huge experimental risks when it comes to design that a large company that invests millions of dollars just cant afford to take. It also means you can stay honest and have the freedom to say or do whatever you feel like doing in your work. If i feel like telling people to fuck off in a game I can, that isn’t something you can do in the mainstream. You were one of the first artists to use flash to design an online game...now the web is flooded with them....most not very good. What do you see being the next big thing in video games? Honestly I’m not sure where video games are heading... I’d like to think other independents will start taking bigger risks and make more personal and experimental games that push video games as an art form, but like you mentioned, the online game market is flooded with copy cat crap and that doesn’t help. I think either way there is still a market for what I do, a growing community of gamers and artists who appreciate what I’m attempting. So you never know, meaningful art games and experimental game play could be the next big thing. Where do your creepy characters come from? Who are some of your favorite artists? I was an animal control officer for over a year in Santa Cruz. I did a lot of my creature designs while I was between calls and most were inspired by roadkill so I’m sure a lot of that still comes through in my work now. As far as other artists go I’d say my main inspirations are: John K., Sam Keith,
David Lynch, Tim Burton, Lloyd Kaufman, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Does music have any influence on your art? Who are some of your favorite bands? Music has a huge influence on my art. A lot of the themes in my work come from feelings and ideas I get from songs I’m listening to. When I was younger I was very inspired by Nirvana, Tool, NIN, and Radiohead. More recently I’ve been listening to The Mars Volta, Melvins, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Godspeed, MGMT and Beck. So, now that this collection is out, what’s next? Any games we can look forward to? Yeah I’ve released a game called Grey Matter that just missed the CD’s release. It’s an anti-shooter that plays inside the brain of someone plagued by mental illness. I just finished up Meat Boy 1.5 and will be starting on another experimental game called Onion later this month. Alex (co creator of Gish) and I are working on a pack of arcade games that we hope to release on PC/Xbla early next year. One of the more notable games on it is a 2d shooter where you fight against an army of Hitler clones. What are your top 5 albums of 2008? Beck - Modern Guilt Boris - Smile The Mars Volta - Bedlam in Goliath Melvins - Nude with Boots Strapping Young Lag - The Chaos Years