A little over a year ago I conducted a series of interviews with a diverse, influential and talented group of developers both from and based in South Africa, which resulted in an article for industry trade site Gamasutra entitled ‘The South African Game Development Scene: Past Present and Future,’ which attempted to look at the history of game development in the country and surmise how an industry may rise and move forward here.

A lot of the interview material was unfortunately left out of the article for reasons of conciseness, and I say unfortunately because almost every response I was given was a gold mine of information and history that could potentially not only benefit aspiring South African game developers, and game developers in other developing nations looking to make a living in this industry, but also inform gaming enthusiasts around the world as to the complexity, and joy, of making videogames under difficult circumstances.

So after lying dormant on my hard drive for a year, I’ve decided to spruce up the interviews, which are just as relevant now as they were then, and start posting them here on El33tonline in a six-part series, continuing today with part two, and an interview with Luke Lamothe (read part one over here).

Luke Lamothe currently serves as Technical Director at South African indie game developer Luma Arcade, but was born and raised in Canada, and after studying and assisting at the DigiPen Computer Graphics School, Lamothe moved to South Africa to co-found I-Imagine with fellow Digipen student, Dan Wagner.

I-Imagine was South Africa and Africa’s first ever console developer, as well as the first studio to be inducted into the Xbox Incubator programme, and released two titles, namely the action racing game ‘Chase: Hollywood Stunt Driver’ on Xbox, and the sci-fi action shooter ‘Final Armada’ on PS2 and PSP.

Once Final Armada was complete, Luke left the then dormant I-Imagine to work at then recent start-up, Luma Arcade where, following the commissioned development of a free-to-play racing game based on the Mini vehicle brand, MINI#37, the studio began work on a number of mobile titles, as well as 2009’s iPhone games Marble Blast Mobile and Flipt. Work now continues in partnership with InstantAction.com and Garage Games on new mystery technology, as well as mystery, unannounced projects.

Let’s begin the interview with Luke Lamothe:

Continue reading ’The Lost South African Game Developer Interviews Part 2: Luke Lamothe.’