MR: If you had more time to devote to the art and presentation of the core concept, what do you think Continuity would have looked like?

GL: I'm not really sure what the game would have looked like.

Visually, I don't think we would have come to the same place that we did if we had more resources. We had a bunch of ideas for how the game might look. They ranged from the faux-retro, pixelated, tile-based look -- which wouldn't really work with the fluidity that sliding tiles require -- to something that would look like a modern platformer with parallax-scrolling backgrounds.

After we decided against lush environments, one concept we had was that the game would take place on cards that would be placed on a wooden table. We spent a fair amount of time thinking that the game would be played on a wood-grain background. It is only when we couldn't get that to work that we decided on the cleaner, more sterile appearance we have now.

From a gameplay perspective, we always considered physics puzzles as something that might make their way into the game. We tossed around ideas like carrying blocks around and bouncing off springboards, but in the end none of that made it into the game. We also tossed around the concept of having enemies and other, more dynamic stuff occurring inside each tile. In the end we dropped that because we weren't sure we'd be able to balance the game on both a micro, platforming level and a macro, puzzle-solving level in the amount of time we had.

We also discussed lots of extra things one might be able to do with the tiles. There were ideas for semi-transparent overlay tiles that could be moved over the others to form new platforms and spaces. Rotating either each tile individually or the world as a whole was also something we discussed.

We really didn't set out to make such a small game; it just sort of ended up that way. As the deadline approached we knew our main bottleneck was going to be designing levels. If we added more elements and features to the game, there was no way to we were going to integrate them into enough levels of the game to really make them feel central.

Two of us are working on an iPhone sequel right now for our Master's thesis. We think one of the game's main strengths is its minimalism. For the new version we are trying to add and change things but [we’re not going to] simply add anything and everything that sounds cool. Instead, our hope is for a really efficient game design where we make few core changes or additions that are consistent with the original game's aesthetic, [changes] that can be used in a variety of ways.

So, while I think the game would have likely been different given more resources, I wouldn't want to go back to do it again and try to fit more stuff in.

MR: How is the iPhone development of Continuity coming along compared to the Flash version? What kinds of unique challenges and benefits have you come across?

GL: The development is coming along pretty well. We've hit a fair number of snags as we've adjusted to the programming environment. We're using the Objective-C programming language, which is a bit different than other languages we're familiar with.

With Flash, it's definitely easier to get something on the screen and move it around if you are trying to make a game. On the iPhone it feels like we are more in control of what is actually going on. Of course, that has upsides and downsides. We're at a place now where we understand enough to work at a pretty good pace.

The smaller screen is actually something that has proved difficult to deal with. The iPhone has a resolution of 480x320, which is half of what the Flash game uses. We're trying to balance the size of everything such that the character is always clearly visible without being too large for the environments.

Control systems are another aspect that is really fun to explore. For all of the games on iPhone, there aren't that many true platformers where you have a character running and jumping. For those platformers, there isn't a clearly preferred control system. Some games use gestures, others use virtual buttons, others use tilting. It's been fun playing different games and testing stuff out on our own to find the relative strengths and weaknesses of all these different input systems.

So it's really cool to work in an area where there is much less of an established convention, whereas designing controls for a platformer on the PC is pretty much a solved problem. On the iPhone, it feels like we are freer to explore and create something that really suits our game.

MR: After the iPhone version is in the bag, what's next? What's the next concept you'd like to work on?

GL: We have absolutely no idea what's next.

Since we'll be done with school in June, we don't really know what will be next for us. Due to the fact that we're from three different countries, it's complicated. While we like working together, we have ties elsewhere, too. As it stands now, it seems like after school ends, Dmitri will go back to Moldova and I will go back to the USA.

So the future is pretty uncertain.

Doing the indie thing could be fun. Doing something together as a full-time gig seems challenging, though, but we're definitely considering if we could make it work.

I know, personally, I'd like to work on something a little more up-tempo. Continuity requires a slower play style with a lot of careful analyzing. After working in that style for a while now, I'd like to try my hand at something that requires a faster pace of play.

MR: In closing, is there anything you'd like to say to fans of Continuity, or to people who have yet to try the game?

GL: In general, we've been really amazed by how supportive people have been. You see so much cruelty on the Internet because it's just so easy to be mean. But the vast majority of our interactions with people have been incredibly positive. It's meant a lot to us.

Our game went live back in November of last year on a URL on our school's servers. The only link to it was from our IGF submission page. So, basically we'd get a couple hits a day. Then all of a sudden, at the beginning of December, we noticed thousands of hits. For about a week, we had more and more hits everyday.

The success of the game has been almost entirely through word of mouth, and it was really unexpected and overwhelming. We'd really like to thank everyone who liked our game enough to share it with others.

Check out Continuity for free at the official site, or on Kongregate. For more writing by Michael Rousseau, be sure to visit Exploding Barrel.