Thanks for taking the time, Shaun. Can you give a brief overview of your background in the video game industry for those that don't know much about you?

In the late 90's I got my start in the industry when I was developing some editors and mods to Sierra's popular Front Page Sports: Baseball and Front Page Sports: Football titles. That led to Sierra contacting me directly and inviting me on to the beta teams for both games. I was always a fanatical baseball nut and it was during the beta of Front Page Sports Baseball 98 that I decided I wanted to build a baseball game of my own. So, in 1998 I began sketching out what my goals for the game were. I also began a developer log on my web site soon after, and over the next four years, working nights and weekends, I developed PureSim Baseball. PureSim was initially released in 2002 and has had multiple sequels since. The most recent release was PureSim Baseball 2007, which is published by Matrix Games.

Smaller independent developers cite a group of games that they played when they were younger as their inspiration for getting involved in developing games. Was there any one developer that inspired you to be a game developer?

Absolutely. When I was younger, my dad and I would purchase every baseball title there was. It didn't matter if it was on the Intellivision, the Commodore 64, the Amiga, or a PC; we had them all. Two games stand out though as real influences. Earl Weaver Baseball on the Amiga blew me away, and still influences PureSim to this day. I even put a feature in where the computer will announce the batter's name with speech synthesis. In homage to Earl, I added the ability for the user to enter a phonetic spelling for the player's name. The second incredibly influential game for me was Front Pages Sports: Baseball. The career mode was incredibly revolutionary at the time, and I knew PureSim absolutely had to have that feature.

Did you previously have a 'desk' job before you became a developer? If so, did you quit your job to be a developer or was game development initially an after-hours hobby?

I have maintained a full time "real" job throughout. I still love going to work. So, game development for me has always been an after-hours labor of love. That's why PureSim has always been a little "random" when it comes to release schedules.

How much time do you put into your games per week? Does the time vary based on the phase of development?

This is incredibly variable for me. Having a full time job, wife and four children can take pretty large chunks of time. I tend to work in spurts, usually on the weekends. When I am in the "zone" I will wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning on a Saturday, make a huge pot of coffee and work straight through until 9 or 10 in the evening, breaking only for the occasional World of Warcraft instance romp with my three sons, each of us at a computer in my office -- what a bunch of geeks we are!

You've tried various methods of pre-release testing in your games. Is there any type of testing that you find most effective?

Open beta! PureSim would never have evolved into the game it is today without the open feedback of its very large and passionate user community. Being an indie developer means I don't have the luxury of a QA staff, so the community has been pivotal. With Draft Day Spots: Baseball, I will be following a similar approach.

Sports simulations generally have a detail-oriented interest group. Baseball is more statistically focused than other sports. How hard can it be to meet the needs of the baseball gamer without too much micro-managing?

Great question and I think it actually highlights a key aspect of PureSim, which is how dynamic the array of play styles the game offers are. PureSim can be played at a macro level taking the role as a GM and maybe playing ten seasons in one sitting, or one can play as the on the field manager and make strategy moves on every batter, maybe playing one game in one sitting. Similarly, the game can be played with completely fictional players, when a gamer creates their own baseball universe, or the game can be played as a historical simulation using real players from 1900-2007. At first I thought all the different modes would lead to complexity and compromises, but over time it has proven to be the right direction as there is a very healthy mix of players out there that spans all modes of play.

Sports gaming on consoles has become stagnant in recent years due to the corporate need to get a new version of a game out every year. As a result, there's often not a lot of new content in those games. With your text simulations, are you more likely to release a new version every other year with periodic updates rather than releasing a new version of your game every year?

Absolutely. Also, almost to a fault, I have always enjoyed adding free content and updates to each new release of the game for long periods of time. For example I have added 250+ new free features and updates to PureSim 2007 over a two year period. It comes down to having a great passionate community around the game -- that really drives me. Like Wolverine Studios, PureSim has always offered unparalleled access to the community in regards to providing direct feedback to me and discussing design ideas. That to me is the secret of what makes being an indie so rewarding. I can think of literally hundreds of cases where a PureSim player would post a really cool idea on the message board in the morning, and then I'd spend all day implementing and testing the feature and ultimately release it that night as a free patch. That is something that just can't happen with a big budget game.