When Gamasutra
attended the GameCity conference in Nottingham, England late last year, we encountered a series of intriguing presentations,
films and demonstrations centering around games, and presented in a
film festival-esque format.
While there, we also got the chance to speak with some of
the key speakers at the conference -- including Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris,
who was there to participate in a Q&A session following the presentation
of the documentary Tetris: From Russia with Love. We engaged him to discuss the state of the casual game market, a form he helped to birth, as well as his current game projects and the storied history of Tetris.
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi was also speaking here yesterday - have you played
Katamari?
Alexey Pajitnov: No. Is it the one with
one ball or different balls? I'm mixing a few together. At GDC
it was snowballs, where you pick snowballs of different colours -- I
know which one you mean -- I've seen it at Game Developers Conference and I really enjoyed
it. The features were little bit overwhelming.
One of the things he
mentioned is that he's essentially sick of talking about
Katamari. Are you ever tired of talking about
Tetris?
AP: Not really, because every
time it's different people and different questions. And I consider it
a part of my mission.
You think of it as a mission?
AP: [Laughs] Yes, I don't mind
it at all.
What's your impression of
the casual games market these days?
AP: It's growing and finally
becoming mature. The installed base has become huge, people have stopped
considering the computer just a boring tool, and come to understand
that this is a powerful machine for entertainment as well.
Do you feel it's too crowded?
AP: The markets are crowded,
but that's the property of the market. A healthy market must be crowded.
[Laughs.]
How did
Dwice fare?
AP: Frankly, I don't know.
They sell it in Kmart or somewhere.
There's retail distribution
now, not just online?
AP: No, they have some part
of the retail market. [pauses]
I never thought it would be some kind
of great game, but it's another small piece of entertainment. It has
a deepness to it. Have you tried it on level seven when you have two
starters? It's kind of funny.