My Children Ask the Important Skylanders: Trap Team Questions

So before anyone gets snippy, the title of this article is a bit of fun. Basically, we had a chance to have a very brief chat with Paul Reiche from the Trap Team development team, and I decided to get my children to ask a few questions. And why not?

First up, the most important question: What is Paul’s favourite character from the game?

“From Skylanders Trap Team my favorite would have to be Chopper — the little T-Rex with a helicopter backpack, rocket launchers and exoskeleton.  I mean how many cool things can one Skylander have?!  If anyone finds a creature like this in the real world, please let me know, because I think he could make a great pet (but no rocket-launching in the house!)”

Next up, they wanted to know how they came up with Skylanders in the first place!

“I think Skylanders developed out of two separate ideas within the team.  First, most of us follow new developments in technology and we had several conversations about the possibilities of ‘smart’ game peripherals which possessed memory of your play experiences.  Second, we actually believe toys are alive and they just stay really still when you are watching them.”

Next (they’re smart, my kids), they wanted to know how on earth the team keep the series fresh with each new game.

“Of course this is a basic priority for each new Skylanders game.  We not only want to tell an original story and add fun new Skylanders, but being the inventors of the Toys-to-Life category, we feel responsible for driving innovation further each year.  The game itself needs to evolve!  We have no shortage of new ideas — trust me, the biggest problem is deciding on just enough cool new things each year and not trying to do everything all at once.”

And finally, excited about the PS4 and Xbox One that sit under our TV, they wanted to know if the new consoles made any difference to the series.

“That is a good question and the answer could take up the whole interview!  Beyond the obvious cool advances in graphics and computing horsepower, the ‘always-connected’ (to the internet) nature of the new platforms means that we can move away from delivering the whole game on a single disk.  In fact, Skylanders Trap Team for the tablet come with no disk at all, which feels… futuristic.”

So there you have it, two children grill the Skylanders team. You’re welcome. Next up, I’m getting them to preview The Evil Within*, which will be a riotous video, I’m sure you’ll agree.

*Note: If my wife is reading this, that’s a joke, and I’m not really doing that.