Dusan Kostic was kind enough to talk to us about life on a small development team, how Paprikari got started, and where exactly such a crazy name comes from. Curious? Keep reading.

CR: Tell us a little about Paprikari: Who are you, what did you do before this, and how did you get into casual games?

Duke: Paprikari is a team of two from Serbia: Dusan Kostic (programming) and Aleksandar Kostic (artwork). Aleksandar and I go way back to 1988. At the time we were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, we were already sharing the same dream - making computer games and having it published “abroad”. The first game we created was a war strategy game for Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum computer. Unfortunately, by the time we finished it, the golden days of Spectrum were gone.

Our next platform was Commodore’s Amiga. We worked on a point-and-click adventure game for almost two years. It was supposed to be something rarely seen on Amiga platform - a full high resolution game (640×512 in 256 colors). But it was an on and off hobby work - we were still in high school at that time, and afterwards went to college in different parts of the country. It was also a resource-heavy game, so after two years of development we were at about 30% of game completion. In the meantime, we developed a take on “Color Lines” game called “Lineae Coloris” and had it distributed in UK shareware channels and reviewed in the “CU Amiga” magazine. Then we went to our lives and careers for a couple of years. Aleksandar was working at a large Serbian broadcasting company, and I got a job in a computer shop. After he left the TV company, Aleksandar was working as a freelancer doing TV commercials and music videos. He also created computer graphics for two Serbian motion pictures, for one of which he received an award for special effects on a movie festival.

CR: Tell us a little bit about life as a casual games developer. What is a normal day in your office like? What do you think is different about your life than that of, say, a Playstation 2 game developer in Santa Monica? Would you trade places with them?

Duke: Being a team of only two and living in two cities 300 kilometers apart, we wouldn’t really have much use of an office. We do all of our work from home. A “bedroom developer” as they call it. In the old days of Amiga it was very difficult for us to function as a team this way. Today, we thank the one who invented broadband internet. Also, being best friends and teammates for almost 20 years, we “tuned our brains to the same frequency” and understand each other perfectly, so we function very smoothly as a team. Being independent developers working from home, we enjoy the benefit of working at our own pace. But this has its drawbacks too. Having no real obligation to work 9-5 every day, times come when you just can’t put yourself to work. Luckily, the other team member is usually at his peak at that time and that helps restore the motivation.

As for trading places with a developer in Santa Monica, I’m not sure… Santa Monica is undoubtedly a much nicer place to live in, but also a much more expensive one. And this means a great deal to a small independent studio such as ours.

CR: We have to ask, where does the name come from? What is a Paprikari?

Duke: Paprikari (the plural of “paprikar”) is the common nickname for the people of our hometown of Leskovac. It means something like “the paprika people”. It was given by people of other cities based on a fact that many people from Leskovac and surrounding villages grow the paprika vegetable and sell it on markets all over the country. When the time had come to name our studio, we were brainstorming all sorts of names off the top of our head. We knew from the start that we wanted something unusual, so “Game masters”, “Bitmap studios” and the like were out of the question right away. One of us shouted “Paprikari” as a joke, but then we looked at each other and said “why not?” Besides, you can’t possibly miss us on Google with a word this uncommon.

CR: DDD Pool is almost a “gold standard” for downloadable pool games. How do you take an idea as simple as a pool game and make it something that is a winner/ What differentiates you from other pool games?

Duke: Thank you. I can’t describe how warm it makes me feel when I hear something like this. Really makes me feel we made a difference with our game. First, a brief history of how DDD Pool came to be:

In 2003, after a couple of years of pause from game development, my programming fingers started itching again. I haven’t done any programming on the PC before. I chose C++ for the language of my choice and DirectX for a graphical interface. Now all I needed was some theme for a minor project to learn C++ and DirectX while working on. At that time, my son got interested in the pool game and was playing some freeware 2D pool on our home PC. I got an idea and I told him: “Just wait for a while, son. Daddy’s going to make you a real pool game”. And that’s how it started. Simply as a test project to see if I can cope with this “new” technology. Bear in mind that until then, all game programming I did was done in machine code, so C++ and DirectX were all new to me.

Two months later, I was making some nice progress and learned about the downloadable games market. This market is really a great opportunity for small independent developers. We would have never made it into games industry if all there was the AAA retail market. So, I checked out what other pool games were on the market and thought “we can make a game at least as good as those”. Even most of the AAA pool titles had poor graphics at that time (I really can’t imagine why). I introduced Aleksandar to the idea, and our old dream sparkled up again. But this time, it was a viable endeavor, thanks to the Internet and downloadable games market.

