Brick-breaker style games are a dime-a-dozen, so for one to really stand out and shine it simply has to be special. That is exactly what Shatter is, a game that does everything right (killer soundtrack and gorgeous visuals) and offers a fresh take on the classic brick-breaking gameplay. Shatter both blows and sucks, without actually sucking (if you’ve played it, you’d get the joke).
We haven’t heard from Shatter‘s developer Sidhe — who is also responsible for PSP/PSN game GripShift — since their Twisted Metal-esque vehiculure battle game, Blood Drive, so what exactly could the New Zealand-based developer be up to?
Mario Wynands, the managing director and co-founder of Sidhe recently sat down with Joystiq for an interview, and had some interesting things to say on the company:
What we are trying to do, given where retail in general is going, is continue to move towards being independent.
That is, run the studio on the basis of royalties and download revenue alone, as opposed to being somewhat reliant on third-party publishers. We are, I guess, reacting to the market, in line with the strategy we’ve had in place for a number of years now, which is ultimately weaning ourselves off work for hire.
We’re still doing retail products, but trying to do retail products where we are being more selective about partners, more selective about what projects we take on, and continuing to transition the amount of resources that we have working on the work-for-hire side, increasingly to the download space.
Who agrees with the approach that Sidhe is taking?
