May 19, 2025 • 16 mins
A graphic designer from Argentina transforms into a game developer despite industry obstacles in his home country. Jorge, creator of Astrozombies, shares his remarkable journey of perseverance and creative vision on Desert Island Gamer.
The emotional vulnerability of releasing a passion project stands at the heart of this conversation. Having poured years into Astrozombies, Jorge reflects on the challenge of public scrutiny with remarkable wisdom: "Take the feedback that helps you improve, and remember different strokes for different folks." His balanced approach to criticism reveals the maturity necessary to thrive as an independent creator.
His deliberate choice to buck current gaming trends makes Jorge's story particularly compelling. While the industry races toward expansive open worlds and hyper-realistic graphics, he crafted a game that harks back to the golden era of platformers. "I figured there's already a lot of people doing that," he explains. "These things go in cycles. If it's fun, it's fun." This philosophy extends to his ambitious vision of Astro Zombies as the first in a trilogy – each game complete in itself but forming a greater whole.
His desert island game selections reveal the DNA of his creative influences. He passionately describes each game's unique qualities. The thoughtful incorporation of a standout soundtrack in Astro Zombies demonstrates how these influences manifest in his creation.
Curious about the nostalgic platformer that's capturing hearts? Discover Astro Zombies today and experience a game created with genuine passion for the medium's roots while bringing something fresh to modern players.
Let us know where we're going wrong....or, like, right...maybe.
Follow the adventure, support the show, listen with both ears - https://linktr.ee/DesertIslandGamer
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome, dear listener, to Desert Island Gamer
.
A quick-fire interview podcastdigging into those video games
that shaped us into thewholesome, kind-hearted people
we are today.
The entirely original premiseone desert island, one guest,
three games they adore, one gamethey abhor and a carefully
selected gaming character withwhich to spend an eternity of
(00:22):
moonlit walks along the beach.
It could be weird, it could beunhinged and it could have
crappy sound quality, but atleast it will be short To the
island.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today on Desert Island Gamer, we are joined by
George, who is one of thedevelopers and directors of a
new game called Astro Zombies.
It's a cracking game and Irecommend you get it.
Before we kick in, I wouldnormally start with icebreaker
questions, but we're going toscrap that today.
Let's just talk about AstroZombies and a few things that I
was really curious about inparticular is your own journey.
(01:06):
What is that journey being like?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
well, um, it's been really difficult.
I'm a graphic designer, I Ialways thought about making
games, but since I'm from from acountry called argentina, we
don't have the industry reallydeveloped, you know so.
So it was really hard to to getinto it.
But I, I had a moment in mylife where I didn't really know
(01:28):
what I wanted to do.
So I was with, uh, someone thattold me hey, if you love video
games so much, why don't you tryit?
I mean, why don't you getsomeone that can make the
program?
You, you draw the assets andwell, you figure, you figure it
out, you know, and that's thebasic premise, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's the way I did it .
Yeah, I want to shake whoevertold you to do that by the hand
and say it was a great choice tosend you down this path, Having
only just experienced the game.
It's been a real greatexperience.
It's a real triumph In terms ofputting the game out there for
myself I've come from abackground of writing and even
(02:08):
out there for myself I've comefrom a background of writing and
even for me to put somethingout there that then is
scrutinized by the public.
It's kind of daunting, it'skind of emotional.
So to put something that you'vepoured your heart and soul into
like a video game, what is theemotional experience being like?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I must say it's really hard.
I know from my previous workingexperience that you need to
kind of detach yourself fromyour work when people criticize
it, when they give their opinionand it's not personal, it's not
like they're criticizing you orsaying things exactly to you
it's like their experience andwhat they think about it and
(02:35):
it's okay if they like it and ifthey don't like.
But it's really difficult yeah,yeah, I imagine because when,
when you put so many years ofyour life and so much hard work
into something, it's pretty muchlike some sort of baby.
You know it's hard not to saythere's a part of me there,
there's a lot of me there.
You just need to remindyourself of that, you know.
(02:58):
Put it there.
Listen, because I've heard alot of really interesting
critiques.
Take the ones that really addto your experience so you can
make it better and improve it.
And if somebody doesn't like it, it's okay.
They cannot like it and itdoesn't mean that either they
don't know or that the gamesucks.
You know it's different strokesfor different folks.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's a good mindset .
That's a nice way to approachthings because, yeah, it can be
difficult at times, for sure.
So, yeah, I like that mindsetvery much.
In terms of where you go,obviously we're right at the
birth of Astro Zombies.
I don't know, have you eventhought about where you go?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I envisioned it like a three-part video game which
can be played in separatechapters, pretty much like the
first Star Wars trilogy.
I mean, I'm not saying I'm them, please.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
On the way.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
But what I mean is that I wanted each game to start
and finish in itself, but whenyou get the three of them
together, you get like a biggerpicture, a bigger experience.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Awesome yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To tell you the truth , we're still watching because
we need to see if we have ourday jobs.
So we need to see what willcome out of this, but we're
really looking forward to theopportunity of expanding the
universe.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I'm sure I speak for many players who will experience
Astro Zombies.
I hope this becomes the new dayjob down the line and this is
the start of a road to a futurebasically doing this, because
what a future that will be.
I hope so.
I really hope, hope so.
Everything else is gettingbigger, these open worlds.
It's nice that we can go backand put a smile on your face.
I love that and respect you forbringing that to us.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
It's something you know.
It's something that I reallygave a lot of thought to,
because I do know that they'renot like the current trend of
video games.
So I thought like, well, maybeif I'm going to make a video, I
might need to do something thatbelongs to these times.
But then I figured that there'salready a lot of people doing
(04:53):
that.
I can try something I want todo.
It's kind of out of time.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It could introduce a whole new generation of gamers
to where we came from.
Basically, people still listento the music from the 60s and
70s, and these things go incycles.
Don't these things never getold?
If it's fun, it's fun.
It's as simple as that, I thinkabsolutely that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That's the way I think about it.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Thank you, george, we will crack on, because
unfortunately, you're gonna haveto forget about astro zombies
for a while because you've justbeen stranded upon the desert
island.
But luckily some strangefortune you have the whole
universe of video games tochoose from.
Let's kick in with game one.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's hard to narrow it down to three, but say that
my first choice would be Megaman X.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh wow, One of those foundation stones.
What is it about Mega man Xthat has made it shine for you?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It kind of blew my mind when I was a kid because
games were a lot simpler.
This was the first in the Xseries of Mega man, where you
kind of had a lot ofcollectibles and it had a lot of
replayability and it had allthese bosses that were a mix
between animals andtechnological things and it was
(06:02):
like wow, a lot of space forcreativity, you know.
And the story was simple but ithad a lot of emotion going for
it.
You know with Zero that hesacrifices some things and then
he, he's really powerful and youlook up to him so you can
battle another evil foe.
It was like whoa, there's somuch going on here with so
(06:25):
little I thought it wasbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, amazing.
Yeah, absolutely agree.
It's definitely one of thosegames that, as a kid, your jaw
drops open and your eyes go wide, and it's one of them that just
stays inside and you never kindof forget those.
Is it's one of them that juststays inside and you never kind
of forget those?
Is it one of those games thattransports you straight back to
being a kid again when you bootit up?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
absolutely.
I love it.
I I keep on playing it to thisday.
You grow better so you canfinish it in in a couple of
hours, yeah.
So I really put it up from timeto time and I do get that that
kick.
I mean it's my favorite.
Even after there are a lot ofother megaman x in the series,
sure, my absolute favorite it'sthe one I can play with my eyes
(07:03):
closed that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's cool that you have games that do that to you,
and that's a great first choice.
I really really like that one.
What would be game two?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
game two would be a game I have so much fun with,
especially with friends.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It's uh turtles in time oh right, okay, I've never
played turtles in time, soplease sell, sell this game, man
, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's incredible, you know it was.
Well, it comes from the timewhere where the teenage mutant
ninja ninjatles were like bigtime and Konami came up with
this beat-em-up, which wasincredible.
It has amazing anime-stylegraphics.
You go through time, you startin New York City, I think they
(07:48):
live and then suddenly they goback to the prehistoric times.
They go through pirate ships,they go through trains, you go
through everywhere.
You even go to the future andthen come back.
And the whole thing is becauseShredder, the enemy of the Ninja
Turtles, he just takes theStatue of Liberty.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
As you do.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
They got to get it back, you know.
So the final battle, you,you're against super shredder,
which is you know that, as ifshredder wasn't bad enough yeah,
he's super bad, you know.
And in the background you havethe face of the statue of
liberty looking at you while youfight this final boss, and
everything is incredible.
And the soundtrack, oh man, yougot to listen.
(08:37):
If you don't play, at leastlisten to the soundtrack,
because it's beautiful, it's awork of art george, you've sold
it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'll look.
I'm gonna dig this game out atsome point today and see if I
can get the children on it,because it sounds fantastic.
Sounds like my sort of game aswell actually talking of
soundtracks, I really shouldhave mentioned the soundtrack
from your own game because, wow,that is driving that game along
at some rate of nuts.
It's really special.
Congratulations on that.
Is that where it's born from?
You are noticing the music aswell as the game.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, it's a very important part for me the
soundtrack because, as I toldyou before, a lot of these
platformers have amazingsoundtracks.
Because, as I told you before,a lot of these platformers have
amazing soundtracks Castlevaniaand Mega man alone.
They're beautiful.
So I really wanted to keep thepace going with some nice tune.
It was made by a friend of mine.
You know his whole heart wasinto it because it wasn't only a
(09:28):
job for a friend, so it wasgreat.
Because he doesn't have agaming background, he's a
musician, but he didn't playgames, yeah, so he really got
the references I gave him oh,it's captured it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It's a real like marriage between the game and
the music.
It really marries together andcreates this outstanding sort of
beast out there.
It's fantastic.
Two cracking games.
Can you keep it up with gamenumber three?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
well, I'm gonna get a little bit more modern, so I'm
going to choose bloodborne oh mygod, I adore this game.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Tell me why you love it.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
First if I could make a game the game I mean any game
with any budget, you know, andany knowledge, that's the game I
, I would like to make it.
It's just beautiful, it'sincredible.
The gameplay is amazing.
I mean I love Dark Souls, butBloodborne takes it so much
(10:22):
further, without all theblocking, it's just, it's action
, action, action, action, dodgerolling and the creature design,
oh my God, I mean the Japanesereally knock it out of the park.
It's amazing what they come upwith.
It's so Lovecraftian.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And every time I play and every time I see a video of
it and I read things, there'ssomething new, a new detail.
It's so much into the detailsthat I can only love it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, it is absolute gothical beauty.
It's one of the few games Iwill stop and take screenshots
just because it is so stunningto look at.
It's part Tim Burton movie andjust part masterpiece video game
creation.
It's absolutely a wonderful,wonderful game.
Bloodborne's one of those gamesI can go back to again and
again and kind of get the sameexperience from it, perhaps even
(11:16):
more because I'm taking noticeof other things going on.
That is your three games donevery good games.
I mean potentially thank you,the top three choices we've had
so far.
Obviously, as a developeryourself, this is going to be
painful, but there is one gameyou're gonna have to throw on
the fire for heat and which isthe poor, unfortunate game that
is getting burnt today.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
this one kind of has a little story, very short story
, I don't know if you know itbecause it's not such a big game
.
It's called sonic shuffle.
It's a game for the dreamcastand well, I remember having it
when I was a kid and I didn'thave a lot of money to buy a
game, so it was like a gambleand it was so bad.
I mean, today we all know thatSonic is kind of, you know, he
(12:00):
kind of fell from grace.
But by those days we didn'tknow Sonic was like Mario's
equal.
It was.
I mean, oh, yes, yeah, theywere told to tell.
Yeah, and suddenly they come upwith this Mario Party knockoff,
which was so bad you didn't getto play.
It was all dialogue anddialogue and explanations.
Oh, dear, and it was alldialogue and dialogue and
(12:21):
explanations.
And it was man.
It's a party game I want toplay.
So if I have to erase a gamefrom the history of humankind,
I'm sorry but I would erasesonic shuffle it sounds a very,
very valid reason to erase it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I think I'll help you throw that one on the fire.
To be honest, especially as theDreamcast just to mention in
the Dreamcast, that was for me aconsole that I absolutely adore
and it was heartbreaking whenthat kind of got cancelled out
of the blue.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It was like there's going to be no more games for
Dreamcast and unfortunately thatis how, versus Capcom 2, I
remember for the Dreamcast itwas at the time it was the only
console you could get that gameand I mean it was an amazing
system.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It was such a pain to see it go.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It certainly was.
