James Whitehead: Boss Baddie

Name: James Whitehead

Company: Boss Baddie

Profession: A little bit of everything

Favorite Classic Game: Turrican 2

Quote: No game has inspired me as much as this one. Most of my inspiration comes from sound and music, and as a 7 year old when I found this rummaging through my parents bedroom, it blew my mind when I first played it. The atmosphere isn’t dissimilar to Metroid – it’s just linear with vast, eventful levels. So obsessed with the game that my friends and I would play “Turrican” in the playground at junior school.

Those powerful initial feelings still sit with me. The soundtrack to both Turrican 1 and 2 are some of the most played albums on my iPod. Elements of Turrican can be found in Satan Sam, Lunnye, Wake. There are even direct references and cameos in our “metroidvania” project; Tormishire.

I believe the series went downhill after the first 2 games as the games beyond this point lost their edge and creativity.

Bio: Boss Baddie is Alex and I. We’ve known each other for years and have collaborated on a few projects in the past starting with Madventures of the Love Rockets – an unfinished RPG set in a “League of Gentlemen” style world.

Project: Big Sky

Project info: I’m wrapping up development on this title so I guess it’s a little late to talk about it. It’s a side-scrolling, dual analogue shooter with some unique mechanics. I’ve been wanting to create a project like this for 9 months now and this is the end result of a lot of concept testing. It’s currently PC-only but if there’s enough demand I’ll look into porting it to other platforms.

Visits: 1997