Congratulations to helloRobot, the GameSalad Game of the Month – January!
We are pleased to award this months Game of the Month title to the team of brothers and community veterans, Lycettebros
Normally when you think, “Game of the Month” you may have a very clear-cut idea of what to expect. Lycette Bro’s took us by surprise this month with a novel app that isn’t a game at all.
We sat down with Lycettebros to learn a little more about creating helloRobot, and about the developers themselves:
GameSalad: Hey Lycette Bros! (And individual greetings to the Brothers Lycette, but you get the gist) We’re glad you took the time to talk with us! Tell us about helloRobot –
Lycettebros: helloRobot is based on a collection of themed Apps we have published previously. They are i’Raspberry’ (real video of mouths) and ‘helloZoo’ (animal faces). These apps are simply collections of mouths and eyes with accompanying audio. ‘hellorobot’ was an extension of this concept into the robot world.
GameSalad: What inspired your game design?
Lycettebros:
Our design was inspired by the previous Apps but importantly tin toy robots – their look, sounds and packaging. The ‘helloRobot’ menu is based on a vintage cardboard box with little plastic windows for each robot.
GameSalad: In your own words, what do you feel makes helloRobot a unique, must-play experience?
Lycettebros: ‘helloRobot’ promotes play of a different kind. We hope it stimulates play – it is a tool to play really not a game in itself. We like to think the visual style has a unique charm and would like to explore this further in the future..
GameSalad: When you’re not developing games, what are some of your hobbies outside of GameSalad?
Lycettebros: Lycette Bros. (@lycettebros) is made up of two brothers (John and Mark). As we are professional designers we basically live creative design – it is often hard to distinguish between work and play especially when making our own work and the great thing is GameSalad is allowing us to do this! Our other interests include reading (Art, Design, History), animation, cinema and family.
GameSalad: How did you discover GameSalad?
Lycettebros:We discovered GameSalad searching online for visual app development tools as we are not programmers. My brother initially played with the free demo a little (as he looked at all the software out there) and I nonchalantly ignored it thinking it was not going to meet our needs. Wow was I wrong! Once he showed me some of his experiments I was hooked
GameSalad: When developing games, do you work independently or with a team?
Lycettebros:We develop games at times independently and with teams. We are working on a game each presently individually and only using each others opinions at various stages. However on a larger project – generally commissioned projects we often work with xCode programmers and we work on the content and design as a team.
GameSalad: Any new projects on the horizon we can look forward to? What are you currently working on?
Lycettebros: Yep. John is working on an iPad App for toddlers at the moment – very much aimed at lots of noise and button pushing and I am about to submit a new game for approval that I may even submit for February’s Game of the Month if it makes the deadline!
It is a cliché in the GameSalad world for users to claim how GS has changed their lives – but here goes! As designers we have worked professionally for 20 years doing commissioned work as our main source of income. As any designer knows it is extremely frustrating dealing with clients who often are not open to ideas and this can really limit ones creativity and imagination. GameSalad allows us to publish our own product and the appstores allow us to sell it directly to the marketplace. Basically our own creativity now sustains us (or not) and while it may not make us rich the freedom that this provides to an artist is priceless.
Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us, Lycettebros! Keep shining, you crazy diamonds!
Grab it today:
iTunes:
Want to know more about Lycette Bros? Check out their website here: Lycettebros.com
