Review Fix Exclusive: Q & A with Pingo Developer Eve Park

Review Fix chats with Pingo Developer Eve Park, who discusses the game, which is a part of the OUYA Create Contest.

The contest is “a fast-paced 10-day competition in which developers worldwide can get inventive, and make playable prototype games,” designed to build the library of the budding micro-system.

With the help of fans and supporters, Park’s game can be a part of the system’s game catalog.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for Pingo?

Eve Park: Now that I have my own company, I have the freedom to experiment. With Pingo, I aspired to make a puzzle game that was original, but was also as simple and addicting as games like Tetris or Bejeweled. It doesn’t get much more simple than four blocks, or matching three balls, so I decided to integrate some elements from traditional games (like the 52 card deck) that we’re all culturally familiar with in order to keep the learning curve as gentle as possible. Poker has hands of 5 cards, while Bingo is played on a grid of 5×5, it seemed like a natural fit.

Review Fix: What was the development process like?

Park: I started off with a deck of cards and a piece of paper. The result wasn’t very fun, because doing all the evaluations and calculations by hand is very tedious. Still, I felt I was on to something. Working it out by hand helped me create the basic algorithm for detecting hands and awarding points, and once I brought that into computer to start doing some of the dirty work, it immediately started getting fun. As I’d hoped, part of the fun is when you score unexpectedly in directions you seen, like in a match-3 game. When I added “Speed Mode’, which is almost like a chaining bonus, it also became significantly more fun for me.

Review Fix: How did you decide on the art style for the game?

Park: Simulations of existing card games have the benefit that players are already familiar with them, and they’re probably bringing their real life fond memories of playing the game to the table. The drawback, is that playing cards as they are designed to be held, shuffled and dealt, don’t display well on screen. All necessary information is contained within the upper left corner of the card, the rest is just redundant, wasted space. The result is cards end up really tiny on a small screen, and the whole game usually ends up pretty sterile as the designer tries to make the game as readible as possible. That’s why I decided to redesign the cards into the poker-chip variation seen in the prototype. I wanted the cards we’re all familiar with to be represented in the boldest. I expected some resistance, but it’s gone over really nicely. I wanted the game to look more like a modern casual game, with bright, appealing colors.

It’s mostly 2D because I’m a 2D artist, and I’m pretty much soloing this project. The 3D models came from Ryan Hudson of ChannelAte.com who is an amazing 3D artist.

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

Park: Like any good card game, Pingo ended up to be a really awesome combination of luck and skill. As I’ve played the game, I’ve been able to tweak and improve my strategies, and even experiment with new ones. But I don’t think that even I have come up with an ‘optimal’ way to play. I’m really excited to see the strategies that other people come up with, as I’m sure they’ll come up with unexpected techniques. I’m going to implement a few other game modes as well, which will each have their own strategies. The existing Speed Mode and Casual Mode address two main types of play styles. I intend for the final to provide a robust experience, while also providing the player with some choice about the features they prefer to enjoy.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy the game the most?

Park: I aim for this to be a game that can be literally enjoyed by anybody, you don’t have to know how to play poker. Even if you’re a hardcore gamer, if you played Tetris or Lumines I hope you’ll download Pingo as a free original puzzle game for the OUYA. I designed the game for casual players, who might enjoy games like Bejeweled, Peggle, Zuma, Words with Friends or Plants vs. Zombies. I don’t yet know how the game will be received by poker players, but I expect it to appeal to people with a casual to moderate interest in Hold’em (which I think is a pretty large population). But if you’ve ever played any card game, you’ll probably find some element you can apply to your Pingo strategy.

Playing cards do have a cultural bias that I haven’t fully researched, but I expect that it may be difficult to localize to certain regions of the world.

Review Fix: The game is currently being developed for the new micro console OUYA. Any idea on an iPad port?

Park: I’m hoping to build my core fanbase among the OUYA community. However, Pingo was developed in Unity, which means it has full cross-platform potential. There’s been significant interest in an iOS version, so it’s definitely in my plans. Though I am not ready to announce a date for Pingo on iOS just yet.

Review Fix: What’s next for 1-Pup Games? What are you guys working on?

Park: I plan to release a few titles this year.

Review Fix: How do you want the game to be remembered?

Park: My dream, would be for Pingo to be a platform defining puzzle game the way Tetris was for Gameboy and Lumines was for PSP. Neither of those titles was the greatest game released on those titles. They were just simple puzzle games. But almost everyone played them and enjoyed them to some extent. Pingo will be free, so I hope that when most people open up their new OUYA, they’ll give Pingo a try. For a brand new, indie developer like myself, I think that’s a long shot. But if I do well in the OUYA Create Contest, I hope that it’ll give Pingo the visibility to make that dream come true.

For more information, check out Park’s video below: