Interview with Theodora Kapsali, co-founder and COO of Spark Game Engine

Theodora Kapsalis at a local startup conference, in Greece. 

Audacious. This may be the first adjective that can be given to Spark, one of the game engine projects with broader scope I've ever seen, with a focus in both 2D and 3D, using codes or not.

I had the good fortune to talk by email with Theodora Kapsali, COO of this start up led by three Greek entrepreneurs.

So check it out, exclusively:

Who are the people behind the Spark Engine?

Aris Kostakos – gamedev since his early teens. He's used many of the game engines out there – check out the presentation he did where he describes how it all happened (it's in Greek but we've added subtitles so make sure you turn those on.

Athina Founta – graphics designer for 10 years...she is our UI UX designer and is also creating the free assets that we'll initially have available in Spark.

Theodora Kapsali – I have 8 years experience as a manager and I am responsible for marketing and business side of Spark

How can Spark Engine help persons who want to create their first game?

We'll offer an easy to use drag and drop interface that is not intimidating. Someone with little or no experience will be able to create a game using behaviors. Check out some more details here.

What's most important is that if you get involved with our community now, you will have opportunity to weigh in and influence Spark. For example, we've come up with a UI that we believe is easy to use and far less intimidating than other game engines, but you may not feel the same way and have suggestions to make it easier. We are open to suggestions and feedback from our community.

In what Spark engine is different from other programs for creating games?

Our ultimate goal is to make it less intimidating to make a game than it is now. Making a game is a difficult task, there is no doubt about it. But we feel there are ways to make it easier and more approachable for those interested in the industry. The User Interface is a big part of that as well as the technical functions we will offer to give creators flexibility and many possibilities. Another goal is to be able to help aspiring game developers to learn to code, if they want to, through game creation. This will be more obvious in a later release. Our primary goal is to release a first version so that people can start creating and get their hands on Spark.

See "Code or Not" at official site.

What can be created using Spark Game Engine?

Any game, 2D, 3D, multiplayer, single player, whatever the creator wants. With the initial release that's coming up, you will be able to create various 2D games using behaviors and on a regular basis there will be updates so you can do more things with Spark. Multiplayer and 3D will be added later on.

What are the basic knowledge that a person must have to create a game using Spark Game Engine? Can somebody create something fantastic even without knowing how to program?

Basic knowledge would be the game idea and know what the mechanics of it will be. The behaviors that someone can use are pretty self explanatory, for example walk, run, speed, acceleration, etc. No programming required with Spark...really nothing not a line.

When the final version of the Spark Engine will be available? There are already some version for curious people?

If you're interested in Spark, you can sign up to our newsletter so that you're in the loop with our progress and when we release an initial version that you can use. We've decided that we will no longer be giving out any release dates to avoid disappointing, but we are confident that a release is just around the corner as we are currently polishing things up, implementing the UI and add many behaviors you will be able to use.

Interface demo.

Spark Game Engine is open source? People can give some contribution to the project?

The backend of Spark is not open source, however the editor is. It's fully extensible and therefore you can change renderers, sound system, multiplayer system, everything. The editor's code will be released on GitHub shortly after we release.

Please visit the official website for more details.