Oh boy have we got a delicious treat for you, a lengthy two part interview with Mr. FunInfused himself Kris Steele. In this part we’ll get the skinny on what FunInfused Games is all about, dig deep into their new game Valchaos, and find out a the special challenges making this style of game presents. So settle in hit the jump and have a read!

Tell us a little about yourself and your upcoming game Volchaos.

• Fun Infused Games has been making games for Xbox Live Indie Games since 2008 (released our first title Nasty in 2009). We’ve also released games for Windows Phone 7 and Apple’s iOS platform. We specialize in making games that are fun in a sort of old school, back to the basics way — strong gameplay and lots of action.

  Volchaos is a title we will be releasing for Xbox Live Indie Games and PC (likely after the XBLIG release). It’s a 2D retro platformer somewhat in the mold of Super Mario Brothers and the more recent Super Meat Boy title.

What do you think will set Volchaos apart from other platformers?

• Volchaos is going to be a much more action packed platformer than most. In each level, lava is rising up below you which forces you to move quickly through the levels. This adds a lot of excitement where other platformers would be played at a more casual pace. I’ve literally heard people scream as they played the game and attempted to climb up the level before the lava overtook them.

What aspect of Volchaos has presented the most challenge to get right?

• It’s really hard to get the player movement in a platformer to feel right. There are several variables you have to tackle… acceleration, deceleration, jump speed, gravity, etc. It took a lot of tweaking, a lot of testing other games, and a lot of player feedback to get to a point in Volchaos where the player’s movement felt natural. This is imperative to get right in a platformer and a big reason why games like Super Mario Brothers and Super Meat Boy stand out so well, fantastic control that just feels right and never adversely affects gameplay.

You’ve recently gone back over the levels for balancing. Can you tell us a little about your balance strategy? What audience do you have in mind while balancing?

• While I’d like non-platformer fans to enjoy the game too, and I think they can, Volchaos is more suited to casual to hardcore platformer fans. There are 42 levels in the game. I’d expect a casual fan to be able to get through enough of them to really enjoy the game and get their money’s worth but it will take a hardcore fan to finish the game.

  I started rebalancing the game by playing through all the levels and rating them on a difficulty of 1 to 10. After doing this, I actually reordered the levels so they progress from easiest to hardest. This should mostly be the final order though I will likely still make a few changes here and there in the ordering. I’ll also be playing through the levels again and tweaking them so there aren’t any extreme spikes in difficulty going from level to level. I am aiming for a gradual increase in level difficulty that will mirror the player’s gradual increase in skill.

You originally did the art for Nasty and Hypership yourself, correct? What was it like transitioning to an outside artist? Was it challenging to communicate your creative visions?

• I did some of the more basic artwork in Nasty and contracted out for the rest. I did all the artwork in Hypership (prior to the recent iOS version which I contracted out for new artwork). For Volchaos I wanted artwork better than what I create and so I got in touch with EworkProxy.com. They’ve been great to work with and really added a lot of life to the game through what they created.

  For the main character for example, I had a general idea of an Indiana Jones type hero. I gave them my requirements and in turn they created 4 different possible character examples. I was able to look at what I liked best from these examples and through several back and forth iterations, end up with something really cool. It’s important to work with someone that listens to your ideas and can realize them but is also open to sharing their artistic experiences.

Will there be accountant ghosts?

• No ghosts in Volchaos and I haven’t fleshed out the career paths of the enemies in the game. You’ll probably have to wait for Nastier to see more accountant ghosts.

Big thanks to Kris Steel! Check back tomorrow for the second part of this two part interview when we ask Kris what he thinks about distribution platforms, what life is like living with Microsoft as an XBLIG, and what the future holds for FunInfused Games.

It’s out! Read the second half here.