Today I was given the chance to interview two of the team of independent developers behind enjoyable puzzle game Pocoro (which I reviewed a week or so ago), they are Tom (project leader) and Maxime (Android dev).
Ok, first off, would you mind telling me a little bit about your company and it’s development background?
(Tom) : Actually, we are not a real company – Pocoro is really an indie game as none of us has been working on it exclusively. We all are interested in video game development, and some of us are, or have been, working in the video game industry.
What inspired you to create Pocoro?
(Tom) : Few years ago, while I was learning OpenGL, I decided to make a simple but complete game – my girlfriend was fond of puzzle games so I did my best to create something she would like to play ^^
Pocoro was initially developed for the Xbox 360, what made you decide to port it to the Android platform?
(Tom) :- Pocoro is technically a very simple game – you could play it on a gameboy. I think it should be ported to every device that features a screen and a DPad 
Very early in the development process, we thought it would be great to have a mobile version, and I think that Android is the easiest way to create and publish mobile applications today
How long did it take to create Pocoro? Did you come across any major obstacles whilst porting it to Android?
(Maxime) :- It took me 3 months of spare time to port Pocoro. Actually when i ported Pocoro to Android, i did not use any portion of the Xbox Code, i just used the game resources and rules. As it was my first game on Android, i had to build a game framework from scratch. Nothing was really hard or difficult, Android is quite easy ( if you have a bit of experience ). Plus; i had everything a game developer could dream of : neat gfx, nice music, games rules clearly defined.
Google often provides some good points to help you build better games and the community on google groups have been quite helpful too.
Pocoro has a very relaxed feel to it, with soft pastel backgrounds and a very laid back soundtrack, was there any specific reason for the mellow theme?
(Tom) :- Most of the (puzzle) games on the indie scene are created only by coders, and therefore are not very graphically appealing… I wanted to make a simple game, so we can spend time on polishing it. So I asked my friend Olivier who is, among other things, an experienced mobile and pixel-art graphist to join the project. We tried a lot of things until every detail was perfect – of course it’s never the case but we did our best ^^
Do you use any Android devices yourselves, and if so, which one(s)?
(Maxime) :- Among the team, i’m the only one to have an Android Phone, the Dev Phone. But i’m sure they’ll come to Android soon enough. If you taste it once, you’re doomed!
Which is your favourite Android app (other than your own of course)?
(Maxime) :- Actually, i’m not quite of a great user of Android. The dev phone does not allow to use paid or crypted apps. So i’m only using really the basic apps, not much playing too. Let’s say that the apps i use the most are TasKiller and Streamfurious !
How much potential do you feel the Google Android platform has? Will you be developing more applications for Android?
(Maxime) :- For now, Pocoro sales are not really good. That’s why we recently shrunk the demo from 20 to 10 levels and dropped the price from €1.99 to €0.99. As it’s our first steps on this platform, we’re trying to find the best way to sell our game. We hope, of course, that the sales will be boosted by the price cut and maybe by the results of the ADC2.
The platform has a great potential for me, but it’s not possible to make a living out of it for now. Android have to spread among the world and then, maybe things will change.
And personaly, i’ll continue to develop games on this platform, i love it too much to stop!
What’s next for the Pocoro Team – updates to Pocoro or something entirely new?
(Tom) : Nothing is decided yet, I think it depends on how much of a success Pocoro is.
(Maxime) :- We’re full of ideas, just lacking of time !
Any advice for aspiring developers?
(Maxime) :- If you want to start developing a game, just try first to release a very simple game. One does not build a game framework easily. We’re all experienced people in game development and we all have dozens of unfinished projets because they were too ambitious. Small 2D games with simple goals and that people will play to is the key of a first succesfull project. Try to gather a team for it, it’s really a good way t
o ensure that you’ll finish your app. That is what happened with Pocoro and the result speaks for itself
The team behind Pocoro are-
Tom Rethaller : Concept & Sound
Martin Lemarchand : Game & Level Design
Olivier “Kobi” Huard : Graphic Design
Maxime “Monsieur Max” Caignart : Android Version
They have a website, with all the latest news on Pocoro’s development. Check it out here .
Pocoro is available from the Apps Market for €0.99. There is a free, Lite version if you’d like to give it a try first. I recommend checking it out if you like puzzle games, the later levels get particularly fiendish.