Dev Box Interview: WayForward’s Director Sean Velasco

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview series takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. In this week’s expanded Dev Box we are letting WayForward’s Director Sean Velasco provide us some insight into who he is as a gamer, and how he ended up working in the game’s industry.

Name: Sean Velasco
Title: Director
Company: WayForward
Job Description: Designing and directing games from inception to completion. Pitching game concepts, giving feedback, creating mockups, doing level design, sketching ideas out, and generally bothering programmers and artists alike.
First title worked on: “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” (CELL)
Most recent title worked on: “Contra 4″ (DS), “A Boy and his Blob” (Wii)

What game has most influenced you, and why? [Continue Reading]

A Boy And His Blob’s Final Trailer – Beautiful Jelly Beans

The last trailer for “A Boy and His Blob” is below, and much like all the other trailers that have been released for the game, it looks absolutely gorgeous… ya know, for a Wii game. While it may feel a bit like watching a trailer for a children’s movie, grin and bear it, and check out some of the impressive cinematic animations that tell the story of the game as well as a first look at the evil emperor. Start saving your jelly beans and get ready to save Blobonia in one of the most amazing looking action puzzle games ever released when the game comes out on October 13th. [Continue Reading]

E3 ‘09: A Boy and His Blob Preview Interview

Remember David Crane’s completely original NES title, “A Boy and His Blob”? It was pretty amazing wasn’t it? Well, someone at Majesco had the amazing idea to bring it back for a new generation of gamers. And then they went one step further, and got the retro-game-loving WayForward (”Shantae,” “Contra 4″) to to make it, and from what we saw at E3, it’s coming along quite well. In fact, it looked to be one of the best looking games at E3 for the Wii, next to Ignition’s “Muramasa.” All in all, games like this are really making me think there are some really interesting third party titles coming for the Wii this year… and that makes me smile. But, I digress, check out Sir-G’s interview with Majesco Entertainment to find out a bit more about this revived classic. [Continue Reading]

E3 ‘09: E3’s Top 10 Underdogs

E3 2009 may be long gone at this point, but there are obviously still games that people are talking about. This isn’t a list of those games. E3 isn’t all about big announcements for even bigger games – it’s about the industry as a whole, both “big” and “little” games alike. Unfortunately, every year, a handful of really great games, with a lot of potential get swallowed up in the media storm that surrounds the “Halo”’s, the “Mario”’s, and the “anything-with-Snake-in-it”’s. This list is here to make sure you don’t forget the little games; you know the ones that might not make too many Top 10 lists, (I hear there’s only a certain number of spots on those) and hopefully don’t get picked over when their release date comes along. These are the Top 10 Underdogs of E3 2009 (or the best of what you didn’t see). [Continue Reading]