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Interview with Quentin Bolsee, lead developer of the game ColorCube

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Olm-e interviews the creator of ColorCube - 16 year old Quentin Bolsee.

Olm-e writes:

Recently you read about the release of ColorCube 1.6, a Blender Game Engine based puzzle game made by Quentin Bolsee alias Quitchou. Here is an interview with a young and talentuous developer :

Hello Quentin, so you recently published the multiplatform version 1.6 of ColorCube, with a new wesite. Practically it is the first independent game published commercially made with the Blender Game Engine (apart from Yo Frankie! of course) How long did you take for the development ?

I did really start in 2009, to participate in the BlenderArtists.org contest. I did not touched that version once the contest ended. And lots of players told me that the quality was good enough to make a commercial game out of it. So in January 2010 I decided to rebuild the game from scratch and make it better. In june the project was finished.

Where did you took the inspiration for the visual theme ? For the music ? Who composed ?

At start, I was not certain on the appearance of the cube and the levels. But I knew the game would take place in space, to give a sensation of calm and deepness. I immediately started to search for adapted musical theme, on a copy-left music website. The graphics changed a lot all along the project, but I'm quite satisfied with the actual aspect.

Will there be other levels in the future ? A follow up ? Other ideas ?

I'm decided to make a ColorCube 2. I already started to work on new ideas like some lasers or buttons. The movements of the cube will be smoother and more realistic in the future. Also don't forget that ColorCube 1 offers a system to make and distribute levels, which represents a lot extenstion possibilities if the players start to make new levels. I add myself levels from time to time...

The Game is published by ColorCube Studio, who is in the crew ? What has been the role of each ?

First my father, Benoit Bolsée (blender developer) : he taught me coding, and he did what was too complex for me to do. It's also thanks to him that the OSX version exists.

Then my brother Vivian : he created the levels download software. The sound effects are from him, and he also helped me with for some level building (he can make tricky levels).

And myself, Quentin : I'm the original developer, designer, level builder, texture artist and modeler.

You are only 16 (is it true?), we can be amazed how polished and complete is this version, with the level editor and all, so did you got some tricks to finalize this project ?

It's true I'm just 16. I did not wanted to do something extraordinary for my age. I only know blender since 3 years, and I just spent a lot of time to make this game. I didn't think it was possible to do a level editor at first, but the power of coding made it possible.

You made this project with Blender, which other tools did you used ?

All models have been made with Blender, textures where made in Photoshop but also with Blender itself. A simple sound mixing software has been used for the sound effects, that's it.

What is for you the importance of the free software aspect of Blender in the development of your game and know-how ?

The enormous advantage of Blender in this domain is that you can create a game without budget. With ColorCube, I wanted to show people that Blender is in fact very powerful if you invest time in it.

It is a multi-platform game (OSX, Windows, Linux), can we think of a mobile edition ?

I think I'll do an IPhone version ! I was often told it would have success and I'm convinced of that. But I will not be able to do it without a Mac at home, which I hope to be able get if the game is paying me back enough ...

You sell your game on your website, is it on other platform of distribution?

A slightly different version is on GamersGate. I made my own website after that. I would want to put it on Steam but I don't know if it will be possible. It will also be on sale on a Polish game for Linux web site.

Did you read of the "Humble Indie Bundle" action ? What do you think of it ?

Yes. I think that system is based on the honesty of people. If you have confidence in them, it's a good idea. I don't know if a game like mine could be integrated in such an action, but if it's possible I would agree.

Do you think to free completely your game one day ? (the first demo was in creative commons)

I have no plan at present to make it free, but I will certainly create some tutorial explaining the problems we encountered and the solutions we found. This will be for now my contribution to give back to the community.

Interview and translation from French by Olm-e / okno.be - CC3.0 AT-NC-SA 2010

12 Comments

  1. Awesome Quentin Bolsee, you are very talented, congrats to you and your team, I download the demo, I will buy the game soon, its very fun. Congrats to your family crew too, keep in that direction, you have a great future in here. :) cheers!!!

  2. I gotta say, your game was one of my favourites in that contest. I actually really enjoyed playing it.
    Congratulations to make it commercial, it certainly deserved to go full professional. And it does show a lot about Blender Game Engine capabilities.

    Good luck with sales and with future projects. It would be nice if you could present its development process in the Blender Conference (problems encountered, what had to be solved in the Blender code,what was simply Python tricks). Any plans on that?

  3. I still have the Bullet contest .blend file on my Mac. It took some hours, but I beat the game. I was shocked that it did not win the contest -- obviously there were not enough people voting. I had no idea the kid was only 16 though. Then again, Colin was 16 once. I remember that jumping spider.

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