PopHorror Let's Get Scared
With all of the unfortunate news surrounding the rights to Friday the 13th, there’s still one game that we can play and thoroughly enjoy, and that’s Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle (check out our review of the game here). I had a chance to speak with the game’s co-creator, Blue Wizard Digital’s Jason Kapalka, and got to pick his brain a bit to find out about some of the minds behind the adorable Jason game.
PopHorror: With all of the legal trouble going on with the Friday the 13th franchise, how did you manage to get the rights to use the name for the game?
Jason Kapalka: The Horror Inc. guys, including Sean Cunningham, approached us after Slayaway Camp. The console game had been doing well, and they thought we might be able to do something with the Friday the 13th license that would work in the mobile space. We were pretty excited to be offered the chance to work on an official Friday the 13th game, as of course Slayaway Camp had been heavily inspired by it…
As to the legal issues… ai yi yi. I could tell you it was no big deal, but… it was kind of a big deal to navigate those, and we’re still having to be careful what we do as we wait to see how it gets resolved.
PopHorror: You’ve done Slayaway Camp and Friday the 13th. Are there any other horror themes or licenses you want to tackle in the future?
Jason Kapalka: Well, we’re not dying to do more licenses, necessarily… Friday the 13th was pretty special. I am interested in multiplayer horror games, though, so who knows. Maybe we’ll find a way to do a multiplayer Slayaway Camp sometime!
PopHorror: Multiplayer sounds amazing! A great way to interact with fellow horror lovers. How did you get started making mobile games?
Jason Kapalka: Well, I was one of the co-founders of PopCap, way back in the day, so I’ve been involved with mobile games since, well… before there were really mobile games, with games like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies.
PopHorror: Plants vs Zombies is a staple in my house. We’re big fans. Why choose a puzzle formatted gaming?
Jason Kapalka: After leaving PopCap, I wanted to try working on some games that were out of PopCap’s normal range… stuff that was too violent or weird or hardcore for PopCap. But at the same time, I guess I still had a lot of interest in tile-based puzzle games, so Slayaway Camp and Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle are the result of that unholy combination.
PopHorror: Did any other games influence the production of any of the Blue Wizard games?
Jason Kapalka: Slayaway Camp and F13 were both obviously influenced heavily by the whole sliding-block, logic puzzle genre, from Sokoban to Pokemon. Part of the goal was to find a way to make those sorts of puzzle games less boring, more viscerally exciting. Hitman GO was also something of an influence, for doing similar stuff with normally staid puzzles. We just wanted to make it REALLY juicy when you killed someone.
PopHorror: You guys really succeeded! What is your favorite game?
Jason Kapalka: Of all time: Civilization. Of the last few years: Saints Row IV, strangely.
PopHorror: Interesting and great choices! What is your favorite level from Slayaway Camp or Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle?
Jason Kapalka: Between Slayaway Camp and F13, I have a lot of fondness for the “Make It Stop” level early in Slayaway, where you have to negotiate a maze while a painfully terrible folk song is played by a dude sitting by the campfire. It’s extremely satisfying to murder him at last.
PopHorror: Are you big slasher fans?
Jason Kapalka: I’m a huge buff of sleazy ’80s horror flicks in general. I used to write a column for a Canadian paper called Video Barn, where I would review the worst horror videos I could find, stuff like Stuff Stephanie In The Incinerator or Woodchipper Massacre. So these games were a way for me to finally use a lot of that trivial knowledge in a productive fashion!
PopHorror: Just the names alone make me feel like I have to watch those terrible horror movies. In regards to all of the newest controversy surrounding Friday the 13th rights in the last few days, with Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle be affected in any way?
Jason Kapalka: We are subject to the same legal limitations as the other Friday the 13th game, which does make it hard for us to add new content of certain types to the game. The case and contract are pretty complex, though, so it’s difficult to give a comprehensive answer as to what it means, ultimately. We’re still actively updating and fixing the game, and we do have some content that was completed quite some time ago, prior to legal deadlines, which we will still hopefully be able to release. We would definitely like to see the case be concluded or settled, which would allow us a lot more freedom to continue expanding and improving Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle in the future.
PopHorror sends a huge thank you to Jason Kapalka for answering all our questions. He was a delight to speak with and gave really good insight on the games and Blue Wizard Digital in general. If you haven’t played Slayaway Camp or Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle, we here at PopHorror highly recommend it. They are fun, adorable and overall just great puzzle games riddled with guts, gore and getting rid of annoying teens at camp.
