Today, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with (and interview) a well-respected game designer and friend, Arthur Humphrey of Last Day of Work (or LDW for short).
Last Day of Work is responsible for the wildly successful Virtual Villager series of games, as well as several other great Independent Casual Game titles such as Fish Tycoon and Plant Tycoon.
Arthur is not only a great game designer, but he understands the Indie and Casual Games business, sales, and marketing better than most. All of these reasons combined are why his games have been such a success.
And the man can talk. He knows his stuff. He speaks at pretty much every gaming convention you’ve heard of.
Arthur is such a kick-ass guy, that he was nice enough to let me interview and ask a bunch of questions and kick around ideas regarding the Independent and Casual Games field in general.
I couldn’t decide whether to post the full 20 minute+ interview or to post small snippets with comments underneath. I like both ideas. So I’ll do both 
Listen to the full 20 minute+ podcast version by downloading here: Jaybot7 and LDW Full Interview , then scroll down and follow along with the comments and pictures
[Update: Had some complaints of low volume, so I normalized the above file to with dynamic compression to make it much more listenable]
And/Or:
Here are bite-sized snippets with some commentary (and some interesting pictures of the two of us):
vv4_healthinsurance_life_design
We start off with some product plugging for LDW’s new game, Virtual Villagers 4, which is planned to be released soon.
I ask if it’s possible for an indie developer to have health insurance (the answer is of course, yes).
Arthur makes some interesting statements on how a developer’s latest game designs can reflect their own recent life experiences.
economic_crises_price_compression
How does the current economic crisis affect casual games? Not quite as bad as you think. Not quite as good either.
Arhtur explains the current trend of pricing in casual games (they go down and everyone loses, including the consumer).
Arthur shows his human side as a new parent trying to raise his recently born child. It’s a bit harder than it looks in Virtual Villagers
I whine about how my stomach handles Italian food versus Japanese food and we both start talking with our mouths full.
Arthur asks about my recent adventures in Hungary. I give an honest answer.
Mr. Humphrey disagrees and then strokes my ego with released products and how they positively affect my career.
indie_dev_abroad_courting_pricing
Arthur and I discuss about my future outlook on developing games after I move to Tokyo.
Arthur uses the word ‘courting’ which is awesome. Then goes on to discuss Indie developing while abroad.
We agree that you shouldn’t raise the price of a product if you can sell more copies.
pdamill_iphone_snails_billing_tycoon
PDAmill Game Studios is an established mobile brand, therefore many people still search for their games on iPhone. They also got lucky with timing.
Many Casual Game developers weren’t so lucky when moving to iPhone.
The Snails Theme Song (go ahead, download it and compare to my singing… check out my relative pitch skills!) is the catchiest theme song I will ever write, so I might as well retire.
Oh, and Arthur still owes me money. I just haven’t billed him in 3 years.
gamasutra_speaking_development_quality_ROI
I stroke Arthur’s ego by praising his articles in Gama Sutra. He explains how it happened and what he speaks about at game conventions.
We both agree that developers should spend more time/money on development and design to have better quality, and having a longer tail (shelf-life) is better than a high ROI with a short tail.
Arthur gives a humorous account of how at the same conference, during two different speeches, he said completely opposing things to different crowds (but with the best intentions). Basically, Casual Games don’t innovate, and Independent Games don’t sell.
Arthur recounts the success story of Fish Tycoon and how the Sim category for Casual Games was created. He also tells me that I’m not crap
I chime in that Casual Game developers shouldn’t be forced to develop crap simply because that’s what sells.
Arthur praises Steam as the beacon of light for Indie Games. (He’s blessed to be on it)
We both agree that World of Goo is an awesome game.
Arthur is cheating on me! Using someone else for Audio?! How dare he!
audio_work_saving_compact_transformer
Arthur asks if I’m still doing (or went back to doing) Audio work. I tell him I am, for myself. I do great audio work for myself!
I discuss saving up for new tools and software while in Hungary paid off and how I’m taking my whole studio with me to Tokyo. I pimp my portable studio article.
Arthur talks about working in Paris and then calls me a Transformer!
amanda_fitch_amaranthia_scripting_cute_fit
Arthur makes comparisons of my work to Amanda Fitch and Amaranthia.com I blush slightly because I know she’s awesome. We also pimp her games Grimm’s Hatchery and Yummy Drink Factory (no, it’s not beer).
We discuss formal programming and compare to scripting. Arthur thinks I can get a boyfriend at Microsoft because I am cute.
Arthur coins the term nuts and twigs adventures and then praises people like Amanda Fitch once more for shaking up the Casual Games arena with new genres.
conference_speaking_qualifications
Arthur admits that he plugs his games by simply going to conferences and speaking at them. He let’s me in on the dirty little secret of convention speaking. And then tells me I’m qualified to speak too.
Arthur discusses his new plans for future Villager games. We discuss (okay, I just nod my head) that you should stick with the genre of game you like making. Arthur will continue making games even if it stops paying the bills.
A very humorous tale of how Palm didn’t like the name of one of LDW’s early creations.
coffee_buying_content_osmos_value_tracks
We discuss game companies being bought. I say no one wants to buy me anything other than a coffee. We touch on adding value to games and agree that good game design and good content will always win, regardless of the tools you are using.
We both agree that finishing a game is a lot more difficult than starting one. Arthur talks about a cool game called Osmos (I try to compare to Katamari Damacy) and we discuss showing music track names in games (beginning with possibly Ridge Racer)
And… that’s it! I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. I really have to thank Arthur for his time and sharing his thoughts with me, and you, and the world. If you haven’t yet, you should really check out some of his games on the Last Day of Work website, as they’re really well designed games.
So, what’d you think? Did you like it? Is Arthur awesome or what?
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Arthur sounds like a cool guy, I’m impressed J. You’ve surrounded yourself with successful friends… wait, except me? Why do you still talk to me? =P
Because you surround yourself with successful friends
It’s a laddering effect