Interveiw with one of the SATCM Dev's

[sphinxluvduvwuv]

So I was lucky enough to get a quick Q/A from one of the developers! I thought this would be interesting to all of you so here is what I got!

Interview with Darren Weekes

Q1: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: So what was your position during the making of Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A1: Darren Weekes: My position was Game Designer. It was my first job in gamedev. Specifically, most of my time went into setting up enemy encounters and handling all the logic around that. Also, I did some work on designing the various enemies attacks and behaviours.

Q2: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: Awesome! So what was your favorite thing about developing Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A2: Darren Weekes: As it was my first time as a developer, my favourite thing was simply working with other game developers. Sooooo much stuff to learn!

Q3: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: Interesting! So how do you think it could have been improved on?

A3: Darren Weekes: One big thing was that the game wasn't voice acted at all which hurt us I think, considering the releases coming out at the same time as Sphinx it was certainly seen as a negative. There was also a large area of jungle cut from the game about a year or so before release that would have added some variety to the environment types.

Q4: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: What was the biggest hurdle you had to face when developing for Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A4: Darren Weekes: For me personally it was my inexperience in game dev and all the tools and engine the game was built on. It was an in-house engine with tools that were alien to me as my only experience in game dev before then was making Quake and Half-Life levels. I broke so many things in my first few months while I was learning the tools and engine!

[sphinxluvduvwuv]

Okay so know I have interviewed a SECOND Dev and he has some interesting Info!

Q1: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: So what was your position during the making of Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A1: Jose Garcia: Back then I was concept designer and lead animator.

Q2: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: Awesome! So what was your favorite thing about developing Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A2: Jose Garcia: My favorite thing was to work in such a vibrant and talented team, and see this project grow from start to end, it took more than 3 years to make it, I tell you it was crazy at times and we worked very very hard to finish it but it was all worth it

Q3: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: Interesting! So how do you think it could have been improved on?

A3: Jose Garcia: We really wanted to have voices in the game but THQ didn't think it was needed. I think it would have appealed new players that weren't used to Zelda narraitve style.

Q4: SphinxLuvDuvWuv: What was the biggest hurdle you had to face when developing for Sphinx and the cursed mummy?

A4: Jose Garcia: It was way to ambitious and we had to make severe cuts to be able to finish it, it is very hard to see such a wonderful work dissapear like that, this is why I was determined to use some of the of cut levels and character in the mobile version.

Strange what he say's about the mobile version hmm? well heres the rest of that convo that wasn't the Q/A:

It is great to hear that Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy made such a great impression on you. It was my most favourite game I have ever developed. Back then I was concept designer and lead animator. Before Eurocom, I and another group of Spanish artists were founders of Anibyte, and we were developing a movie called Luna, here are some images of the initial concept julianromeroart.com//data/84/anibyte_web11_copy.jpg And you can find some animations at the beginning on my showreel Showreel_JoseGarcia.mp4 Unfortunately the movie didn't find enough funding and eventually we were absorbed by Eurocom, who gave us the opportunity to come up with a game. This is when Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy was born which was highly influenced by Luna character design, as you can see on Julian Romero portfolio Julian Romero - Concept designer who was the concept designer on Luna and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, a very talented guy Eurocom went under, but it re-opened as EightPixelsSquare, now it is a mobile game company and two years ago I was personally remaking Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy as a mobile game, designing, programming and reusing lots of the art and animations from the original game. I cannot tell you much about the concept as it is still a dormant project waiting to be finished. Unfortunately I am not working there anymore and I don't know where it is up to, but I invite you to contact them and find out if they want to remake it, I'm sure they will be delighted to partner with you and it would be so awesome to see it the game out there again.