GamersInfo.net: First of all, who are you guys? Tell us about yourselves, your backgrounds, etc.

Justin Mette: 21-6 Productions was founded five years ago by a bunch of geeks that had no background in the games industry other than being avid gamers. We are based out of Denver, Colorado and now have four full-timers and a large part-time crew working on both independently developed games and game-related contracts using the Torque Game Engine from GarageGames.

GamersInfo.net: Congratulations on taking home two awards from IndieGamesCon. What are some of the challenges you face as independent game developers? Has TubeTwist's popularity helped you face these hurdles?

Justin Mette: Thank you; it was an honor to be recognized by our peers at the most recent IndieGamesCon. We also learned a lot from watching people at IGC play TubeTwist and give us great feedback. The game has improved a lot since IGC due to that one awesome weekend.

Our biggest challenge as independent developers is probably time management (although money is right up there on the list). As a growing company, we have a lot of hats to wear, and managing our time across the many various tasks required to make a game is one of the keys to our success.

TubeTwist is off to a great start, and the popularity does help bring attention to 21-6 and our games - which ultimately leads to revenue, resources and more "time" to get things done.

GamersInfo.net: Where did you get the idea for TubeTwist? How did you manage to keep the Rube Goldberg concept fresh and exciting?

Justin Mette: TubeTwist started as a technical exercise to integrate the Open Source ODE Physics Engine into the Torque Game Engine. Very soon after the prototype was completed and we could see the physics in action, the idea to build a game like The Incredible Machine came naturally.

It did take a while to discover what makes those types of games fun to play, but with the help of gamer feedback and mentoring from some industry vets, we think we managed to find the sweet spot.

GamersInfo.net: One of the reasons I enjoyed playing TubeTwist is because you need to use your brain, but its fun at the same time. How did you determine the right balance between "fun" and "challenging?"

Justin Mette: That's a great question. We started by playing the game a lot ourselves until we found it appealing and fun - as gamers. Then, we let the game loose on an Alpha test team to see what the outside world thought. Feedback at this point is generally all over the map; from playability to looks to overall impressions.

It can be difficult to sort through the feedback and turn that information into a better game. TubeTwist went through some major iterations during its development cycle as we attempted to find a balance between "fun," "challenging," and "entertaining".

Next, we open the game up to a larger Beta team that consists of a wider variety of gamers. Feedback at this stage is much more focused, and generally centers around frustrations people are having with the mechanics of play or how information is presented.

Finally, we soft launch the game on a single portal (GarageGames.com in this case) and see how it resonates with unsuspecting and unbiased gamers. We listen closely to player feedback and read reviews of the game to help determine what final bits of polish are needed to prepare the game for wider distribution.

GamersInfo.net: The game has been completely redesigned since GI.net originally previewed the game in March 2005. What prompted the redesign?

Justin Mette: We presented TubeTwist to a few publishers back in March, and the feedback was unanimous in that the game was fun and looked great, but was missing that final level of polish and production value needed to make it a good seller.

We spent the next six months taking the game to a completely new level of polish, including a new intro/tutorial that not only teaches you how to play, but also sets up the story for the game. The user interface was overhauled, the number of puzzles were increased and made more difficult, cinematics were added to progress the story as you unlock more of the game, movie quality music was created and more.

GamersInfo.net: Who did you design TubeTwist for? Who do you think will enjoy it?

Justin Mette: At first, we were building TubeTwist for us (since it was more of a technical exercise than an intentional game). As the game evolved and we realized the potential, we took a closer look at games like The Incredible Machine to see if we could emulate the core mechanic and fun factor.

The kind of gamer that will likely enjoy TubeTwist will be the "thinker" crowd. There is no clock and there is no score, just you and the machine. It's very much like building a traditional puzzle; many times you have to put the game down and come back to it fresh with new ideas to solve a puzzle that's been stumping you.

That said, we have seen casual gamers and hard-core gamers enjoy the experience of TubeTwist as well, so I guess you might say we are still learning what types of gamers enjoy TubeTwist.

GamersInfo.net: Many experiments have multiple solutions, and some of them are fiendishly difficult. Do you have plans for an official user community where players can share solutions?

Justin Mette: The game does allow you to save an experiment in any state; solved or not. This means you can put a puzzle down and come back to it later with a fresh mind (always a helpful hint with this game).

You can send the experiment to a friend via email, and they can load it up in their version of the game to see how you solved the experiment. We've even heard of gamers having contests to see how few tubes can be used to solve a particular puzzle.

As the game grows in popularity and a community begins to form around it, we will undoubtedly enhance www.TubeTwist.com with galleries and other experiment-sharing features.

GamersInfo.net: Will players be able to design their own experiments?

Justin Mette: There are some technical hurdles involved with releasing the "experiment editor." It has to do with physics and getting puzzles to solve the same on different platforms (Windows, Mac, etc). We do have plans to solve those issues and release the editor in a future version of the game.

GamersInfo.net: What are your future plans, for TubeTwist or otherwise? Will you be working on expansions or moving on to a new project?

Justin Mette: We are working on the 1.1 patch now which will contain performance updates, bug fixes, and likely a new experiment pack. After that, it depends on the opportunities the game can generate. For example, we are hopeful that TubeTwist can find its way into the Xbox 360 Live Arcade.

GamersInfo.net: Anything you want to add?

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about 21-6 and TubeTwist. We hope that everyone enjoys the game as much as we have. Download the free demo from www.TubeTwist.com and see how the journey begins.