I recently had the chance to sit down and pick the brain of James Goddard, CEO of the independent studio CrunchTime Games, the developers and publishers of the recent addition to the Xbox Live Arcade, Shred Nebula.
I asked him a bunch of questions surrounding his past, his gaming studio out of his ranch, his super talented, and what went into the Shred Nebula game itself. This is Part One of the interview and it is definitely worth the read! I promise!!
Q: Before we get started, could you tell me a little about yourself for those out there who might not know you? Like your background in the Gaming Industry?
A: I have been fortunate enough to be making games for over 17 years now, I started my career at Sega as a temp tester on Genesis games, then moved over to Capcom USA after falling in love Street Fighter II (coin-op) to eventually become an apprentice and designer on the Street Fighter series. I actually co-designed Street Fighter II Hyper-Fighting in the arcade (also master balanced it), created Dee-Jay and worked on a bunch of other Capcom games. After leaving Capcom, I became a specialist in character fighting/gameplay and have worked on lots of cool projects such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (part1 for Xbox), Marc Ecko\'s Getting Up, StarCraft Ghost and World of WarCraft.
Q: What prompted you to found CrunchTime Games?
A: Long story, but the key goal was to create an environment where 1st time developers, such as interns/students and fresh graduates would be empowered to do a game from scratch. This would be done right from my home studio (ultimately ended up on my ranch) where there was no corporate BS, just a lot of talent and hard work, which would hopefully result in fun, intense games.
To read the rest of Part One of my interview with James Goddard, visit XboxLiveArcade.com
Check out the official sites of CrunchTime Games and Shred Nebula to find out more about the company and fantastic XBLA game!
