The studio was founded year 2000. We are 25 people and based in Helsinki, Finland.

What is RedLynx all about?

It’s about making good games. Games that we would like to play as gamers, and games that offer gamers always something unique, something they haven’t yet got to play.  We try not to restrict ourselves to any individual platform or genre, as there are so many interesting game areas and they all can provide interesting possibilities. So far we have developed about 100 games ranging from small free web-games, mobile games and interactive TV games to far larger titles on N-gage, NDS, PSP, PC and online.

 We at Indie Tank are big fans of the Trials series.  Will we love Trials HD as well? 

You sure will. Trials HD was actually written almost from scratch, only the basic idea, playability and number of important learning points (what could be done even better) was taken from Trials 2 for PC. And as Trials HD overall is far bigger game so there were many important overall improvements and new features, that all took lot of development and provided good challenges. We wanted to make the game easier for newcomers to get in, make the progress more fluent, the game is more responsive and rewarding.  And at the same time the game is both faster to play (if the player enjoys that) and it has more depth and challenge for those seeking that at some point. Then there was a whole new game mode, skill games, which we hadn’t done before. And naturally level editor and level sharing…so many new things, and new things always include some challenges – be they small or big ones.

What's the scariest thing about post production of a game? 

Going through all the imaginary test cases is a rather laborious task. Also sometimes localisation can be pretty scary. Trials HD went pretty smoothly but for example when you have a game that has 300 lines of “you won”.. Translate that to 5 different languages and then you have pretty scary things at hand. And multiple that with 3000 lines of other dialogue.

 Did every feature and idea make it into Trials HD?  If, not what was dropped? 

We all the time, also during the development, create ideas, proto, test them, like them or drop them, develop them further, test,….so yes, there have been things that we thought might be good things, but eventually turned out to be “not-fun-enough”. Actually we had a bit different idea from start how to make skill games…but in the end that early idea just didn’t work. So during developent we re-worked that stuff and created is in a bit different way. And at the end, that choice proved to be totally right!

How long has Trials HD been in development?  What were the biggest problems to overcome? 

A team of 10 people worked hard for 12 months.

There actually were no major problems. We have been making bigger game projects for mobile devices, PSP and NDS, so developing larger games was not such a new thing to us.  In addition, our focus and related core tech has been always targeted for multiplatform.   

Of course there always are something small, new learning’s, things you have to trial and error, when you change the target device – but nothing major. Tools for Xbox 360 turned out to be really handy and well-made, so they were definitely of assistance for XBLA “newcomers”. 

Having said that, as Trials HD still is our first game on Xbox, so naturally had to pay extra attention to learning the platform capabilities and requirements and porting our graphics engine and tools to work on Xbox 360.  

You guys have been promoting a whole new leaderboards system for Trials, what is this all about? 

In Trials you aim to pass a track with minimum faults as fast as a possible.  And with the physics based game play, you can always improve, there is no upper limit.  All that provides an excellent basis for competing, comparing your records with others.  Now with XBLA, we were able to integrate this leader board system with the friend-system.  And when we saw how fun and addictive that was, we got an excellent idea on how to take it even further.  In Trials HD you see how well you have done in comparison to your friends both immediately before and after the ride. However, in many of the skill-games, we were able to build a way, in which the records of your friends are visible in the game – while you play the game.  So you’ll sure see where you have to get to in order to beat the record of your best friend.  That works. So it’s kind of “offline-online” friend multiplayer... best of both worlds.

From the standpoint of RedLynx, where is the gaming industry going? 

Games market in general is an exceptionally interesting market at the moment.  It is at the same overall expanding and growing fast, but it is also undergoing significant structural changes.  There are number of change drivers of course, but internet and rise of digital download channels are definitely among the really important ones. 

