A game a day

Playing Blueberry Garden, a free roaming platform game by Erik Svedang, was one of the treats of GDC this year. We had a chat with Erik about his lectures on game design, how he felt about winning the Seumas McNally grand prize at the Independent Games Festival and what he has in store for us once Blueberry Garden is finished.

1.How would you describe Blueberry Garden and its gameplay to someone who had never seen it before?
Erik: An opportunity to explore a strange world and a chance to be surprised. Maybe even confused. The gameplay is pretty basic though, it's like Mario but with flying.

2.What is your favourite thing about Blueberry Garden? Is there anything you would change?
Erik: It's certainly not the way I imagined it from the beginning but I kind of like it. It would be great if it could run on Mac and Linux though, and to not require such a strong PC.

3.Do you have other hobbies or interests that inspired you when making Blueberry Garden?
Erik: It's very inspired by the music that I've listened to the last few years, bands like Sagor & Swing and Detektivbyrån. Also, I grew up on the countryside and I like to walk around outdoors so that's probably a big source of inspiration; the Swedish nature.

4.Did you expect Blueberry Garden to scoop the grand prize at IGF this year?
Erik: Heh, no... but I was hoping! I think all of the nominated games could have won, they are all great.

5.What was the first thing that sprang to mind when it was announced and you had to go up on stage and claim the award?
Erik: Wow, I'm rich...

6.Other than winning the award, what is your best memory of GDC this year?
Erik: Meeting all the other developers off course!!! So many people I've only read about and they were so nice and awesome.

7.Recent winners, like World of Goo, have gone on to be big commercial hits. Has winning the grand prize changed your expectations of your game and what it might achieve?
Erik: It will probably reach some more people now which is nice. My expectations are kept at a minimum though, I don't know anything about selling games.

8.Is Blueberry Garden finished yet or are you still working on it? If it is finished when can we expect to get our grubby hands on it?
Erik: It's nearing completion. It won't be much bigger, only a bit more polished. I hope I can finish it off quite soon but there is so much stuff going on now! Like answering interviews... grumble grumble =)

9.You lecture about games at a University in Sweden. If one of us was a student in your class, what would we expect in one of your sessions?
Erik: My favorite lectures are probably the tutorials where I show how to prototype in GameMaker. It's so much fun when people without any programming experience create stuff they couldn't dream about doing a few hours ago.

10.Do you have any idea what you'll be working on next? Do you think you would  use the same art style and atmosphere that you had in Blueberry Garden for another project?
Erik: I have a feeling that my next thing will be something quite different. To get another art style I'd probably have to collaborate with some artist, which is something I'd certainly like to do. Regarding game ideas -- GDC and IGF got me very inspired so hopefully I'll be able to come up with something cool... have to finish this other game first though!