Interview de Martijn Wenting

Puissance-Pocket :What can you tell us about yourself ?

Martijn Wenting : Hello, I'm Martijn Wenting, 25 years old and mananging director at Karma Studios. Like most employees at Karma Studios, i've been interested in the games-industry for as long as i can remember.

Puissance-Pocket : You might have some favourite games, then ?

Martijn Wenting : I've played games and programmed on a lot of systems from c-64 to PC. My favourite system(s) are C-64 and Gameboy Advance and my favourite games would be: cybernoid 2 (c64), commando (c64), mario1 (nes), wipeout XL (psx), metalgear solid (psx), tennis arena (psx) and puzzle-bobble (available for most systems).

Puissance-Pocket :You're working for Karma Studios. What kind of Company is it ?

Martijn Wenting : Karma studios is a game-development company located in the Netherlands. We are specialised in so called "pocket development", which simply means we're experts in developing for portable videogame platforms such as the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and Pocket PC, but we are also developing for other platforms such as the PC and nextgen consoles. All our employees have years of experience in the game industry and have worked on many projects on various platforms in the past. Because of this experience, and our broad range of tools, its possible to develop good looking games in a short timescale.

Puissance-Pocket : Did you work on Game Boy already ?

Martijn Wenting : We've been doing quite some games for Gameboy Color too, some are still to be released, others we can't talk about due to contract reasons. What we can say is that we did a puzzle game called "keep the balance" that will be released on GBC soon by Jowood.

Puissance-Pocket :When did you start to work on AGB games ? How many people do you need on projects like Stip or Warp ?

Martijn Wenting : We started learning the GBA around august 2000, unfortunately there was a big waiting list for the dev. kits for foreign developers, so we didn't receive our dev. kits before february 2001.

Puissance-Pocket :Was it difficult to find a publisher ? How is your relation with him ? Was it difficult to convince someone of publishing Spit or Warp ?

Martijn Wenting : We've been around for some time now, so we have relationships with various partners and publishers, still: convincing them to release an original/non-licensed title is very difficult. That is why we do conversions and licensed-games as well besides our own titles.

Puissance-Pocket :We hear many developers complaining about the lack of risks taken by publishers. Many plays security with famous licenses : Stip is unknown, but do you share this point of view ?

Martijn Wenting : Very true, licenses are safe. this was especially true on Gameboy Color, because 80% of all the titles will be bought by mom or dad, so slapping a famous character on the box (even if it's not related to the game) will help the sales, just look at the powerpuff girl titles or the Olsen twins games.

Puissance-Pocket :What do you think of the development on GBA : when did you receive your dev kits ? What do you think of them ? What do you think of the AGB, generally speaking ? According to you, did Nintendo prepare a good system, both for developers... and players ?

Martijn Wenting : Like I said before, we didn't receive our devkits before februari 2001. But the system is great, both for players and developers. Of course there are always some technical issues you wished nintendo would have done differently, but all in all the Gameboy Advance is a top-notch handheld system! We are also pleased to see that the Gameboy Advance is appealing to a bigger (and slightly older) crowd than the Gameboy Color.