Every Snapshot will see us ask five questions of a game developer, hopefully providing you with a little insight into what they do and why they do it. Also, we show you their desk.

First up, we have this guy. He made Puzzle Quest.

Who Are You?
My name is Steve Fawkner. I’m the CEO and Creative Lead at Infinite Interactive. It’s my job to come up with the crazy ideas for our games, and also to try and take credit for other peoples’ crazy ideas when they’re better than mine (which is frequently the case).

What Work Did You Do Today?
I spent most of today helping one of our teams add our cutscene system to their project. I made them a small example scene with a huge Daemon asking for Ice Cream. Other than that, it was the usual round of Production/Design meetings to make sure all of our projects are on track.

How’d You Get Your Job?
I started Infinite Interactive about 20 years ago, so I guess I promoted myself to my current position.

What’s The Last Game You Played And How Was It?
The last game I played was Assassin’s Creed. I’d been meaning to play it for about a year, but finally got around to it last weekend. Technically, it’s just a beautiful game. I’m not averse to a bit of subtle assassination either.

What’s On Your Desk?
Surprisingly little gaming paraphernalia, but lots of empty Red Bull cans, and every designer’s friend, the Thesaurus!

(Note the crazy herbal drink from Sweden and the D&D Monster Manual, a blatant clue that they’re not yet done with exploring fantasy worlds – Ed.)

If you’re a game developer who’d like to be featured in Snapshot, we’d love to hear from you. Just answer the above questions and send us a photo of yourself and your desk.

That’s exactly how the Konami representative described the game to me at E3 last week. Puzzle Quest meets Puzzle Fighter. The game tells the story of the lone survivor of a barbarian tribe, rescued by a mysterious benefactor and set on a path of revenge against the Empire for killing your people. Not the most original storyline, sure, but it gets the job done. Besides, games like these are all about the puzzles.

While there are several mini-game puzzles in the game that let you tame pets or unlock randomised dungeons, the main puzzle battles are a sort of a sideways take on Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter, with skills thrown in. Players match gems and skulls of similar colours, playing tug of war with a line in the middle of the screen. As you play you accrue coloured mana pools which can be used to execute special attacks, which are earned by leveling up and applying points to a skill tree.

I played a quick round with the Nintendo DS version of the game, and while the game mechanics are intriguing, the graphics leave much to be desired. I’m looking forward to seeing a more polished of the game for the PSP, Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and PlayStation Network, as the DS version is just a bit too ugly for my tastes. My love affair with the puzzle RPG isn’t over; I just expect a bit more polish than this.

It’s payback time for all that leap gate hacking, as the developers of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix take on all comers tonight on Xbox Live Arcade.

Infinite Interactive is deploying a crack team of developers to Xbox Live this evening to show players how multiplayer combat is done in the puzzling science fiction epic. Everyone from CEO Steve Fawkner (SirianKnight) to artist Rhiannon Jones (deathbyfurballs) is joining in on the fun from 5pm to 9pm Pacific time. Simply add the gamertags below to your friends list, find them online tonight, and have at them.

See if you can get into a game with DS programmer Andrew Castenmiller (Andgoo), making him wait the maximum amount of time before making all of your moves, just to show him how much fun load times are. I’d do it myself, but my 360 is currently visiting Texas.

Steve Fawkner – SirianKnight = CEO, Creative Lead (on Galactrix)
Rhiannon Jones – deathbyfurballs = Assistant Producer
Rhiannon McLachlan – ashalind = Artist
Brendan Seabrook MitfordOnline = Gameplay Programmer
Andrew Castenmiller – Andgoo = DS Programmer (on Galactrix)
Ian Gielen – Haggis McHaggis = Gameplay Programmer
Paula Nguyen – faithless01 = Assistant Producer (on Galactrix)

Infinite Interactive takes its innovative mix of role-playing and puzzle games to the stars with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix.

