Interview: Creating Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

One of the more impressive Nintendo DS games created to date is Fighting Fantasy: the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, created by London, Ontario-based Big Blue Bubble, Inc., published by Aspyr Media and set to hit stores on October 26, 2009.

What makes the game so amazing is how close it comes to replicating the experience of many great PC RPGs from years ago wile feeling completely fresh thanks to the DS touch screen and a dedicated team of artists and programmers looking to bring the book to life and beyond in portable form. FF looks to be a classic, deep first-person role-playing experience set in an huge game world running at a blazing 60 frames per second with full, intuitive touch screen controls and the ability to map locations as you like in order to uncover every nook and cranny of the world you’ll explore.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask Damir Slogar, Big Blue Bubble’s CEO and Goran Marinic, the game’s Lead Designer a few questions about the game, most of them submitted by fans over on the game’s Gamefaqs page. In addition, I’m more than pleased to show off the excellent concept art and weapon renders I just received, which hasn’t been published anywhere else online. Continue reading

DAF Q & A Updates!

Since I’ve gotten a few e-mails about the Q & A’s I’ve set up, here’s a follow-up or two to fill you in:

1. I’m still waiting for the fine (and very busy) folks at Xseed to get those Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Q’s I sent off a while ago back this way. But remember, folks: Xseed is comprised of a really small team with multiple projects going simultaneously for the Wii and other platforms.

2. I have an interview coming back this way soon with a few team members at Big Blue Bubble, the folks working on Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, a great looking first-person RPG for the Nintendo DS set to be published by Aspyr. It would have been back sooner, but another site or magazine with more clout bumped my former “exclusive” so they could get their scoop first. And so it goes in this industry…. ah well.

I’m also working on a few other potential interview subjects for the near future – stay tuned…