Welcome to Show and Tell, a regular feature where we talk to local indie developers about what they’re working on and what they’ve recently released. Today we’re speaking to Tony Takoushi, founder of TAKS, and 30 year veteran of the Aussie games industry, about his upcoming projects.
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your studio/team?
Hi, my name is Tony Takoushi and I’ve worked in the games industry for 30 odd years, most recently 5 years at Halfbrick Studios (Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash,Age of Zombies).
I want TAKS to offer new play experiences to both gamers and Casual players.
To me, just rehashing other peoples game ideas is a waste…why would you want to waste your teams time regurgitating?
In terms of where the industry is right now, Apple has ripped open the market and allowed developers to do amazing things 🙂
The barriers to entry are mostly gone, you don’t have to go to a major hardware manufacturer and spend thousands on devkits, assuming you can get approved as a developer.
It’s really exciting to see so much creativity unleashed by developers 🙂
It’s very important to me that fans of Halfbrick style games enjoy the same experience with Total Arkade Software games, awesome gameplay and gorgeous production values are the key.
If you can add value to old ideas then that’s good, if you can innovate that’s GREAT!
What game are you working on at the moment?
Just closing on the marketing for AbraWORDabrA and doing pre-production on the next title, a really cute, funny, just plain ADORABLE game to do with furry creatures 🙂
So we’re on concept art,tidying up the multi-platform engine and making a start on the sound brief.
Where and when can we play?
AbraWordabrA goes on sale on Wednesday May 2nd.
You can buy AbraWORDabrA for iPhone,iPad,iPod on iTunes and the Android version on Google Play or Amazon.
You can get more info here.
What’s next for your studio/team — any big plans?
We feel it’s very important to support AbraWORDabrA buyers and we’ve done three lots of downloadable content and they’ve been QA’d and are ready to go in coming weeks.
Going forward it’s vital we keep our focus on really playable,fun games with great production value…and that takes time and a lot of energy.
We’re staying with mobile as you can do great games in a reasonable time with core tech in place and an excited team!
The next game will be something different with a stupidly simple mechanic tied to some really strong characters.
Any words of advice for those who want to get into the games industry?
I’ve worked in the games industry for 32 years and there’s no substitute for hard work,you will have fun and there will be days when it gets you down but stay focused..
Pursue your dreams…don’t EVER give up..it’s exciting,fulfilling,challenging…above all it’s bloody hard work! 🙂
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