I don't think I'll ever quiteget over that, to be honest.
But having said that, sonicShuffle can go onto the flames,
because that sounds like anabsolutely terrible game on the
Dreamcast.
Fantastic choice again.
And obviously everyone needs acompanion on the island.
Who will be your companion onthe island?
Well, I'd say that my companionwould be jill valentine from
(13:31):
the resident evil series evil,sure, and what will jill bring
to the, to the party she's a?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
pretty interesting character and, uh, she's into
survival, so you know that'simportant she's been through a
lot.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
She certainly has she's been through a lot the
desert island will feel like apicnic by comparison, to be fair
yeah, full of sandwichsandwiches yeah, is resident
evil a game?
Then is that another game, thatkind of figured?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
resident resident evil and silent hill are two,
two franchises.
I I absolutely loved silenthill I, you know it kind of
disappeared.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think that was probably the first real horror
game.
I remember playing silent hill.
It was the first one that feltlike an adult horror game yeah,
I was really afraid.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
But I was afraid, I mean that's, I recall, because I
love horror things, you know,books, movies, games.
But that was the first timethat I felt man, I don't know if
I can yeah, I definitelyunderstand that.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I had the similar with.
There was a japanese gamecalled project zero.
I think it had a few differentnames, oh my god, I couldn't
play it.
We know it as a fatal frame yes, yes, of course, same game,
yeah, the one with the camerathat's it, and you're taking
pictures of the creepiest ghosts, it's incredible.
Yes, I love those games tooyeah, yeah, fantastic game, but
I've never seen the end of itbecause I was too terrified to
(14:56):
continue that is awesome.
Thank you very much, george.
Were there any games that wereon the cusp that almost made the
list.
I'm sure there was a vast, vastamount, I suppose.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I mean people remember Castlevania, symphony
of the Night, which is abeautiful game.
I love it, but I prefer theoriginal.
You know the kind of structure,yeah, cool, yeah, which gave an
arcade feeling.
Castlevania certainly, mega manWell, resident Evil, silent
Hill.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I'm sure we could probably go on for a long time
with so many.
There's so many.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I'm sorry, you start me going and I I'm really sorry.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It's nice to meet a like-minded player.
It really is.
Thank you so much, George.
I can wish you absolutely allthe best with astro zombies.
I hope it delivers everythingyou want it to and more.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Hopefully, this is the start of changing day job I
want to thank you very muchbecause, I mean, the review was
amazing and for having me inyour, your podcast.
I mean it's it's the first timeI am in a podcast, it's a first
experience and it was, I felt,really comfortable.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's put you off for life, hasn't it?
You'll never do another one now.
I really appreciate it.
I honestly do.
It's brilliant to get you onhere.
It's been brilliant to have achance to play Astro Zombies,
and I hope that it turns out tobe a brilliant experience for
yourself too.
Take care and cheers, george,until next time.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye, bye-bye, cheers.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Thank you.
Welcome, dear listener, to Desert Island Gamer
.
A quick-fire interview podcastdigging into those video games
that shaped us into thewholesome, kind-hearted people
we are today.
The entirely original premiseone desert island, one guest,
three games they adore, one gamethey abhor and a carefully
selected gaming character withwhich to spend an eternity of
(00:22):
moonlit walks along the beach.
It could be weird, it could beunhinged and it could have
crappy sound quality, but atleast it will be short To the
island.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today on Desert Island Gamer, we are joined by
George, who is one of thedevelopers and directors of a
new game called Astro Zombies.
It's a cracking game and Irecommend you get it.
Before we kick in, I wouldnormally start with icebreaker
questions, but we're going toscrap that today.
Let's just talk about AstroZombies and a few things that I
was really curious about inparticular is your own journey.
(01:06):
What is that journey being like?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
well, um, it's been really difficult.
I'm a graphic designer, I Ialways thought about making
games, but since I'm from from acountry called argentina, we
don't have the industry reallydeveloped, you know so.
So it was really hard to to getinto it.
But I, I had a moment in mylife where I didn't really know
(01:28):
what I wanted to do.
So I was with, uh, someone thattold me hey, if you love video
games so much, why don't you tryit?
I mean, why don't you getsomeone that can make the
program?
You, you draw the assets andwell, you figure, you figure it
out, you know, and that's thebasic premise, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's the way I did it .
