Review Fix Exclusive: Q & A with Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese Creator Pieter Simoons

Review Fix chats with Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese Creator Pieter Simoons for his thoughts on what might end up being the best platformer ever created on Adventure Game Studio.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the game?

Pieter Simoons: I like platform games, and I’ve been thinking of writing one for several years, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. In many platformers, the hero dies immediately when he touches anything, so a weak protagonist like a mouse seemed fitting. Plus mice are cute. The hat came later, when I was making a narrow escape in a test version, and felt this called for the famous first notes of the Indiana Jones theme.

Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid? Did they influence this one?

Simoons: I’ve played lots of classic platformers including Super Mario World, Commander Keen, Sonic, and Rayman. Out of these, Mario is the most obvious influence.

Review Fix: Indiana Jones has an epic fear of snakes. What is your character scared of?

Simoons: When Rody starts out, he’s not afraid of anything! Except cats. But there aren’t any in the game. After completing several levels, he’s developed a healthy fear of spikes and hedgehogs. Especially hedgehogs.

Review Fix: What was the creation process like? How was using AGS beneficial to the process?

Simoons: The creation of platforms and enemies was rather easy; on the other hand, I spent a lot of time getting slopes and jump physics to work right. Also, designing and polishing the levels took quite a bit longer than expected. AGS offers some convenient shortcuts like the GUI designer and the sprite manager; it is also versatile enough to work in a variety of non-adventure genres.

Review Fix: What’s your favorite element of the game?

Simoons: I like how it offers a variety of different challenges. First, there’s the difficulty modes (that add more platforms on easy, and more spikes and enemies on hard). Second, there’s the hidden blue cups in each level. And third, there’s a par time you can try to beat. So there’s lots of things to find and try in the game.

Review Fix: What would you change?

Simoons: Because it’s hard to please everyone with jump physics, I’d been thinking of adding a second character that jumps in a different way. But I only thought of this after the game’s release.

Review Fix: Who will get the most out of this game?

Simoons:Anyone who likes platform games, regardless of their skill at them.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Simoons: Aside from the obvious (to write a platformer in AGS), I wanted to have a retro style, to introduce something new in every level, and fast gameplay. Most importantly, I want to have the kind of difficulty curve where players want to keep trying at an obstacle until they get it, and once you’ve completed the game and play the first level again, you’ll see how much better you’ve gotten.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Simoons: As the best platform game for AGS. If enough people like it I’ll probably make a sequel and/or a level editor at some point.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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