Color Guardians Q&A with Art Director Felipe Cartin

Color Guardians is a unique take on the platforming experience which will surprise many gamers who simply judge a book by its cover. Despite it’s endless runner appearance, Color Guardians is a platforming adventure with all the varying worlds, secret encounters and boss challenges that fans expect from the genre.

This colorful, playful sprite based entry is more akin to a rhythm game than an endless runner; each stage challenges players to switch lanes, jump, maneuver, alternate characters all while dodging enemies, collecting power ups and navigating the world for unlockables and hidden areas.

Felipe Cartin, the Art Director and Producer with Fair Play Labs, provides insight into what players can expect in Color Guardians and his outlook on designing games.

Q: What is your design philosophy for creating games?

Well, we like to think of games with the philosophy “Easy to get into, but hard to master”. We really love games that provide a challenge, and have enough depth to differentiate amazing players from good players.

Q: Color Guardians has a unique art style that pops with vibrant colors, what was your inspiration?

We are huge oldschool fans. Games like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64, Sonic, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot. All of these were huge inspirations in making the style of our game.

Q: How difficult are the 15 hidden levels to reveal? Do players need to do something special in certain levels or will they unlock naturally while completing sections and collecting items?

15 hidden levels have to be unlocked by collecting all tokis from that specific environment, that are hidden throughout the world of Terracolor.

Q: Can you describe how the boss levels work? This seems like a new mechanic and interesting twist on the standard obstacle driven action sidescroller?

Boss levels are divided into 2 sections. First section involves a chase in which you need to take speed advantages when you can while avoiding all sorts of obstacles. Second stage involves the villain Krogma blasting stuff at you while you try to hit him with bombs that appear in the way.

Q: How does Color Guardians differ from other games that you’ve worked on?

This is our first game for a next generation console. We have worked on games for PC/Mac, iOS, Android, Ouya and other platforms, but a first for PS4! This is our second game on PSVita.

Q: Were there any challenges in developing for the PS4 compared to other platforms?

Yes. Our challenges were mostly with Sony’s TRCs and making sure we follow all big list of requirements. Several of them meant that we had to change alot of stuff on our logic. But the biggest challenge was art. This was our first PS4 game and we knew we had to step it up. We took alot of time to polish all assets, improve polycount, textures, characters, etc.

Q: I’m a huge trophy fan…how did you determine what trophies to include within Color Guardians?

We had lots of rounds to tweak the trophies. We wanted to make sure they were fun, achievable, and made sure they presented a challenge!

Q: How many players do you think will get the Platinum?

This is a tough question. If the player can finish the game, it is very certain that they can achieve Platinum 😉

Q: What was the first game (published or unpublished) that you created?

The first game we were involved with was a prototype RPG named Ecovolution for Gameboy Advance that never made it to the stores. We have learned A LOT in all those years and have made a lot of games.

Q: What advice do you have for developers trying to break into the industry?

Keep going at it, and don’t get disappointed if your first project doesn’t make it 🙂

Random Question: What is the first game that you can remember beating?

I think it’s Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES 🙂 I finished the whole game, and then moved on to
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, which unfortunately never beat 🙁

RANDOM FACT: I’ve beaten Star Fox 64 at least 150 times. I was a huge fan of that game 🙂

Color Guardians is available for the PlayStation 4 (cross-buy and cross-save) and Steam on May 12, 2015. Please check out Fair Play Labs to learn more.

Level Up, Friends!