GDN got a chance to hook up with the minds behind City Rain and pick out some details of interest. It was quite the logistically challenging interview considering we’re in the Czech Republic, Canada and Brazil respectively. OK, not really. We did it via email. The answers for the interview were supplied by:

• Alexandre Renaud, Ovolo Games= AR Ovolo
• Tulio Marques Soria, Mother Gaia Studio = TS, Mother Gaia

[GDN] The game has a strong environmental message, was that the basic idea of the game in the beginning?
 

AR Ovolo: When we were looking for a concept to push forward for our first game we wanted something with a purpose that would have potential impact. A game that focused on our global environment was one of the ‘themes’ we were looking for. Mother Gaia Studio in Brazil, with City Rain as the publisher, in Montréal, Canada, found this great game concept that needed to be expanded. Furthermore, Gaia is the Greek god for the environment, so it’s more than a focus, it’s part of the DNA of the studio

[GDN] Is the idea to educate as well as entertain?

Exactly. City Rain is a really fun game that educates discreetly. There are a lot of games on the market of all genres, and for all tastes... good or bad :-) , but again our contribution is to publish this tricky mix of fun entertainment, educatio, and reflexion. 

[GDN]  How does one decide to combine a city planning sim with a Tetris-style gameplay?
 

AR Ovolo: Mother Gaia realized that mixing things was good. Some recent successes we noticed were mash-ups between genre and game mechanics, take Puzzle Quest for example. So the Mother Gaia team decided to mix city planing, simulation with a puzzle format. A great combination! 

[GDN] More importantly perhaps, how does one achieve such a mix? What was the key factor that holds it all together

AR Ovolo: Basically, focus on fun first. If the game is entertaining, then the mix will be a succes. 

[GDN] What’s the difference between the three modes - Adventure, Custom and Blockmania? Were some of these modes mostly to cater to the less-strategy-minded players?

AR Ovolo: We have three modes in the games:

• Campaign: Story driven and focuses on simulation and achieving objectives. It’s also where the player learn how to integrate all the special buildings. 
• Quickplay: Single mission with only one goal, get the best score ever and be publish on the online ranking. Basically, the player uses special buildings earned in Campaign and manages within their choice of constraint: size of the board, time, turns, speed of decision, frequency of blocks. That’s what will keep the player coming back again and again. This version is probably the closest to SimCity one will get.
• Blockmania: Basically, this game is presented in a puzzle mode, were the player must manage to stack buildings togethers. Blockmania was created to be the most simple and fun mode that can also be deceivingly addictive. Again, the goal here presents a combonation of tasks that requires the player to stak buildings together to increase their score.