Void Star Interview

Poker Smash has recently been released on the XBLA. It was not only well received by us, but also seemed to get great reviews across the board, even garnering an impressive 10 A+ from 1up. So, with the game doing so well what better time than to ask Drew Card, one of the game’s creators about his experiences developing the game, and the changes the title went through over its two years in development. Furthermore, we ask about his thoughts on the titles good sales, the chances of the game appearing on other platforms, what DLC we should expect in the future, and his thoughts on Void Star and their next title.

DarkZero: Hi Drew, can you tell us a bit about yourself, along with the work you do at Void Star Creations?

Drew Card: I’m 32 years old, and I live in Lexington SC with my wife Rachel and our dog Hera. I’m the programmer and Creative Director for Void Star, and I drink Coke by the gallon.

DarkZero: Where does the name Void Star come from?

Drew Card:In C++ a void* (pronounced void star) is a typeless pointer, which basically means it could be used to reference any object in memory. Pointers are kind of like a basic building block of programming, so I thought it would be a cool name for a software company.

DarkZero: How does the current version of Poker Smash compare to the original vision for the game? Are there any elements of Poker you initially tired to introduce into the game that did not work as well as you originally thought?

Drew Card: One of the best parts about game development is the evolution of the game over time. Sometimes things that seem great on paper don’t pan out the way you expect them to. For example originally we allowed straights to happen out of order in Poker Smash, but it totally didn’t work. It made the straights way too frequent, and also pretty tough to recognize. The poker purist in me wanted this to work, but in the end it was just threw the whole game out of balance. We tried several things, but eventually settled on forcing straights to be in order. This really balanced things out by making them easier for the player to see, but at the same time less frequent.

Here is a run down on some other big changes:

– Cards were not color coded! This was crazy hard to play.
– Old double cursor from Tetris Attack
– Six columns instead of five
– Square cards—what were we thinking?!

At one point we had it where you could place a bet and get a challenge hand. Basically it turned into always going all-in and risking your entire stack to double up. The scores were crazy. Now that I think of it that was a lot of fun!

DarkZero: The dual analog control feels very intuitive, along with been very innovative. When was that controller scheme decided on? What was the influence behind it?

Drew Card: It was actually pretty late in development when we came up with the dual stick control scheme. For about the first 8 months we were using the old double cursor system like Tetris Attack. One day we just started experimenting with different setups. Ryan and I both play a lot of shooters, so our thumbs naturally gravitate toward the sticks. We wanted something that increased the speed of the game, and made it easier to make the big chains. It took some getting used to, but when we both started making bigger and bigger chains we knew we had something good.

DarkZero: How many total hours do you think you have spent developing Poker Smash? Are you still playing it as much now that it is finally released?

Drew Card: Well we worked full time for 2 years on Poker Smash. We were all wearing multiple hats during development, so a big chunk of that time was spent doing business stuff to get our company off the ground. As far as hours I’m not quite sure—a lot!

DarkZero: Some of those massive combos posted in the theater are very impressive. Did you expect people to get so proficient at the game this soon?

Drew Card: Yes and no. I knew there were a bunch of Tetris Attack freaks out there, and that their skills would translate over well, but I never expected people to be busting out 50x chains so soon after the release. That guy SnapDragon is a machine. It’s so cool to see people getting good so fast.

DarkZero: Judging by the weekly Major Nelson’s updates the game seems to be selling quite well. Did you have any fears the game would not be as big of a success due to the large number of other puzzle games on XBLA it was up against?

Drew Card: There are always fears when you release a new game, but we really believed in the concept of Poker Smash from the beginning. Our goal was always to create something special that didn’t feel like just another puzzle game.

DarkZero: Although it did not seem to adversely affect Poker Smash what’s your opinion on the current 150MB XBLA size limit?

Drew Card: Well, I personally don’t see the need for it. I understand all of the arguments behind it, but I think we as an industry should be moving to digital distribution in a big way. Why is it that you can download a 2GB demo for a retail game on LIVE, but you can’t buy a LIVE Arcade game that exceeds 150MB? We aren’t going to see digitally distributed games truly compete with retail titles when there is an arbitrary size limit on the content.

DarkZero: Is there any chance of seeing Poker Smash appearing on more platforms? It seems well suited to handhelds and mobile phones.

Drew Card: We want to see Poker Smash on as many platforms as possible, especially handhelds and mobile phones. We’re currently trying to figure out the next steps for bringing Poker Smash to these new platforms.

DarkZero: The game is crammed with every conceivable mode we can think of for a puzzler. Was there anything held back to be used as downloadable content in the future? Is there even any DLC planned?

Drew Card: We currently have plans for four DLC packs. We are going to offer two environment packs each with two new action mode skins. We are also going to have two puzzle packs each with 15 new puzzles.

DarkZero: People that have spent some solid time with the game have reported it randomly freezed once or twice on them. Are you aware of this, and do you recognize it as a bug? If so, is there a possible fix around the corner?

Drew Card: Yes, we’re aware of the problem, and we feel horrible about it. This issue is a rare one in that it doesn’t reproduce on a development kit, so we never saw this in testing or in certification. It’s nearly impossible to debug on a retail system, so we’ve had to jump through some hoops to get a setup where we could isolate the problem. Microsoft has been great in helping us out to find the issue, and there is a fix on the way. We’ve submitted a new build for testing and certification, and if all goes smoothly I think a title update will be out within a month.

DarkZero: What are the advantages/disadvantages working as part of small team? Was it more enjoyable creating Poker Smash than working as part of a bigger team creating the likes of Stranger’s Wrath and Earth and Beyond?

Drew Card: Small teams are better in almost every way. The only downside is that each team member has a lot more work, and it’s really easy to get burned out. For the most part working on Poker Smash was a lot more fun than any other game I’ve worked on.

DarkZero: I am guessing I’ll get a “we are not talking about that yet,” but are you guys currently working on any other projects? Any hint on what’s around the corner? Will you be staying with the same genre?

Drew Card: We are trying to decide what our next project will be. We have a ton of ideas ranging another small puzzle game up to much more ambitious hardcore games. Our hearts are in the hardcore stuff, so we are leaning toward taking the plunge and doing a bigger game.

DarkZero: Are there any plans on expanding the Void Star team for that next game?

Drew Card: Yes! I don’t want to be the only programmer on the next game, and Ryan doesn’t want to be the only artist! At the same time we want to be smart about how we grown and make sure we choose the right people.

DarkZero: Are you keeping an eye on other upcoming games? What is getting your attention at the moment?

Drew Card: I’m excited about GTA IV. On the LIVE Arcade side Bionic Commando looks really fun.

DarkZero: Any final words you would like say to fans of the game, or maybe people yet to try it?

Drew Card: To the fans of the game, thanks! We’ve been getting really nice messages on LIVE and through our website. It’s so cool when people take the time to write notes, and we really appreciate all of the support.

To people who haven’t tried Poker Smash yet, give us a shot!