Bill Kendrick Interview at OSNews

Bill Kendrick writes: "When I thanked the folks at OSNews for mentioning me in their interview with Michael Speck their response was a list of questions for my own interview. Well, I've answered them. Enjoy! While I'm glad some people consider me 'up there' in the ranks of Open Source game development, I honestly think there are far more deserving folks... Like Sam Lantinga, Steve Baker, and the people developing FlightGear, to name a few."

Thanks

[bobwilkins]

My kids Thank You

Glad to see you getting some props, Bill.

[MaxQuordlepleen]

My two-year old loves Tux Paint, and I am a huge fan of Defendguin. Unlike many other people who turn out "retro clone" type games, you seem to have a real skill for capturing the spirit and excitement of the old time arcade and console games. Circus Linux is a great example, it really is a worthy successor to good old "Circus Atari"!

I have a question for you, actually. About how many man-hours does a typical game take? I'm a programmer but I don't do games or graphic stuff (usually try to stay away from UI if I can :]), how much time does it take to get it "just right"?

Re:Glad to see you getting some props, Bill.

[Bill Kendrick]

About how many man-hours does a typical game take?

I seem to have this knack for whipping out a playable game in about 2 days. It doesn't mean it's complete, by all means. It just means it can be demoed. (Well, actually, Bug Squish was such a simple game, that it really did only take about 2 days to get a first 'finished' version out the door.)

Of course, as with all Open Source stuff, my games are never done. (Either I just didn't get around to finishing them, or there's just little tweaks or patches here or there that come in months or even years later :^) )

I really enjoy your work.

[heffel]

As a former Atari Computer user myself, I really enjoy your port of old Atari favorites. My favorite ones are Circus Linux! and Mad Bomber. I used to be a Kaboom! junkie back in the 80's.

My first computer ever was an Atari 800, which was a hand me down from my uncle, in the mid 80's, I was in junior HS at the time. I wrote my first lines of code on it as well. Eventually it died and I got a used 1200XL while in high school, which died as well in the late 90's, by then I decided it was too obsolete to get another Atari 8 bit, and went "computer less" until my 3rd year of college, when I took a student loan to buy my first PC.

In summary, been a former Atari 8-bit enthusiast, moving to a Linux enthusiast as well, I really enjoy your work.

Thanks for bringing back such fond memories.

Heffel

Typo correction

[heffel]

My 1200XL died in the late 80's not 90's. (I wished it had lasted that long).

Heffel