The follow up to 2007’s smash hit Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Galactrix takes the blend of role-playing mechanics and puzzle game to a whole new frontier, replacing the fantasy role-playing adventure of the first title with a galaxy-spanning space epic. With the new story and setting comes an entirely new hexagonal game board channeling Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov’s Hexic rather than Popcap’s Bejeweled.

So can a game that replaces the story, setting, and core gameplay of the first title maintain its addictive charm? Or has Puzzle Quest: Galactrix’s galactic journey strayed too far off course?

Loved
Rules Of Engagement: In general, the new hexagonal game board in Galactrix is a refreshing change from the simple dropping down mechanic from the original Puzzle Quest, and the shift from fantasy archetype to spaceship has been handled quite well. New additions to the winning formula, like the ability to recharge your shields and having multiple ships with different configurations at your command, further distance Galactrix from its predecessor. This isn’t simply Puzzle Quest in space.

Strategic Choices: As mentioned above, the player can have multiple ships outfitted with different devices and weapons, allowing them to have a ship on hand that’s suited for any enemy you may encounter. You might stumble over the first few fights with the Keck, for instance, until you realise that outfitting your ship with a shield disrupter disables their ships’ frustrating shield regenration, making combat a breeze. It takes skill and reasoning to navigate this sometimes hostile galaxy.

Buy, Sell, And Trade: Trading is a big part of any good space game, from Origin’s classic Privateer to CCP’s massively multiplayer EVE Online. Once the Galactrix universe opens up a bit, a player can make a tidy sum by determining which cargo sells best in which port. If you want the best ships and equipment, mining and working the market are essential. It’s just a simple little feature, but it adds a great deal to the overall experience.

Hated
Space, The Tedious Frontier: The entire Puzzle Quest: Galactrix galaxy is connected together by devices called leap gates, and in order to get anywhere in the game you’re going to have to hack them… over and over again. Hacking them consists of completing a series of colour matches within a time limit, and they honestly wouldn’t be so bad if not for two factors. First, there is no reward at all for opening leap gates, other than simply opening up a new area. No experience, no cash, nothing. Second, the timer doesn’t stop when you are matching colours, so creating long chains of matching colours, an activity that generally helps you during the main game, becomes a huge hindrance, eating your time and causing you to start the whole process over again.

The Luck of the Draw: While a certain amount of luck was present in the original Puzzle Quest, Galactrix’s game board refills in the direction you moved your last gem to complete a grouping, which could be any direction whatsoever. While this is an enjoyable mechanic during solo activities like mining, bartering, and crafting, during actual combat it replaces a large chunk of the skill element with sheer luck. You could be the best strategist in the world, and you’d still find yourself randomly losing battles due to a random lucky series of drops for your opponent. It’s extremely frustrating to be sitting there with full hull and shields with your opponent on their last legs, only to suddenly find yourself defeated thanks to a ridiculous stream of randomly generated exploding mines.

Stale Tales of Space Adventure: The bland storyline of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix could have been saved by a colorful cast of characters and some witty dialogue, but instead we are presented with a series of outer space stereotypes; cardboard cutouts who seem to serve no more purpose than to unlock the various side-games and occasionally deliver the odd bit of exposition. The original Puzzle Quest was no fantasy epic, but it was certainly more entertaining that this.

Can I Have Your IP Address?: If you’re looking for online multiplayer in Galactrix, you’re probably better off waiting on the Xbox Live Arcade version, as the PC version only supports two types of multiplayer: LAN and direct connection via IP address. It’s essentially the PC equivalent of having to exchange Wii Friend Codes.

Where the original Puzzle Quests was a sublime symphony of balance in which the player could chose to play the game as they liked, Galactrix tends to be a bit more loose with the balance and heavy on guiding you on your path. Battles are often won by luck rather than any amount of skill, creating more moments of frustration than giddy triumph over impossible odds. Whereas the original game allowed you to pick and choose which mini-games you participated in, Galactrix throws countless gate hacking obstacles in your way, offering little reward other than letting you move to the next section of the map. Add to that the lack of distinct character classes, an uninteresting story, and the fact that leveling provides so little in the way of character customisation that players have already created their own mods to fix it, and you’ve got a game that falls well short of the original’s greatness.

