March 4, 2009 

Steve Fawkner provides intricate details on Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
by Dakota Grabowski  

“There are so many places we can go with Puzzle Quest….We could go back and visit fantasy, we could head to the Wild West, and we could do an urban fantasy with vampires and werewolves. We pretty much can go anywhere we want.” 

Infinite Interactive saw the incredible rise of their Puzzle Quest franchise in 2007 and now are gearing up for its sequel Puzzle Quest: Galactrix for 2009. Already released on the PC and Nintendo DS on February 24, Infinite Interactive is now waiting for their pet project to release on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. 

GameZone had the chance to catch up with Steve Fawnker from Infinite Interactive on the project among other things. Read on to find out about the development of the title, what to expect when it releases, and his thoughts on the gaming industry. 

Question: Could you describe your daily duties with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix?  

Steve Fawkner: I’m the CEO and Creative Leader here at Infinite Interactive. I’m kind of the boss and it’s my idea to come up with original core ideas of the game. I set the direction for the design to go in. I occasionally I get my hands in down there with design and a little bit of coding. 

How long has the title been in development? 

SF: Oh, we started about 20 months ago. The game was originally funded by a group in Australia called the Digital Media Fund. It was called Galactrix at the time and when we got through prototype, we thought well ‘hey, this is starting to look like a Puzzle Quest game, let’s swipe the Puzzle Quest brand on it and really make it official. 

How satisfied was the team with the Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords reception from fans and critics along with its sales? 

SF: “We were all kind of amazed how quickly the title shot up the charts. We knew it was a good game right from the start and with the way of the word of mouth that got around on the internet; it was really amazing how many people truly enjoyed the game. 

What gameplay changes have been made in comparison to the original? 

SF: It’s pretty tricky when you are doing a sequel since you are bound by the baggage of the original. In the original you interacted with other players in matches with casting spells and using abilities. But we also wanted to make it a fresh experience because when a player gets a sequel, they are hoping that the sequel gives the same type of thrill the original gave them. And what we have taken away from the lessons from the original was removing the huge game-effecting decisions in the first five minutes of gameplay. Now we have a much more organic experience with being able to enjoy the characters accordingly and grow attached to them. A bunch of other things we’ve changed are done because we moved the game to a science-fiction setting. Of course, we wanted to put a better story in the game, so we put a lot more time into the story this time.  

How long would it take for a casual gamer to run through and complete the storyline of Galactrix? 

SF: Well if someone just ran through the storyline and did the storyline alone, I’d think it would take 20-30 hours of playing. There are a lot of side missions in the game and if you completed all of them along with the story, we’re looking at 40-50 hours of gameplay. And if they really get into the faction and fighting aspects, you could easily get 70-90 hours in. 

Having worked on both Puzzle Quest titles, which of the two have you enjoyed creating the most in relation to the settings of fantasy vs. science fiction? 

SF: That’s one of those tricky questions where you ask which one of your kids is your favorite. I really do love both games but we’ve worked on fantasy games for 25 years as I’ve been doing swords and dragons, knights and wizards for an awful long time now. We really, really wanted to do a science-fiction game because spaceships are cool. So it’s really refreshing to get into a game that involves spaceships and aliens. 

What can gamers expect from downloadable content? 

SF: We haven’t actually announced downloadable content yet. The game’s certainly built with downloadable content in mind and I think we’ll chat away about it at E3 in a few months. 

Are there any chances of development for the Nintendo Wii? 

SF: I’d love to see Puzzle Quest: Galactrix be on as many platforms as possible just like Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords was. So there’s definitely a chance for the Wii and for the PSP, but we have nothing to announce yet. We’ll check back in with that around E3, so we’ll see what happens. 

Are there any chances of revisiting the Warlords franchise anytime soon? 

SF: We’d love to! We’re kind of sidetracked with these Puzzle Quest games right now. But Warlords is our favorite and we’d love to get back to that. It’s just a matter for us of finding the exact project to put Warlords back on the map. I don’t want to make the next Warlords game a half-hearted attempt. I want to make sure it’s the right project with right budget and with something that excites us. 

How big is your team at Infinite Interactive? 

SF: We’re just 50 people as of the moment, so as a development house, we are pretty small. 

Where do you see the future for the real-time strategy titles on the consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with Halo Wars releasing this week? 

SF: I haven’t played a good console real-time strategy game yet. I’ve played a few that I sort of enjoyed, but nothing that stands out. It’s such a popular genre on the PC that there’s got to be a way of bring it to the consoles. I don’t think anyone has quite found it yet, but it certainly revolves around how we use the gamepad. It’s a problem that someone is going to solve and when they really do solve it, they’re going to sell a lot of copies of that game. I would love to think that it would be us one day solving it, but someone is going to figure it out sooner or later? 

