Its still Community Games Week! In fact, its part four. We’ve talked to Scott from BigFizz games, the guys behind the huge hit Word Soup. Heres what he had to say:
Can you briefly explain what Word Soup is about?
Word Soup is a tactical word search, played on a 13 wide by 9 high grid. As you make words the blocks disappear and the other blocks collapse in. That lets you plan in advance, move letters into place and make much longer words as you improve at the game.
Word Soup was listed by Major Nelson as the biggest selling Community Game. Did you imagine Word Soup would be as popular as it is?
To be honest, no. When we saw games like Weapon of Choice and Colosseum, we really just assumed they would fit the market better. We knew our game was fun but we didn’t know if the average Xbox gamer would even try it to find out. Thankfully it turns out they will try something a bit different.
What do you put this success down to?
For some unreason reason, the game taps the bit of your brain that makes you want to have one more go. You always feel like you can do better. It’s a little bit like Tetris in that respect.
Wordsoup started life as a PC game – why did you make the switch to Xbox?
We started out in the industry as console programmers. We’d been working solely on PC for a while and it just seemed like it might be fun to do some console work. So it was sheer curiosity really.
Your company has been making games for some time now; how did you get into making games?
Well I knew I wanted to work in games since I was a kid but I had no idea how to get involved. My plan was always to go to University, get a Computer Science degree and then get into games. After I graduated I actually used Sony’s Net Yaroze to create my demo portfolio that landed me my first industry job. It seems to have come round full circle.
Who would you say your game appeals to?
It’s as simple or as difficult as you want it to be so it really appeals to everyone and anyone. A lot of guys have said that their non-gamer girlfriends are glued to it. Other people have said they like to play it together with their wife and kids. We also have a pretty loyal fan-base amongst the hardcore word game players in the UK.
What advice would you give to people wanting to make games with the XNA creator?
Take your time. Don’t expect to write the next Halo as your first game. And it ALWAYS takes 95% of the time to do the last 5% of the game, so tough it out. That’s the bit that separates the men from the boys. Or even the women from the girls – we’re an equal opportunities industry these days. Now that we’re cool.
Has all the time you’ve put into making Word Soup been worth it?
Absolutely. We try to make fun games and the players seem to appreciate our efforts. That’s why we make games.
What plans have you got for the future?
Well we will continue to support XBLCG. Our focus is making things that are fun, interesting and hopefully a little different. At the moment we have a couple of prototypes but we’ve not picked anything as the next project just yet.
Thanks to Scott for talking to us.
