I love Flashbang Studios.

This small Tempe, Arizona-based studio combined my appreciation of both dinosaurs and safaris into a brilliant time-waster in Off-Road Velociraptor Safari.

True to their collaborative spirit, Flashbang tag-teamed the first batch of my inquiries. On the second page, I go one-on-one with company founder Matthew Wegner, where we talk about everything from the state of web-based games to Flashbang's plans for console development.

Shack: First of all, I have to ask--how the hell did you guys come up with the idea of pulling Velociraptors around by a spiked ball and chain?

Flashbang: The original game design was going to have weapons, but we needed some way to collect the corpses after they were killed. Matthew did the setup for the tow chain, which was a simple spike-chain placeholder. He played a lot of Carmageddon back in the day, so it was an obvious solution. We see a lot of comments that the game has a very Carmageddon vibe to it, which is a pretty fantastic compliment.

We had intended to replace the chain, which was there just to visualize the joints, with a skinned rope. But after we had it up and running we decided to keep. The plans to create weapons were scrapped, too, when we realized the chain was destructive enough as is.

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Shack: How long did Raptor Safari take to whip up, from conception to final product? Take me through the development process.

Flashbang: We had a guy working on the raptor and jeep models pretty soon after Splume, but we didn't get rolling full steam on the project until December. Two of core our guys also manage the Independent Games Festival, which ate a lot of their time in the fall. Actual development ended up at about eight weeks of work.

As for our creative process? Alcohol > Joke > Prototype > Art > Holy Crap This Is Fun And Pretty > Game > Internet Glory.

Shack: What's the post-release reception been like on your end?

Flashbang: The internet response seems to be a mix of exuberance and utter confusion. We're pretty pleased with that.

Technologically we bolted on leaderboards and achievements in the last few days of the project, which has turned out really well. We'll be launching a unified website for all of our indie games soon. One login will cover leaderboards for all of the games.

Shack: Where does your inspiration for these games come from?

Flashbang: Inspiration for our products comes tightly packed into the interactions we have with each other--jokes, random comments, and the general ambiance of the office. JB started out with a drawing on a white board. The drawing sat there, day after day, until we realized it pretty much had to be the next game.

Shack: We're eagerly awaiting Jetpack Brontosaurus over here. What can we expect? Any juicy gameplay details you can leak?

Flashbang: Not quite yet. We're slowly posting teaser footage and concepts to jetpackbrontosaurus.com, so keep an eye out there! We're aiming for an end of April launch date.

Shack: Favorite dinosaur?

Flashbang: Ravens. We take a cladistic standpoint and demand our taxa be monophyletic, so "dinosaurs" must include Aves, the modern birds.

Shack: Favorite dinosaur video game?

Flashbang: Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is hands down the best dinosaur related game ever created. Not even kidding.

Shack: What's next? Tyrannosaur Bungee-jumping? Triceratops Tricycle Racing? Mammalian Monster Truck Rampage?

Flashbang: Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word! We have about a month left on Jetpack Brontosaurus, so we haven't thought too much about the next project yet. It might be something smaller to mix things up, like oh, say, Ragdoll Olympics.

Shack: The dinosaurs in Velociraptor Safari are feathered, which shows an interest in contemporary paleontology. And now the Apatosaurus game is set in space. I can only assume this design decision was required by the scientific fact that if an Apatosaurus' neck were set at 90-degree angle on Earth, not enough oxygen would reach its brain. However, in the zero-gravity environment of space, our hero can fly at any angle he pleases. How much scientific thought goes into the design of these games?

Flashbang: Actually, it takes place in a dream. As far as how much scientific thought goes into our games, it's more than you would ever know. This isn't a joke, the skeleton for the Apatosaurus is disturbingly accurate--we've even consulted paleontologists online.

Shack: I'm detecting a decidedly Marxist worldview in the universe you guys have created thus far. If the proletariat Velociraptors are doomed to commit genocidal acts in the effort to export their own for simple profit, are the Apatosauruses then their technologically-superior bourgeoisie masters? Are the dead raptor exports--presumably converted into oil--fueling the very jetpacks the Apatosauruses use to travel to their next colonization effort?

Flashbang: Who said that the Velociraptor as a whole is doomed to commit genocide? See, this is the very problem with the world today. The act of one casts a shadow over many, and we find ourselves demonizing entire cultures and races. You have now just done this to an entire species. Way to raise the hate bar.

And besides, everyone knows that the Velociraptor is from the Cretaceous period and Apatosaurus is from the Jurassic. The notion that one serves the other implies a social link and management infrastructure that would have spanned 70 million years, which is economically asinine. At any rate, the game is clearly a commentary on 19th and early 20th century British imperialism--pith helmet, epaulets, monocle. The technologically superior raptors are exploiting the defenseless native populations who live in undeveloped areas.

Continue reading for a more serious look into the history of Flashbang, as well as founder Matthew Wegner's thoughts on the burgeoning web-based platform.