Nintendo World Report recently caught up with Rob Alvarez de Lara, the creative director at Over the Top Games, who recently finished working on the upcoming NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits for WiiWare.

Nintendo World Report (NWR): What is NyxQuest and how did it begin?

Rob Alvarez de Lara (RAL): It all started with the idea of wanting to create a game that used the Wii Remote in original ways. At first we thought about a game where the player could fly using the Wii Remote. When thinking about a winged character, we thought about the myth of Icarus. We considered that the idea of having a game based in Ancient Greece and a character that is helped by the gods made a good concept for a game. It all started there. 

NWR: How big was the team that developed NyxQuest and how did they start out?

RAL: The core team is formed by four people: Juan, Mauro, Enrique and me, Rob. I met Mauro and Enrique at Pyro Studios. They are both very experienced developers, and we had the opportunity to work together for several years in some games. Juan is my brother and the main concept artist.

One day we moved from our jobs to start a game dev company where we could design our own games. I had this in mind for some time and since we had a good game concept, we decided to create our own studio.

NWR: The game's name was changed from Icarian: Kindred Spirts. What was reason for the name change?

RAL: For legal reasons. Since we are a very small indie studio with low resources, we decided to change the name to avoid changing our focus to other things outside the development of the game even though we had duly registered our name. We couldn´t afford to embark on any expenses that could arise from this.

NWR: Greek mythology has been done a lot. How do you feel NyxQuest is unique?

RAL: We focused on the story and the visuals a lot. We wanted to create a game with a unique visual style that could be easily recognized. We didn't have a lot of man-power to create lots of objects and textures, so we focused on the lighting and shadows. With the visuals and the help of the awesome music that Steven Gutheinz composed, we managed to transmit the feeling of the game and create an original experience.

NWR: How much research of mythology was done?

RAL: My brother (the main concept artist) did a lot of research because he is very passionate of Greek Mythology and has a big library full of mythology and Ancient Greece books. We got a lot of inspiration from there and tried to create a world that fit with the known mythology tales.

NWR: Kid Icarus aside, what games inspired NyxQuest?

RAL: (laughs) You will laugh if I tell you that Kid Icarus was not an inspiration.  We are all players and had some experience playing platform games. We all like the Super Mario Bros games, Megaman, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Braid.

One thing that is very interesting in our game is that we wanted the main character to transmit that she is quite fragile and that she really needs the help of the gods to succeed in her icarian quest. So we designed a game where the main character couldn't attack or defeat enemies by herself. If you have a look at others platform game, you'll notice all characters have weapons or some way to defeat enemies. In our game, the player becomes the gods that is helping Nyx.

NWR: Why did you decide to make it a side-scroller?

RAL: We thought that the use of the Wii Remote was very fitting to create a new type of a side-scrolling platform game. Technically, it was possible for us to create something visually stunning and at the same time create a game that was fun and innovative.

NWR: Did you have any issues incorporating motion control into the design? Were you always planning to use it?

RAL: Yes. Initially, we had more uses for the motion control! In the end, because of the design and scope of the game, we left some things for future projects. For example, in the initial concepts, we had in mind to use the Wii Remote to handle the movement of the wings of Nyx! Players got very tired of this, so we changed it.

NWR: Who is NyxQuest's target audience, in your opinion?

RAL: I think it's a game that will reach a wide audience. Its pace is perfect for younger players and at the same time it has some challenging situations for the more hardcore players.

NWR: What was it like developing for WiiWare and do you see future projects being on WiiWare as well?

RAL: WiiWare was a good decision because it was perfect for the scope and resources of our team. At the same time, Nintendo gave of freedom to create the game as we wanted it to be. They gave us a lot of support and we are very happy with the overall experience.

NWR: Do you see yourself possibly working on a Kid Icarus sequel for Nintendo?

RAL: Yes. Where do we sign!?

NWR: Where is the Spanish game development industry at nowadays? Positives/Negatives?

RAL: There are not many big studios in Spain. At the same time there are a lot of very experienced and capable individuals with tremendous artistic and technical abilities. It’s a shame because most of the time, people need to move to other industries. We are hopeful and positive that in the next months/years the government will focus a bit more on helping the startups to expand the game industry.

Check out the Over the Top Games website or the NyxQuest website for more information.

Thanks to Over the Top Games for the interview!