A post-mortem at Gamasutra reveals the challenges of how to make a boy and a blob.
Recently WayForward spoke with Gamasutra regarding the development of A Boy and His Blob. The discussion covered many topics, including the type of team that developed the game, the vision of the product, and the type of development strategies employed by WayForward during the creation of the game title.
A Boy and His Blob had a core development team of only six people, but by project's the end included over 35 game developers. Blob took 11 months to develop, and was originally pitched by WayForward to Majesco at E3 2008.
During the testing phase, WayForward brought in children between the ages of seven and eleven to playtest the game for them, relying on their feedback to determine what would appeal to their target audience. Every Friday, the entire team was gathered to watch someone new – whether it was a child or an adult -, play the game. Towards the end of development, there was someone playing the game full time, while a developer would be altering the levels on- the- fly depending on the result of the playthrough. The result was a level of polish that both WayForward and Majesco felt satisfied with.
Majesco supported WayForward the entire way through. Initially they had concerns about the art style of the game and the marketing possibilities. Eventually, the game was pitched to them as "sincere and heartwarming, with serious artistic integrity."
The entire feature is available here at Gamasutra.