Hi, everyone. Recently Nanobeast was reviewed by the German website fettspielen.de and I was interviewed by them. I wanted to thank them for the honor.
Here is the review of Nanobeast.
If someone speaks German, please let me know if the review is good :)
Here is the interview, including a sexy picture of me.
If you don't speak German, here is the whole interview in English:
1. Please introduce yourself
My name is Hristo Atanasov and I'm 31 years old. I was born in Bulgaria. I have two bachelor degrees - one in Graphic Design from my home country, and one in Multimedia from the City University of New York, USA. I am currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria, but I spent the last 6 years of my life in New York City.
2. What made you want to be a game developer?
Ever since I was a little kid I had dreams about making games. I was highly influenced by arcade games and always imagined creating games of my own. Of course, I though that this is impossible to be achieved by a singe human being. I thought that games are made by large teams of people where different professionals take care of different aspects of the game creation. This is usually the case, but not always. The world nowadays gives opportunities to people to create games of their own. Today most online games are created by a singe individual, who takes care of everything - graphics, programming, sound editing, design, music and even voice acting. With my creations I try to be one of these people.
3. What platforms do you develop games for and why?
So far I have worked strictly on online Flash games. Games that you play for free in your browser. I like the idea that people don't pay out of their pocket to play my games. It gives me the feeling that I create projects that are meaningful and fun for people to interact with.
4. What are your experiences in porting games between two platforms?
I have not done that yet, but I do plan to port some of my games to different platform in the future.
5. How do you get inspiration for a game?
I do not know. It just comes. Playing a lot of games certainly helps.
6. How long does it take for you to write a game from start to finish?
It varies. For serious projects sometimes it takes more than a year to create something from scratch to a finished game.
7. What are the biggest technical challenges when you develop a game?
Programming. I used to hate it, now I only dislike it slightly. I never considered myself being a programmer. I just had to pick it up so I can execute my ideas. I often joke that making games is a meta-experience for me, because while I'm making a game I am playing a game of my own trying to beat programming levels and defeating code bosses. It's hard but I'm getting better.
8. What do you think the future of gaming will look like?
It's hard to tell but it seems like the future will be in complex multiplayer games.
9. What is your favourite game at the moment and why?
As a European I'm a big fan of football, or as Americans call it soccer. I really like Football Manager games. Ever since I played the very first Championship Manager game made by Paul and Oliver Collyer in 1993 I've been a big fan of this genre.
10. What is your advice for new developers?
Whatever you create make sure other people play it and interact with it during the process of creation. It's really easy to build things that only you understand and no one else gets. Always be open to criticism and believe in yourself.
Once again, thanks a bunch to fettspielen.de and peace out.
