console is the SNES. I never had one myself so I suppose there’s an extra layer of un-requited nostalgia. I spent my formative years lusting after my mate's imported super famicom. I strongly believe that if you put a teenage kid on Mario Kart, Street Fighter II and Super Mario World they’re gonna grow up right.
The media has recently declared black pudding to be the unsung hero of the fry-up and the new superfood of 2016. Are you pleased about this and how do you like your eggs?
CHARLIE: Haha you're not even joking! Regardless, black pudding may as well be sliced devil phallus. Any fry-up vendor that will swap out the black pudding for an extra egg or bacon slice will for sure be getting my repeat custom. As long as the egg yolks are sunny-side up and runny.
MIKE: Man, I’ll eat pretty much anything if it’s fried. ‘If you don’t fry, the taste will die!’ – that was my grandma’s mantra. Ironically, she died of a cardiac arrest. I like my eggs flipped over and done on both sides.
What were your favourite games of 2015?
CHARLIE: Bloodborne, Blood Bowl, Rainbow 6 Siege and Rogue Legacy.
MIKE: Bloodborne, Downwell, Hotline Miami II, Super Mario Maker.
Which games are you most looking forward to this year?
CHARLIE: There's so much great stuff coming this year... Dark Souls 3, Detroit, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, No Man's Sky, Horizon: Zero Dawn to name but a few on PS4. Plus Civilization Revolution(sic) on Vita.
MIKE: Is it bad to say our own game, Wing Kings? Cos I’m pretty excited for that!
Any more plans for Mr Robot or are you working on anything else?
CHARLIE: There are no immediate plans for any more Mr Robot once he's out on PS4 and iOS. Right now, we're hard at work on our next game: Wing Kings (http://youtu.be/FnSktgPNbt8) which is a 2D arcade flight rogue-like game. Development on it is a little slow at the moment though. Not because we have to work around our day jobs/families, but because we get distracted blowing stuff up every time we play test.
MIKE: I’ve got a name if we do a sequel! It’ll be called ‘Oh Dear, Mr. Robot!’ We’ve chucked some ideas about like co-op modes and that, but we’re already making one game and have at least 2 games in planning. P.S – one of those is called ‘SHITBEARD THE PIRATE’ but that’s top sekrit.
If you could only give one piece of advice to someone looking to get into the video game business, what would it be?
CHARLIE: Proven experience counts for so much more than academic qualifications... Make something and ideally release it if you are a developer. Otherwise make levels for an existing game if you're a designer, concept art/models if you're an artist. Get together with likeminded friends to make a complete game. Simply being able to see a project through to completion goes a long way when you have no experience.
MIKE: What Charlie said, really. Find something you're good at and get better at it. Team up. Make stuff that you know you will/can finish. Basically don't give up, don't sell out.
In September you took part in the Now Play This exhibition in London where you promised to give away real fruit as prizes for highscores. Could you tell us more about this and do you have any other plans to give away grapes?
CHARLIE: This was a great day, but we had an awful lot of fruit left at the end. We ended up giving it away to random homeless guys as we pottered around London afterwards. Grapes won't really be thematically appropriate for Wing Kings, but knowing Mike, he'll be working on an angle to get them into the game somehow!
MIKE: Hahah yeah, busted! That Arcade Survival mode in Wing Kings is totally screaming out for some parachuting cherries. But yeah, Now Play This was fun. We love these public events and talking to fellow gamers. We're showing Wing Kings at the Norwich Gaming Festival on 1st April 2016 so if you come along to that, come and say hi and have a go!
Verdict of Psychological Assessment:
Two donkeys and a
raspberry donut.
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