Like many gamers, 24 year old Peter Sjöstrand is a Mega Man fan. Unlike many gamers, however, Peter has come up with one of the most interesting spins on the Mega Man franchise since the release of the X series. Mixing 2D, 3D, and co-operative play, Mr. Sjöstrand of Gälve, Sweden dubs his project Mega Man 2.5D.

I shot Peter an e-mail, and he was kind enough to answer all of my Mega Man 2.5D questions.

Gimic300: I'll start out with the essential first question for any gamer; what have you been playing recently?

Peter: To be honest I don't do a whole lot of gaming these days. But I have been playing some Twilight Princess as well as Mega Man 9 on my Wii.


G: Would you care to explain exactly what the Mega Man 2.5D project is at this point in time?

Peter: Mega Man 2.5D is an animated game concept. I'm an animator with no programming skills but I've always been interested in level design and game concepts so I decided to make it the only way I knew how to. Also it was a fun challenge since it required me to try and animate the characters as if they were actually being controlled by players rather than just animated.


G: The two beta trailers released look absolutely incredible. How long did it take to create and animate the footage seen in the two Mega Man 2.5D trailers?

Peter: Well I think the first one took about 3 or so weeks. The longer one with co-op however took a whole lot longer than that, probably around 2 months.

_{Footage for Mega Man 2.5D}


G: Do you plan on taking this project and making it into a full playable game someday?

Peter: As Capcom owns the property I don't believe it would be possible for me to make it into a full playable game. I hope however that Capcom acknowledges the positive response that the video has gotten and decide to use the mechanics in one of their future mega man games.


G: Do you have an open spot for a game tester? (I'm joking, of course.)

Peter: Sure do! (I too am joking)


G: What is your history with art and animation?

Peter: I've always enjoyed creating stuff. I started playing around with animation at an early age and then I decided to study it at university which I did from 2003 to 2006. Since then I've mostly just been doing random jobs to try and get by while i keep improving as an animator. I hope to some day be able to make a living off of it.


G: Do you have any experience working with games in the past?

Peter: A long time ago I was doing some work on a game of my own called Doom-Golf. It was basically a 2D sidescroller where you used golf to defeat your enemies in gruesome ways. The idea was that a lot of the enemies in the game had fun and unique animations when they were defeated, compared to a lot of other games where you have the same animation playing over and over again.


G: What led to the Mega Man 2.5D Project?

Peter: Well last year I went to the mall together with a good friend who was getting a Xbox 360 While I was waiting for him I decided to play around with some Lego that was lying there in a sad attempt to relive my long lost childhood. I used the Lego pieces to try and build an 8-bit style Mario which was surprisingly fun. Later when I got back home I decided to start up Maya (3d software) and do something similar there. Instead of using Lego pieces I used polygon-cubes to recreate some of my favourite 8-bit sprites. Eventually I ended up with a Mega Man sprite and then I thought to myself that it would be fun to see if I could animate it as well.


G: Do you have a favorite Mega Man game? What are some of your favorite Master Robots?

Peter: Tough to say. My favourite game would have to be either MM2 or MM3. My absolute favourite level would probably be either Metal Man from 2 or Snake Man from 3, though it's hard to choose considering how many great levels all of these games have.


G: If you could meet anyone currently working in the video game industry, who would it be?

Peter: Well being a huge fan of the Mega Man series I would definitely have to say Keiji Inafune.


G: What are some of your interests, other than video games?

Peter: Well Animation is my main interest but I also enjoy stuff like exercising, hanging out with friends, traveling and writing.

A big thanks to Peter for participating in the first ever Gaming Addicts Q and A! For high quality screens, visit Peter's homepage at www.petersjostrand.com.