RPGWatch - Outland 17 Interview

Couchpotato and GrenadeTree Games answer your questions about Outland 17.

Couchpotato: Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions about your game Outland 17: Void of Liberty. Can you share a little background information about yourself and your game studio Grenade Tree Games?

GrenadeTree: I grew up playing games, so you can say it's been a lifelong dream. It wasn't until college that I actually got the ability to make video games. I started making with cell phones in college. This was back in the day when phones were monochrome and you had to carefully choose which platform and model you wanted to support.

It wasn't until I went to Mt. Sierra College that I got the opportunity to learn programming and project management. (Back then there weren't college programs on game development, you had to research yourself by reading articles and going to conventions like GDC.)

For my senior project I produced a game with classmates. This is where I met Rob, a fellow alumni. He and I figured that the best way to start getting experience was to jump feet first into development. It was there in the halls of school that we started practicing with pen and paper prototypes of games. We even called people over to try out new changes we had made and got them to sit with us and play!

Our team grew from there as we took our project forward by refining elements of gameplay, visual style, and narrative. We formed a name for the team, Grenade Tree Games, and took a prototype of our game to E3 2013 to display at the Ouya booth. We’ve grown even more since that year and now are ready to push our project into full development through crowdfunding.