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Interview

Our developer interview with Yak & co the creators of Agent A

Do you have what it takes to outsmart a highly skilled enemy spy who kills your boss(?), sinks a cruise ship, and escapes unharmed within the first 2 minutes of gameplay? Not sure? Neither are we, but here is our interview with the developers of Agent A.

…and perhaps you’ll be able to find clues to outsmarting Ruby La Rouge…

If you have yet to check out our review of Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, you can do so here!

Before we start we’d like to thank the Yak & co Team for participating in our interview and for answering all of our geeky questions! Thanks Guys!

…and without further ado, our interview begins…

The Interview

— Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about Agent A! Could you kick-start this interview by telling us a little about your studio, yourself, and what drew you into the gaming industry?

Yak & Co is a tiny 2 man team based in Melbourne, Australia consisting of me, Mark White (art) and Jason Rawlings (code). Of course, we both do many more roles than that for Yak & Co, but that is the simplest way of putting it!

— Ok, let’s start talking about Agent A… Without giving away too much of the story, what is Agent A all about?

‘Agent A: A puzzle in disguise’ is an episodic spy-themed puzzle/escape game. Your mission is to infiltrate enemy spy Ruby La Rouge’s secret hideaway and catch her! To sum up its personality, think an escape room with ‘Get Smart’ (the old TV series) humor set in a retro 60s inspired world!

— What was the core idea or inspiration behind Agent A? And perhaps more importantly, where do you find inspiration for all the crazy hard puzzles in each chapter of Agent A?

The main inspiration behind choosing this genre was a game called The Lost City by Fire Maple Games. I just loved the way the puzzles in The Lost City were logic based, while tricky at times if you just persist you can always work them out because they make perfect logical sense.

Honestly we just kind of make up the puzzles as we go. Plucking ideas from our minds and then spitballing back and forth between the 2 of us to improve them! It’s a very time-consuming process and involves a lot of planning before we dive into development. The more puzzle games we play the more ideas we get!

— How long has Agent A been in development for? And are there any interesting and/or exciting moments or experiences you would like to share with us from that time?

A long time haha. The first concept was built back in 2013. Chapters 1 & 2 were released at the end of 2015 with a new chapter being released each of the last 2 years (the final chapter is coming out later this year wooo)!

The most exciting moment was after the release of chapters 1 and 2, our first release. We had spent about 2.5 years working on Agent A while working a full-time day job elsewhere. After the first part came out we were able to quit our jobs and focus on Yak & Co full time!

— What software, developer-tools, or black-magic(?) do you use when making Agent A? Is there anything you would like to share with the developers who read Edamame Reviews?

We use Unity like most indie mobile devs these days. If you are interested in our art creation process (which is quite complicated) have a read of our blog.

— Is there any top-secret “developer-advice” you could give our lucky players who read this interview?

The main advice for new players would be to jot down anything unusual you see on paper so that you can reference it later, often small clues you notice won’t come into play until much later in the game and you may have forgotten a clue or a code!

— What can we expect to see in Agent A or from Yak & co in the not so distant future? What do we have to look forward to next?

Chapter 5, The Final Blow, is due out at the end of this year and will wrap up Agent A: A puzzle in disguise. The big question is, will Agent A catch the sinister Ruby La Rouge or will she get away and continue her evil plots??

— Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to our awesome team of Writers, Developers, and Patrons who keep Edamame Reviews up and running?

Keep up the great work, we love reading your site!

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