The Last and Final Word: Bonus Round with CosMind
This is what I like to call a Bonus Round and it won’t happen every week. It probably won’t happen much at all. If it does, it’s a bonus.
Having sent a number of e-mails back and forth with Justin, Christmas was quickly approaching and the follow-up questions were badly timed on my part. In all honesty, I thought he might miss the e-mail all together and didn’t expect a reply. When I did receive the reply, the weekly deadline had passed and the original interview had already been published.
However, I felt that it would be an injustice not to publish the mini-second-half of the interview, since Justin’s answers are always so beautifully insightful. If you haven’t, I suggest you read part one of the interview before reading this (you might not understand what some of the questions are referring to otherwise).
When you first began developing Glum Buster, did you have an inkling of how long it would take? Did you set yourself (or attempt to set yourself) a deadline?
Nope; when I first started the Glum Buster prototype, I had no concept of scope or development timeline at all. It was merely one of the small handful of tinkerings I was dabbling with at the time, hoping to find something that hooked my interest enough to evolve into a full-on personal project. However, once I moved out of the prototype phase I set a rough target completion date for myself. This date was one year from that time. Clearly I missed that target by a long shot!
Since Glum Buster is such an unconventional game, I thought it might be interesting to hear your thoughts on the whole ‘are videogames art’ debate?
Well, I’ll apologize in advance for not being able to contribute to this argument — I’ve no care or consideration for whether or not video games are art. Art is an arbitrary and subjective term; if one considers video games art, then they’re art to that person. If another person doesn’t, then video games aren’t art. However, it’s clear that video games are constructed from various mediums that, each individually, are considered to be art by many folks.
At what point did you decide to make Glum Buster charityware and what
sparked this decision?
I decided to make Glum Buster charity ware roughly half-way through the full development cycle. I made this decision because I felt it’d be a great way to generate some fortune for the less fortunate, and have some fun together (as a community of developer, player, and benefactors). The model I concieved in order to “have fun” and drive donations upward isn’t as effective as I had hoped, however.
About the game for your sister - is there anything you would like to share about it?
The only thing that I’d prefer to share about this video game is that it’s one of my favorite video games to play, and I feel it turned out pretty great for something of its scope created in just over six months.
Does your sister enjoy playing it?
My sister still enjoys playing the video game to this day — there’s a lot of “core” content she’s still yet to complete, and also a good amount of re-play value and meaningful / tangible rewards to be won via advanced play. I’d personally love to share more, but it’s not my property; it’s her video game and it’s up to her as to whether or not anything about it is shared with anyone else (I’m sure I sound crazy, but imagine if you were to carve a sculpture for someone as a gift, then to make copies of that sculpture and give it to other folks, too — would the original sculpture carry any meaning as a gift any longer?).
Did it manage to fill that void that you experienced after the completion of Glum Buster?
Yes, indeed, the project filled the post Glum Buster “void” and so much more. I wrote it in a language and software development environment that was completely new to me, so I learned a gajiliion things and more. It was wholly engaging and paved the way for future projects that I’m infinitely stoked about.
Regarding the consumption of your life via the development of Glum Buster - is this the only time anything has consumed your life so completely?
Yes!
