Emanuele Feronato

Talking about Flash, Game development, Monetize and Users contributions.

Do you remember Shrink it? You should, because it’s a very popular game and because it inspired me to write Scaling objects with Box2D – part 1 and 2.

The blog interviewed Nick Pearce from NPGames to share with you some interesting information…

Tell us a little about you, who is Nick Pearce?

Im 18, I live in the united states, and I finished highschool around May, and I’v been working on games full time since, trying to do it for a living, but still living with my parents.

How many programming languages do you know?

I mainly know actionscript, your site helped alot with that :), but i know enough php for what I need

Shrink it is a very original game. How did you get the inspiration?

I wanted to make a game that was a simple get from A to B, and when I was looking at different things on the box2d website, and one of the things I realized you couldnt do was change the size of objects, so I looked into how to do it, and started making a game around it.

Did you enjoy making Shrink it? What ‘s the funniest part in game development?

I had fun making it, I learned a lot in the process. my favorite part of making any game is the programming, even though there wasnt anything too advanced in this game, I still enjoyed coding it.

How many time did you spend developing the core? And how many time designing the levels?

It took about 2-3 days to make the game functional, and the rest of that week went into making the graphics. It took about a week to make the levels.

Can you give an overview of the development process? What did you make first? Graphics? Menu? Levels?

I always start with making the game playable, so I can see if its fun, I used just programmer art in the beginning for the shapes, and menu. After the game engine was finished, I spent a while trying to make ok looking graphics. I think they work for the game. then the last week I spent making the levels, and minor tweaks and fixes until it looked right.

How did you promote the game?

Luckily it spread well without my help, I uploaded it to newgrounds and kongregate to get feedback, and it spread from there.

How did you monetize the game?

I was planning on just ads and a donate banner under the game, like you did with your in game banners. but I got contacted by bubblebox for a sponsorship and I gladly accepted, It was performance based, and It earned more than double what the minimum payment was.

You got more than 1,000,000 plays in about a week… do you consider it an achievement?

It took me about a year and a half to make 2 mil with all my other games combined so I was extremely happy :)

Will you use the Shrink it brand to develop sequels, level editors, iPhone versions, and so on?

Im planning on a sequal right now, and It should have a level editor. Im not planning anything with the IPhone yet.

Do you think my tutorials about Shrink it engine can lead to something similar to the game you made?

I made a few games based off of your tutorials when I was starting out. I think they are a good way to start learning programming, as long as you dont just copy-paste the code, but actually learn what each line does, and how you can use the idea to make something completely different and original I bet something cool can be made from the tutorials.

And that’s it… as you can see Nick abandoned the idea of monetizing the game with donations because he found a sponsor, anyway if you really enjoyed the game and want to support Nick in the creation of the sequel, you can make your donation as this link.