Welcome to Show and Tell, our regular feature where we speak with indie devs about what projects they’re working on and what they’ll be releasing soon. Today we have Sean Connor, a student from Sydney’s Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), to talk about a studio he formed just eight weeks ago and the mobile game he’s about to release
Can you introduce your self and tell me a little bit about your studio?
HalfaLama was formed about eight weeks ago in Sydney. It originally started as a one man team with me pretty much working day and night on my project, Dr.Rockit, then later an amazing artist named Emma Koch joined and started helping with the art work. I first started working on games by teaching my self and modding games for Halo CE when I was 14, then later Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3.
What game are you working on at the moment?
I started developing this new game, Dr. Rockit which was started eight weeks ago. The idea was started and joked about at a pub with some friends. And started as a very comical violent game called, “High Blood Pressure Man”. The idea was a ragdoll that had abnormal high blood pressure and would launch as a rocket when his limbs got cut off, it was really difficult to control and was similar to the flash game QWOP, it then evolved through lots of design changes And a new name, “Dr.Rocket”.
Another game I worked on the side was a game called, Space Walrus. During a 48 hour game making competition, and we won. I worked with Matt Barker (3D Artist), and Aiden Boneham (Programmer). You can play Space Walrus here.
Where and when can we play?
Dr. Rockit will be released on the Android market in late November, and later on iOS. In the mean time, you can see the progress and play the demo here.
What’s next for your studio — any big plans?
Right now the plan is just finishing off this game and hope people love it. I’m also interested in opening a studio in Sydney, big or small depending on how well Dr. Rockit does.
Any words of advice for those who want to get into the games industry?
Best way to start is mod existing games, start learning tools such as Unity3D, UDK or Cryengine3. I didn’t know any programming six months ago, so I taught my self. Getting started is the hardest part, but it gets easier and a lot of fun if you keep working hard.
Stop playing World of Warcraft! And staying up late playing Battlefield 3! Those games are amazing, and fun. But if you really want to work in this industry you need to limit your self, because it takes up to much of your time. I reward my self with battlefield when milestones are done.
Can you tell us about what it’s like studying at AIE?
There are three AIE campuses around Australia and Sydney is by far the best. At the start of my year there weren’t any set teachers. But now they have Matt Barker and Conan and Epona Schweer as the game teachers, and they are great. Sydney campus is well equipped with software and hardware. Overall I’m glad I went to AIE Sydney.
Are you an indie dev or student with a cool project to share? Get in touch with us here!
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