Interview: Jazzuo

Alright, it's time for another interview! I was lucky enough to get an interview with Jazzuo, developer of Sexy Hiking, Hermies, and the recently released Yellow Ninja's Extreme Zero.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am jazzuo, self proclaimed king of GM mini-games. I consider my self to be an artist, and I see game making as one of most freedom filled art forms. Anyway, as a game developer I am most keen on making games different in their game-play. I do not feel games have to be the best but they have to be unique. They have to be an alternative to other games that exist. Such approach goes through every aspect of my creativity.

Who is this mysterious Yellow Ninja I keep hearing about?

Yellow Ninja is a man in a yellow ninja outfit that has great moves. He has been helping me lately with advertising my games, and actually, some of the vids on youtube got some attention. As for all my characters, he also got to have his own game.

You made 2 games for a Mo'minis competition (Jump, Platform Golf). Are you going to create anymore cellphone games?

I actually made 3 games for mominis. Jump, platform golf, and Reds n' Blues - a simple color matching game. I liked Red's and Blues the least. It had unique gameplay, but it had limited game time span. Anyway the reds'n blues actually made it to runner ups that are supposed to get some revenues. Anyway, the mominis probably won't be such a big thing as I thought. Actually, Extreme Zero was originally developed in my mind as cell phone game, but since I lost faith I made it into a PC game. I am little disappointed, since little fun unique 2D games are best suited for cell phones, but my programing is only limited to gamemaker (great program by the way). So if there will be other chances I would like to make more cellphone and iphone games.

What would you say are your most popular games?

It is very simple, my most popular games are Star wars 7 (because it is star wars) and sexy hiking. I am really pleased sexy hiking got so much attention and became popular. I made it like in 2002 or so. It took time, but it got the attention it deserved. I always saw it as the most innovative of my games. Other popular ones are my erotic games, but they are only in czech game sites, since its no no for US.

Most of your games have a funny, hand drawn or 3D style. Where did that come from?

Well, graphics is something I just don't like doing. I like the creation of new worlds through design of its order, but not so much through its visuals. So from the beginning, I decided for a punk style, since it's the easiest to do. Till now I see it as the programmers art. You know it has its own unique cuteness. Then, I found out about 3d anim8tor. Sometimes its much easier to use this 3D tool then to
draw it. So that's where my graphic style comes from. Anyway, I am lately trying a more settled visual style as you can see in extreme zero.

Despite being known as the creator of Sexy Hiking, you've also created a game called Star Wars Episode VII. What was the inspiration for these two games?

Well, the main inspiration was actually my own game sexy hands, which was one of my first games playing around with the mouse and ball physics. Then, I wanted to make a golf game where you control a golf stick with the mouse. It wasn't going very well, so I used the first engine to make it into sexy hiking. I finally made the golf game, and it was called GM golf challenge. While creating and playing this game, I came up with the star wars game. And actually, platform golf is also a simplified version of GM golf challenge.

You've also created a game called Hermies for the TIGSource B-Game competition a while back. How did the idea for that game come about?

Well, before this competition, I made a sculpture of hermie. Since then I was thinking of making some crossovers from physical art and cyber art through this sculpture. I made a video on youtube with 2 hermies playing around. Then, the competition came along. I was very flattered by being like the father of b-games, so I finally made this game.

Are you working on anything new at the moment? Any new releases?

I just finished Star Wars VII: The dark side of the story, Which is a parallel story to my star wars VII game, but the gameplay is completely different. It is a kind of space shooter. I started this game about 3 years back, and I am glad it's finished. It was a good one, and I felt bad about it not being finished. Anyway, I will now work on game that will be called either “color wars” or “the emo wars”. It is based on video jockeying I did for an emo-band. Anyway the gameplay will be closely connected to colors. It will be playing with overlaying colors and such. It's difficult to describe, but it should become the winner of annual Czech game competition.

Thank you so much for the interview Jazzuo!

You can find more of Jazzuo's games at his site, Jazzuo.com