Finalist Interview: Kill the King

February 12 2010, 1:54am

Kill the King, a Finalist game in the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Kill the King was selected by our panel of judges as one of five Finalist games in the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. In the fourth in a series of interviews with the Finalists and Featured International Exhibitors, the game’s creator Kyle Sanderson (Eastbound) shares his experience making the game while learning GameSalad. Haven’t Killed the King yet? Take your best shot. What’s your background, Kyle? I am currently a student at Texas Tech University but am from Dallas, TX. I have been making games since I was 12 or so when I discovered Game Maker, and I have been doing everything that I can to pursue a career making games. What’s been your experience with GameSalad so far? I am very new to GameSalad, but it was very easy to learn. Kill the King was actually my very first game made using the program. GameSalad is great in that regard; I can do all of the graphics and coding very quickly. With a lot of my older projects I had trouble motivating myself to finish them, but I don’t seem to have that problem using GameSalad. How did you come up with the idea for Kill the King? Well just by playing around with GameSalad, I discovered that it has a great built in physics engine, so I knew that I wanted to utilize it. I’m not really sure how I got the idea to make Kill the King, it just combines aspects from a lot of games that I love playing. How much time did you spend making Kill the King? Did you have any help with the assets? Kill the King took just under a month to make, and was essentially the result of my Christmas break. I would just wake up and work on it for a few hours every day. I would do all of the coding and graphics, but I eventually hired an artist to do the menu art. End this monarch's reign with a well-placed cannonball. What part of making this game was the most fun? What was the most challenging? The funnest part of making the game was in the early stages, when I first started testing levels on the iPhone. It was exhilarating to see a game that I had built on the device that I had dreamed of designing games for just a year and a half earlier when the App Store was launched. The most challenging part was doing all of the final touches- the menus, sounds, level selection screens, etc. They can be very boring to make but its a necessary part of the game building process. Where do you see Kill the King going in the future? Can we expect more levels, or maybe even a level editor?
To be honest, I haven’t thought about it. I’m just happy that there are people out there who enjoy playing what I love making. I have a lot of other projects I’d like to pursue, but I could definitely see myself making a sequel to it someday. And I actually hadn’t thought of a level editor, but a sequel might have one. ;p What advice would you give to new game creators? Use forums! When I first started making games I was asking questions on the forums every day. Everyone is extremely helpful and eager to help amateurs. And there is no better way to learn than by experimenting yourself, making a mistake, and having somebody point you in the right direction. Anyone you’d like to thank? I’d like to thank my parents for supporting me all these years, my girlfriend for letting me use her MacBook and eventually buying me a Mac, and the GameSalad community for being so helpful. Thanks, Kyle! Play Kill the King online. Like Kill the King? Vote for this game to win the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge by tweeting #gamesalad #king along with why you think it’s awesome! Kill the King is also available on the iPhone App Store in both paid and lite versions.