Review Fix Exclusive: Q & A With ‘Lucy and Lola’s Big Adventure’ Developer Jane Jensen

Game developer Jane Jensen chats with Review Fix about her new iPad app/eBook, “Lucy and Lola’s Big Adventure,” discussing the game’s finer points and its goals for the future.

Review Fix: At the end of the day, do you think you’re a novelist who makes games or a developer who writes books?

Jane Jensen: Definitely a game designer who occasionally writes novels. The last one I wrote came out in 2003, so it’s been awhile.

Review Fix: Can you talk about the inspiration for this title? How did it come to be?

Jensen: Lola and Lucy are our two bulldogs and they’re just great. While my husband and I walked them, we’d come up with stories about them — trying to find an idea for a book. We developed the story for Lola and Lucy’s Big Adventure that way. The original idea was to do it as a print children’s book, but we didn’t have the time. A few years later, when I got my iPad, I realized it was the perfect medium and so it became an interactive e-book.

Review Fix: This game is quite different from your other titles. What made you go in this direction?

Jensen: We were looking for a small project we could do for iPad, something that we could reasonable fund with our own money and act as publisher on. A kid’s eBook seemed like the right size and we already had the Lola and Lucy story ready to go.

Review Fix: Considering that, what do you think you’ve learned from your other games that directly influenced this one?

Jensen: I think if you compare Lola and Lucy to other kid’s eBooks, it’s clear that it was done by a game designer. There’s so much interactivity including 14 mini-games. So it’s really kind of a cross between an eBook and a game.

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

Jensen: I love the art. The images are really beautiful. They were done by our dev team in St. Petersburg. And I love how alive every page is — you can touch almost everything and get a response.

Review Fix: Are you planning any future updates to the title?

Jensen: There will be more versions of it — PC, Mac and hopefully Nook and Kindle Fire. We will be doing minor updates and perhaps a sequel at some point in time.

Review Fix: What will people get from it?

Jensen: It has a lot of content and a lot of heart. I think the story is really sweet. It still makes me a little teary-eyed at the end, which is pathetic but a good sign.

Review Fix: What are your hopes for this game?

Jensen: We’ve been getting emails from people who tell us how much their kids love it, so that is very rewarding in and of itself — just that it’s out there and that it brings happiness to people. Of course, we hope it does well enough to give us some additional funding for our next big projects, including Moebius. And I would love it if it did well enough to justify a sequel.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 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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