Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘JetSpin Hustle’

March 1, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with 3Byte’s with Ben McWilliams, who discusses the nifty iOS and Android game “JetSpin Hustle.” After working on “Drive Club,” the indie developer have decided to dig into their love of 8-Bit games and have plans for even more retro goodness in the upcoming months.

For more information on the game, click here. 

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this game?

Ben McWilliams: We were inspired by many different games. We love the mechanics in Duet, when we originally designed the game it wasn’t that colorful so we took some inspiration from Mario and added a lot more colour into the game.

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

McWilliams: Playing my Gameboy a lot growing up I loved playing Mario and Pokémon. I really love 8bit games and that lead to us creating an 8Bit game. At the time of production there weren’t many 8Bit games that were around for iOS but when we released the game we noticed that the community for 8Bit/Pixel games was growing really strong.

Review Fix: What has the development process been like?

McWilliams: The development process has been quite straightforward but it has required a lot of time and effort to get the game to where it is now but it has been a massive learning experience for us and is something we are very proud of.

Review Fix: Any particular hurdles?

McWilliams: We have been up skilling the staff in game production and juggling the requirements of the studio. We at 3BYTE also offer services for marketing, website design, branding, apps and more.

Review Fix: What’s the story behind the game?

McWilliams: It was our first move into the gaming industry. After working on Drive Club we wanted to get working on our Debut title and that’s how we got on to working on JetSpin Hustle.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

McWilliams: We are still pushing the game out there and would like the game to get the recognition that we believe it deserves.

Review Fix: Could this be a series?

McWilliams: Yes we are currently still polishing JetSpin Hustle off but we definitely have future games in mind for the future. If you check out our 3BYTE Facebook page we have posted a sneak peek Tiger Tank image which is a part of our plans for the future.

Review Fix: Any thought on moving it to a console or the 3DS or Vita?

McWilliams: We are currently considering what platforms that we may move the game to. One platform that we have really considered releasing JetSpin on is Steam, which we will be looking into in more detail in the near future.

Review Fix: What’s the next few months look like?

McWilliams: The next few months we will be polishing the game, adding new features and moving on to other projects. There are a lot of exciting things to come from us yet.

 

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 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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