Mat@MDickie.com
Joel Striker's Interview














 


~ March 2009 ~
Joel Cull is a young fan who enjoys my games all the way from Australia!
Here he puts a few questions to me on behalf of his overlooked countrymen...

Tell me, when making The You Testament did you ever think your religious players would be a bit offended about the whole game? Mainly the idea to KILL JESUS CHRIST?!
I knew people would have their own opinions about what I was up to, but my conscience is clear. The You Testament was a sincere attempt to make religious ideas easier to understand, and I believe I did the best job I could possibly do within the confines of a game. The worst any Christian has had to say about it is that they don't "recognize" my portrayal of Jesus, which is a shame because you'd be surprised how close to the truth it is. Jesus knew how life worked and used that knowledge to become more than the average person. If people don't respect that, I'm not sure what they do respect! As for his suffering, persecution from a misunderstanding world is key to all religions. His gallant death is the backbone of the story...

When making the wrestling games, did you ever think about women fighting men?! Wasn’t that the reason WWE got kicked off Spike?
That never really occurred to me since it's a game about a theatrical sport. I see wrestling as more of a "contest" than an ill-tempered fight to the death. Far from being misogynistic, you could argue that I'm flattering them by putting them in the same league as the men! I didn't see much difference between the sexes and gave all characters the same chance to succeed...

Have you ever been approached from a major company to buy out any of your games?
I almost released Hard Time through a subsidiary of THQ, and was looking forward to developing my wrestling brand with them, but they felt it was a conflict of interests. At the end of the day, major publishers were never really comfortable with my work because it was so unconventional. People didn't even have faith in my wrestling concepts, which was why I had to publish them myself back in 2003...

Have you ever thought of maybe joining a mod community such as the MPire Mall or Encore Mall?
I'm not sure the guy that makes the games in question has anything to offer a "mod" community! Everything I have to offer is up there on screen. People can edit the games if they like, but I made them the way they are for a reason...

Have you ever used any of the better mods like the Encore 3D pack or the TCW series?
I've seen some of them, but I don't think my games are meant to be THAT polished. I liked to keep things simple and versatile, and worked hard to ensure that any character could wear any costume. I understand these mods dedicate entire costumes to each character and leave very little room to breathe. They're obviously good for people that crave better visuals though...


When did you get the idea to make your games a cartoon style?

It wasn't a conscious decision! I just knew there were limits to my artistic skills and decided to hide the flaws in a simple graphical style. I quite like that bright look anyway. It reminds me of WWF No Mercy on the N64, which I was always trying to emulate...

Copyright © MDickie 2000 - 2010