It takes a lot of guts to leave a sure thing, especially in these times of economic uncertainty. That goes double when that ‘sure thing’ is one of the most respected videogame developers in the business and the destination one of the most financially-depressed states in the country. But it sure sounds like having guts runs in the family as that’s exactly what happened with Thomas Hoeg, founder and CEO of mobile-centric developer ByteSize Games.
After working on Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time for the PlayStation 3, Tom – along with brother Richard – left the relative development safety of Insomniac Games’ for their next big adventure – founding ByteSize Games in their home state of Michigan in 2010 with an emphasis on making “the kind of games that we want to make”, he says. After their debut with last year’s award-winning geometric color-blasting FlipShip, the company is readying their follow-up with a new spin on the eternal struggle of mouse vs. cheese with the puzzle-solving fun of Little Labyrinths. And wouldn’t you know it, Tom was more than willing to talk about his love of puzzle gaming, cheese, and going from crafting blockbusters to more bite-sized pleasures.