QJ: It seemed to be a quick jump from being just a small project to a full game. So how long was Stay Alive in development?

RA: Stay Alive took about 3 months from start to finish. The first month was spent brainstorming, I think this was probably the most important part of the process and something missing from my previous games. Once I had the very basics down, I play-tested whenever I had a spare few minutes. This turned out to be great as when I was testing I kept thinking "I'd be great if it was like this" or "It needs to be faster"etc... It helped me fine tune the game into something I, at least,thought was fun. 

One of the hardest parts to design/build was the way the player controlled the ship. I really wanted it to feel natural as I've played so many GREAT games where I felt the controls were lacking. I also really wanted to avoid using a 'virtual gamepad'. Once I really got into the development I worked really hard to get it finished. I spent most nights after work on my office until the early hours of the morning developing.

QJ: What was the inspiration for the game?

Well, the main driving force behind the development work was that I really wanted people to play and, most importantly, enjoy a game Imade. I've always been fond of the retro space shooters and platformers and have wanted to make something similar for a long time.I decided that it'd be cool if I combined the two. Also, I reallywanted an excuse to write some 8bit music, that was REALLY fun to make!!

QJ: I learned about the game and was following some of your progress with the popular site reddit. How long had you been on reddit before starting Stay Alive?

I've been an avid redditor for about a year and a half now. I absolutely love the community there. I can easily spend an entire day scrolling down the infinitely long page, occasionally giggling to myself and nodding my head.

QJ: So with game development who would you say has been the biggest influence on you as a game creator?

RA:  I'd say that the success on Minecraft had a huge influence on me. Not in a financial way, but in the way that Notch (creator of Minecraft)was just one guy without any corporate backing. It made my dream seem more possible. I've been playing Minecraft for about a year and a half and most of my time in-game was spent dreaming about a game I could create that people would have fun playing.

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