Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Star Balls’

May 22, 2018 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with “Star Balls” producer Devin Edgarton to learn exactly what inspired the indie game and what its goals are. Described as quirky and bold, “Star Balls” is one of Bolder Games’ most ambitious titles.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this game?

Devin Edgarton: We wanted to make a game that someone of all ages could have fun playing. Something family friendly, which in our minds the two most family friendly activities we could thing of was mini golf and puzzles. So we thought to combine the two and put that bad boy in space.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Edgarton: It was fun! our team had a really great time bringing and creating this new world with these new characters. Story was important to us, and we wanted to tell it via a comic book style theme. We had a team of about 8 people working on the game, mostly comprised of world builders and level designers. We also wanted to kept in mind that this was not just a one off game. It would be episodic. Star Balls is only the first out of four episodes. So we have a lot more Star Balls coming.

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

Edgarton: My dad got me into gaming as a kid. He worked on the original Atari home console so I was exposed very early on. Also played a lot of PC and NES games from Wolfenstien, Duck Tales, Carmen Sandiego, Math Blaster and lets not forget good old classic arcade games, like Joust.

The one game I think influenced us the most was that crazy Windows 95 pinball game Space Cadet. Pinball in space sounded pretty fun.

Review Fix: What do you think is the coolest feature in the game?

Edgarton: I would say by far all the plugins you can equip your robot.(Tess is the best!) My favorite plugin would have to be the steering plugin. Super fun to use.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone play this?

Edgarton: Star Balls offers a unique character driven story not seen in similar puzzlers. We also wanted the environment and music to be a substantial part of the gaming experience. With all of this in mind “Star Balls” was created to engage the player in a multitude of ways. Anyone can have fun with this game.

Review Fix: This game would be a blast on the go. Any plans for a 3DS or PlayStation Vita version?

Edgarton: I think it would play really well on 3DS, we would love to develop for them!

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Edgarton: To bring them into the world of Star Balls, and for them to have an enjoyable experience playing explore our full 3D environments and follow the story of these awesome characters.

We wanted to make something Quirky, Bold, and Creative which are our Mantra at Bolder Games

Review Fix: What’s next?

Edgarton: We have several projects were working on right now, that we can’t go into too much detail, but were really excited about them and for what the future holds at Bolder Games.

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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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