Interview with Q-Games
Q for Quality, we say
PlayStation LifeStyle recently got the chance to talk with Dylan Cuthbert, President of Q-Games, to ask about Q-Games, as well as the fantastic PixelJunk series.
What is your role at Q-Games?
Dylan Cuthbert: My credited role for Eden is “Executive Producer” but I dabbled in absolutely everything as much as I could. I am “president” of Q-Games, which means everyone has to listen to what I say. 
Could you tell us the history of Q-Games and how the development team is organized?
DC: Q-Games was formed in 2001 about a week after 911 – such good timing there. We initially developed prototype technology for Sony and then moved onto making games with Nintendo and of course the PixelJunk series for the PS3.
About half the company is devoted to developing games for Nintendo, and then we have a small technology team and one or two PixelJunk teams who work in parallel. There are roughly 30 of us in total.
What does the ‘Q’ stand for?
DC: The Q doesn’t stand for anything – it comes from the scientist in the Bond movies who is called Q and can make the most amazing gadgets.
PixelJunk, that’s an interesting name, and since your games aren’t certainly junk, where did it come from?
DC: It is a pen-name I use on a Japanese technology blog we run called fumufumu-Q - http://fumufumu.q-games.com
I was trying to think up a name for the series and that seemed appropriate, the “junk” in the title is kind of a joke because the general impression of people at the time was that 2d games were no good and I wanted to prove that you can still make cool stuff with a load of pixel junk on the screen.
How was the development process for PixelJunk Eden?
DC: Well, we were busy developing Racers and Monsters so initially we just had Baiyon work with one or two of our guys developing the rendering technology, then once Monsters was out of the way we applied our game designing muscle and Eden became what it is today. The development was very smooth although we did run over schedule. (but for good reasons – the game came out well!)
What is it that you are most proud of with PIxelJunk Eden?
DC: The originality of the controls, and the sheer “different-ness” of the game as a whole.
What is Q-Games plans for the future?
DC: I want to keep making invigorating and refreshing games, no matter what the platform.
Will there ever be another “series” alongside PixelJunk?
DC: You never know… we go wherever our imagination leads us.
What programming tools and hardware have you used on your PSN titles? (I’ve read in the PJ Monsters credits that you used GameMonkey)
DC: Yes, we use the scripting language GameMonkey for all our PixelJunk games, although we have tuned and played around with it a hell of a lot. Apart from that we just use standard dev. kits.
How difficult is it to implement Trophy support and YouTube uploading support?
DC: The trophies support takes a few weeks because of the testing involved and the Youtube video uploading is a bit fiddly because of guidelines etc., but all in all both features are fairly trivial to add.
Now for our signature “LifeStyle” question… What is your favorite food?
DC: My favourite food is probably Sukiyaki – which is kind of a very lightly grilled beef in a teriyaki kind of sauce with raw egg and rice… It is amazing!
Lastly, tell us anything you want (that is, if you want to)…
Anyone who wants something different to the mainstream – play our games! We endeavor to make them as original and different as possible, while still attempting to make them very very addictive.
Well, your games are different, and certainly very, very addictive, but best of all they are a ton of fun to play. So please keep up the great work! We are huge fans of the series and look forward to what “junk” you come up with next.
Thanks Dylan!
Interview conducted by Sev1512 & Fersis…
30 Responses to “Interview with Q-Games”
I wonder what the next series will be.
This is a great interview. Thanks again to Brandon, Scott, Dylan, SCEA, and Q-Games.
Awesome, Dylan seems to be a very fun down to earth guy. I loved the LifetStyle question, I think we need a few more in every interview. :p
I can’t wait for Pixel Junk Dungeons :]
Good interview, I learned some interesting stuff I never though of (the Q in the name for instance).
Thanks PSLS for these neat interviews. Is there any hit of what one’s will come next. Also Dylan at Q-Games you make some good looking games. They may not be to my tastes game wise but the artistic direction is pretty cool.
Are they adding trophies to Monsters sometime? I would love to start that game over and beat it all again. It’s my favorite PSN title as of right now.
Also, I like your idea of Pixeljunk Dungeon, MFwahwah.
I can see it now, you get a little battle dude or chick (or both with Co-Op) and you quest for peices of a dragon heart (the only thing that can save your village).
I would love a simple strategy dungeon crawler from these guys, would make my day.
Keep up the good work Q-Games, you have my full support! (As I own every pixeljunk game on PS3)
@ Joe,
We have a few more interviews in the pipeline, we don’t want to reveal too much though.
I am glad you are liking our approach to these interviews, we are trying to separate ourselves from all the other interviews out there. Trying to be a bit more personal.
Thanks for reading!
@ glasspaper,
It was confirmed a while back that ‘Monsters’ would be getting a patch for trophy support.
PS…
Expect an email from me soon. I have just been very busy the past week or so. Baby isnt even born yet and she takes all of my time lol.
@Sev
When can we expect the Capcom interview? I saw the guy from Capcom accepting an offer for an interviw from StalkingSilence
@Sev haha
That is fine, I have been playing a lot of Charity gigs lately, so my time is ate up as well. St. Jude children hostpitol is loving our local scene right now
On topic,
BRING ON THE TROPHIES… and please have mercy on me in the Gardens of eden… I keep getting my line snapped by the pollen prowlers.
I had to stop playing for a couple of days or I would have gotten so frustrated I would have just stopped playing all together.
Well. the interviewer is awesome ….
LOL, Fersis, you are the best!
Next game = PixelJunk Dungeons? Hmmm…
Also, Sukiyaki sounds delicious.
good interview
very good read, thanks
I just hope MS doesn’t end up “managing” exclusive titles from this guys. I would hate the day we saw PJ:monsters exclusive to Xbox, imagine wow, its like a nightmare.
Anyways, Im glad q-games are not arrogant selfish pricks, but rather humble, professional, and very dedicated to what they are becoming known for, Addicting Original Games; AOG.
@ Fersis
How did you get so many trophies so fast. are they all from Uncharted??
cell989
I dont have so manny trophies since the game i most play is MGS4 (Who hasnt trophies).
But yeah Uncharted have a lot of trophies.
Looks like some people didn’t know Dungeons was announced.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17466
It’s old, but it’s definitely confirmed that it was going to be a new PJ game ^.^
i hate to say it but eden sucks….sorry. if it wsnt 4 trophies it prob have no hype but ds jus me
Congrats on the Baby Sev. Get ready for some serious time management!
Yes^^
and amazing interview
@snow0937
Or there are people like me who love the game. Sorry you don’t like it, your missing out.
Very clever ending Sev, great interview.
I’m not so keen on Monsters. It’s a bit slow and trivial. I love defense games but I didn’t even like the Pixel Junk Eden. The waves and levels just seem to drag on. I don’t know if you can speed it up or not but… when I played the demo I wasn’t much impressed. It was very draggy and not very exciting. Just felt like you were too forced to build your defenses a certain way rather than having a general direction to go into. I never liked Pixel Junk Monsters but on a few sites there are probably 20 defense games that I loved.
Love Eden, but not any of the other Pixel Junk series thus far.
I have to say it again, thanks to scott and brandon AND dylan for being so kind to give me the interview.
PR NINJAS are not so bad …
You are right Mfwahwah, I just looked at several places that confirmed it as well. Sorry for not being “in the know”.
I am in agreement with you man, PJ dungeons is something to get excited about.
wow this is a good site. thanks guys.
Dyorold…
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world….
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