Is it hard coming up with new ideas and keeping things fresh after six years of business?
Goble: Coming up with “starter” ideas has always been easy. Coming up with an idea that can support the development of a full game, that can be completed within time and budget restrictions, and that people will be willing to pay for—that can be tricky. Before starting on Build-a-lot, we spent about three months prototyping other game ideas that all ran into dead ends. In our experience, the more games you make, the more quickly you can poke holes in new ideas. Build-a-lot is a fantastic title—one of the Top 10 Games of 2007. Can you provide some insight into the game’s conception? Goble: Garrett Price’s wife used to enjoy playing Warcarft 2. She loved constructing her base and managing resources. However, as soon as the Orcs came and the fighting started, she would stop playing—she hated the fighting aspect of the game. This led us to long discussions regarding a real-time strategy game without fighting. The real estate theme seemed to be a perfect fit as well. However, we knew the ke
