Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Handybot’

Review Fix chats with Daniel Taszbajew, Game Designer, Michał Bernat, Concept Artist and Diana Biszczanik, social media ninja, who discuss the inspiration and goals for their game currently in development, “Handybot.”

Review Fix: When did the initial idea for this game come to you?

Daniel Taszbajew: We wanted to create a mobile puzzle game where you control everything by simple swipes and nothing needs precise selection on the screen. That’s how the idea for a one-arm robot was created and his steering perfectly matches to this type of controlling.

Review Fix: This game would be awesome on the 3DS or Vita. Any chance at a port?

Taszbajew: The Professor Layton series perfectly fits the handheld platforms and this convinced me, that serious puzzling like HandyBot could also fit.

Review Fix: What games inspired this one?

Taszbajew: Ufo Puzzle by Hiroshi Yamamoto. It’s a physical puzzle, created in late 90’s.
Some of you can also find little similarity with Sokoban.

Review Fix: What do you play for fun when you’re not developing?

Taszbajew: It depends. Playing games is what we have in common, but everyone loves different types of it.

Our Game Designer Daniel likes board games, especially heavy economical ones, and old strategy games, like Master of Orion and Ufo: Enemy Unknown. Also likes simple fun, like Wii Balance Board games or Dark Souls (our artists are very passionate about it.

Our Concept Artist Michał is more into ”just good games”. He doesn’t have a preferred genre of any kind. He’s a huge fan of Souls series, but at the same time he plays the latest Doom (awesome!) and X-COM 2. If a game is cool, he’ll play it.

Alex, our Graphic Designer loves…Dark Souls.

Our programmer, Kamil D. likes everything with bananas. But also Action RPGs.

The Lead Programmer, Kamil W. is into strategy games and strategy simulations.
Our Social Ninja – Diana is an MMO RPG- no life.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Michał Bernat: Blood, sweat, tears and lots of fun.

Review Fix: With all the competition on the mobile market and in the indies now, how difficult was it for you guys to try and make something that stood out?

Taszbajew: We love to compete. There are loads of indies everywhere right now. Unfortunately, most of them don’t care about the quality of gameplay. We do care about quality gameplay, fresh mechanics and nice-lookin’ graphics. A unique and polished game is what’s the most important.

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

Taszbajew: People who love to cross the borders of thinking, who have fun from understanding something new.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why must someone play this game?

Biszczanik: HandyBot is cute, he moves boxes, he moves people’s hearts. He always gives you a helping hand. HandyBot is engaging, he will catch you and strongly hold you for very long hours. Sweet graphics, interesting mechanics and many types of boxes which are making HandyBot interesting and challenging.

Taszbajew: We’ve managed to put the maximum of variety with the minimalist steering system. See how just a few rules can generate the myriads of situations.

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

Taszbajew: Best puzzler ever with the cutest robot in the world.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this game?

Taszbajew: More features in the future.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Taszbajew: Hardcore action game or strategy game, but we will see.



Review Fix: Anything else you want to say?

Taszbajew: If you like our game and you want to support us by just a simple “Yes click,” here’s HandyBot’s Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=750854043.

 

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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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