Omar: We are happy with the fact that it is a simple game in term of mechanics. It’s easy to get started with and accessible for variety of players. So from this point of view, we don’t want to make too many changes to the game design. We will make changes and new additions but they likely won’t be drastic. The feeling of the controls, it is important to us to keep it the same. You can read our blog post about how we started researching how the original game worked. We have made the game more smooth, widescreen, easier to play for newcomers, but it “feels” the same. That’s something that’s important to us, not to betray the original. It’s not really game that has many difficult jumps :) the beauty with that RPG-style equipment system, is that more casual players will end up with more money to buy better equipment early.. So the game becomes easier for them.
Omar: I think development at Media Molecule - where we made Tearaway - was an exception rather than the rule. We were very free to do what we wanted and the game design grew organically. So in that sense I was very lucky with places I worked at. It started as a little project with 4 people in a room and it grew and became better. At the end we peaked to about 30 people. It seems enormous compared to our team now but it was very natural and honest. Everybody was pouring their skills and love to make it better. In that sense it wasn’t so much different! But we learned a lot tacking a game like Tearaway, with that enormous amount of contents. It was often scary - when you make a game you never really know what you are doing.. Anybody trying to tell you otherwise are lying to themselves :)
Omar: We haven’t decided and announced the platforms, as we are still talking with the different constructors. So of course we are talking to Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft. We’ll see what happens.
neXGam: Do you have plans for a retail release? Limited Run Games makes physical releases on Sony platforms possible with as little as 2000 copies, and I am sure especially the old-school Wonder-Boy-fans will appreciate something physical.
Omar: We will definitely look into finding if something like that is possible, because many many fans asked. It will depends how much it cost and the quantity and the timing. For digital games we tend to polish the game until the last minute, so physical release can sometimes get in the way of schedule if we try to align it exactly with the digital release.. But we’ll find out what’s best and we’ll let everyone know as soon as we find if it’s possible!
Omar: We’re so focused on this game now that it’s hard to think about the next thing! Maybe we will, maybe we’ll want to do another thing.. But the Wonder Boy series is a special thing surely, it wouldn’t be bad to come back to it and try to make something even better! Taking the best bits from all episodes? =)