Action Games An interview with Enviro-Bear 2010's Justin Smith An interview with Enviro-Bear 2010's Justin Smith |
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I'm sure most people didn't know what to think the first times they laid eyes on it. The presentation, for instance, is shockingly bad, the graphics are crude and looked to have been lifted straight out of the archaic depths of MS-Paint. When I saw the screens roll in I had a good chuckle but ultimately didn't think much of it. Throughout the day I noticed chatter about the game was picking up, surprised by my apparent miscalculation to check it out the first time around I decided to find more. Cruising through some forums I came across this trailer, it was then when I became a believer: The trailer struck a chord in me like few trailers have. I cackled throughout the whole thing and was giddy to get my hands on it. I wasn't the only one. Twitter and iPhone game forums across the land talked about it and before you knew it a fairly large audience was talking up Enviro-Bear 2010 and was passing it around to all of their friends. Hell, even G4's Attack of the Show got in on the Enviro-Bear 2010 action:
The game, it would turn out, was the brain child of little known indie developer Justin Smith. I had a million and one questions about the game and was dying to know what Enviro-Bear was all about. We only had a limited time to chat, but we learned enough from the interview to put some of my questions to rest. Hit the jump to check out our exclusive interview...
Astrosaurus: First off, can you give us some details on the games development and where you got the concept from?
Astrosaurus: How did you guys do in the competition? 
Justin: Yeah for sure. The PC indie gaming scene liked it, but they're a weird bunch. I kinda thought it would just get buried in the iPhone world. Astrosaurus: Yeah, when I first saw the screenshots I got a kick out of it but didn't think much of it. The trailer is what really sold me on it though. Once I saw that I knew I had to buy it. Justin: Yeah, thanks to whoever made those trailers, hehe. Astrosaurus: So it was a game that you made a while back. How long was the initial development time for it? And how was porting it over and going through the whole approval process? Justin: The initial development took a month. Not full time, but I was unemployed so I did have a lot of spare time. Probably half the time was spent tweaking physics. That damn steering wheel alone was a few hours at least. The port was pretty smooth. I was 2 weeks from opening up my first Mac 'til submitting for approval, and 2 more weeks waiting for approval. Astrosaurus: So the thing everyone loves about it is its art style, can you talk about why you decided to execute it the way you did and how the presentation came to be? Justin: I just needed to find an art style that a programmer could pull off. I figured instead of making just slightly bad art, I might as well make really bad art. And it sort of worked. It looks like it took me 5 minutes in MS paint to draw, but it was actually pretty painstaking. 
Astrosaurus: I could imagine, that's the other thing I wanted to talk about. A lot of people are saying "It's so bad, it's good". Do you feel the same way? Is that something that offends you or are you glad people like it regardless of the reason? It sounds like that's what you were going for in the first place. Justin: Oh yeah I love those type of comments. Cracks me up every time. Astrosaurus: It's funny because you kinda do a double take. It's charming but you can't tell if it was an honest effort or if it was all planned that way. Justin: One funny thing...my 4 year old nephew played and was absolutely hooked. But all along I was making a game about a cartoon bear with simplistic controls and had no idea that kids would like it. Kind of living in a weird indie bubble I guess. But yeah, totally planned. Astrosaurus: Yeah, I've been showing the game and trailer too all of my friends and I not one person didn't smile or giggle from it. It sort of has this magical quality that I can't quite explain, I love it and by the looks of things a lot of other people do too. Justin: It's just so unlike anything a rational human wouldn't be embarrassed to release. Astrosaurus: Do you have any other projects in the works? Justin: I have 3 other games I'm prototyping at the moment. Not sure which will eventually get done. The attention Enviro-Bear got is definitely making me stop and think though. Unfortunately that's about all the time we had to sit down with Justin. Hope you guys enjoyed a little glimpse into the unlikeliest buzz worthy game that's come out in a while. If you're intrigued and need to find out what all the fuss is about for yourself you can pick it up for only a buck. You can follow Justin and his bear driving exploits on his twitter account at @EnviroBearCorp or the official Enviro-Bear 2010 website .
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