I played through the original Puzzle Quest on four different platforms, and loved every minute. This will more than likely be my only play through of Galactrix. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had, but frustrating design and an overall lack of choice means this star trek is a one-way trip.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix was developed by Infinite Interactive and published by D3 Publisher, released on PC on February 24th. Retails for US$19.99. Also available on Nintendo DS for US$29.99. Played single player story to completion, could not participate in multiplayer.

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D3’s Dorks, Dealers and Double-Ds event made much of Galactrix, even if they did designate it as the “dork” portion of the evening.

Before you ask, no, nothing looks like a penis. The Wormageddon gets close though.

You can grab the Spore Creature Creator yourself from the New Zealand EA Store. I know, I know, don’t ask.

I2’s Spore Creatures [Infinite Interactive, thanks Aaron]

Rainbow-like appeal aside, we’ve read what EA, id Software and Sega think about gaming on the iPhone. But what about our local guys? Sumea threw a few mobile and iPhone-related questions at Tantalus, Firemint, Infinite Interactive and Sidhe to get their opinions.What I gathered from their replies is that they’re excited about the possibilities and think gaming on the iPhone is a funky concept. This attitude however is tempered by the firm, but politely-put, stance of “we’re not committing to it just yet”.

One of the more intriguing responses came from Firemint CEO Rob Murray:

I am thrilled that Apple has released the SDK and put so much support behind it. But while the iPhone will be an important platform for game developers, it is still just one phone in the mix of all handsets on the market so I wouldn’t focus on the iPhone in isolation. It will be exciting to see how it shapes up against mass market offerings like the new NGage platform as well as other emerging next gen products.

Firemint specialises in mobile development, so I’m not surprised Rob had the most to say. That said, all the developers had something to offer, so go ahead and check out the full article at Sumea.

What our developers think of the iPhone game platform [Sumea]

The article also has some great insights into the minds of casual gamers. Take this, uh, gem, from the end of the piece:

* Some of the standard RPG conventions were absolutely mystifying to casual gamers, such as matching purple gems to level up.

I know I don’t blink an eyelid at terms like “level up”, “skill points” or “man girdle”, so it’s hard to imagine how a casual gamer would feel faced with such esoteric concepts.

There’s loads more on how Infinite pitched the game and the challenges it faced with different platforms, as well as the steps the developer took with the original prototyping.

Postmortem: How Puzzle Quest Saved Infinite Interactive [Gamasutra, via Sumea]

We all know the world can’t get enough Puzzle Quest… well, at least I can’t get enough of it. And the thought of being able to play the very touch-perfect puzzle RPG on my iPhone gives me goosebumps. So after my little hint didn’t result in any immediate announcement of an iPhone Puzzle Quest or Galaxtrix, I took matters into my own hands and emailed Infinite Interactive to see what was up.

Janeen Fawkner, producer on the game was quick to respond:

Hi Brian, We would love to do a game on the iPhone, but we’ll have to see what our publisher D3P has in mind… We’ll suggest it to them :)

Sounds good, but I’m impatient, so I went to D3 next, asking when we could hope to see a Puzzle Quest on the iPhone and pointing out that Inifinite was gung-ho. Their spokesperson’s response?

They’re looking into details now and will get back to me soon.

Now, now, I want it now! I even made this handy-dandy screenshot for them. You can imagine what a pain I was to my parents when I was a kid.

You may remember we chased down Infinite Interactive’s head honcho Steve Fawkner for an interview not so long ago. Not only is he switched on, he knows a thing or two about making games. Good ones. I know I’ve spent billions of days playing Warlords in its many incarnations.

Billions.

So, if you’ve been studying to get into the industry, or have some experience in the areas described, then this might be the opportunity you’ve been looking for. If you happen to live in Victoria, then you’ve already cleared one major hurdle. I’m guessing the next would be getting an interview. Or a polar bear.

Infinite Interactive – Employment [Official site, via Sumea]