I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Samuli Syvahuoko, one of the founders of Recoil, the team behind the very cool indie title that’s coming soon called Rochard. In the game you control an astro-miner, John Rochard, who finds an ancient structure hidden deep within an asteroid that proves mankind is not alone. John and his team then find themselves stranded as space pirates trying to use the secret for their sinister intentions. He must use both his wits and mining tools to battle the space pirates, save his team, and find out the secrets within the asteroid.

After you watch this trailer, I’m fairly sure you’ll agree that it looks and sounds both fresh and exciting. So, without further ado, here is what Samuli had to say about the game!

Avault: Okay, first off, a miner? Who came up with that idea?

Samuli Syvahuoko: The whole mining setting was the brainchild of Pertti Kainulainen, the Creative Director of the game. It was a theme he had been thinking about on and off again for quite a long time and the opportunity to combine it with space and gravity was just too good a mix to pass by.

Avault: What were the influences for this game?

SS: Gameplay-wise, there is a succession of excellent platformers that Rochard pays homage to. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, the various Metroids and obviously you can’t have a gravity tool without acknowledging Half-Life 2 from Valve. Theme-wise, the game draws influences from classic science fiction stories, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. I also have to add that the team loved the old Lucasarts adventure games to bits.

Avault: You mentioned your team loving the old LucasArts Games, and one that springs to mind is the Escape from Monkey Island series. Did the quirky humor and clever puzzles from those games have any impact in the way you approached your title?

SS: The Monkey Island series is certainly a staff favorite, as are Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. With Rochard, it wasn’t a matter of delivering a ton of humor and punchlines which was clearly LucasArts’ forte, and far more suited for a narrative-heavy genre such as adventure games, but rather taking an irreverent attitude towards the subject matter.

Avault: What was the most difficult aspect of the game’s production?

SS: Firsts are always hard. The game was the first one the team shipped together, and it was also the first PS3 title on Unity. Also, creating the amount of content in a tight timeframe required a major effort from the team which paid off in the quality of the experience.