Yeah, I want to shake whoevertold you to do that by the hand
and say it was a great choice tosend you down this path, Having
only just experienced the game.
It's been a real greatexperience.
It's a real triumph In terms ofputting the game out there for
myself I've come from abackground of writing and even
(02:08):
out there for myself I've comefrom a background of writing and
even for me to put somethingout there that then is
scrutinized by the public.
It's kind of daunting, it'skind of emotional.
So to put something that you'vepoured your heart and soul into
like a video game, what is theemotional experience being like?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I must say it's really hard.
I know from my previous workingexperience that you need to
kind of detach yourself fromyour work when people criticize
it, when they give their opinionand it's not personal, it's not
like they're criticizing you orsaying things exactly to you
it's like their experience andwhat they think about it and
(02:35):
it's okay if they like it and ifthey don't like.
But it's really difficult yeah,yeah, I imagine because when,
when you put so many years ofyour life and so much hard work
into something, it's pretty muchlike some sort of baby.
You know it's hard not to saythere's a part of me there,
there's a lot of me there.
You just need to remindyourself of that, you know.
(02:58):
Put it there.
Listen, because I've heard alot of really interesting
critiques.
Take the ones that really addto your experience so you can
make it better and improve it.
And if somebody doesn't like it, it's okay.
They cannot like it and itdoesn't mean that either they
don't know or that the gamesucks.
You know it's different strokesfor different folks.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's a good mindset .
That's a nice way to approachthings because, yeah, it can be
difficult at times, for sure.
So, yeah, I like that mindsetvery much.
In terms of where you go,obviously we're right at the
birth of Astro Zombies.
I don't know, have you eventhought about where you go?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I envisioned it like a three-part video game which
can be played in separatechapters, pretty much like the
first Star Wars trilogy.
I mean, I'm not saying I'm them, please.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
On the way.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
But what I mean is that I wanted each game to start
and finish in itself, but whenyou get the three of them
together, you get like a biggerpicture, a bigger experience.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Awesome yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To tell you the truth , we're still watching because
we need to see if we have ourday jobs.
So we need to see what willcome out of this, but we're
really looking forward to theopportunity of expanding the
universe.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I'm sure I speak for many players who will experience
Astro Zombies.
I hope this becomes the new dayjob down the line and this is
the start of a road to a futurebasically doing this, because
what a future that will be.
I hope so.
I really hope, hope so.
Everything else is gettingbigger, these open worlds.
It's nice that we can go backand put a smile on your face.
I love that and respect you forbringing that to us.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
It's something you know.
It's something that I reallygave a lot of thought to,
because I do know that they'renot like the current trend of
video games.
So I thought like, well, maybeif I'm going to make a video, I
might need to do something thatbelongs to these times.
But then I figured that there'salready a lot of people doing
(04:53):
that.
I can try something I want todo.
It's kind of out of time.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It could introduce a whole new generation of gamers
to where we came from.
Basically, people still listento the music from the 60s and
70s, and these things go incycles.
Don't these things never getold?
If it's fun, it's fun.
It's as simple as that, I thinkabsolutely that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That's the way I think about it.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Thank you, george, we will crack on, because
unfortunately, you're gonna haveto forget about astro zombies
for a while because you've justbeen stranded upon the desert
island.
But luckily some strangefortune you have the whole
universe of video games tochoose from.
Let's kick in with game one.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's hard to narrow it down to three, but say that
my first choice would be Megaman X.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh wow, One of those foundation stones.
What is it about Mega man Xthat has made it shine for you?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It kind of blew my mind when I was a kid because
games were a lot simpler.
This was the first in the Xseries of Mega man, where you
kind of had a lot ofcollectibles and it had a lot of
replayability and it had allthese bosses that were a mix
between animals andtechnological things and it was
(06:02):
like wow, a lot of space forcreativity, you know.
And the story was simple but ithad a lot of emotion going for
it.
You know with Zero that hesacrifices some things and then
he, he's really powerful and youlook up to him so you can
battle another evil foe.
It was like whoa, there's somuch going on here with so
(06:25):
little I thought it wasbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, amazing.
Yeah, absolutely agree.
It's definitely one of thosegames that, as a kid, your jaw
drops open and your eyes go wide, and it's one of them that just
stays inside and you never kindof forget those.
