[H] Console has an interview with Mark Frohnmayer, President of GarageGames, which is a breeding ground for talented indie developers and fun games. GarageGames is the publisher for Marble Blast Ultra, the insanely popular Xbox Live game, and a spinoff of the same game for the PC which I found to be totally addictive when I played it the day it came out. If you haven’t tried out Marble Blast, check out the demo. From the interview:

How do you feel about the success of Marble Blast Ultra?

It has eclipsed even our wildest expectations. We made the original Marble Blast to show that it was possible to make simple, fun non-FPS games with the Torque Engine. Back then I never imagined the title’s successor would be in the launch window on a next generation console.

Still, as game design goes I’m ultimately a mechanics guy — I tend to focus on the interaction between the human player and the game — and the “feel” of MBU is the tightest, most engaging play mechanic of any of the games I’ve worked on. Given that I’m not totally surprised that it’s caught on.