I knew from the start the artwork is going to be good (Aleksandar can’t fail at that). What gave me most trouble was physics. I was convinced there must be tons of documents on this matter on the Internet. But there wasn’t. Only a few, and not written for games developer. So I took the basics from one of the texts and then built upon it with lots of experimenting, improvising and tweaking. The final result was quite satisfactory. The ball movement really feels pretty natural, with one major flaw that the physics is only two-dimensional, but that obviously does not reduce the fun and enjoyment too much. We made great effort to make the game as easy and comfortable to play as we can.

CR: Tell us about Crime Puzzle. Where did the idea come from? What do you think really sets this game apart from other casual games? How was making this game different than making a pool game?

Duke: As soon as we published DDD Pool in September 2004, we begun discussing what our next game is going to be. We wanted to do something different this time, something that appeals to much wider audience. With matching games being quite popular at the time, we decided to do our take on it. At first, it was supposed to be about pirates. But soon Aleksandar went to vacation and was reading some of the Agatha Christie’s novels there, so when he came back he said: “Forget the pirates. We’re doing detectives”.

Learning to “think 3D” was hard enough for me while making DDD Pool, but going back to 2D was equally as hard. They are really two completely different philosophies. The game was supposed to be out before Christmas, but eventually it took until July next year. When I started it out, I thought “Man, I just made a 3D pool game; this game must be a piece of cake to do”. But game development is not only about programming. The design takes equally as much time, sometimes more. When you want something to come out right, it takes time. And then there’s testing, balancing, polishing… It all adds up, especially since we did it part-time.

CR: Tell us about your customers – who is the typical player of DDD pool, and who is the typical customer of Crime Puzzle? How are they different? How do you reach these customers and tell them about your games?

Duke: We’ve had customers from all over the world. DDD Pool customers are 70% male and 30% female, with the opposite being true for Crime Puzzle. We don’t have any more detailed information about our customers, except for a number of them who called for support or to give a thumbs-up. DDD Pool customers mostly come from shareware websites, Google searches or press releases in online and paper magazines. Crime Puzzle is more of a casual game, so most customers find it on casual game portals. We’ve had a couple of hard core pool players email to say they really like DDD Pool, and that “there is no such thing as a free shot”. I then point them to the official UK pool rulebook and they go “Wow, I’ve been playing pool for so long, and didn’t know about this”.

An anecdote: Aleksandar was working with some people on a TV commercial and one of them saw the Paprikari logo on Aleksandar’s cell phone. He asked “What is this logo doing on your phone?” and when Aleksandar explained that he is one of the Paprikars, the guy literally gave him a hug and said “Do you know me and my friends hold tournaments in DDD Pool each Saturday night?” He then immediately called his friend on the phone to tell him who he’s just met. There is really no higher reward for our work than this.

CR: Tell us a little bit about the “indie game community” – who is making these games? Where do they come from? What are they like? When our readers try to imagine who is getting paid when they play these games, who should they picture?

Duke: I imagine they are mostly people who got hooked on games in the early days and sooner or later decided to try creating some of their own. They come from all over the globe, from North and South America to Europe to Australia. Most of us are doing it part-time, striving to become enough successful to go full-time. Others are doing it as a hobby, for the pure joy of it. It really is a joyful experience. Lately I’ve heard of many people going out of the mainstream games industry and becoming an indie.

CR: What is the most exciting part of being an independent game developer?

Duke: Being your own boss, working at your own pace, making games you would like to make, seeing them presented to worldwide audience, building your own business and learning new things along the way. There are really very few non-exciting parts. The most exciting part of creating a game is usually the first half of development: Designing the game, coming up with new ideas and putting them to life, adding new features on a daily basis. After that, the somewhat less exciting part follows, where progress is not always immediately visible. The interface, protection system, extensive testing and balancing, polishing…

CR: So what are you working on now? What’s the next big thing from Paprikari?

Duke: We are currently working on two casual games. One is at about 80%, and the other at 10%. Both are the subject of negotiations with publishers, so unfortunately I can’t reveal anything about them. If all goes well, the first one should see the light of the day in about three months, and the other one soon after that. We are going full-time now, so people can expect to see new games from Paprikari at higher rate than before.

CR: Well, thanks again for talking to to us today! We look forward to seeing what you guys put out. You can read more about Paprikari and download their games at their website, http://www.paprikari.com/. Check back soon for more reviews, features, and previews!