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I was able to have an interview with the David Gooley, developer of a new game on the App Store called Spectrum: Light Battle. I found that the game had an interesting concept, addicting core gameplay idea, and nice graphics and visual/sound effects to boot. We had a great conversation, and the interview is provided below. If you haven’t gotten the game yet, it is certainly worth checking out, and a review of the game will be up soon.

Me: Hello, can you give me a brief overview of what Next Dimensions Games’ goal is and what the company does?

Dave: Next Dimension Games was started to produce and promote games of various genres.  Many companies focus on specific genres, but it was the vision to go for a broader range.  The investors took on Spectrum: Light Battle because they saw the potential of the game.  It was agreed by the investors to help inventors such as myself bring out game inventions.  I won’t be the last inventor to submit games through the company. In other words, if you are a game inventor and have a game with potential, your submission would be taken into consideration so long as the concept is significantly original, even if similar to another game (i.e. baseball game with a unique twist or feature).

Me: Ah, I see. What made you want to start making games for the iDevice?

Dave: It was the recommendation of a friend of mine.  He informed me of how big iTunes has become with apps in addition to music and movies.  Even the investors were not aware of how significant of an impact iTunes made on the gaming world.  It was also my friend’s idea to start with iTunes and price it at 99 cents.  The investors saw this as a double benefit, because they felt that people would take a chance for a dollar.  In addition, they personally played the game and saw its potential.

Me: Interesting… In your opinion, why do you think Spectrum Light Battle is so unique on the App Store?

Dave: What makes SLB unique is that it takes turn based battles like trading card games and condenses the action to the dynamic battle system it has.  Unlike TCGs that have a variety of cards with characters and enhancements, the SLB characters have all of the most desired abilities available.  Plus, the player has the ability to generate enough power to win in a single turn if his or her skills in timing are mastered.  I implemented the color bonus system to not only prevent a lot of ties from happening, but to also give players with a weaker power a second chance to tie or win a turn.

Me: That’s pretty cool! I’ve heard you are planning on offering promotions and tournaments for Spectrum Light Battle. Can you give us any details on that?

Dave: As for the promotions, in order to be eligible to participate, a person only needs to purchase and register the purchase by forwarding the iTunes email receipt to register@nextdimensiongames.com.  This enables the company to keep track of who purchased the game since iTunes doesn’t provide user names when they purchase anything. There is one that we are presently promoting, which is referral based. If a registered buyer tells at least 5 friends and at least 5 of those friends buy Spectrum Light Battle and register it as the referring member did, forwarding not only the iTunes receipt, but also the invitation, the referring member gets version 2.0 for free. In a future promotion, the registered buyers will have an opportunity to win a free iPhone or iPod Touch plus $1,000.00 in iTunes cards just for generating 140 battle power, but the conditions are that the person has a video clip from the main page to the end of the game with a time/date stamp.  The start date will happen in the near future and people will have to check the web site for the start to prevent people from prerecording the video. Also, what is so significant about 140 battle power is that a text and audio message appears just before a giant sphere of energy travels across the screen to eliminate your opponent.  There is one other stipulation involved, and that is the opponent about to receive the attack must counter and not defend, otherwise the attack won’t be a full 140 by the time it hits the opponent. Furthermore, if this happens in the first turn of the game, the iTunes cards increases to $2,000.00.  Finally, if the opponent generates Superior during that same turn, both players win the prize. Having a device is not required, but being a registered buyer is required to participate.

Me: Wow! Why are the monetary prizes so high? Wouldn’t that be big risk for the company?

Dave: It is a risk, because the moment we announce the promotion, someone could immediately win the prize.  However, we believe that the promotions are good for promoting the game as well.  Besides, these prizes are not nearly as high as when the 140 power is generated during a tournament. We also believe in thanking the players for giving the first Spectrum Light Battle a chance to make its mark in the gaming world.

Me: So based on your description, generating the requirements to win the prize must be very difficult, and the person who generates it must be either very lucky or have an exceptionally gifted talent for hand-eye coordination, correct?

Dave: Actually, getting used to the timing is not as difficult as you might think.  I have seen children quickly adapt and start generating gold almost every turn.  In the beginning, it is usually luck to hit the best values, but after continuous game play, players start getting used to it and become more consistent. Once a person has adapted to the timing, the strategy factor comes into play.  I played against my one child who was able to generate 140 battle power and I had to purposely generate Superior just to reverse the attack. 

Me: Going back to the topic of your game, what sparked the idea to make Spectrum Light Battle such an intricate and original title?

Dave: The game started as a dice game, where I had 10 dice to represent the primary colors, the special color and the bonus color (for effects).  When I thought of the name, I figured spectrum would be a good part since there were 8 colors of the spectrum, light because the attacks would be colored energy, and battle because it was a battle game.  During play testing, even young children enjoyed the game to the point where they would want to play over and over again.  When I original submitted the game to the investors, I knew that the game had to be visually appealing.  I had already known 3D model artists that worked with me on a previous game called V-Bots before Learning Curve got the Trademark for the name for their toy before me, so the characters and battle stages of Spectrum Light Battle were designed by them. Spectrum Light Battle sounded like a catchy and cool sounding name, so I made sure I was able to capture the Trademark before promoting the name.

Me: Did anything inspire the core gameplay of Spectrum Light Battle? I’ve heard it compared as a very intricate rock-paper-scissors. Is this an accurate analogy, or do you believe that it is completely off?

Dave: While I respect and appreciate other people’s perspective and opinions, I have to say that is a narrow and limited view of the game.  RPS is a very simple game where one hand sign always beats another.  With Spectrum Light Battle, it is more dynamic because of the combination of colors and power.  While it is understandable why that comparison was made, you can have the stronger color and still lose by having a much lower power.  The purpose of the color bonus is to give a player a second chance to tie or win if he or she has a weaker power with a stronger color.  It also prevents most ties from happening.

Me: Also, it seems that there will be a newer version of Spectrum Light Battle soon; could you give us some details on that?

Dave: Now for the next version, it will have a greatly improved system where teams of 4 players can battle against up to 3 other teams.  The wireless connectivity will be used so 16 players on different devices will be able to play.  The characters will be viewed in 3rd person rear view and you will see the sphere shot ahead.  The environments will be fully 3D and they will have zoom and rotate effects.  During a turn, when you shoot a sphere, it will go out a little bit from the character and then the environment rotates and zooms to show only the spheres traveling towards each other.  If you remember Killer Instinct where characters that are far away would zoom out and when closer would zoom in, this will be similar to that zoom effect.  After the spheres clash, the player with the weaker sphere will see the opponent’s sphere coming directly at them. There will be a team elimination feature where all players combine their power to the active team member, and multiple characters with the same color will cause a bonus to happen.  While the maximum power of a single player is 140, the maximum power of a team is over 2000.  To paint a visual, it would be like seeing the moon next to the Earth. That is why it is important for players to master the skill of timing, because in the next version, a team is only as strong as its weakest link.  If you have a team of masters at timing, that will be a hard team to beat. It will also make for some heated battles during a tournament. There is another reason why mastering timing is so important.  When version 3.0 comes out, silver will not be the most desired color anymore, aside from gold for the effects.

Me: Thank you for your time, and I wish Spectrum Light Battle a prosperous success on the App Store!

Dave: Jeff, I want to thank you for your Q&A interview review.  I trust that when people get this information, it will give them a better understanding of why this game will be one to enjoy.

That concludes the interview, and I hope it gave you a little more information about Spectrum Light Battle. It is available on the App Store for 99 cents.

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