VFS students finding early success with Flash game

While most game design students at Vancouver Film School are most excited about getting their final projects out into the world, four students have already experienced success — personal, professional and financial success — designing a video game.

Those four students, Nick Yonge, Darryl Spratt, Luis Melgar, and Jack Nilssen, are the designers behind the side-scrolling Flash game Tideturner. After exhibiting the game at PAX, the team sold it to the website MaxGames. It’s rare for someone just learning the trade to find such early success, and their alma mater interviewed co-creator Nick Yonge for its blog:

How did Tideturner come about initially?

Nick: In our first meeting, we had to create a high concept, and though some of our initial ideas were pretty different from Tideturner, we all liked the idea of a fast-paced game where the character is always moving. After we decided to try our hand at programming a water physics system, we eventually narrowed our design down to what Tideturner is now.

Even though the game was sold to MaxGames, you still have the rights to the Tideturner IP. Any sequel plans?

Nick: Yes and no. After graduation, all members of our team have gone our separate ways to try and fulfill our own agendas. However, we’re still all in contact, and the idea of Tideturner 2 is pretty amusing to us. We’re not sure when development might be, but it’s pretty likely that the game will see a second iteration.

You can read the full blog Video Game Design Expo at VFS is January 22nd to 23rd.