LuisCastanon.com

PsychoGoldfish

April 2007

Q:

Okay so this month the AOTM isnt as late as last month so im IMPROVING… anyway this month we feature PsychoGoldfish. On with the interview…
As is typical with any start of these interviews, the first question is cliche but people need to be roped in so bear with it… Who are you? Why should we care about you, and what did you have for breakfast today?

A:

I’m Josh Tuttle, founder, CEO and Supreme Commander of Psycho Goldfish Creative Media. In other words, I have a crappy website that I run by myself. You probably shouldn’t care about me, since I probably don’t give a crap about you either. For breakfast, I just drank a half pot of coffee. Then about an hour later I enjoyed a nice long piss.

Q:

Urine talk and shitting out cinderblocks always increases traffic here so i’ll leave that in the interview. So with the formalities out of the way, lets just cut to the chase. You keep busy pretty well or you make it seem that way anyway, what are you currently up to these days?

A:

Some of the stuff I’m doing is a bit hush-hush, but let’s just say I’m doing some work for Newgrounds, and developing some kick-ass technology for the next generation of Psycho Goldfish games. Aside from that I’m also involved in developing a few websites, and preforming a TOTALLY INTENTIONAL reconstruction of Radiogrounds.com that has nothing to do with the site being deleted. Just the other day Edmund McMillen (aka “that Gish guy”) sent me some stuff and informed me I was coding his next game, so I’ve got that going on. I’m also training for the 2008 Olympics because I heard they are adding thumb wrestling.

Q:

You are such a name-dropper… well since you started it I may as well take advantage…. I interviewed your pal MindChamber last month about what his take on the mainstreaming of Flash. I figure for the sake of getting the point of view from a developer’s side I would run it by you…what do you make of the current flash scene both from an enthusiasts point of view and from a business opportunity? On the one hand I can sort of sympathize with MC’s view that its making a new breed of artists that create ‘disposable’ content rather than things that push the scene to the next level. On the other hand, one could say that MC is just being a sourpuss because there is more economic gain from the flash gaming scene than the animation. Thoughts?

A:

I think there is truth in both schools of thought. Certainly there is a lot of cookie-cutter development going on where people release essential the same things that are popular at the time with a few minor differences and it results in a pretty good source of traffic and income. But I feel that flash is just an extension of the independent game industry, which has ALWAYS been saturated with unoriginal clones that sell in bulk due to low price tags and ease of availability. No developers are really getting any great wealth with this type of product, it’s basically just a job.

Of course, there are always those few guys who do this stuff because they are passionate about it, and they end up presenting us with new ideas and experiences that keep raising the bar. I’ve seen teams of 2 or 3 guys making games in flash that feel really produced, and a lot of individuals are coming up with new game mechanics that are really creating a new niche for web-based gaming. With multiplayer games becoming more and more common in flash I think we’ll start seeing even more originality, and I would predict a few big success stories as well. I think the reason a lot of old school flash guys are so cynical is that they have paid a lot of dues, and only a few of us have truly been discovered by the mainstream industry. It doesn’t help that every 14 year old and his dog has flash these days and they are all cocky because they’ve had one game that was popular for a week or so, but they’ll soon realize they are just flavors of the week
This just in… PsychoGoldfish’s comments anger 14yr olds.
and start growing into their own just like we all did. As for economic gain… I would agree that animators tend to get shafted. And programmer can do a game all on their own, and people will play it even if the art sucks. But I think the teams that have a talented animator like Mindchamber, ultimately make a better product that has a longer life. We did Alloy together years ago, and I still get all sorts of traffic and feedback from that.

Q:

Well great, now that you’ve dissed a large portion of my traffic nobody will be left to read the rest of this… but while we are on the subject of diss…. a few months ago Webgame Magazine became the epicenter of the whole LordBling scandal. Now that time has passed do you have any further followup on what became of that?

A:

Not really. At the time I predicted nothing would really come out of that whole ordeal and that it would blow over. The only reason I even published the article was because I knew nobody would even know it happened otherwise. There’s a lot of politics involved in running big-time sites, and everyone involved kind of had to put their own opinions aside. I have the luxury of not being ‘big time’, so I didn’t really have any bridges to burn.

Q:

Ah the perks of being a nobody… but enough with soap opera-like questions…. a few flash devs have made the crossover from flash to mainstream gaming ie consoles. Do you see that as a possible evolution? Regardless of that, if you could have one game that you’ve made ported over to a console of your choice which console and game would it be and why?

A:

I think there is a definite possibility for that sort of transition, but only for the developers that are truly passionate about doing it. Tom Fulp has always been the poster child for passionate flash developers. He’s a huge gamer, and he has all these ideas about games HE wants to play.
Hopefully Tom never finds out that I plugged his game
That sort of passion is what gets the Alien Hominids of the world out there, and it’s actually far more important than the actual skill you need to program and draw a game. Programmers and artists are a dime a dozen… visionaries are a rare breed.
Personally, I don’t think any of my games warrant the transition. I make casual games that people can pick up and play with little learning curve, and can play for minutes or hours. I could certainly see these games as downloads ala X-Box Live Arcade, but I wouldn’t even try selling something that small on a store shelf. Now, that said, some of the stuff on the ol’ to-do list could find a home on a console. We have some big plans for Alloy, and a few interested parties, so you never know.

Q:

Cool, well I havent had a cliche question in awhile so here goes….. you’re one of the few developers that can make games and supply your own art if the need for it arises… do you prefer to do it yourself or do you prefer having someone else haggle with the art end of it? Seems like it would be an obvious answer for the latter… but some people find it more laborous to actually ‘manage’ someone else…

A:

Yeah it’s a very fine line and it all depends on the project and the partner. Some games you can just build without needing art, some art you can just do without a specific format. In those cases it’s not so bad because you can get your contributions done without pause. Where I tend to get frustrated is projects that require work from someone else or they can’t progress. I get to work on whatever I want all day long, but most of the people I work with have other responsibilities that limit how much they can do with me. So while I wait for that, I start something new to kill the time, then I become the guy who’s slowing things down.

I love doing solo projects. I’m a huge control freak, so when I envision something a certain way, it’s easy for me to just make it and be satisfied. Of course, my artistic skills are a bit limited in some areas, so the overall quality is never quite as good as it could be, and I put twice as many hours into the games as I would otherwise. But sometimes that’s what you gotta do. I think the best benefit of being able to do both sides of development is that when you are in a team, you have a much easier time communicating with your partners, and understanding their input and ideas. I love working with guys that can contribute to the idea pool because a lot of the time they will think of something kick ass that I just never would have thought of.

Q:

Alright final question, as a fellow alcohol enthusiast this is of particular interest to me… Do you have any more alcohol related games ‘brewing’ in the near future? (oh god that was such a lame play on words but im leaving it in.) Nobody makes it this far in the interview. Also what is your favorite beer?

A:

Let’s just say dr0kn day is coming up… May 24th-ish. There are at least a half dozen alcohol inspired concepts right now, and I expect at least one or 2 to come to life. My favorite beer is Rickard’s Red, but you can’t get that here in Colorado at all, so I’ve been getting by with Molson Canadian and keeping my inner hoser happy. I’d also like to make one last closing remark: (penis)

AMEN.