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Interview

Our interview with Kraftum Games the creators of Laikanaut

Here we are, back with another developer interview! This time with Kraftum Games the creator of Laikanaut. Before we start we’d like to thank the Kraftum Games Team for participating in our interview and for answering all of our geeky questions! Thanks!

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

First of all, thanks for letting us be here again, we are really happy to repeat this experience again after our first game (Star Loop).

My name is Gemma, and I’m the producer and UX/UI Designer behind this game. Our studio is composed of a few members, we all have the same goal: Craft our own games and make them as fun as possible.

/// Ok, let’s start talking about Laikanaut. What are the highlights of your latest release?

Landing games are really fun, and jet packs as well, we just combined these two ideas with an unusual history. Behind the coloristic toon-style graphics, you can expect challenging old school gameplay with a physic-oriented jetpack mechanic and crazy level design.

In addition, the time-attack online mode is the best way to show your skills to your friends and win a lot of prizes at the same time!

/// What was the core idea or inspiration behind Laikanaut? And perhaps more importantly, where do you find inspiration for your games in general?

Since we are a retro-futuristic game studio, our main inspiration is usually classic arcade games and mechanics, in this case, references like Lunar Lander (1979 Atari) or Jetpac (1983 Rare) are a clear inspiration in this game.

However, for this game, we experimented with a low-poly more cartoonish style than usual, especially thanks to our own anthropomorphic animals inspired by too many references that we will let the readers guess about 😉

/// How long was Laikanaut in development for? And are there any interesting and/or exciting moments or experiences you would like to share with us from that time?

We started last year but in terms of working time, we estimate the development was completed in six months. It is well known that creating a complete mobile game requires a lot of skills and integrations, but the feeling after making all these pieces working together is definitely worthwhile.

Probably the most exciting moments were during some trade shows that we assisted to let players play the game and it was pretty surprising to see so many people enjoying the game, although it was in an early stage of the development.

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

It is not a secret: Unity is the right tool for this purpose, everything that you need to create a mobile game is provided, directly or indirectly with some asset, no doubt about that.

On the other hand, if you want to provide multi-platform mobile games, like Cloud Save or Leaderboards you need extra help. That is why, with this project, we started using Azure Playfab as our backend, the platform, and the SDK are outstanding, and we are really happy with the overall experience.

/// Is there any secret “developer-advice” you can give our lucky players who read this interview?

Mastering a game has to be a challenge, and Laikanaut is one of these games that you need to practice and practice to become a pro player to succeed.

The advice, in this case, is that using the Thrust constantly is not a solution, as some pro driving techniques, you have to master first how to “step on the accelerator”

/// What can we expect to see in Laikanaut or from Kraftum Games in the not so distant future? What do we have to look forward to next?

At this moment, we are excited about the initial feedback after the recent release, but more and better content is coming for Laikanaut, we are currently working on that.

Since we learned a lot with this game, you can expect more and better games! Stay tuned and follow us on the social networks (Twitter, Instagram) to be the first reading about our next games.

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

Thanks again for your excellent work, reviewing mobile games is hard but as usual it is a pleasure to work with you guys, keep it going!

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