Orla Exclusive Developer Interview for ROMPE!
We had a chance to sit down with Orla and chat with him more about his new game, ROMPE!! Check out the exclusive interview below!
Hi There! Please give us a quick introduction of Orla. What’s your mission/goals in game development?
Hey! My name is Orlando, I am an indie game developer from the northwest coast of Colombia. I like making things that are fun and look really cute, I believe my mission as a game developer is creating experiences that defy you or take your breath on some way. To bring players a good time.
What’s a fun fact that others may not know about you?
I am a great cook! Seriously, I can make some delicious roast beef!
How did you get involved in developing indie games?
When I was about 12, a friend installed the project 64 emulator on my dad’s old Pentium Three, and fired up the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As I watched Link and Epona go through Hyrule Field, I understood this was what I was meant to do. Many years later, through Art school and self studying, I learned all the skill I needed to start making my own games and adventures. Internet forums, YouTube and Twitter have been the main tools into knowing the awesome community of independent creators.
What do you do when you’re not developing indie games?
I am the lead developer for a software company in Barranquilla. Here, I work developing the architecture and implementing the software of a payments solution for small vendors in Colombia.
Let’s talk about ROMPE! now. This super cute platformer where everything you touch breaks is super hard, yet addictively fun at the same time! How did you come up with the concept for this game?
I love platformer games in the style of super meat boy and celeste, so during a game jam with a couple of friends last year i was trying to come up with a fresh way of doing a platformer games on mobile, I had just played downwell at that time, so I ended up making a black and white prototype of what would eventually become ROMPE!:
it became clear the idea was better suited for a console or pc game so here we are.
What was the biggest challenge you encountered in building ROMPE!?
Collisions! As everything you touch breaks, right now every single platforms needs its own collisions, it can get very tiresome to fix the bugs this brings with it. overlapping, getting stuck on walls and so on.
I have learn a lot about handling many objects and creating a very solid character controller so that players can have a really fun time playing rompe.
How do you keep your morale up during challenging game dev stretches?
This is certainly Hard! my main tactic is to have clear short term goals, and putting them on a physical or virtual list that i can get access every morning. small things that get you a little comfort to complete, implementing a new mechanic, revamping some animations, testing a level. get really granular with this tasks and congratulate yourself every time you get to finish one no matter how small.
To keep feeling like you truly are moving forward every day is one of the more helpful sensations you can have.
What lessons have you learned through the stages of development of ROMPE!?
Being organized is really important, the sound and music of your game are not something you want to leave for last, and selling games is freaking hard! GIF images are the best way to show off your game and strong social media presence is a must.
What feature did you develop for ROMPE! that caused you to step outside your comfort zone?
I never made a checkpoint system before! (oddly) so making a multipurpose checkpoint in ROMPE! that resets the scenery and also works as a save point to return once you die, the logistics behind this, not being able to just reload the entire scene sure took me some days to get right. This is one of the things I remember most of the short development time ROMPE! has.
Anything you want to tell the Plexstorm community before we sign off?
I just really hope you check out my game and more importantly that you have a lot of fun playing it!
The full version of ROMPE! is available for download HERE for free, but if you would like to show your support further, you are more than welcome to pay what you think is fair for the game. Be sure to visit and engage with Orla via the game’s official website, Itch.io page, and social media pages below as well!
As always, thanks for reading and keep on streaming! ❤
