When you approach the PAX 10, it’s a melange of televisions and Xbox controllers. However, in the middle of it all, the Shibuya booth stood out with two iPads and an iPhone. Between the bright colors, the falling blocks, and the shiny hardware, the booth was brilliantly salient. John Plewe, the game and software creator for Nevercenter, was onhand to help explain why.

Pixelsocks: Can you tell you tell me about your game?

John Plewe

John: Our game is called Shibuya. It’s a falling block color matching game: an arcade-style puzzle game. Blocks fall from the top of the screen and you assign them colors and you try to match up the colors and make them disappear. The game was released yesterday, $.99 during PAX, $ 1.99 after PAX. We might be doing an Android port, as there have been a lot of requests for that. We’re not sure, but we’d like to do that.

Pixelsocks: I’ve read that your game is based on the lights in Shibuya arcades. Can you tell me a little bit about them?

John: It’s more like the city; Shibuya is a section of Tokyo. In movies like Lost in Translation, you can see the sort of glowing buildings and bright lights. We named the game after that because it has that feel of sort of a tall building with glowing lights on it. It has that feeling of the kids in the arcades: just playing these bright, colorful games and getting insane high scores.

Pixelsocks: Something that’s notable about the game, especially in the demo movies, is that it’s a multi-finger game. That’s very uncommon on devices as small as the iPod. How did you guys get around the fat finger problem?

John: We didn’t design it as a multi-finger game, but we’ve noticed that some people adopt that playstyle. So, if you are larger-fingered, that’s okay. You can play it with just one finger: many people do. But it you have to be fast.

Pixelsocks: What was your goal when you designed Shibuya?

John: I was just trying to come up with a game design that would feel very natural on the iPad and on a touch screen. A lot of games are ports, and I wanted something that felt natural and native. We also wanted a pleasant game that’s simple to make with our small team.

Pixelsocks: How long has your team been working together?

John: We’ve been together for eight or nine years, but we made 3D graphics software and then camera app called Camera Bag a few years ago. This is our first game.

Pixelsocks: That seems like a strange cliff to jump off. Why shift to game design?

John: I’ve always been interested in game design. We’ve always been doing one project to pay for the next project.

Pixelsocks: The site says the music you’ve chosen to go with is actually licensed. That’s probably not a trivial expense for an independent games company. I’m curious as to why you decided to do that, and if you’d recommend it to other indies.

John: Well, it’s not a music game, but the music is very important to the atmosphere. So we were in the situation where our other apps had made it so we could afford to do that. If you were starting out as an independent developer, cutting costs wherever you can, we would never take out a loan to do something like that. At the same time, you have to be willing to do things if they’re going to be worth it: if they’re going to make the game significantly better, then it’s worth it.

Pixelsocks: Why’d you enter the PAX 10?

John: We actually used it as a deadline to push ourselves to get the game finished. We sent them a pretty early beta, but it worked out perfectly. It got accepted, and that helped push us to get it ready for PAX. Of course, the publicity is amazing. When you’re starting out with a new app, you really need something to push it so people can see it.

Pixelsocks: If it wasn’t for PAX, what would you have done to stand out on the app store?

John: We would have found something. I think if you make a good enough game, it will make its way. You have to send it out to reviewers and things like that. Something like this will really help push it along. There are lots of opportunities like this that will help get your name out there.

Pixelsocks: How has the crowd testing been going? Have people been responding the way you hoped?

John: We’ve been thrilled with the response. People are picking it up. You’ve got to play it a few times and get your brain around it. But people are giving it a chance, and getting addicted to it. We’re getting a lot of people who buy it on the spot, or people who come back and say they’ve been playing it all night. This is good: this is the first time we’ve had anyone play it besides ourselves or the Penny Arcade panel.

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