Interview: The One and Only Jonathan Ross

Count the celebrities you genuinely like on one hand, the ones that you’d happily sit down and have a chat with – specifically about video games. If you’re from the UK, there’s a large chance that Jonathan Ross would come to mind. Having now gotten involved in the development side with iOS hit Catcha Catcha Aliens, we thought we’d have a short chat with him.

You mentioned in your interview in Edge, which came out today, that you’re working on a bigger project?

Well, I’m not really working on a bigger project, I was saying I would like to work on a bigger project. I’ve got ideas for a bigger project, and I’m just about to have meetings with most of the big companies, got stuff lined up, but you know, at the moment it’s just talk, and talk tends to evaporate  so I wouldn’t want to say anything, because it seems like we’re bigging ourselves up and there’s nothing there at the moment.

But would you like to move away from mobile maybe, to consoles?

No, I’m working on a new mobile game now. I mean, Catcha Catcha Aliens is going free on Thursday [Note: The game is free now], this week, and it’s going to be on Android as well. And we’ve got a Kindle version, and we’re working on a BlackBerry version, so we’ve got little tweaks you have to make in there. But we’re going free on iOS and Android, and everyone who bought it on iOS, we’re giving them some free in-game currency to make up for the fact that they paid the first time, just to say thanks for supporting us. So I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes forward and we’ve smoothed it over, and we’ve got a new level coming on that which is just about finished. Meanwhile this other game we’re working on, which Jane had a lot of input in, that’s about 80% there now, so that’ll be out probably by the summer time, if not before. And my new game will be out this year. And it might be two games, that interact in a very different way.

It’s to do with wrestling. It’s like a retro-wrestling game. But the second part of it, is to do with interactivity from people in different ways, I don’t think it’s been done before, and at the moment I’m not sure we quite can pull it off.

A lot more to come from you in the gaming scene then?

Yeah I think so, I’m working on something. I’m talking to a big friend of mine, a guy who’s kind of a big thing in the American comic book world, who wants to work with me, and he’s been talking to another big company. He’s doing something with them independently, but he wants to work with me on something as well. So you know, very excited about all these opportunities that are coming my way. The chance to tell stories and use new technology in a way that maybe it hasn’t been used before, and I think that there are lots of new ways you can apply the capability of these incredible machines we’ve got.

What are you playing right now?

At home I’m playing the new Tomb Raider game, which I’d already had a look at but they gave me a demo and I played for like an hour or so, now I’ve got to play that all again, because I lost all my progress! But that’s great. They’ve done a great job with that, I think Rhianna Pratchett who wrote the script has done a tremendous job and they really rebooted that with style. Far Cry 3 I like. I’m playing Devil May Cry, I love the graphics on that, I think that’s terriffic and I’m enjoying that very much. Mass Effect 3. I’ve finished Halo 4, I like that. Walking Dead is great! The Walking Dead game on the iPad was tremendous.

So you’ve played pretty much all of the “Best Game” category, which one do you want to win the BAFTA?

I’ve played most of them I think.

Journey I liked, but I think that was more of an experience, and I think it should win innovation. Walking Dead I think maybe should get Best Game.