If you look at any industries that have undergone major changes, the re-structuring of the whole distribution chain, has many times been one of the most significant changes opening major opportunities also to new players.  In games business this could be even more significant than with many other industries.  The creative talent and development skills in games business often rest at the far end of the (traditional & old) value chain – at the developers’ end.  And that is very much the thing that the end-consumers are paying for.  Now there is finally a major opportunity for talented smaller teams to have direct access to digital distribution and sales channels.

At the same time, this not only provides a sales channel, but also makes it possible to introduce new type of games and game innovations to consumers (this hasn’t been too easy with the traditional retail distribution). Adding into this, that all this can do done in number of price-points (not just on the few high retail prices) – there sure is a basis for completely new breakthroughs.   Overall, we are undergoing a radical and huge change that helps the industry to expand and grow even more.

You've been an independent company for a while, any advice for smaller companies? 
 
Focus on developing a great, fun game. Keep the game rather smaller than expand it with number of features – if that provides you better opportunities to make it an exceptionally fun game to play.  The most important thing that is that you as a developer like what you are doing, that fun and motivation can usually be seen in games.  In order to have better chances for commercial success, try to make the game in a way that it somehow differentiates from the games already out there.  If you succeed with all that, you are a long way already.  After that, believe on what you do, remember that there are challenges ahead, there always are – but hard work carries a long way.  When you get into the commercial questions, you will most likely find good help, but whatever you do, use common sense.  If you are able to develop a great game, the business side may be complex, but it sure isn’t rocket science.  Using common sense is a key thing, simple advice that you won’t hopefully forget.

Are games art or are they just for fun? 

Most of all they are about fun.  Creating games, there is a part of art, engineering, creativity, systematic approach, etc – but most of all it’s about fun. If someone wants to say that “wow.. that game is like art!!” That’s ok, but well, not every game becomes a better GAME whether it’s art or not. In the end, it’s all about fun.

How did it initially feel to be accepted into the Summer of Arcade?

Felt good.  Being pre-selected as part of a campaign in which all the other games were expected to be really good as well, that’s great.  It’s good for the gamers, so it’s good for us.

In more concrete terms, it felt like You tested pretty darn perfect coffee while having perfect time on Trials HD with 0 faults on Inferno II. 

Trials seems to be your most famous series, but isn't the only part of your portfolio.  What about Reset Generation?  Will we ever see that game make a return? 

There are many great games developed during the years, that didn’t become that big commercial successes.  Would be great to see them having a second chance at some point.  However, Reset Generation is owned by Nokia, so it is up to them what will be done with Reset Generation.

RedLynx is one of the biggest independent developers, how are things the same as when the company first started to where it is now?

We wouldn’t say we are one of the biggest, there are many bigger indies out there, doing a great job as well. For us, the basic idea was developing great games that we would like to play as gamers, and that principle has remained. Also, the idea of developing to multiple platforms and in many genres, that has remained.  However, early on – thinking now afterwards – that was almost far too wide a focus (or lack of focus).  Great, it was like that!  ‘Cause the experience and how our competence has developed with number of different types of games, that has been a major development.  So nowadays we pretty much focus on same things, but are more experienced, the team has worked together for a long time, and we have far better resources to develop the type of games we would like to play.  
 
What's next in line for RedLynx? 

Currently we’re making DLC for Trials HD with the same team… and with the other teams, there is one game project not yet public, one casual game for PC, and then we are making iphone games.  

In general, any new games, that we’ll do, we’ll focus on the one core game play thing that we know is great and is also different.  And make that as good as it can be.  And make it for online distribution. And of course we’ll be thinking how Trials could evolve further.

Antti want to note that it would be great to invent a way to travel without flying to different locations around the world. Also a smaller note how to do that in a way that you still don’t have to travel to work like teleportation - since exploding yourself to atoms and back doesn’t sound too safe either. Maybe some short of tube that people travel around the world 5000 km/h per hour? Let’s see. Maybe new games are still safer bet for us to focus on.

In terms of downloadable content, anything planned for Trials HD? 

Yes, there is a DLC coming, we are working on it right at the moment.