Date: 2006-01-17
Title: Jetro Lauha, the creator of Stair and Truck Dismount
THE BIG DISMOUNT
Stair Dismount was released back in 2002. It wasn’t quite like any other game – in fact it was quite different. Basically you hurled a ‘dummy’ down a set of stairs, from the pivot point of a chosen body part. This game would go on to inspire two ‘sequels’ (including the superior Truck Dismount) and the recently released Rag Doll Kung Fu (authored by Mark Healey).
Stair Dismount is one of those games that I have wasted immeasurable amounts of time on. What, at first, seems like 'mini-game' turns out to be one of the most addictive (not to mention hilarious) games I have ever played. Its author is Jetro Lauha and I finally got around to asking him a few questions. Here we go.
Thanks so much for your time and giving me the chance to interview you. Give the readers a little bit of background about yourself..
Hi, my name is Jetro Lauha, ticking at 27 years and beyond. I live in Helsinki, Finland. Location is http://jet.ro/.
Were you an avid videogame player growing up? What systems did you own and what games did you play?
I never owned any game consoles or computers which were popular for gaming (like C64, Amiga etc), main reason being that I didn't have money to get those. I did have access to some CP/M featuring computer and later PCs (286 etc) so I still played the few games I could, which were based on character graphics at best. My favorite of the early games was a game called "Ladder".
What sparked your interest in coding and what age did you start? What was your first language?
I became interested in programming pretty much when I learned how to read and write. I started to do some simple programs with BASIC. After moving to DOS on a PC, I went through a few different flavors of BASIC. A few years later I switched to Pascal and again to C. Naturally, it eventually led to learning Java and C++ as well.
When did you start to take it more seriously?
Coding was always more or less a serious hobby for me. So I eventually continued to study computer science in University while starting to work as a software engineer.
How did the idea of Stair Dismount come about? Were there any videogames that helped influence these games or any other influences at all?
Idea for Stair Dismount was one of these sudden ideas. I got it after I almost flipped in stairs one day, barely grabbing a handrail. Soon when my vacation started and the game development compo of the Assembly 2002 demo scene/LAN event was getting close, I had a few game ideas I wanted to try, and the Stair Dismount one was the winner. Truck Dismount is one of my other ideas brought closer to Stair Dismount.
I think there isn't any games which strongly influenced creation of these two, so I regard them as being somewhat unique in that perspective.
What language did you choose to code Stair / Truck Dismount in and why?
Both of the games are coded in C++. Main reason is probably that many great libraries like SDL and ODE are available for C/C++.
How long did both Stair / Truck Dismount take to create from start to finish?
Main development took roughly two weeks for each of them. However, those were quite long inspiration driven workdays. Before starting the actual development I had also spent some time researching the needed information but time spent on that is hard to quantify.
Were there any obstacles in the way of getting either of these games finished and released to the public? Was the process of making these games fun or frustrating?
Naturally, especially with Stair Dismount, using a fully featured physics engine was quite new to me, so quite a part of the development went into fixing and tuning the physics stuff. But sure it was all fun. :-)
Was there much planning involved before making these games (did the games come out exactly as you had envisioned them or was there a lot of aspects of the games that got changed as you were going through the coding process)?
I didn't have any exact plans like written out design documents. So I was doing them mostly from the ideas I had thought about, and trying out some things as I was going forward. Truck Dismount is a mixture of a different idea and the Stair Dismount.
Were these full-time projects - did they take up all of your spare time? What was the average day like creating these games?
As I already noted, these were more than full-time projects. That is, they were made during my vacation time, with mostly full-length days going from morning to evening or night. But you get a lot done in that time when you have heap of inspiration and total control over the project, without need to communicate with a big team.
These games have become very successful - is the success greater than you had hoped? Has it created new opportunities for you?
Well, the first Stair Dismount game was only made for the local Assembly-event here in Finland. Of course I had figured out that the game is quite fun, getting all the feedback from my friends testing it out and so on. Still it was a bit of surprise to find out how fast it spread out to Internet.
I have got a few requests for different projects related to these games, but those haven't manifested to anything bigger yet. I have also got - and still do - quite a few interesting job offers. But I haven't took any of them, as it hasn't been a suitable time for me for moving abroad.
Do you like modern games or retro games or a bit of both? Do you like what the commercial gaming industry is achieving at the moment?
A bit of both. :) I think quite a big part of the commercial games offering is uninteresting, so I don't try even demo versions of many of new games. I think most innovative and interesting things pop out in smaller budget indie games (and sometimes casual games as well).
Do you get time to play any other independent or freeware games? If so, do you have any favorites?
Well.. here's a few I have enjoyed: Bridge Builder (renamed to Pontifex), Triptych, Hamsterball, Chuzzle, Zuma, Luxor, N and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I'm not sure if all of those fit the spec though (indie or freeware).
What's in the pipeline for you at the moment? Any new ideas or games on the horizon? Everyone would love to see another sequel.
I have recently created a game called "Pogo Sticker". It's quite different from the Stair Dismount, but it still features physics-based gameplay - just 2D only, with bigger emphasis on learning to play the game.
It's currently available here: http://jet.ro/feats
Do you have a definitive top. 5 videogames?
Well, I already mentioned quite a few games I like, so I'll just mention some more.. I still play Master of Orion I regularly, and the new Civilization IV seems to be quite a nice game. I also enjoy some arcade-like racing games occasionally, FlatOut being a good example.
