What's that you say? You want me to interview another game developer? Me? Little old me?! Well you had me at interview... Time for another of Morgan's red carpet appearances. What to wear this time? Hmmmm yes! I'll be wearing my fabulous lavender gown I wore for senior prom. OK...so I can't seem to zip it up all the way… and some of the sequins came off. But the show must go on! My adoring fans need me! Some safety pins and duct tape and I'm good to go!
Today, I'll be interviewing Pallav Nawani, Co-Founder and Senior Developer at IronCode Gaming, about the new upcoming release of
Pahelika Revelations. This new and exciting adventure game is a sequel to the game
Pahelika: Secret Legends, which I remember playing not too long ago. If I recall, the game ended in a cliffhanger… leaving us wondering what was going to happen to the main character. I also recall screaming at the top of my lungs at that point and fighting back the urge to throw the computer out the window… you know how I hate not knowing what comes next…
Anyhow… let's see if we can get some dirt on what happens in this upcoming sequel…
Question 1. Well Pallav, I see that IronCode has been around since 2009. Can you tell me a little bit about your company, where you are located, how big is your team, (and what happened in your life to make you want to torture me like that and not tell me the rest of the story… keep it together Morgan… don't show your hand yet! Keep smiling...)
IronCode Gaming was incorporated on Sept 11, 2009, but we've been making games as indies long before that. We started in 2003, and were just two people. We've made 5 games in total, including Pahelika: Secret Legends.
After the success of Pahelika: Secret Legends, we were able to form a small company. We're now 4 people, so we're still very small. We are currently based in Dehradun, India.
Question 2. What exactly is Pahelika? Does the word mean something? Where did that word come from? Is it a made-up word or is it something else? (Tell me what it means?! What is the secret of the book?!)
Pahelika is a derivative Hindi word, meaning 'Book of Puzzles'. The base word is the Hindi word 'Paheli', which means 'a puzzle'. You could say it is a made-up word, but the word has been derived according to the rules of Hindi grammar, so it is actually a legitimate word.
Question 3. Ok, Pallav is obviously not catching on to my agitated state. Let's see if I can carefully get this story out of him without scaring him away… or hitting him over the head with my shoe... So, where did the story of Pahelika come from? Is it something out of an old legend or did you come up with it yourself? What was your inspiration?
We came up with the story ourselves. I have always loved ancient stories and legends that were told to us as children, and I thought it fantastic if some of those legends were actually true! So that's how I came up with the concept of there being an old legend in the family, and the legend being actually true. As for the story itself, India is a land of legends and stories, and it was not hard to take inspiration from some of them to come up with one of my own.
Question 4. OK I had enough… no more sidestepping the issue… Dude… You really left me… I mean us... hanging in the first game Pahelika: Secret Legends! Does this new game pick up right where the last one left off? Will we discover the secret of the magic book? What is the story behind this new game? TELL ME!!!!
Yes indeed it does. At the ending of Pahelika: Secret Legends, the player was able to acquire the book, and he even went so far as to open it right away! The book possesses powerful magic, and you don't mess with that kind of magic without there being some sort of consequence!
Stepping into the shoes of the unnamed adventurer, you will eventually learn many things about what had happened in the past, how the contraption came to be, and eventually, how the greatest threat this world has ever faced came into being. The magic book will play a very important role in this affair - but its secrets will remain secrets!
NO!!!! NO MORE SECRETS PALLAV! You can tell me, I swear I'll keep it to myself… and the Casual Game Guide crew too… they promise too!! It won't leave this website!)
Question 5. OK, let's try a different approach… Have you added any new features to Pahelika: Revelations that were not in the previous game? Will the game play be the same? Will there be hints for users? (Will it have an end?! Will I know what happens to the main character? Why won't you talk?!!!)
Yes, we have made a lot of changes to the engine that powers Pahelika: Revelations, but most of these changes are under the hood. To talk about the changes that are visible - I think players will like the increased resolution of the game and the richly detailed art, the game is much more interactive this time around and there are a lot more animations, but I believe the most visible change is the addition of a highly requested feature. Now when you mouse over the objects in the inventory, the names of the objects will be shown. In addition, the player inventory itself has undergone a change, now you can hide it to see more of the scene. Also, we have improved the music playing abilities of the engine, hopefully that will manifest in better immersion in the game.
The gameplay is largely the same, picking up objects and using them to create other objects or to solve puzzles. One important change we have made is that no puzzles are repeated - you won't see the jigsaw puzzle twice in the game, for example. Now you can select between two challenge levels and what's more, if any time you feel the game is hard/too easy, you can just go back to the options menu and change the challenge level any time.
There will be automatic hints for the players (as in the last game) for the casual challenge level. Automatic hints will trigger if the game detects that the player is having trouble with some particular part. There is no separate 'Hint Button' in the game, because we feel it reduces player immersion in the game.
Question 6. I don't think he's going to crack guys… we might have to actually wait till the new game comes out…. I HATE WAITING… IronCode has some really great games that you have produced so far. What has been your favorite project/game to work on so far? Why?
Favorite game to work on was Turbogems, because it was really a proof-of-concept game. We wanted to prove that you could make a successful casual game with a space theme. Also, we were looking to make a highly polished game for the first time. So it was fun to work on, although the game was unsuccessful. If you want to ask which of my games I like to play the most, it is Riotball.
Question 7. Pahelika: Revelations will be released the end of September. (Yes that is a long time for me to wait… what will I do until then to amuse myself? Can't I have it NOW?) How long did it take your team to create this new game?
Almost 21 months, although we were just two people for about the first 6 months, and our latest team member only joined 9 months ago.
Question 8. Can you tell us what new and exciting projects we can expect from IronCode in the future? Will there be a third game in the Pahelika series? (Are you planning on torturing me some more with another cliffhanger? Because I know where you live now… and I can be extremely annoying. Just ask my brother… I make this really annoying sound like a bullfrog… I can do that for hours and hours on end. Just remember that.)
To be honest, I don't know what our next project would be. I have a couple of ideas, but they are ambitious projects and would need a lot more than 4 people to accomplish.
Also, after 4 years of working on Pahelika series, we're sort of burned out on adventure games, so our next game probably isn't going to be a Pahelika sequel. However, we do really like the world of Pahelika, so I think it likely that we will continue the series.
Well… remember what I said Pallav. Bullfrog noises right in your ear. I mean it! No more cliffhangers! My fragile spirit can't take them! I need to know! The world needs to know! And you better believe that I'll be the first one to download Pahelika: Revelations! All you gamers, get ready and download the first Pahelika if you haven't done so already so you can be prepared like me to finally know the secrets the magic book holds for us. We can't wait Pallav! Thanks for talking with us!
Pallav Nawani is the CEO of IronCode Gaming.
IronCode Gaming is a small, 4 person company engaged in developing fun games for everyone. At Ironcode our motto is quality, inclusiveness, and accessibility - we want to create high quality games that everyone can just pick up and have fun with.
