Review Fix chats with Seong-Hoon Song, who lets us know what makes the game MINImax Tinyverse endearing. Inspired by the classic, Lemmings, Song shares the game’s creative process, goals and hopes for the future.
Review Fix: How was this game born?
Seong-Hoon Song: Well, one day, there was one single spark that shocked my whole mind.
“What if tiny and whimsical creatures are living on my desk?†“What if we could help them?†Just like Lilliput of Gulliver. That was the very beginning of MINImax Tinyverse.
Also, I thought that creatures of the Tinyverse should be quite simple beings, because if they are too smart and perfect, there could be no space for the players.
Review Fix: What was development like?
Song: Development of a game for a small studio like us has great challenges, especially when you are trying to reach an understanding of what fun means for your player community. We had several Beta instances to get feedback from the community and now in Early Access we try to keep up with what they think it will be more fun in the game, but as you can imagine, it is still hard to follow up as fast as we would like.
Review Fix: What makes this game special?
Song: The very presence of players.
Players are mighty and great beings who protect and guide MINIs.
They make a difference in the Battle.
Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?
Song: One of my favorite moments was during our prototype stage of the game. We shared our prototype and some players tried and liked it, and then suddenly, they started thinking that we should have skins of the prototype game characters, literally in that time they would look like just a white cube, but these players wanted that white cube skin in the game hahaha. They still remember and remind us to implement the prototype skins.
Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?
Song: MINImax was inspired by Lemmings (1991).
MINIs in the Tinyverse are simple beings and only know moving forward.
Just like Lemmings in the real world.
For the sake of our poor MINIs, we should protect them and guide them.
Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?
Song: Classic games do have their own styles and charms.
Our job is to reinterpret them and apply them to our games.
Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?
Song: When I was young, I used to be a huge fan of the First Queen IV (1994).
Seriously, I was really hooked on the game and I eventually played it without eating or sleeping. All I had in mind was the game world and its stories.
And such experience gave me a goal for my life; making a game that could attract others like I was attracted to the First Queen IV.
Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?
Song: I firmly believe that those who love chess or board game would enjoy MINImax. The bottom line of this game is gaining insights into your opponents’ mind and controlling your situation through indirect ways.
Review Fix: Bottom Line, why must someone play this game?
Song: I’m telling you. If you are looking for mind game with special and unique taste, MINImax Tinyverse is your game.
Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?
Song: I hope that MINImax Tinyverse will not be remember for how much money it made, but for how unique and charming it was.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Song: We will bring the following into the game: Custom match, Ranked Match, 2:2 Match, New Maps and so on.
And there might be something special that will surprise you all!
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Song: Strictly speaking, MINImax Tinyverse is yet to be completed. It still leaves something to be desired in its pursuit of reaching perfection.
However, I’m pretty sure that MINImax is getting close to its goals with help of its fans and community. We have been developing MINImax Tinyverse from the earliest prototype shared with our grateful community, and we are very confident about that decision and keep faith in it.
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