EPISODE 35: Andrejs Kļaviņ‪š‬ YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY

A brand new episode for all you great murder mystery loving detectives out there is here!
This time I am joined by Andrejs Kļaviņš from Color Gray Games. Andrejs and his brother are the creators of the Case of the Golden Idol, one of the best indie games of recent memory. We discuss making the game, how to find the right difficulty for a puzzle game and how becoming a father impacts your sleep schedule.
Furthermore, we go into detail on designing a word based game for an international audience, cut content of the game and if AI can help to create interesting puzzles.
 
Time – Topic Discussed:
0:00 - Intro
02:20 - Guest topic: Mobile games
04:50 - What is The Case of the Golden Idol?
06:15 - The starting screen
09:00  - Growing up with point and click adventure games
10:44  - Ramping difficulty
18:10 - Localization
20:50 - Testing and adding smaller features to help with difficulty
24:15 - When is something done?
26:30 - Cut content
29:15  - The prototype of The Case of the Golden Idol
31:15 - The post mortem of the game
35:25 - Using AI for the story of the next game
38:00 - Difficult aspects of game development that gamers underestimate
40:10 - Known developers that reached out to Andrej
43:15 - Latvian culture in the game
46:30 - The importance of disagreement
49:52 - Outside aspects of a game that impacts its success
54:20 - Balancing personal creative satisfaction and creating a commercially viable product
57:30 Getting a dog and a daughter
59:35 - Outro
 
Things mentioned on the show:
Slice & Dice
 
Social Media:
Color Gray Games
Andrejs Kļaviņš on Twitter (@AndrejsKlavins)
Color Gray Games on Twitter (@ColorGray7)
The Case of the Golden Idol Homepage
 
YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY
YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY on Twitter (@youmeindustry)
Dorian on Twitter (@DorianChou)
YOU ME AND THE INDUSTRY on Instagram (@youmeindustry)
Dorian on Instagram (@dorian.chou)
Intro/Outro by FreshMcZone
Artwork by Thomas Martin (Instagram: @thomas.martin.martin)