Indie developer Running Pixel, is a multiplatform casual game developer founded in 2008 by well known executives and veterans from the mobile games industry. As a matter of fact, these guys are the same people who brought us Javart Games for mobile gamers. The core development team consists of three guys; Massimo Riera, Alfio Lo Castro and Benedetta Sciacca. While they have had some external co-workers, the majority of the material has been cranked out by these three.
Promising to put the players fun on top of the priority list, these guys have taken good ideas and done their best to transform them into fun games for multiple platforms. Running pixel knows no boundaries and shows no preference to console or phone, it’s pure and simple fun that these guys are trying to produce on a daily basis.
We recently had a chance to sit down and chat with Massimo Riera, one of the core developers and a founder of Running Pixel, and we’ve gotta say he’s an awesome, down to earth guy!
GamesAreEvil: I’d like to know a bit more about your team. Your site says your team is made up of executives and veterans from the mobile games industry, got any examples?
Massimo Riera: Sure, an example might be useful. We founded Javart, an independent developer for mobile games. Due to company problems the actual Running Pixel team went away to do something different a year ago.
GamesAreEvil: So who’s all part of Running Pixel now?
Massimo Riera: Running Pixel is built around three people; me (Massimo Riera), Alfio Lo Castro and Benedetta Sciacca. With us, are some external co-workers, but the core developments are by the three of us.
GamesAreEvil: Wow! That’s amazing! So the core development team on your latest game Bricks4Ever was only the three of you?
Massimo Riera: Yes, we are working hard on our projects and Bricks4Ever is one of those.
GamesAreEvil: What are your plans now that Bricks4Ever has been released?
Massimo Riera: Actually we are working on an update of Bricks4Ever and two more games; a really addictive puzzle game and a crazy “app”, a sort of skills tester. Not sure which one will come first.
GamesAreEvil: That’s awesome! Good to see you guys are pushing forward so quickly. So what content are you planning on throwing out there for Bricks4Ever?
Massimo Riera: The new build fixes some bugs (with the controls and the anti-stuck system) and we’re adding a brand new mode called “Bipolar” for the really hardcore gamers.
GamesAreEvil: Hardcore gamers huh? What’s that gonna be like?
Massimo Riera: The user will manage two pads at the same time, using both of the analog sticks (and two balls).
GamesAreEvil: Holy Crap that sounds awesome! (I’m a big fan of “breakout” style games by the way).
Massimo Riera: That’s great! We’ve grown eating “bread and Breakout”, so we liked so much developing B4E.
GamesAreEvil: Getting back to that update “Bipolar”, is it going to be free?
Massimo Riera: Yes, it will be free for everyone who already has Bricks4ever. We also received gamers feedback and that helped us to better polish the game.
GamesAreEvil: So that’s pretty awesome that you guys are listening to the feedback!
Massimo Riera: Yes, the Xbox forum is really good for this, but Twitter gave us some good feedback too. We think that it’s important being near gamers, we are gamers too, so we try to understand the needs of players on every game.
GamesAreEvil: That’s something that you don’t see much of these days. It’s nice to be approachable by fans of your games. I think if you open yourself up to gamers then they’ll be much more receptive of your games, does that seem to help business?
Massimo Riera: Now it is too early to know, but it is important for us and we hope gamers appreciate it. In any case we follow this approach.
GamesAreEvil: Do you think it’s an approach you’ll be able to maintain as the company grows?
Massimo Riera: It is our philosophy. We’ll try to maintain it forever.
GamesAreEvil: Well that’s good to know. I’ve also noticed on your site you guys mention the Sasquatch Technology, care to elaborate on that a bit? Is that something you use in house or share with other developers?
Massimo Riera: It’s actually our own made framework we use to develop our games. We originally planned to provide other companies the opportunity to use our framework, but we chose to use it for our games only.
GamesAreEvil: So how many games have you guys made in total?
Massimo Riera: If you consider mobile games too, we’ve made over 30 games. On Xbox 360 we’ve published two games ; Bricks4Ever and Crystal Crush. We plan to port some of our best Xbox 360 games like Bricks4Ever over to PC.
GamesAreEvil: I bet your Sasquatch framework should make porting the games pretty easy!
Massimo Riera: To be honest Sasquatch was made for crossing platforms, so yes we have a good tool to help us.
GamesAreEvil: Do you have anything you’d like to tell our readers? Anything they can be looking forward to in the near future? (Other than the bad-ass Bipolar Mode for Bricks4Ever.)
Massimo Riera: We have a lot of good ideas for new games, but little time to release them. We’ll try to deveop these ideas ASAP, but for the near future enjoy Bricks4Ever and Crystal Crush!
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