Categories
Interview

Interview with the Appetizer Games Team, the developers of Ellie & Max

We can probably all agree optical illusions are amazingly fun to play with! …so it makes sense that someone would have the bright idea to base a game around the concept of manipulating what you “think” is real, and what is actually there.

Today we would like to share with you our interview with the Appetizer Games team, the developers of Ellie & Max. Check out our original review here.

Before we start, we’d like to thank the Appetizer Games Team for participating in our interview, and for spending some of their valuable time answering our questions. Thanks guys!

Now without any further ado, our interview begins.

 

Ok first up, why did you decide to make Ellie & Max?

We wanted to create a lightweight, fairy tale puzzle game. Several ideas came out during a meeting with our team members. The most interesting of them was a story of “a sporty little blind girl and guide dog”.

We thought, because the girl is blind, let the puppy using the optical illusion take the girl home. So we made an optical illusion puzzle game and during the development, we lost the blind concept because it was difficult to convey.

 

Next up, the most anticipated question, how did you create the amazing graphics in Ellie & Max?

Thank you for your praise!

Of course, our artist worked hard, and, at the beginning of the work, a friend helped us as an art director. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr.Yang.

But, we are not satisfied yet. I will show you even better art in our next work.

 

As we mentioned in our review, the first game players are going to compare Ellie & Max to will no doubt be Monument Valley. Was designing a game based around a similar concept to Monument Valley, yet still unique and original a difficult task?

It is similar to Monument Valley in that it uses optical illusions, but the detailed mechanism of using optical illusion is more similar to Fez and Sky Island. Although inspired by many of the games above, Ellie & Max is a unique game.

In Ellie & Max, various puzzle gimmicks cause synergy, and we got rid of the action and focused on the puzzle itself. This gives you a different kind of fun compared to any other optical illusion game.

 

Now for some geeky questions. What programming language and software do you use when making Ellie & Max?

We developed the game using C# with Unity Engine.

It was not ideal for creating an illusion game, but it was a solid engine that works well on many devices, helping to shorten work time.

 

Ok, here is a difficult question. What was the hardest problem you needed to overcome when developing Ellie & Max?

We did a lot of experiments during development because we couldn’t get the users to understand the game mechanism well. We gathered our acquaintances and asked for a test, but then there was no one to test it anymore, so we went to nearby universities and asked college students to do tests. 

We have come to the present after many attempts, but we are still trying to improve it.

 

Last question. Where do you get inspiration or ideas from?

We really like games and movies. We get inspiration mainly from other games and movies.

 

A few words to Ellie & Max fans on Edamame Reviews.

Our next game will be an action game. We want to try various things without being restricted to one genre.

 

A few words on how you feel about Edamame Reviews and our service.

Thank you for the good interview opportunity.

Love our interview with the Appetizer Team?

Why not give Ellie & Max a try? The download link is just below😉


Let us know what you thought in the comments section below and as always thanks for following edamame.club

app-store-badgegoogle-play-badge