A while back, we did a post on Zeus, a new game for Android. After playing the game, we decide to reach out to the developer DigitalDust and learn more about them. Today we are speaking with Gergely Horvath.
Q. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your company?
A. My name is Gergely Horvath from DigitalDust Team. I am an informatics engineer from Hungary, and also – mainly – a 2d/3d graphics artist, my business partner, Zoli is also a 3D artist and drummer. Donát, the programmer guy for Android is also a informatics engineer.
We founded Digitaldust about 4 years ago, a team of talented graphic artists to create some great visualizations for films, commercials, games, and web stuff. You can check out our portfolio at www.digitaldust.hu. We started to develelop games 2 years ago, first a try to Facebook, just to get the idea of the workflow, but after that we realized that mobile game developement is perfect for us both in graphic performance and worldwide popularity of smartphones.
Q. Why or how did you come up with the idea for Zeus?
A. Our first mobile game was Zeus, created initially for iOS, then Android, and we are currently programming it to WP7. Since we are a graphics team, we had to cooperate with programmers. Actually the spark of the idea of Zeus came in a very funny situation. We were out with my business partner-colleague-friend one night and after having some party we tried to get some gyros at a place nearby. As we were waiting for the food, the rain started to fall like crazy and also a big storm approached with lightnings and stuff. We were afraid to run from
the restaurant to the other side of the street to a party place because we pictured god above us waiting for somebody to run across just to hit him with some lightning bolt! 🙂
Q. Have any more games coming down the road?
A. We are currently making updates for Zeus, but also created the graphic content for 2 more games. One has a beta version, available on the Android Market, called Guide the Sheep. It is a cute game, where the fearless shepherd dog has to guide the lost sheep home. Of course the user controls the dog, making the path for him by his hand and barking by tapping on the screen. Also another game is under development, which reaches towards children. We are in need of programmers, so anyone who has dreams in this area please contact us.
Q. What is the hardest thing for someone when developing a game for Android?
A. There are many things that can make a developer’s life miserable on Android. Of course it is a very big community, and hundreds of millions of people can be reached by it, but since Android aimed to fill the hole also in cheaper segments you cannot really test your app to run perfectly on every device. Since the version of the OS doesn’t necessarily specify the hardware under it, you really cannot dodge the bad ratings or comments.
Also when somebody downloads your game and it force-closes or crashes, people tend to only curse about it in the comments and not send the crash reports which could really help a developer. Another big problem is Android being a fully multitask OS. Of course it is good from another view, but since that you’ll only have maximum 16, maybe 32 MB for your app in the memory, which can really make development hard, especially if you’re aiming towards graphics-heavy stuff.
Q . Where do you think the Android market is going in the next year or two?
A. I think Google will fully integrate everything together, making the Android an OS which can control everything in your life. Also making the OS able to be installed on TVs or other electric stuff, so you’ll be able to communicate with them via your phone.
Q. What do you like to do on your free time?
A. We usually try to live the rockstar lifestyle. 🙂 Having parties, meeting girls, doing sports. I personally do Jiu-jitsu, and also teach it. My colleague does drumming, right now he is on the Canary Islands – Gran Canaria, where he is in a Beatles tribute band. Also he had a couple of bands in the past years, varying the music style from the goat-butchering metal to rock and funky-jazz 🙂 Donát, the programmer for Android is also a musician, playing bass in rock band. So we are trying to manage the balance of our chi to get the best out of the team. And it always needs some fun beside the hard work. 🙂
Thanks Gergely for your time. I really appreciate it. Look forward to seeing more games and apps from your guys.
