| Interviews Interview with
Shin'en
I took the time
to ask a few questions of Shin'en, who are the
German-based newcomers to the Game Boy market,
working on the impressive Iridion-3D
game for the Game Boy Advance. I talked to
Manfred Lizner (Project Manager), and this is
what I found out.
John:
Could you start off by briefly telling us a
little about Shin'en in general?
Manfred
Lizner: Shin'en is a Germany based
company that has existed since early 1999. We
worked on about four dozen GBC games (audio, code
& graphics) and have so far published two
games (Iridion [AGB] and Käpt'n
Blaubär [GBC - Germany only]). On AGB, we
also do the audio for numerous great projects (Tony
Hawk's to name one).
John:
What is the aim of your work developing Game Boy
Advance games (for example to develop cutting
edge software?
Manfred
Lizner: Mainly we try to give the gamer
a unique experience. He should not have the
feeling that he has bought a title similar to any
other one.
John:
With your game Iridion, how have you
coped with working with the Game Boy Advance, is
it easy to develop for?
Manfred
Lizner: It's definitely quite easy to
develop on the AGB. On the other hand, it's not a
matter of technical problems: when you write a
game but it's a matter of ideas and knowledge.
John:
What are the main limitations you are confronted
with when working with the Game Boy Advance?
Manfred
Lizner: I don't think there are really
limitations. I just wish some things about the
sound hardware would be better. Overall we are
very satisfied with the hardware.
John:
What features can we expect to see in Iridion
that we wouldn't see in other GBA games?
Manfred
Lizner: We think Iridion will
be the game with the most impressive music and
graphics at launch. Well, at the least the press
says this! ;)
John:
How have you found the transition from developing
for Game Boy Color, to Game Boy Advance?
Manfred
Lizner: It's something completely
different. On GBC you have to use a lot of tricks
to get things the way you want. On AGB,
development is much easier and more comfortable.
John:
Your GAX sound engine for Game Boy Advance is
very impressive. What was it like developing
that?
Manfred
Lizner: As we have done audio engines
for various systems [in the past], we knew quite
well what could be done. The only small problem
we encountered was to get decent processing speed
on the AGB. Our main interest was to get
excellent audio with minimum RAM and CPU usage,
because we think developers like to spend RAM
space on graphics instead of big sound samples.
However, in the end we are quite satisfied with
how GAX turned out.
John:
After Iridion, what other plans do Shin'en have?
Manfred
Lizner: We are working on a couple of
games but can't reveal any information currently.
Iridion is lined
up for the US launch of the Game Boy Advance, and
in our opinion it looks very impressive. Check
out our preview here and also, check out the Shin'en Website.
- John
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