Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Interviews
Secret Ponchos Interview: Dueling With Yousuf Mapara and Jose Lopez
One of the games we were most excited to see at PAX East 2013 was Secret Ponchos, the intense twin-stick arena fighter set in the world of a Spaghetti Western. Contributor Anthony Amato, Senior Editor Nicole Kline, and Editor-In-Chief John Scalzo met up with President and Creative Director Yousuf Mapara and Art Director Jose Lopez and had a fantastic conversation with them while trying out the game. Nicole got her butt kicked by an eight-year-old, but that didn’t mar our first impression of the game, which was: we want more as soon as possible. Read on for the full interview we conducted with the incredibly talented guys at Switchblade Monkeys. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged PAX East 2013, Secret Ponchos
Cloudberry Kingdom Interview: Pwnee Studios’ TJ Lutz on Wii U and the Art of the Platformer
Today, Ubisoft announced that it’ll distribute Pwnee Studios’ ridiculously hard platformer, Cloudberry Kingdom. The game will be available on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, and Wii U eShop this Summer.
Less than five months old, the Nintendo Wii U eShop is thriving and it is already home to a variety of interesting titles. In the first of a series of interviews looking at indie game development on the platform, TJ Lutz, Vice President of Pwnee Studios, answered some questions about their upcoming 2D platformer. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, PS3, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Cloudberry Kingdom
Shovel Knight Interview: Sailing the PAX East Seas With Sean Velasco
Sean Velasco knows retro games. As the former Director of WayForward Technologies, he was the driving force behind Contra 4, A Boy and His Blob, and Double Dragon: Neon. And as the “Captain” of Yacht Club Games, Velasco is sailing off into the uncharted waters of an original property, Shovel Knight.
You can read all about Shovel Knight in our PAX East playthrough, which will be posted later today (UPDATE: Here it is!). But for now, let Captain Velasco guide you through his love of classic games, his thoughts on Kickstarter, Shovel Knight’s future, and the possibility of a PSN/XBLA version of the game. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Features, Interviews, PC, Previews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged PAX East 2013, Shovel Knight
Jamie Fristrom’s Swingin’ Career, From Spider-Man to Energy Hook: An Interview
Jamie Fristrom is a name that you might not be familiar with, but you’ve certainly experienced his work. In 1996, Fristrom became part of the original team at Treyarch and had a hand in many of their earliest hits. But his biggest claim to fame is the creation of the webslinging engine found in Spider-Man 2 (and used in nearly every Spider-Man game since). In that dark period between GoldenEye 007 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fristrom’s work on Spider-Man 2 proved that licensed games could still be fun.
After his days at Treyarch ended, he went the indie route and created the acclaimed XBLA game Schizoid and founded his own one-man-studio, Happion Labs. His first game under the Happion Labs banner will be Energy Hook, a game that attempts to recapture the fun we all found in aimlessly webslinging around Manhattan.
Fristrom is readying a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the game, which will likely launch in a few weeks. In the meantime, I had a chance to talk to him about his career so far and where he plans to take it with Energy Hook. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, PS2, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Energy Hook
The Pinball Arcade: An Interview With Community Manager Rob Mann
In February of this year, FarSight Studios released The Pinball Arcade, their most ambitious pinball simulation game yet. For those unaware, The Pinball Arcade is a collection of real-world pinball tables, painstakingly digitized to the smallest detail and available on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and mobile devices. Every month since release, new tables have been added as DLC. And, as a major accomplishment, licensed tables such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Harley-Davidson” were obtained with a little help from the game’s dedicated fan base. Just this past Tuesday, “Elvira and the Party Monsters” and “No Good Gofers” were added to the PlayStation store
As a diehard pinball fan, and a fan of FarSight’s pinball offerings in general, I was eager to learn more about The Pinball Arcade. Therefore, I recently chatted with FarSight Studios User Community Manager Rob Mann to inquire about The Pinball Arcade’s present, and what we can look forward to in the future. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Features, Interviews, Mobile, PS3, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged The Pinball Arcade
Spec Ops: The Line Interview: Crossing the Narrative Desert With Lead Writer Walt Williams
Spec Ops: The Line, which takes players on a military operation inside Dubai after a post-apocalyptic sandstorm, will be available on store shelves tomorrow. We recently had a chance to talk with Walt Williams, the game’s very verbose Lead Writer.
During our interview, we got him to open up about what inspired the team at Yager Development and how moral choices play into the narrative, as well as Dubai’s status as a “city that shouldn’t be” and how that made it the perfect place to set a game.
Take a walk into the eye of the storm with us after the break. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged PAX East 2012, Spec Ops: The Line
Sleeping Dogs: Taking It For a Walk With Producer Dan Sochan
Sleeping Dogs was playable at PAX East this year, and as we were playing, we got a chance to talk with Dan Sochan, a Producer at developer United Front Games. Sochan was friendly and informative, and gave us tidbits about the game as we took protagonist Wei Shen out and smashed some enemies into anything we could on the streets of Hong Kong. Read on for more about this amazing upcoming game. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged PAX East 2012, Sleeping Dogs
Double Dragon: Neon Interview: Mixing It Up With Majesco’s Pete Rosky
A surefire way to build buzz for your retro-tinged throwback game is to announce that it’ll be playable on the PAX show floor just a few hours before the doors open. It worked for Duke Nukem Forever at PAX Prime 2010 and it worked for Double Dragon: Neon, which made its debut at this year’s PAX East.
After getting some hands-on time with the game, we were able to sit down with Pete Rosky, an Assistant Product Manager at Majesco, the game’s publisher. During our short chat, we talked about the genesis of the game, weapons, enemies, and a certain actress who everyone agrees is the boss. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Double Dragon: Neon, PAX East 2012