Codinsoft consists of one man, Jens Winterstein. Although he’s a one-man developing team, he already has multiple games for iOS, Android, and Flash under his belt. I had a chance to email the indie developer about himself and why he develops games. What follows is an interesting conversation that me and Codinsoft had.

• MGB: OK let’s get to know the developer. Tell us a little about yourself.

Codinsoft: I’m a mid-twenty guy from Germany who grew up in the 80s/90s and whose interest in computers and gaming began with the Commodore64 and the Atari2600. I like videogames, heavy metal, medievalism, beer, animes, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, retro-stuff and general nerdiness

Codinsoft: It’s Doom (on PC). After all these years, I’m still playing it online every now and then. The first Doom multiplayer experience of mowing each-other down was so intense that it got me right from the start.

Codinsoft: Being a lifelong gamer, I was getting tired of my old job as system-administrator and decided to try something new. With several years of programming background and todays possibilities of exposure, it was motivating and fun from the beginning and I’m very happy now, doing creative work.

Codinsoft: It’s a mix between code + odin… because I like programming and pagan stuff

Codinsoft: I didn’t think much about that decision. It was somehow certain that I would be the only designer in case I go indie. However, occasionally feature/game ideas do also come from my family and friends who are constrained to beta test, hehe.

Codinsoft: I’m not planning to do anything else atm. nor for the next couple of years. There are lots of things left that I want to tryout and code… but who can tell what the future holds?

Codinsoft: The first thing that you could barely call a game was back on the C64, written in BASIC. The program was titled “Goldsuche” (which means “gold hunt”) and consisted of a little X that could be steered around the screen looking for… well, gold. It had several flaws though, i.e. the gold could spawn in water territory which was unpassable by the player

• MGB: What gave you the idea to come up with your latest title, Task-Master?

Codinsoft: Task-Master was inspired by a french NDS homebrew game called “Closed” which fascinated me and kept me riddling for weeks.
I thought that something similar, easier though, could attract casual gamers.

Codinsoft: I had the most fun doing and playing “Neon Guy”. Mixing a traditional platformer with a “one-button” input opened up crazy design possibilities. Also, there are 3 versions of the game (Web, iOS and Android), all originated from the same code. I love that

Codinsoft: There are always different things I’m working on, but the next game will probably be a physics puzzler. I wanted to try this genre out for quite some time. But there’s only a little concept yet and nothing to spoiler :/

Codinsoft: On the one hand, I don’t think it can compete in terms of gamedepth and comfort. Imagine playing an atmospheric game like “Dead Space” on a tiny screen while waiting for the bus… uargh. But on the other hand, in terms of fun and exciting game mechanisms I think it can keep up to console and pc gaming. It’s also much easier for indie devs to get exposure on the mobile market.

Codinsoft: Videogames combine different artforms to a complex, multimedial experience. It’s a creative process where things are created out of nothing. And that’s what I would definitely call art.

Go ahead and check out some of Codinsofts games!

Link

Codinsoft Homepage