Is it's one of them that juststays inside and you never kind
of forget those?
Is it one of those games thattransports you straight back to
being a kid again when you bootit up?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
absolutely.
I love it.
I I keep on playing it to thisday.
You grow better so you canfinish it in in a couple of
hours, yeah.
So I really put it up from timeto time and I do get that that
kick.
I mean it's my favorite.
Even after there are a lot ofother megaman x in the series,
sure, my absolute favorite it'sthe one I can play with my eyes
(07:03):
closed that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's cool that you have games that do that to you,
and that's a great first choice.
I really really like that one.
What would be game two?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
game two would be a game I have so much fun with,
especially with friends.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It's uh turtles in time oh right, okay, I've never
played turtles in time, soplease sell, sell this game, man
, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's incredible, you know it was.
Well, it comes from the timewhere where the teenage mutant
ninja ninjatles were like bigtime and Konami came up with
this beat-em-up, which wasincredible.
It has amazing anime-stylegraphics.
You go through time, you startin New York City, I think they
(07:48):
live and then suddenly they goback to the prehistoric times.
They go through pirate ships,they go through trains, you go
through everywhere.
You even go to the future andthen come back.
And the whole thing is becauseShredder, the enemy of the Ninja
Turtles, he just takes theStatue of Liberty.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
As you do.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
They got to get it back, you know.
So the final battle, you,you're against super shredder,
which is you know that, as ifshredder wasn't bad enough yeah,
he's super bad, you know.
And in the background you havethe face of the statue of
liberty looking at you while youfight this final boss, and
everything is incredible.
And the soundtrack, oh man, yougot to listen.
(08:37):
If you don't play, at leastlisten to the soundtrack,
because it's beautiful, it's awork of art george, you've sold
it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'll look.
I'm gonna dig this game out atsome point today and see if I
can get the children on it,because it sounds fantastic.
Sounds like my sort of game aswell actually talking of
soundtracks, I really shouldhave mentioned the soundtrack
from your own game because, wow,that is driving that game along
at some rate of nuts.
It's really special.
Congratulations on that.
Is that where it's born from?
You are noticing the music aswell as the game.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, it's a very important part for me the
soundtrack because, as I toldyou before, a lot of these
platformers have amazingsoundtracks.
Because, as I told you before,a lot of these platformers have
amazing soundtracks Castlevaniaand Mega man alone.
They're beautiful.
So I really wanted to keep thepace going with some nice tune.
It was made by a friend of mine.
You know his whole heart wasinto it because it wasn't only a
(09:28):
job for a friend, so it wasgreat.
Because he doesn't have agaming background, he's a
musician, but he didn't playgames, yeah, so he really got
the references I gave him oh,it's captured it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It's a real like marriage between the game and
the music.
It really marries together andcreates this outstanding sort of
beast out there.
It's fantastic.
Two cracking games.
Can you keep it up with gamenumber three?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
well, I'm gonna get a little bit more modern, so I'm
going to choose bloodborne oh mygod, I adore this game.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Tell me why you love it.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
First if I could make a game the game I mean any game
with any budget, you know, andany knowledge, that's the game I
, I would like to make it.
It's just beautiful, it'sincredible.
The gameplay is amazing.
I mean I love Dark Souls, butBloodborne takes it so much
(10:22):
further, without all theblocking, it's just, it's action
, action, action, action, dodgerolling and the creature design,
oh my God, I mean the Japanesereally knock it out of the park.
It's amazing what they come upwith.
It's so Lovecraftian.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And every time I play and every time I see a video of
it and I read things, there'ssomething new, a new detail.
It's so much into the detailsthat I can only love it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, it is absolute gothical beauty.
It's one of the few games Iwill stop and take screenshots
just because it is so stunningto look at.
It's part Tim Burton movie andjust part masterpiece video game
creation.
It's absolutely a wonderful,wonderful game.
Bloodborne's one of those gamesI can go back to again and
again and kind of get the sameexperience from it, perhaps even
(11:16):
more because I'm taking noticeof other things going on.
That is your three games donevery good games.
I mean potentially thank you,the top three choices we've had
so far.
Obviously, as a developeryourself, this is going to be
painful, but there is one gameyou're gonna have to throw on
the fire for heat and which isthe poor, unfortunate game that
is getting burnt today.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
this one kind of has a little story, very short story
, I don't know if you know itbecause it's not such a big game
.