What’s the future hold for the Puzzle Quest franchise? Maybe a modern day setting or fantasy related again?  

SF: There are so many places we can go with Puzzle Quest. It’s kind of genre independent or maybe I should say setting independent. We could go back and visit fantasy, we could head to the Wild West, and we could do an urban fantasy with vampires and werewolves. We pretty much can go anywhere we want. It’s a matter of sitting down with the team and with the guys and figuring out where we want to go next. 

What do you know of the mix-up with the release date for the Xbox 360 version that was mentioned in a Microsoft press release? 

SF: It is real close right now. I can’t put a date on that because it’s up to the Xbox Live Arcade schedule that I have no say over unfortunately. The game is basically done so it’s a matter of waiting and seeing when it releases. 

What’s next for Infinite Interactive?  

SF: We got a couple of games in development right now, neither of which we actually announced many details on right now. I can’t actually tell you what we are doing next, but there are a few in the pipeline right now. 

Will these titles be heading to multiple platforms too? 

SF: We are definitely staying multiplatform now that we have discovered the consoles and how fun they are to work on. We are trying to get the games on as many platforms as possible. In the past few months or few years we’ve built technologies for all consoles. 

Where do you see the future of the gaming industry? With Midway seeing hard times, how do you see the landscape changing? 

SF: It’s going to be a tough couple of years I think. This year alone we’ve seen a lot of studio closures. I think 2010 will be equally as tough, if not tougher. A lot of the money for projects is tight this year and next year will be even harder to get funding. It’s going to get a little bit worse before it gets better. But I also feel that every five years or so the industry sees consolidation. It’s kind of sad but its part of the natural part of the thing. Having been kicking around the industry for 25 years now, I’ve been through a few of these. We always seem to come back stronger. People keep buying games, even when there’s a down turn. The main problem, the one I’m focusing on from the business angle, is making sure we have funding for our games through 2010. 

Will Infinite Interactive be attending E3 this year? 

SF: Yes, I expect we will be at E3. We, hopefully with our fingers crossed, have a little bit of new stuff to show. We’re looking forward to seeing how E3 is this year. 

What have you been playing in terms of new releases for any of the platforms? 

SF: Haha, I haven’t had a lot of time to play a lot of games recently. I just finished running through Braid, which was a hell of a lot of fun. Also caught up with Castle Crashers, which was also a lot of fun. I just downloaded Flower last night too, which I expect to be a great game. 

You’ve mentioned a lot of downloadable games that you’ve been playing. Do you see the industry moving towards more download-friendly services? 

SF: Yeah, I think downloads will become increasingly important in the years to come. You can already see this happening with movies. If it’s happening with movies and it’s happening with music, it’s bound to happen for video games as well. I think that anyone that isn’t positioning themselves for the downloadable revolution that is inevitably going to happen, they may possibly be left behind. 

Are there any games that you are anticipating from the 2009 calendar? 

SF: Well from last year I’m still trying to find enough time to play Fallout 3 and Fable 2. For this year, I’m looking forward to the new Fire Emblem game and for the Australian release of Disgaea on the PSP. 

Is Australia becoming a viable game market in your opinion? 

SF: It’s a small and insignificant market. We really don’t have enough people in the country to be a market by ourselves. We certainly aren’t Europe and way smaller of a market than the United States. It’s sort of significant I guess, but with roughly 25 million people in the country, it’s not that large of one. 

With Americans attaching themselves to shooters, are there any genres that are performing the same in terms of popularity in Australia? 

SF: We love our sports games. We’re a sporty nation and we also love our action games. We have broad tastes but Australians aren’t early adopters of technologies. So we don’t hurry out and buy PS3s and Xbox 360’s when they come out. There are a lot of people still playing PS2s around here. 

Back on track about Puzzle Quest, I must say, I’ve been playing the Xbox 360 build a lot and absolutely love it! 

SF: The 360 version is my favorite at the moment too. 

Are there any differences in terms of content or gameplay? 

SF: They have the exact same content, but the main difference is the visuals. The 360 and PC versions have very nice visuals with 3D events. The DS we had to change it a little to make it appropriate for the DS screens. So in the end, it’s same content but different visuals. 

Sell us on Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and why gamers should put their time into the game?

SF: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords was a great and fun game. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from the game and applied it to Galactrix. It is crazy addictive and a lot of fun. It’s got a brand new setting, a better new story and amazing sound. The visuals even look so much nicer. It’s got everything the first one had and much more.

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