom Crago? Kotaku are grabbing a games industry luminary every week and are allowing readers to submit questions in the comments section. The best questions are then chosen and passed onto the interviewee to answer. Sounds pretty snazzy to me, so head on to Kotaku and provide some questions!

You have until the end of today, so get in quick!!

AustralianGamer.com runs another of their 10 questions features, this time talking to Elphie Coyle, Founder of Valhalla Studios

The story of 3 Blokes Studios is an inspiring one. The Brisbane startup was initiated by three University friends in 2006 with a passion for games development, and have completed two casual games thus far with a third game on the way. AustralianGamer have conducted an interview with Marko Grgic, Director and Programmer as well as co-founder of 3 Bloke Studios, to find out a bit more about the company and their work...(Marko) If you want to co-own a games company?