Interviewee(s): Roberto Álvarez de Lara, Co-founder of Over the Top Games

Icarian: Kindred Spirits is a new adventure game from the Spanish developer Over the Top Games. With its platforming and shooting, the WiiWare title will invariably be compared to the classic Nintendo franchise, Kid Icarus. We recently sat down with Roberto Álvarez de Lara, one of the developer's co-founders, to find out more.

Icarian is very reminiscent of Kid Icarus. Was that game any inspiration behind the creation of this game?

Both Icarian and Kid Icarus are inspired by the same mythological story: the myth of Icarus. Icarian is based on a different world than that of Kid Icarus. In our game, we explore the idea that after Icarus falls, Nyx (a mysterious winged girl that comes from the Olympus) goes to find him.

What was behind the decision to do a game for the WiiWare platform versus a retail release or the other download services available?

We are a very small indie team of four people! We had to make a game centered on its quality and not on quantity, because our resources were scarce. We also believe that download services will be more and more important in the near future.

Can you tell us a bit about how the game will control? Will it use the Wii Remote's motion or pointer functions? Is this going to be strictly a side-scrolling game or will there be other elements of gameplay as well?

The game plays like any other platformer. You control Nyx with the Nunchuk and flap her wings with the press of a button. A quite funny anecdote is that at first the flapping of the wings of Nyx was done by brief movements of the Wii Remote. It was quite tiresome so we decided to trash that idea.

The cursor represents the powers from the gods that are helping Nyx in her quest. When you aim at certain objects, you can interact with them to move rocks, columns, draw winds and shoot at enemies. The game is 50 percent platformer and 50 percent puzzle.

The game is based around Greek mythology. Can you tell us some of the characters we will be seeing in the game? A possible stand off against Zeus maybe?

Apart from Nyx and Icarus, you get to meet gods as Zeus and Eolus. They help you with new powers and tell you a bit more about what is happening with the human world. Helios, the god of Sun, is also present.

Have you settled on a release date and price point yet? When can gamers get to play this game.

Not yet. The game will be released VERY soon. Thank you for the interest in Icarian. I'll keep you updated about our game.

Thank you Mr. de Lara for joining us today. We look forward to seeing more on this game released in the coming days.