The Art of the Game

Jex: Hi, I'm a huge fan of your work! I’m putting together a website about the neighbourhood and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?

Siris: Oh you’re the kid making the half-life mod right? Great stuff, sure ask away.

J: Thanks! And yup that’s me. Although I’m just starting out. You’re actually developing games.

S: Haha well we all started somewhere. I was just an IT Grunt before quitting to work on Dark Hiraeth.

J: Can you tell us a bit about Dark Hiraeth?

S: It’s a little dev team between me and my brother, Archie. He’s the creative one; a talented musician and 3D artist. I’m more of a numbers guy. But before we could even talk, we were both playing computer games. They pretty much raised us. There’s something captivating about computer games; they are technical yet magical, they are virtual yet feel as real as a home. I wrote to my brother about making games of our own. So with myself as the programmer and Archie as the artist, we formed Dark Hiraeth. Our aim is to create worlds for players to explore, master and love.

J: Your last game was great, any news on the next release?

S: We spend most of our time in the basement developing, and without giving too much away, we’re almost ready to share what we’ve been tinkering on.

J: Exciting, I can’t wait! But with all this focus on development, do you still have the time for Gamer Zone?

S: HaHa, yeah the irony in making games is how we hardly find time to play games for ourselves anymore! But don’t worry, we still intend to host the GamerZone LAN tournaments like always— we just won’t be participating in them ourselves anymore. And even though I’ve moved on from shooters, I’m fairly certain I’m still the neighbourhood reigning champion against Xan Kriegor with the quickest win.

J: Maybe if someone beats your score you’ll come out of retirement!

S: Of course I will.

J: Oh just one final question, any advice on making games?

S: God where to start… I’d say, practise. Start making what you can, and before you know it you’ll be driven by your own curiosity to make more. You just need that spark, and then you’ll want to learn more and more to perfect your project and make your game real. You just have to embrace it as an art form. Never mind about anything else, so long as you’re honest with your art, you’ll go far.

J: Great. Thanks for your time, and say hi to Archie for me.

S: Anytime. And thank you for putting together this site and asking to feature us.