It's called sonic shuffle.
It's a game for the dreamcastand well, I remember having it
when I was a kid and I didn'thave a lot of money to buy a
game, so it was like a gambleand it was so bad.
I mean, today we all know thatSonic is kind of, you know, he
(12:00):
kind of fell from grace.
But by those days we didn'tknow Sonic was like Mario's
equal.
It was.
I mean, oh, yes, yeah, theywere told to tell.
Yeah, and suddenly they come upwith this Mario Party knockoff,
which was so bad you didn't getto play.
It was all dialogue anddialogue and explanations.
Oh, dear, and it was alldialogue and dialogue and
(12:21):
explanations.
And it was man.
It's a party game I want toplay.
So if I have to erase a gamefrom the history of humankind,
I'm sorry but I would erasesonic shuffle it sounds a very,
very valid reason to erase it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I think I'll help you throw that one on the fire.
To be honest, especially as theDreamcast just to mention in
the Dreamcast, that was for me aconsole that I absolutely adore
and it was heartbreaking whenthat kind of got cancelled out
of the blue.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It was like there's going to be no more games for
Dreamcast and unfortunately thatis how, versus Capcom 2, I
remember for the Dreamcast itwas at the time it was the only
console you could get that gameand I mean it was an amazing
system.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It was such a pain to see it go.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It certainly was.
I don't think I'll ever quiteget over that, to be honest.
But having said that, sonicShuffle can go onto the flames,
because that sounds like anabsolutely terrible game on the
Dreamcast.
Fantastic choice again.
And obviously everyone needs acompanion on the island.
Who will be your companion onthe island?
Well, I'd say that my companionwould be jill valentine from
(13:31):
the resident evil series evil,sure, and what will jill bring
to the, to the party she's a?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
pretty interesting character and, uh, she's into
survival, so you know that'simportant she's been through a
lot.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
She certainly has she's been through a lot the
desert island will feel like apicnic by comparison, to be fair
yeah, full of sandwichsandwiches yeah, is resident
evil a game?
Then is that another game, thatkind of figured?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
resident resident evil and silent hill are two,
two franchises.
I I absolutely loved silenthill I, you know it kind of
disappeared.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think that was probably the first real horror
game.
I remember playing silent hill.
It was the first one that feltlike an adult horror game yeah,
I was really afraid.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
But I was afraid, I mean that's, I recall, because I
love horror things, you know,books, movies, games.
But that was the first timethat I felt man, I don't know if
I can yeah, I definitelyunderstand that.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I had the similar with.
There was a japanese gamecalled project zero.
I think it had a few differentnames, oh my god, I couldn't
play it.
We know it as a fatal frame yes, yes, of course, same game,
yeah, the one with the camerathat's it, and you're taking
pictures of the creepiest ghosts, it's incredible.
Yes, I love those games tooyeah, yeah, fantastic game, but
I've never seen the end of itbecause I was too terrified to
(14:56):
continue that is awesome.
Thank you very much, george.
Were there any games that wereon the cusp that almost made the
list.
I'm sure there was a vast, vastamount, I suppose.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I mean people remember Castlevania, symphony
of the Night, which is abeautiful game.
I love it, but I prefer theoriginal.
You know the kind of structure,yeah, cool, yeah, which gave an
arcade feeling.
Castlevania certainly, mega manWell, resident Evil, silent
Hill.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I'm sure we could probably go on for a long time
with so many.
There's so many.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I'm sorry, you start me going and I I'm really sorry.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It's nice to meet a like-minded player.
It really is.
Thank you so much, George.
I can wish you absolutely allthe best with astro zombies.
I hope it delivers everythingyou want it to and more.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Hopefully, this is the start of changing day job I
want to thank you very muchbecause, I mean, the review was
amazing and for having me inyour, your podcast.
I mean it's it's the first timeI am in a podcast, it's a first
experience and it was, I felt,really comfortable.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's put you off for life, hasn't it?
You'll never do another one now.
I really appreciate it.
I honestly do.
It's brilliant to get you onhere.
It's been brilliant to have achance to play Astro Zombies,
and I hope that it turns out tobe a brilliant experience for
yourself too.
Take care and cheers, george,until next time.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye, bye-bye, cheers.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Thank you.
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