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A Few Words On The PixelJunk Series With Q-Games
The PixelJunk series started off with Racers on PSN that eventually spun off into multiple genres such as tower defense and even shooters, with the most recent downloadable release being PixelJunk Shooter 2. Now with PixelJunk Shooter 2 available for download, we caught up with Q-Games producer Ariel Angelotti at GDC in San Francisco who came all the way from the developer's studio in Japan to discuss the past, present, and future of the PixelJunk franchise.
Establishing the PixelJunk name
Dylan [Cuthbert, Q-Games founder] had this idea that the name would become the brand to tie in all of these games because they’re very different games if you look at the whole series. They focus on different kinds of genres. It was just a way to drive everything together and say "we are the same people making all of these games." Even if they’re not necessarily tied in – same characters, same artistic style, even same genre – I think there is something very special about every game in the PixelJunk series that makes it a creative, unique experience, and is just a way to tie everything in so they have a common thread going throughout.
Success of the franchise
We have a unique look. You don’t need to be a full AAA title like Killzone 3 or like the latest Halo to have really kick a** graphics. It looks really pretty and I think it pulls you in even though it’s 2D. The artistic style is something. I also do think it's because it’s easy to pick up and play, and that can pull in gamers that haven’t really played games before. I’m very into the fan community – I do a lot of community management with my job – and I get tons of letters talking about "my entire family loves PixelJunk Monsters or PixelJunk Shooter and they can’t wait for the next game!" It’s so good to hear that from people because maybe you have someone who is introducing their wife to the game, and maybe they’re hardcore, but the wife isn’t, and get drawn into it.
Fan favorites and the future of PixelJunk
Our fan favorite is Monsters. I can’t talk about what we have in the future, but it depends on fan response. We also have PixelJunk Lifelike in the works. It's a music visualizer game and it’s really exciting. Unfortunately we can't go into details...
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