Interview with Grubby Hands's Company Director, Dr Danny Pearce

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we've been focusing on the romantic aspects of the App store. Alongside reviewing Boy Loves Girl, the tale of a boy keen to woo the lady in his life, we had the opportunity to interview Dr Danny Pearce, Company Director for the game's British developer, Grubby Hands.

One particular question that's bound to be on everyone's mind was just why the name Grubby Hands?!

"Grubby Hands is a name that came from some subconscious activity when thinking about gaming. I think it's connected to the NES and SNES days when pad swapping was commonplace, like Mario or Street Fighter with friends," said Pearce. "I always had a problem with getting a sweaty pad handed to me from a friend with ‘grubby hands’. I had a ritual that involved a five second wipe with my t-shirt before every round. I guess that image stuck and resurfaced 20 years later." An experience that I'm sure all gamers can empathise with.

Moving onto just what a change of pace Boy Loves Girl is compared to David Haye's Knockout, Pearce explained just what hook Boy Loves Girl offers: "Boy Loves Girl follows a young boy's journey as he tries to impress a girl. I really wanted to make a game that was sweet and captures something truthful. Then the idea of a boy going to the end of the world for a girl and giving her the moon on a piece of string stuck and the game grew from there."

As Pearce explains, "It starts off as a pleasant experience. Everything is calm and relaxing, while the player gets used to the game and the controls. It then gets progressively more challenging as the girl gets more demanding, to the point that it really requires a lot of skill, mental attention and physical accuracy to complete," but fortunately that's not all we should expect from Boy Loves Girl, with Pearce promising Game Center to be integrated 'really soon.'

So, what's next for Grubby Hands? Dr Pearce was understandably guarded as to exact details but there are discussions in terms of "either a sequel or a huge update to a 'previous game' in the near future." Pearce also informed us that Grubby Hands is currently "prototyping something original and probably [our] most ambitious game yet." Don't get too excited yet, though, as he also went onto explain that it's "easily the biggest game we've attempted to make, so will probably take until the end of the year to complete."

On a final note, we thought it was only friendly to see just how the Grubby Hands guys are planning on spending Valentine's Day. "We'll start the day under a mild spring sun, listening to a calm stream, break the still to eat strawberries and cream and then proceed to whack the keyboard trying to finish off the next ‘Boy Loves Girl’ update!"

Given the cold and rainy spell that much of Britain is suffering from at the moment, here's hoping that the 14th brings with it plenty of sun for Grubby Hands!

Many thanks to Dr. Danny Pearce for taking the time to answer our questions.