Q:
Please give us a few details about your company - Malabar. What services do
you offer?
A: Malabar is a young company created in 2001. However, we have had a great
deal of previous experience in computer animation and programming. Malabar
is dedicated to game design, computer animation, and software development related
to those fields.
Q:
Could you give us some information about KitoPizzas? What is
it and how does it work?
A: KitoPizzas is our first game. It is oriented to children between the
ages of 4 and 11. Its main character, Kito, is a pizza delivery man.
His goal is to deliver the pizzas from the pizzeria to the three big
heads that eat
them. We have developed twelve different scenarios that Kito must travel
through to reach his goal: a toy planet, an ice-cream planet, an underwater
planet, a space travel scene, a middle age castle, etc.
This game is shown as a TV program. Children watch the game on their
TVs and they play it using their phones. It is shown in Argentina
and other
countries in South America.
Q: How
have you managed to interface your game with the phone?
A: We have developed a hardware interface between the phone line and the
computer. We connect the phone line in one end and the computer serial port
in the
other. We read the tone signal directly from a wdl program as different digits.
Q: I heard
that you have started to work at a new project. Can you tell us a few
things about it?
A: We are now working on two new game projects: GURI GUAZU is a new game
for children. Its main character, Guri, is a little American animal and its
opponent is a fat hunter. Guri try to tease the hunter and set other animals
free in different scenarios. FIRST TANGO IN BA, is a turistic game and didactical
project related to tango. The player can see 3d realtime milongas, learn
to dance tango, and live different adventures of Buenos Aires nightlife.
Q: How
would you describe your max2gs plug-in? What does it do?
A: Max2gs is a max plugin that exports a max scene into gamestudio. It
exports blocks with their textures, sprites, terrains, and place models
and wmb files. It creates the wmp, the wad and the wdl files in one step.
You can read more about it, download the demo version, and the user manual
in www.malabar.tv\software.htm
Q:
Which are max2gs’ advantages over the competition?
A: It is very powerful and simple to use. I don’t know another plugin
that does the same thing.
Q:
Do you plan to keep the low $18 price for your plug-in in the
near future?
A: Yes, but we will add some optional extensions in the next future for
a small fee. These are:
- bake2gs: creates and exports baked textures
- cam2gs: exports cameras animations
You can find more info in the next few days on www.malabar.tv\software.htm
Q:
Please give us a few tips for beginners.
A: Here´s a tip. Look for other styles and uses for games. I think
that games are a very powerful media and we need to investigate and create
new ways to use them. Some of these possibilities are:
- educational uses;
- democratic and participative uses;
- medical uses (related to different handicaps);
- uses related to local cultures.
Thank you a lot, Martin.