Developer Interview: 10 Questions for Mitri Wiberg / Polarbit

If you visit the website of Polarbit, they introduce themselves as “a leading developer of high-end 3D games and middleware for the mobile and handheld markets worldwide”. In addition to that, the “Polarboys” are also rocking our Playandroid Game Review Charts, because their famous “Reckless Getaway” achieved fabulous 28 points in our Android Game Review.

So we’re quite excited that we can talk to Mr. Polarbit himself, Mitri Wilberg, CEO and our next target for an Android developer interview.

10 Questions for Mitri Wiberg / Polarbit

1. Please introduce yourself.

I am Mitri Wiberg, CEO at Polarbit.

2. What made you want to be a game developer?

I guess a had an early midlife crisis
After my engineering studies and my first job I realized that wasn’t my thing; I needed to do something more creative.
Since I always loved drawing I decided to study 3D modelling & animation. At that time, all this was emerging and it looked to me like I could have a promising future.
After that, I started working at a game studio and have been immersed in this industry ever since.

3. What platforms do you develop games for and why?

Basically for all; iOS, Android, WebOS, bada, Symbian/Ovi, Blackberry QNX, Windows, MacOS and many others.
Because we are politically correct?
It’s kind of our core business, being able to quickly target any native platform outhere. To create good, fun games accessible anywhere. That is why we developed our middleware Fuse in the first place, which we use in all development we do.

4. What are your experiences in porting games between two platforms?

Using Fuse its pretty straightforward. When a new platform appears, we add support for it in Fuse and we compile the game for the new platform. No game changes – the same source code is just compiled for the new platform.

5. How do you get inspiration for a game?

Playing a lot, checking all new things that comes out and brainstorming a lot. New ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, it’s just a matter of being perceptive.

6. How long does it take for you to write a game from start to finish?

Depends on the game, but normally around 5 months with a team of 8 people-

7. What are the biggest technical challenges when you develop a game?

To know when its ready for release. You can keep working on it for ever, if you get too deep into the details and if you are too self critical.

8. What do you think the future of gaming will look like?

The gaming ecosystem has changed drastically the last years, and it will contiunue to change. I am not a psychic and I do not believe I can foresee what will happen, we just need to stay flexible and be prepared for rapid changes in the industry.

9. What is your favourite game at the moment and why?

Its always our latest project. We are about to release Tank Riders, which we’ve been working on really hard and have really high expectations for. It’s a cool multiplayer game!

10. What is your advice for new developers?

Believe in yourself and do it! Life is short and time goes fast, for the good and for the bad