TheXboxHub interviews

Over the past six months, we’ve been blessed with several stylish puzzlers that focus on shadows: Mørkredd, Shady Part of Me, Iris.Fall, to name a few. Into that fray comes Tandem: A Tale of Two Shadows, the first release from Parisian outfit Monochrome. But rather than toss it on the same pile, we wanted to pry further and see how Tandem: A Tale of Two Shadows differentiates itself. We had the opportunity to talk to Jean-Bernard, co-founder and producer at Tandem Studios, and he was able to shed some light on this role-switching puzzle platformer.

More like Rise of the Deckbuilder, right? Slay the Spire has opened the doors for games like Nowhere Prophet, Monster Train, Fights in Tight Spaces and Signs of the Sojourner, making it a cracking time to be a deckbuilding card game. But while we’re seeing plenty of pretenders to Spire’s throne, none are as thoroughly adorable as Rise of the Slime. We had the opportunity to interview Maris Bunkovskis, the brain that spawned the slime, and he had plenty to say about why you should make room for his game.

There aren’t many games that let you headbutt a ninja out of an open door, before turning to roundhouse a fireman into a bathtub, but Fights in Tight Spaces is that game, and it lets you live out your action movie fantasies. Part deck-building card game, part turn-based battler, and part Jason Bourne, it’s a pile-up of genres. Needless to say, when we were offered the opportunity to interview the founder of Ground Shatter Games and brawn behind Fights in Tight Spaces, we grabbed it with both hands and suplexed it.

Now Jurassic World Evolution is available on Xbox Game Pass too, playable via the the cloud on mobile as well. We wanted to know more about not just how the game came about, and what is planned for the future, but why it has taken so long for Frontier to pull the trigger on the Xbox Game Pass route. That is where Brendon Morgan, producer at Frontier Developments, came in.

When Versus Evil and Run Wild Entertainment dropped a gameplay trailer with added developer commentary for their ambitious RPG, Almighty: Kill Your Gods, back in June 2020, we just knew we had to find out more about the game. Some months on, we were given the chance to sit down with the Creative Director behind the game, filling in some details and finding out why this project should be one that appeals to Xbox gamers. Darran Thomas was more than happy to fill us in on how we'll be hunting, providing and protecting...

Even though some may disagree, games are meant to be fun, and for many that is where party games really do come to the fore. Over recent years the food themed Overcooked! series has been the go-to for anyone looking to combine fun with party rules, but now there's a new challenger for the crown, that of Cake Bash - and honestly, we love it, as our review shows. We sat down with Clement Capart, programmer and director at High Tea Frog in an attempt to understand how the madness behind the big cake fight became reality.

DIRT 5 promises to quite easily be the best DIRT experience yet, with launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, Google Stadia and PC due this November. With many new features, new race types, vehicles and a killer soundtrack, there is much to be hyped about. But we wanted to know more and Robert Karp, the development director behind the game was more than willing to divulge more.

The Xbox Summer Fest Demo Event was a great way of allowing gamers the chance to check out early versions of some of the most hotly anticipated Xbox titles. One of those that stood out amongst all the rest was that of The Vale: Shadow of the Crown. Developed in close consultation with the Canadian Institute for the Blind, The Vale is an audio experience that will have you fighting off enemies, exploring worlds, and losing yourself in a rich narrative. We just had to find out more about how this highly intriguing, hugely immersive title came about, and thankfully the founder and Studio Director of Falling Squirrel - David Evans - was more than happy to take our questions.

Neverwinter is thought of by many as the most in-depth Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG experience available on console. Free-to-play it delivers a world rich in lore, full of quests and containing enough gameplay hours to keep you busy for years to come. It's constantly evolving too - and that is never more true than with the launch of the recent Avernus expansion. We wanted to find out more about how Neverwinter and Avernus sets players up, and reached out to one of the Lead Designers on the game. Randy Mosiondz was more than happy to spare us some time.

E-Line Media have fast made a name for themselves as the creators of gaming experiences that combine with interactive learning opportunities. After first coming to market with the brilliant Never Alone, the team are now back and taking us under the waves with Beyond Blue on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We caught up with their Vice-President of Marketing - Steve Zimmermann - to discover what Beyond Blue has to offer and why gamers should be taking the time to explore the wonderful deep blue. He was more than happy to take our questions...

When we had the opportunity to find out more about West of Dead, via an exclusive interview with the team at Upstream Arcade, we couldn't turn down the chance. And that is where Patrick Martin, part of the art team behind the game, came in...

From the second we heard of Eternal Hope from Doublehit Games, we just wanted to know more. A puzzle-platformer that has been inspired by the artistic stylings of Studio Ghibli, the appeal was immediate. And so we reached out to the team at Doublehit to request a little chat, all in hope of finding out more about the game. Gabriel Oliveira, the Audio Director and Sound Designer on the game, was more than happy to divulge more.

There are already a good few fishing games available on console and PC, however the vast majority of the very best come from those at Dovetail Games. After previously having gathered huge interest from the angling fraternity with the release of Dovetail Games' Euro Fishing, and then rocking up with the nearly as good Fishing Sim World, hopes are extremely high for their next title - The Catch: Carp & Coarse on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We have recently been given the opportunity to check out the game in a hands-off presentation, and so we took that time to quiz the brand manager at Dovetail - Darren Nokes - in order to find out more.

Five years in the making, the emotional action adventure that is Waking will finally be found hitting Xbox One and PC on the 18th June 2020. Partially funded by ID@Xbox and combining third person action with fully voice guided meditation, it promise one hell of an adventure; one that has been influenced by the life of the developer - Jason Oda. We just had to find out more, so grabbed Jason for a little chat to see how Waking has become a reality.

Those Who Remain is a game that has been on our radar for many a month, with anticipation building as the May 2020 release date on Xbox One, PS4 and PC has approached. A scary game that doesn't deal with jump scares, it's intrigued us from the get-go and so when the opportunity came to have a little chat with Ricardo Cesteiro, the co-founder and producer at Camel 101, and one of the main driving forces behind the game, we couldn't say no.