Thanks so much for your time.
Title: Jetro Lauha, the creator of Stair and Truck Dismount
THE BIG DISMOUNT
Stair Dismount was released back in 2002. It wasn’t quite like any other game – in fact it was quite different. Basically you hurled a ‘dummy’ down a set of stairs, from the pivot point of a chosen body part. This game would go on to inspire two ‘sequels’ (including the superior Truck Dismount) and the recently released Rag Doll Kung Fu (authored by Mark Healey).
Stair Dismount is one of those games that I have wasted immeasurable amounts of time on. What, at first, seems like 'mini-game' turns out to be one of the most addictive (not to mention hilarious) games I have ever played. Its author is Jetro Lauha and I finally got around to asking him a few questions. Here we go.
Thanks so much for your time and giving me the chance to interview you. Give the readers a little bit of background about yourself..
Hi, my name is Jetro Lauha, ticking at 27 years and beyond. I live in Helsinki, Finland. Location is http://jet.ro/.
Were you an avid videogame player growing up? What systems did you own and what games did you play?
I never owned any game consoles or computers which were popular for gaming (like C64, Amiga etc), main reason being that I didn't have money to get those. I did have access to some CP/M featuring computer and later PCs (286 etc) so I still played the few games I could, which were based on character graphics at best. My favorite of the early games was a game called "Ladder".
What sparked your interest in coding and what age did you start? What was your first language?
I became interested in programming pretty much when I learned how to read and write. I started to do some simple programs with BASIC. After moving to DOS on a PC, I went through a few different flavors of BASIC. A few years later I switched to Pascal and again to C. Naturally, it eventually led to learning Java and C++ as well.
When did you start to take it more seriously?
Coding was always more or less a serious hobby for me. So I eventually continued to study computer science in University while starting to work as a software engineer.
How did the idea of Stair Dismount come about? Were there any videogames that helped influence these games or any other influences at all?
Idea for Stair Dismount was one of these sudden ideas. I got it after I almost flipped in stairs one day, barely grabbing a handrail. Soon when my vacation started and the game development compo of the Assembly 2002 demo scene/LAN event was getting close, I had a few game ideas I wanted to try, and the Stair Dismount one was the winner. Truck Dismount is one of my other ideas brought closer to Stair Dismount.
I think there isn't any games which strongly influenced creation of these two, so I regard them as being somewhat unique in that perspective.
What language did you choose to code Stair / Truck Dismount in and why?
Both of the games are coded in C++. Main reason is probably that many great libraries like SDL and ODE are available for C/C++.
How long did both Stair / Truck Dismount take to create from start to finish?
Main development took roughly two weeks for each of them. However, those were quite long inspiration driven workdays. Before starting the actual development I had also spent some time researching the needed information but time spent on that is hard to quantify.
Were there any obstacles in the way of getting either of these games finished and released to the public? Was the process of making these games fun or frustrating?
Naturally, especially with Stair Dismount, using a fully featured physics engine was quite new to me, so quite a part of the development went into fixing and tuning the physics stuff. But sure it was all fun. :-)
Was there much planning involved before making these games (did the games come out exactly as you had envisioned them or was there a lot of aspects of the games that got changed as you were going through the coding process)?
I didn't have any exact plans like written out design documents. So I was doing them mostly from the ideas I had thought about, and trying out some things as I was going forward. Truck Dismount is a mixture of a different idea and the Stair Dismount.
Were these full-time projects - did they take up all of your spare time? What was the average day like creating these games?
As I already noted, these were more than full-time projects. That is, they were made during my vacation time, with mostly full-length days going from morning to evening or night. But you get a lot done in that time when you have heap of inspiration and total control over the project, without need to communicate with a big team.
These games have become very successful - is the success greater than you had hoped? Has it created new opportunities for you?
Well, the first Stair Dismount game was only made for the local Assembly-event here in Finland. Of course I had figured out that the game is quite fun, getting all the feedback from my friends testing it out and so on. Still it was a bit of surprise to find out how fast it spread out to Internet.
I have got a few requests for different projects related to these games, but those haven't manifested to anything bigger yet. I have also got - and still do - quite a few interesting job offers. But I haven't took any of them, as it hasn't been a suitable time for me for moving abroad.
Do you like modern games or retro games or a bit of both? Do you like what the commercial gaming industry is achieving at the moment?
A bit of both. :) I think quite a big part of the commercial games offering is uninteresting, so I don't try even demo versions of many of new games. I think most innovative and interesting things pop out in smaller budget indie games (and sometimes casual games as well).
Do you get time to play any other independent or freeware games? If so, do you have any favorites?
Well.. here's a few I have enjoyed: Bridge Builder (renamed to Pontifex), Triptych, Hamsterball, Chuzzle, Zuma, Luxor, N and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I'm not sure if all of those fit the spec though (indie or freeware).
What's in the pipeline for you at the moment? Any new ideas or games on the horizon? Everyone would love to see another sequel.
I have recently created a game called "Pogo Sticker". It's quite different from the Stair Dismount, but it still features physics-based gameplay - just 2D only, with bigger emphasis on learning to play the game.
It's currently available here: http://jet.ro/feats
Do you have a definitive top. 5 videogames?
Well, I already mentioned quite a few games I like, so I'll just mention some more.. I still play Master of Orion I regularly, and the new Civilization IV seems to be quite a nice game. I also enjoy some arcade-like racing games occasionally, FlatOut being a good example.
Thanks so much for your time.