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Interview

Rube Works’ Kalani Streicher Developer Interview

Kalani Streicher, CEO of Kalani Games and development partner on Rube Works: The Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game speaks to GIZORAMA about his experience in the gaming industry and his impressive body of work.


Mariah Beckman: What other work have you done? What other developers have you worked for, or would you like to? Who do you admire in the industry today?

Kalani Streicher: Kalani Games has previously worked on another mobile game called Tiki Gods: Ancient Times, a 3D action-puzzle game, and TournEvent Ace, a casino slots game.. Being a veteran in the game industry, I’ve worked together with David Fox at LucasArts on games such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure.

MB: What attracted you to this project? Are you a closet Goldberg fan? What was your favorite contraption in the game?

KS: I wouldn’t say I’m a closet Goldberg fan, but a big fan of all his wacky inventions. You see the contraptions based on Goldberg everywhere and it is so much fun to figure out how they work.

MB: Of the games you’ve worked on, which has been your favorite and why? What project would you most like to work on next? What do you hope to be best known for?

KS: Rube Goldberg was definitely a fun game to work on. Especially working with David again.

There are many games that I’ve designed or developed. Other favorites I enjoyed working on are Tiki Gods, Loom, Super Star Wars, X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

I wouldn’t mind working on another Star Wars, Rube or Tiki Gods title.

MB: Can you tell me something about your job that people wouldn’t expect? Every cool job has a downside–what’s your biggest headache in your work? What qualities does your job demand that you never would have anticipated while studying.

KS: The biggest challenge in development is having the designers, programmers and artists talk to each other. That is something you don’t learn while studying and only comes with experience developing games.

MB: How did you get started in the industry? What was your first project? What was your most recent one? Which has been your favorite?

KS: I started out at Lucasfilm Games managing the localization and porting of games such as Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Loom, Indiana Jones to respective platforms such as PC, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST and more for respective countries of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea.

My first project was Zak McKracken and currently we are wrapping up another mobile game based on the book “The Adventures of Ai” by a New York Best Selling Author.

Loom, X-Wing and the Super Star Wars SNES Trilogy were my favorites for different reasons.

MB: What’s your favorite hobby, outside of being a general wizard and educating youngsters with awesomeness?

KS: Playing video games and watching movies with my family is definitely on the top of the list. I also enjoy playing soccer, going to concerts and hanging out with friends.

MB: If you wanted to be a character in a video game, who would you be?

KS: It would be fun to be Master Chief or Mario. Master Chief definitely is a ‘badass’ character with some of the coolest weapons and vehicles.

And, who doesn’t want to be Mario. He’s having so much fun exploring all the different environments in Super Mario World and Mario Galaxy, or racing against others in Mario Cart, or battling great game opponents in Super Smash Brothers.

MB: Tell me something juicy: what’s your darkest secret? Any deep yearnings or weird compulsions you’d like to share?

KS: Super Hero Powers! Who doesn’t want super hero powers like flying, incredible strength, smashing things, being invisible, running fast, creating fireballs, and much more.


Many thanks to Mr. Streicher for taking the time to answer our questions. You can find out more about Kalani Games here.

Mariah Beckman

Mariah lives in Seattle, and is really 3 midgets inside a lady suit.

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