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Interview with the Alternative Shift Team, the developers of Not Not

Do you love games that challenge your brain? Does finding a game that forces you to “Think Faster” rather than simply “React Faster” make you giddy with excitement? If so, today we’ve got a game and an interview you need to check out.

Today we would like to share with you our interview with the Alternative Shift Team, the developers of Not Not. Check out our puzzling review here.

Before we start, we’d like to thank the Alternative Shift Team for participating in our interview, and for spending some of their valuable time answering our questions. Thanks guys!

Now without any further ado, our interview begins.

 

Ok first up, why did you decide to make Not Not? Was it just some random spark of inspiration, or was there something deeper?

I guess it’s something in between! The first intent was to create a fun mobile game requiring the least effort to understand the gameplay, and swiping is one of the most natural interactions on a touch device.

Based on that, we created the simplest form of game mechanics focused on this swipe move: you read a written – more or less – complex instruction, your brain processes the instruction, you execute the correct gesture. We found this simple brain-hand coordination very fun and wanted to explore a game design around it (especially with drunk friends😜, Not Not is quite tricky if you’re drunk).

 

Although the concept is simple, actually managing to play Not Not is quite a challenge… Do you have a secret method of testing Not Not, or are you just the world’s best Not Not player?

We did research on the time the brain needs to process a written stimulus. Then we tested our level balancing on real players to adjust the difficulty. So you might think the game is difficult but it’s more a feeling than a reality because the game is made to trick your senses very progressively (Sorry about that).

 

We love the simple design featured in Not Not. Was creating the graphics in Not Not a difficult task to undertake?

The difficult part was to find the best design to serve the gameplay. That’s why we chose a minimalistic design: we wanted the player to focus on the important part of the game.

 

Now for some geeky questions. What programming language and or software did you use when making Not Not?

We used Unity and C#. Unity is a good way for us to port the game to several platforms with minimal development costs. (The game will soon be available on Android). 

 

Ok, here is a difficult question. What was the hardest problem you needed to overcome when developing Not Not?

The hardest part wasn’t a technical issue. In fact, the main challenge was to find the right playability model, with a good balance between difficulty, player frustration and a player’s ability to crack puzzles. 

 

Last question. Where do you get your inspiration or ideas from?

We play a lot 😃  We love video games and we always try to understand the game mechanics that make us love them. So we tried to create the game we wanted to play!

 

A few words to Not Not fans on Edamame Reviews.

We will launch Not Not worldwide (Android included) in May.

 

Lastly a few words on how you feel about Edamame Reviews and our service.

As Japanese food lovers, we really like edamame😃
The reviews are truly relevant and the website is pleasant to read.

Love this quick interview with the Alternative Shift Team?

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Let us know your thoughts on Twitter at @Edamame_Reviews

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