L – Before we start, can you introduce yourself and what you do at King.

R – Sure, my name is Regis Geoffrion, the producer of Shuffle Cats here at King.

L – What was your inspiration to go with the cats?

R – Thats a great question and I think it is two things. First of all, I wanted to make it a casual game, so what we did not want to do was a green velvet poker look, a kinda boring card game. There are tons of those out there, we wanted to have a King friendly game, with a great cast of characters, something fun, delightful. That was the idea.

In terms of the theme and process, we come up with 5 different themes. We could of gone medieval fantasy all the way to nautical, to nordic folklore. London rooftops was one in the list, the artists put together what the user interface would look like, what would one character look like and a background in the game.  The team then voted on the five different themes to pick three and then did more work and there were two strong contenders, eventually we voted on the cats and the rooftops.

A very democratic process.

L – Yeah, I’d love to know what the other contender was *laughs*.

*All Laugh*

R – It was the nautical theme.

L – Was it?

R – Yeah, so invision a string of violins, travelling from one island to another. It was really cute.

L – I think the cats was a good choice, I think it reminds me of the Disney film Aristocats,  that is about the rooftops in a London setting. I think for people like myself, it adds a little more magic to the game to give that little bit of Disney feeling to it.

The one thing I found playing the game was, it can be quite tough to get used to some of the mechanics, even from the start if you have never played Rummy before. I get the melds, being three of the same card but I tried to drop one card down and it was not working underneath the meld. How are you going to bring in new players and those from Candy Crush which is easier to pick up? To a game which is inherently quite different from what they are used to?

R – So they are all good questions and super relevant. We did work on that, for example, you would not of known this unless you played our tests but we had 69 levels in the street section. We were still having a bit of that today but players were confused when they got to level 69 asking “Where is level 70” which is a valid question. There was no level 70 because players are the content once you reach Lucky Lane. You are playing with other people, so what we did was cut down the number of levels on the street and made it more of a tutorial level with a gentle introduction into multiplayer and character challenge to make sure you understood the Lucky Charms and that helped alot.

Of course when you are shipping a game to people with some expectations, it is a bit more work for sure.

L – Yeah sure, that makes sense. So, the whole game is featured around the Lucky Lane, what is the progression? Will you be adding more to the Lucky Lane or do they just play against other players, how do people feel like they are progressing? In Candy Crush you had straight levels.

R – Sure, basically we have an XP system that you rank up. So that is the current progression system as you rank up you unlocked new chat packs and Lucky Charms. In the future more things will be tied into the game.

L – So with match making itself, are you able to play against your friends or is just random?

R – For the time being you can only play with random people.

L – I am guessing you cannot say yet if you will be able to play with friends?

R – Laughs

Ed (Kings PR) – Probably can’t say yes or no at this point.

All laugh.

Ed – Fair question though.

R – Honestly, we are just going to see how it goes and take it from there.

L – I havent really had a go at any of the Luck Charms yet but what was your thinking in terms of mechanics wise with it more leaning on the pvp aspect? Being all about slowing down the player or taking points away.

R – Yeah, so Zap attack will take a point away from the opponent, with freeze card, freezing their cards for a couple turn. Plus 1 allows you to start with 8 cards instead of 7 and Kings and Queens give you double points when melding with a set of Kings or Queens.

The idea is we are just looking to be a fun game, we are not looking to be a classic rummy game, we have changed the rules slightly for that. For example, in Rummy you are trying to get rid of all your cards and each time you are melding you are getting less cards but also less opportunities. It can slow down the pace, we dont do that, each time you melding we are refilling your cards to give you more options. We have tailored the game to make it friendly for the mobile experience and not focus on a genuine Rummy game. We thought mechanics like Lucky Charms also add fun, that was the idea.

L – My last question, I saw a couple more characters out there and wondered how they filtered into the story. If it is more about playing other people, I am trying to work out how they filter in and how the story progresses with these new characters.

R – Stay tuned for the exciting new developments down the road!

L – Well, thanks Regis for taking the time to answer my questions and we look forward to seeing more Shuffle Cats in the future.

R – Great, thank you for enjoying our game.

Thanks Regis for the interview, and for King for inviting us to the event in their London Offices. Shuffle Cats is available to download today for free, on Android and iOS through their respective app stores.