Welcome to Show and Tell, a new regular that gives local Australian Indie Developers the chance to show their latest work, whether its a finished game or a work in progress. Today we’re talking to husband and wife team Jack and Lisa about their game Grand Theft Froot, and their future plans.
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your studio?
We’re basically a husband and wife team that decided to try our hand at making computer games. Jack is a professional Software Engineer working in the inner city of Brisbane. Lisa really enjoys drawing cute things. We started Frooty Game Studios when we began work on our first game – Grand Theft Froot. Originally we were going to call it Frooty Adventure, but given the dark and twisted story Grand Theft Froot seemed much more appropriate.
What game are you working on at the moment?
At the moment we’re in the process of adding more content to GTF. We’re up to the fourth content patch already, basically we’ve had some full-on, outright fans of the game and we want to thank them by adding more things in and fixing up any issues they’ve had with it.
In terms of the next project we’re designing the next XBOX Live Indie game and we don’t want to release the details of it yet as it’s still in the very early stages of development. Suffice to say we want to do what we’ve done with GTF – take existing concepts and mix them up to create a unique experience for the player. With Grand Theft Froot it was taking seemingly different designs such as Platforming and RPG and actually making them work together.
Where and when can we play?
If only XBOX Live Indie Games were available in Australia! We’ve had quite a few people make that comment to us already! Having said that we are considering redoing Grand Theft Froot for the PC with the appropriate changes such as full voice acting for the story and even more content. At this stage however there’s no plans to go ahead with it.
What’s next for your studio – any big plans?
At the moment just working on the next project that we’re still keeping quiet about. We can say however it will have our brand of cute graphics with a twist on an existing genre!
Any words of advice for those who want to get into the games industry?
It’s funny you asked because we actually got asked the same question by a few different people. First of all, it’s got to be something you’re passionate about. Game development can be very draining especially financially if you’re just starting out and haven’t got any tools but ambitious ideas. Many great games never make it anywhere costing the developers a lot of money.
If you’re still convinced you want to go ahead and create the next best thing you might as well grab the XNA Framework along with Visual Studio Express for free. It’s a great way to start and get a feel for game development. While you won’t be working in a more professional language such as C++ which is primarily used in the gaming industry, using XNA and C# will teach you a lot and help you get started. From there you can grab the Creator Club membership and actually release your finished game on the XBOX Live Indie Game marketplace while you learn from other developers and interact with existing players in the industry!
If you’re an indie developer, or a student working on a cool project, get in contact with us here if you want to be featured in an upcoming Show and Tell!
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