Interviews// June Industry Insights: Antti Ilvessuo, RedLynx

Posted 20 Jun 2013 15:17 by Svend Joscelyne

Trials Fusion

As part of an ongoing series, SPOnG gets the unedited, open and highly informed opinions of developers, producers and more in the vast world of computer games.

Industry Figure: Antti Ilvessuo
Job Title: Creative Director
Company: RedLynx
Best Known For: Trials Fusion, Trials Frontier, Trials Evolution

You have Antti Ilvessuo and his physics-infatuated crew at RedLynx to thank for the Trials series, a game which brought motorbiking and twitch-based gaming together in a manner not seen since Nintendo's own Excitebike.

Just try and complete a level in Trials Evolution on XBLA without crashing headfirst into a wall and itching for just one more go. It's really less of a sports game and more of a intense platformer with bikes in it. One that features crazy scenarios to boot.

With his finger on the pulse - and the team now working on next-gen Trials Fusion alongside a mobile version called Trials Frontier - we asked Antti what he thought of the upcoming generation, as well as Oculus Rift and E3.

Do you feel that we are entering a new console generation too soon? Or can it not come soon enough? And why?

Looking back you can always say that some generations came out too early, some too late, but in the end they are the children of the present. So what I’m trying to say is that the timing is always right. We can only imagine how much work it takes to plan completely new consoles with new hardware, services, controllers and tens of other things.

We as gamers should be happy about having new consoles or at least look at what a company has released with open eyes.

Ouya and Oculus Rift have generated a lot of positive buzz. How disruptive do you think these products will be when they are released to the public?

In the end it depends on how popular they will become. In any case they are new and, referring to my previous point, we should wait and see what they come up with. Bringing consoles out to consumers is a long road away from the announcement, and if they can pull it off I will take my hat off and salute them.