Talking Pet Alien DS with Shin'en

Compared to the likes of Ratatouille or even Surf's Up (let alone The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants), Pet Alien hardly ranks high on the list of top kids' cartoons.

Sadly the japes of Tommy Cadle and his five lighthouse-living aliens chums – Dinko, Gumpers, Swanky, Flip and Scruffy – have yet to become schoolground heroes.

But with the squash and stretch-style animation showing in 50 countries worldwide, The Game Factory obviously thought it was worth making a mini-game puzzle-style experience based on the wacky characters. And with German company Shin'en – responsible for DS shoot-'em-up Nanostray – signed up for development duties, we're hoping it could be something of a surprise hit.

So with that in mind, we thought it only polite to ask how it's all going, and invited lead artist Martin Sauter, lead programmer Bernhard Wodok and designer Peter Weiss for a chat.

Peter Weiss: Instead of delivering another action or adventure game, we wanted to create something for the player where they have to use their mind. And from our research on the Pet Alien series, we came to the conclusion that a puzzle game would perfectly fit the different personalities of the five characters.

Martin Sauter: We got very good reference material from the licence holder, which made it easy for our graphic artists to bring the characters to life.

Bernhard Wodok: Using our own 3D engine, we've decided the game should always run at 60 frames per second. It's not always easy to achieve, though, as there's plenty of action on the screen, especially during the final levels.

Peter Weiss: We've created a learning curve where the player starts with some easy levels that only include one of the Pet Aliens. Later on, when the player's learnt the special abilities of each, they must choose between several or all five Pet Aliens to solve the puzzles and to open the exit.

Peter Weiss: We always wanted to include strong teamplay, so we've looked at many of the all-time classic puzzle games and decided which features we liked and which we did not. In many levels, the way to the exit looks clear at first sight, but the player will soon find out that it's not that easy and they need to rethink the solution. There are also many traps and odd situations where the player could go down the drain.

Peter Weiss: The levels are arranged on five floors, which are connected through an elevator. Beginning on the first floor, the player can enter levels which are connected to an already solved level. If you get stuck, you can choose another level and come back to earlier levels when you're more experienced. In the end though, you have to solve a certain amount of levels to activate the elevator to the next floor, which includes defeating the level boss.

Bernhard Wodok: We did not want to include any touchscreen or microphone gameplay inside the main game as this deflects from the puzzles and interrupts the flow. We make heavy use of them in the five mini-games, which are unlocked after each boss fight, though.

Martin Sauter: We've designed five bosses that can only be beaten by an specific Pet Alien. You will fight against a boss after you've got used to the special abilities of Dinko, Gumpers, Flip, Scruffy and Swanky. We're not going to reveal how they can be beaten – no spoilers here. You'll have to find it out by yourself!

Bernhard Wodok: At the moment we're playing the new Strawberry Shortcake adventure simply because we are in the final stages of development on that. We also play a lot Nanostray 2. But beside our games, our team always enjoys a nice round of Elite Beat Agents, Metroid Prime: Hunters and Mario Kart DS.