Game-Pad©

1)      With Shatter being influenced heavily by old school games such as Arkanoid – what game’s did you grow up playing and what were your favourites?

I grew up with a Commodore 64 and Amiga 1200 before moving on to a PlayStation.  I had a lot more free time growing up than I do now, so spent a lot of time with games like Elite, Pirates, Seven Cities of Gold, M.U.L.E, Populous, Defender of the Crown, Bard's Tale, Pool of Radiance and Dungeon Master.  That being said, I have a lot of great memories of more arcadey games such as Stunt Car Racer, Gauntlet, Bruce Lee, and California Games.

These days I tend to prefer shorter games or games that I can enjoy in short bursts given the demands on my time.  Favourites of my adult life have included ICO, Rez, and Eyetoy Groove.

2)      With so many Arkanoid/Breakout type games, were you ever worried that Shatter might not ‘break’ the mould?

It was something we felt we needed to prove early in development, so early prototyping and experimentation was very important.  Within just a few weeks though, we felt we had discovered a few hooks that would make the game really stand out and felt confident we were on the right track.

3)      Were Sony always interested in putting the game on PSN since the very beginning?

Sony as a platform manufacturer are very encouraging of innovation, and this is reflected in the quality of the catalogue they have for PSN.  The process of getting Shatter onto the platform was very smooth and Sony was helpful all the way.

4)      How has it been working with Sony?

Sony has been very good to work with.  Like any platform manufacturer they have their rules and requirements, but at the same time there is a helpful and flexible attitude.  We will have no hesistation in bringing our future titles to PSN.

5)      Have you been happy with the community and critical response to Shatter?

We have been extremely pleased with the response to Shatter.  It has been great to receive confirmation from both consumers and reviewers that the hard work and passion that we put into the title is reflected in the game itself.  It inspires us to try to do even better next time.

From a commercial standpoint, we are also very happy.  Sales have been strong and over the long term we expect a good financial return.

6)      Do you have any plans to bring Shatter to other platforms such as XBLA or PC?

We are evaluating bringing the game to other platforms and devices.  It is likely that Shatter will appear on more than one other platform in the future.

7)      Do you plan to support Shatter with post release downloadable content?

We have a number of ideas about how we could extend the title as well as some requests from fans.  We may look to bring some of these ideas to the title in the future in the form of a patch or DLC.  We are relatively close on deciding which direction we want to go.

8)      Did you ever consider Multiplayer support for Shatter, or plan to add it in the future?

We experimented with different ideas around multiplayer but didn't find a compelling way for it to work.  Multiplayer has definitely been something requested by fans, so we are looking at revisiting that and potentially bringing multiplayer to the title in the future.

9)      Is there a possibility of another Gripshift, or Gripshift inspired title in the near future?

GripShift is a game that is really close to the hearts of a lot of people in the studio.  It was our first original IP that we were able to bring to market and has had some measure of critical and commercial success.  The game continues to sell on both XBLA and PSN.

That being said, the title hasn't to date been successful enough to justify funding a sequel, and right now we are investing in original IP which we believe has bigger potential. 

We may come back to GripShift in the future.  We have a lot of ideas to overcome the shortcomings of the current iterations and would love to see the concept live up to its full potential. 

10)    What can we expect to see next from Sidhe?

Over the next few months we will be releasing 3licensed console titles into the US, European, and Australasian retail markets.  Before the end of the year, we will also be releasing more titles for iPhone and iPod Touch via our new specialist mobile studio, PikPok (www.pikpokgames.com).

In terms of original IP, we have some very exciting projects in the early stages of development. We are some time away from revealing those titles, but we think it will be worth the wait for those fans who enjoyed GripShift and/or Shatter.