Talking PSP Minis with VEMPIRE developer Impressionware

The excitement over Sony's PSP Minis initiative for indie developers to get small games released digitally for PSP is already building, despite it not launching for another month.

One of the first original games to be out then will be Impressionware's Puzzle Quest-inspired VEMPIRE.

We caught up with MD Luigi Fumero to find out how the Italian company got involved with Minis, how the game evolved, and what's happening next.

Luigi Fumero: When news came out that Sony was going to come up with a channel for smaller titles - I think it was during E3 - we got in touch and as we were already developing games for PSP, we managed to get more info and decided it was worth investing on a title to be ready for PSP Minis launch.

VEMPIRE is a game we've been working on and off on various platforms without ever releasing it.

The very first version with a totally different theme was made in 2003. The only thing left from that version is the rotating blocks mechanic, the rest is all new and is the result of a lot of iterations.

We wanted a casual game that was a bit different from the rest. I think the market has enough jewels, little ponies, cute fairies and similar casual games. So we went for a different look and theme.

In VEMPIRE, you are a young vampire trying to beat the other ten monsters and conquer the monster empire. The art style is still cartoonish, but a bit darker than the average match-three game.

Gameplay-wise I am a big fan of Puzzle Quest but I think it is too complex for players looking for a simple gaming fix.

Can you explain how VEMPIRE is more than a classic match-three game?

For a start it is a match-four game! Apart from the joke, the game asks the player to rotate blocks to form rows or columns of four or more blocks of the same type. These gets destroyed and will give the player points, mana or gold. The player needs to destroy enough blocks before the time runs out.

Mana is important because it allows the player to summon minions. VEMPIRE is a very casual game so the summoning will happen automatically. The player just needs to collect the mana in the right order. No mana is stored - if the mana sequence is correct the minions gets summoned. All the player has to do is do the right sequence.

Minions are bought in the shop between the levels. So the player will only start with one type of minion. Five more can be bought later in the game. Minions give advantages to the player, like slowing down time, destroying blocks etc.

Each of the ten game worlds has a boss monster. This monster will pop up every once in a while and cast his nasty spell and make life harder on the player.

Luckily every three levels there will be an optional level that the player can try to beat to win an artifact to help in these battles. There are nine artifacts the player can win, but he can only equip four at once.

The whole game can be summed up as: different block types, buying and summoning minions, tackling the monsters, and equipping the right artifacts.

Impressionware and Idoru (another Italian developer) have been working for a while now on titles together.

We have decided to start a third company into which both Impressionware and Idoru will put their effort and work on multi-platform titles. We are going to get into publishing as well (physical publishing as well as digital), first with our own titles (we will announce the first DS, PC and Wii title very soon), then with other developer's titles too. It is quite exciting.

We are definitely going to pursue the digital delivery and self publishing route. Impressionware will work on publisher funded titles as it has always done and on titles with the Double Jungle initiative but in parallel, we will from now on always keep working on one or two smaller titles for PSP Minis, DSiWare and maybe iPhone.

I should also add that VEMPIRE is 90 per cent ready on DSi so it will hopefully come out by the end of the year on DSiWare, and we are still deciding whether to port it to iPhone too.

Stay tuned for more news from us. We have already started working on a new title to follow up on VEMPIRE.

Thanks to Luigi for his time.