PAX East 2012: The Man Behind Dust: An Elysian Tail

Super inspirational. Maybe that'll be me one day. :)

Anyone who can say they worked on Jazz Jackrabbit is cool in my books.

This guy's a goddamn inspiration.

I played this while I was there. The combat is fantastic and I have no idea how the game runs so smoothly. Also, the guy asked absolutely everyone what they thought of it and seemed genuinely interested in what they had to say. I can't wait to buy this.

Awesome, much respect. Hope it works out well for the guy.

@MosaicM80 said:

I don't understand all the furry hate and the "furries ruin everything" mentality. You guys realize things like bugs bunny and crash bandicoot are considered "furry" too right? This guy isn't making a yiff game, it's just anthropomorphic animals. Just like thousands of other games, movies, tv shows, anime, etc out there. Are they all invalid because they have something that could be considered furry?

Well, it's all about what bothers people. I'm not going to condemn the man for making a game with talking animal people because that's existed since the original star fox, but it has the potential to be really creepy if handled poorly, ie creating things like the fanbase that erupts around characters like the bat girl from sonic the hedgehog or that one girl from star fox adventures. Game looks really fun though and I'll definitely look into it when it comes out.

I kinda equate it to how I can't bring myself to play games like Hyperdimension Neptunia or games made by Gust or Compile Heart. They look like fun RPGs, but the moe 'sexy kids' angle scares the hell out of me, especially when I had the unfortunate experience of hanging out with my one buddy working at gamestop when a duder came in wanting to buy, Record of Agarest War, the 'super naughty edition.' And then opened it to go through the contents to make sure it was all there, including the pillowcase and the boob mousepad with what looked like an 8 year old girl who was probably a 5000 year old vampire or whatever the hell those games say to give an excuse for pedophilia. Your opinion on these things kinda change when it's there, hitting you full in the face. Furries may be totally weird and mindboggling, but at least they don't go after kids so thats one for them I guess.

Interview Brad is best Brad.

I don't understand all the furry hate and the "furries ruin everything" mentality. You guys realize things like bugs bunny and crash bandicoot are considered "furry" too right? This guy isn't making a yiff game, it's just anthropomorphic animals. Just like thousands of other games, movies, tv shows, anime, etc out there. Are they all invalid because they have something that could be considered furry?

Brad can't even get his own saying right. It is said event rages on not rages

Are people really questioning whether this game will be successful? Go and look at how many views the XBLA announce trailer has. This will do 200k easy and probably a lot more, and that's ten dollars a pop to Humble Hearts. Do the math.

I cannot wait for this, it's by far my most anticipated game. If it isn't in Summer of Arcade, ideally it would be the free game given away fro buying all SoA titles. Realistically though, I just want to play it this year and I'll be happy.

Great work Dean!

@North6 said:

@pancakehumper said:

@gunslingerNZ said:

It's amazing that one guy managed to pull off something that looks so polished, I guess that's why it took him 4 years though. It's cool that he was able to do this but surely it would have been better career wise for him to get some help along the way, he could have been underway on a follow up by now if he had.

what is this I don't even....

There are studios with HUNDREDS of people that can't finish a game in 4 years.

This.

It looks fantastic, and from the polish on it makes sense why it took 4 years.

AND the fact that he had to learn C# and XNA

@pancakehumper said:

@gunslingerNZ said:

It's amazing that one guy managed to pull off something that looks so polished, I guess that's why it took him 4 years though. It's cool that he was able to do this but surely it would have been better career wise for him to get some help along the way, he could have been underway on a follow up by now if he had.

what is this I don't even....

There are studios with HUNDREDS of people that can't finish a game in 4 years.

This.

It looks fantastic, and from the polish on it makes sense why it took 4 years.

It's nice to see an indie developer who's actually a completely affable guy who is entirely capable of doing PR for his game in a relaxed fashion. A lot of other indie developers come off as eccentric savants who make a cool game but do a poor job of explaining themselves or the game very well, and don't give a particularly informative demo as a result.

Example:

http://www.giantbomb.com/pax-east-2011-battleblock-theater-interview/17-3917/

With all this exposure, he could easily find some people that want to help him out, right?

Not my thing, but this guy certainly has my respect.

