We talk with Joss Ellis, Director of Development at Tantalus

Interview from Cav - Friday, 13 August 2010 @ 10:35am

Australian Gamer: Success has come in many various genres for Tantalus, but what do you think makes the Racing/Driving sims so popular?

Joss Ellis: Racing games have always been a part of our DNA at Tantalus - I think a large part of the reason for our success in the genre is simply because it's a game style we know and love! There's almost always been a racing game in development here, so we're constantly able to refine our car handling and track design. It's the little things that make a driving game feel right - how a car regains grip after a drift, or the pacing and flow of a sequence of corners. You can't always get that right the first time, so having some experience and history with the genre to build on is a huge plus.

AG: Why was the decision made to do a DSiWare title instead of a cartridge?

JE: We believe that in the long term the future of game distribution is in digital distribution and wanted to see how it all worked with Nintendo and actually publish a game ourselves rather than through a traditional publisher.

To publish on a cartridge is actually a very involved process requiring a lot of up-front cash, physical manufacture and distribution, a sales and marketing team, warehousing, physical distribution and so forth. These are the reasons we find digital so exciting.

The lovely Melbourne Tea House - Home of Tantalus

AG: How do you rate the likes of Downloadable Software, like DSi and WiiWare, XBL and PSN Games compared to on the shelf titles?

JE: Currently they tend to be smaller ‘bite sized’ games and admittedly there are a fair number of not so great efforts out there. But games like Flower, Fat Princess, Battlefield 1943, Braid and so forth show that you can get a great game that doesn’t cost that much.

AG: Is Tantalus looking at entering the WiiWare market as well?

JE: No, not at the moment.

AG: Just like every workplace tries to promote a ‘paperless society’ do you foresee the whole gaming industry going ’cartridgeless’ in the next 10 years?

JE: Yes I think we mostly will. Smartphone games already are, the cost of bandwidth is rapidly decreasing while download speeds are only getting faster. Cloud storage means you never need lose a game you’ve bought and can access it from anywhere. Plus on the fly patches, downloadable content and social interaction are easy to implement.

Only less developed countries will continue to have physical media, and I guess there will always be a special edition/collectors market.

AG: What is the appeal to you personally of a Nintendo DSi?

JE:For me the new features, like far better wiFi, hot swappable carts, SD cards, etc. are sensible evolutions from the DS without losing anything that made the DS so great like its portability, near indestructibility, touch screen, etc. The connectivity options and the revamped DSiWare store show that Nintendo are also committed to going digital.

Drift Street International is available today in the Nintendo DSiWare shop for 800 Points