INTERVIEW OF MATTHEW KILLE

Matthew Kille, the founder of the company Zeoneo, answers to our questions...

Zeoneo is, for now, one of the few firms intended to creat games (PlanetZed, Convex) for Amiga DE. Matthew Kille, his founder, answers to Boing Attitude :)'s questions...

Boing Attitude : Hello Matthew, can you introduce Zeoneo to us ? How many people work for it ? In which country ?

Matthew Kille: Hello.
Founded in January 2001 to create Amiga software, Zeoneo is a new lightweight company, intended to remain small and quick reacting in a fast changing and uncertain world. As such, there is really only one permanent member of the company: myself. All other members are contractors, hired in to work on the specific projects where their talents are best suited.
The current membership is two, with two more available when required. As a company, we are always on the look out for new people to join our team. If any of your readers have a talent for programming, drawing/rendering graphics, or composing music, and would like to be part of a game/application development team, then please send us some details about yourself and some examples of your work. We'd love to hear from you!
Zeoneo is a UK based company, though we are interested in people from all over the world.

Boing Attitude : Zeoneo : where does this name come from ?

Matthew Kille: This is a question I get asked quite a lot. It's just a name. :)

Boing Attitude : What is your office in the company Zeoneo ?

Matthew Kille: I'm the founder of the company, head programmer, and so far I've also been the main graphics artist..

Boing Attitude : Are you an amiga fan for a long time ? If yes, what Amiga have you ? Do you often use it ?

Matthew Kille: I've been using Amigas since 1989. I've owned many Amigas in the past, but currently have an A500, two A1200s and an A4000. The most used machine is a '060 A1200 tower, with all its Mediator PCI slots full. It is used daily. In fact, I'm using it now.

Boing Attitude : What kind of relationships have you with Amiga Inc ? Are you satisfied of their technical support ?

Matthew Kille: I'm happy to say we have a close relationship with Amiga, with almost daily contact. I'm very pleased with the level of support from Amiga; they are doing a fine job.
As a long term Amiga fan, I started using AmigaDE because I wanted to help make sure those values I knew as being Amiga-values were continued into the next generation. I don't have to worry about that now, because I know that the people working at Amiga know these values already, and are busy making them happen.

Boing Attitude : Can you explain briefly your method of working ?

Matthew Kille: I have a long academic background in the field of computer science, with a good understanding of design, programming, implementation and testing techniques. As such, development comes quickly and easily: it's just a case of sitting down at the computer and following the agreed plan.

Boing Attitude : Can you speak about the very nice Planet Zed ? How many people work on this project ? Which language do you use ?

Matthew Kille: Planet Zed is a vertical scroll shoot 'em up game that borrows many of its features from the classic Bitmap Brothers Xenon-II Megablast. The idea is simple; just shoot anything that moves! You fly a spacecraft through a range of different types of scenery. Most of the levels require you to navigate your ship carefully around the rocks and other structures, while avoiding the aliens and their shots. Sometimes the room for manoeuvre is quite tight. There is a whole range of weapons to use, which can collected within the game, or bought in the between levels shop.
This project was entirely written in VP assembler, by myself.

Boing Attitude : What do you think of amiga DE market ? Amiga Os classic Market ?

Matthew Kille: The AmigaDE market has a lot of potential, but it might be a little while yet before that fully shows itself. Amiga have some really great things in the pipeline.
I'm optimistic about the AmigaOS 4+ market. It will probably always remain a relatively small market, consisting mainly of existing/old Amiga fans, but that is still a useful market. Zeoneo will certainly consider AmigaOS 4.0 for particular projects. Personally, I will be buying an AmigaONE and AmigaOS4.0 as soon as possible.
As for AmigaOS classic, I don't think there is much scope for new developments. The hardware restrictions and software complexities are too great. I would encourage all existing Amiga fans to move to AmigaOS 4.0 instead.

Boing Attitude : What are your new projects for Amiga ?

Matthew Kille: Sorry, that information is classified. :)
We have several projects in mind, and one in progress. There wont be any details given about these projects until they are complete and ready for sale. That is our policy.
Thank you for your interest in our company

Boing Attitude : Thank you for your answers!