This guys story is super inspiring and I wish him the best as, wow, he deserves it!

Furries ain't my cup of tea, but the rest of the game looks very pretty.

Skipping portions of the video works again :) But using space to pause the video still doesn't.

This game is crazy beautiful.

As someone who is currently looking into XNA stuff and reading C# books, his whole story is very inspiring. It gives me hope that persistence can pay off, and that's kinda awesome. I really want for him to find a lot of success with this.

@fzzywarbals said:

It was amazing up until the furry popped up on the screen. Damn furries ruin everything.

You don't have to play it you know? How is it ruining anything? It's that dudes vision, not yours.

@gunslingerNZ said:

It's amazing that one guy managed to pull off something that looks so polished, I guess that's why it took him 4 years though. It's cool that he was able to do this but surely it would have been better career wise for him to get some help along the way, he could have been underway on a follow up by now if he had.

what is this I don't even....

There are studios with HUNDREDS of people that can't finish a game in 4 years.

It was amazing up until the furry popped up on the screen. Damn furries ruin everything.

This guy is amazing ! If it comes on xbla i will get it ,even if it is just to support this guy . The game looks great and fun to play !

I have never seen 2d art that looks that good and runs at what looks like a high frame rate. I need to check this out.

For some reason, it made me laugh how quiet and meek this guy is and how Brad just sounds like he's screaming at this guy for the entire interview. Maybe it's just me.

I can't believe how gorgeous this game looks.

First I've seen of the game in action. Good god is it so damn smoooootthhh. Looks fun.

Shit yeah! Jazz Jackrabbit sequel...make it so, Cliff!

I still can't believe one dude could make a game that looks so polished.

Now this is a true "indie" game.

great interview

that guys sprite animations are RIDICULOUS! so many frames! so smooth!

@gunslingerNZ said:

It's amazing that one guy managed to pull off something that looks so polished, I guess that's why it took him 4 years though. It's cool that he was able to do this but surely it would have been better career wise for him to get some help along the way, he could have been underway on a follow up by now if he had.

But if this game is a success all eyes are on him as he is the one making it possibly opening up many doors.

It's amazing that one guy managed to pull off something that looks so polished, I guess that's why it took him 4 years though. It's cool that he was able to do this but surely it would have been better career wise for him to get some help along the way, he could have been underway on a follow up by now if he had.

Hey thanks for posting this interview. Obviously it's way to early to pass judgment on this game either way, but thanks for talking to Dean and putting his game on our radar. Definitely will be following this one.

Not a fan of the character design but i'll definetly be supporting this guy. Amazing that he did this by himself.

The visuals are great, and the gameplay sounds right up my alley.

This game looks awesome and I want it.

Good god Dean Dodrill, take a HUGE holiday after releasing this!

Looks cool, except... this guy's dream game is about furries? Eww.

Brings back memories of the days when it was quite common for games to be made by just one person, albeit in a much less technically or artistically advanced fashion. I salute this man for attempting such a feat in this day in age.

The only thing I can see suffering from this development structure is QA testing. Maybe M$ will provide this man with some testers before release.

I want to play this game so bad but I don't have the console to play it on. I hope it comes on the PC or the PS3 so I can support this guy

Great interview, this guy makes me want to root for him. Will definitely give his game a shot after seeing this.

This looks fucking awesome! And since it's one dude's dream project you know it'll play great too. Can't wait to play!

I don't even own a 360 anymore and I want to buy this game just to show my support. Mad respect, looks awesome.

I'd love a new Jazz Jackrabbit.

This man has my respect.

Now here is a guy that deserves my money, unlike Phil Fish. I'll be guying this day one. Been waiting for a loooooong time.

Curious why this interview went up so late though.

This games looks amazing artistically, and the feature list is insane. Looking forward to this.

All i'm gonna say is...

Done, bought, sold, you got my money.

Looks awesome. Those are some furry ass characters.

@kennyshat said:

As someone who knows just enough about programming to know how hard it is, that guy is completely out of his mind doing all of that by himself. The fact that it looks as good as it does it kind of mind blowing. To me at least.

Same here. Knowing everything that it takes to put together your own game, much less one with this many features, I would go insane within a week if I was programming 16 hours a day.

Awesome, man. Awesome man.