Developer Interview: Safari Studios
Safari Studios is a small indie XBL developer and was created by Matthew and Laurence Rietdijk. Matthew does the design, programming, and project management and his brother Laurence does 3D modeling, animation and level design. Based in Sydney, Australia the developer brothers have made games for XBLA. Games like Aquarium 3D and Fields: Reloaded. Now their new game called Creed Arena is a classic top-down shooter/3rd person shooter and is Top Rated and one of the finalists of Dream Build Play 2009. We did a interview with them and ask them a few question and here are their answers…
TheGamersHub(Chris Cantu): Beside Creed Arena what other games have you planned?
Matthew: Our first game on XBOX 360 was Fields: Soldier of Time. That game was sort of testing the waters, and was followed by Fields: Reloaded which have been fairly popular. We have 3 games planned for 2010 but, they are currently under wrap.
TheGamerHub(Anthony DeCicco): Will all games be released on XBLA or could we see some come to the PSN?
Matthew: We are focusing on XBOX live at the moment. Microsoft actually make things very accessible to small indie developers which has helped us a lot. We would love to look at releasing games on PS3 later on down the track but, we need to grow a bit first.
Chris: How do you feel being a indie developer?
Matthew: It’s great! Making games has been my passion ever since I was 10. For most of my life it’s been a hobby, and it’s an awesome feeling to be able to do it as job.
Chris: How long does it take you to make a indie game? And what do you learn from it?
Matthew: Creed Arena has been pretty huge. It took 9 months to develop. In that time there were a lot of new tricks and techniques that we learned for making things look good, and making things fun. We really felt like we have matured a lot from the experience, and we’re really looking forward to applying everything we’ve learned to the next project.
Anthony: What gave you guys the concept of Creed Arena?
Matthew: We love shooters, but we wanted to take the genre in the new direction. The gladiator movie is one of my favorites of all time, and the concept of fighting to win the crowd’s respect really interests me. So this becomes the main theme and overall goal of Creed Arena Combined with being able to switch to top-down view, and some unique challenges we were able to make a shooter that broke the mould.
Anthony: What can you say of the Co-Op mode?
Matthew: the co-op mode is really interesting because you are fighting together on the same team which is always fun, but there’s still an element of competition. You are both on the popularity chart, and at the end of each challenge you will see who has the most fans, and who will hit the number 1 spot first.
Chris: On Xbox Live your game (Creed Arena) is one of the contest finalist and is one of the top rated games. How does that make you feel?
Matthew: We were psyched to be picked as one of the 20 finalists for Dream Build Play 2009. There were a lot of top quality entries this time round, and it was an honor to be chosen as one of the best.
Chris: What can we see from the future from you and your studio?
Matthew: Our next few games will be a lot smaller than Creed Arena. I am a big fan of the really addictive games that take 10 seconds to learn and 10 hours to master, so we’ll be working on a few of those, and then we have plans to start an epic RPG/adventure game later this year which will keep us busy for 6-12 months.
Chris: What developer do you look up too?
Matthew: I really respect the work that James Silva has been doing. He’s shown that he really understands the indie gamers community, and the huge success of “I MAED A GAME3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!” is proof of that ZP2K9 and the Dishwasher: Dead Sumurai are both great games too.
Chris: How do you feel about this year for gaming and the indie community?
Matthew: With the global financial crisis, the big games studios are taking less risks than before, and mostly staying with the familiar formulas and franchises. I think that will be great opportunity for the indie scene because more and more gamers will be turning to indie games to get something different and new. I believe 2010 will be a great year for the indie community!
Matthew Shout Out: Thanks for your Support and hope to see you all online soon!
Well, that wraps-up this interview and it was great thanks to Matthew for letting us have a chance to interview him and ask some question for us. Will, look more into his game and a review will be a follow-up.
Game Features:
16 unique arenas, each with a different challenge
Switch between top-down and first person modes
Solo championship – become the most popular gladiator in the tournament
Splitscreen Co-op – play through the game with a friend
Online Multiplayer – get to the top of the global popularity chart
Splitscreen Online Multiplayer – two people can play online together on one XBOX 360
Creed Arena (Main Site): http://creedarena.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreedArena
Short URL: http://thegamershub.net/?p=3088
Posted by 
