I find myself getting into metal more as I get older. Maybe because I'm getting angrier.

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It starts like that. When you're a teenager a lot of your connection to it is angry, but now if you go to Ozzfest or something it's a really gentle, a really happy scene. Like, there's a lot of Dads bringing their kids to their first Ozzy Osbourne concert, which is really funny, like, 'oh you kids, this is great, you don't realise, you're going to get to see the original Black Sabbath lineup', and the kids are genuinely into it.

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As a more general question, how do you feel about the point-and-click genre? That's really started coming back.

It's interesting. I haven't been able to play games, because I've been playing Brutal Legend every night, but I'm going to be checking them out. I'm interested to actually see how I'll feel about them, because I haven't played Monkey Island in years.

I did have that moment where I realised I wanted to push a character around with a controller more than I wanted to point and click, but I think, well, we'll see.

You started taking that direct control route way back...

Even in Grim Fandango, if you plug in a gamepad you can push Manny around like you can or something like that. It's tricky.

The reason we went with those 'tank' controls is actually because of a game called Bioforge, which was the first graphic adventure as far as I've seen, and it was like controls: left, right and forward. But the advantage is that you can walk down a hallway, and like, the camera would change as you walked, so you can see your character from overhead, to the side, reverse, and I thought that was really dramatic. I liked that. If you're just pushing forward the whole time, you don't have to worry about the control. If you have more screen-relative controls, like Mario [64] started, you'd be pushing forward then all of a sudden you'd have to pull towards you, and then push it at an angle, and it would be really hard to keep going down this straight line.

But looking back on it, I probably should have just put point and click in there....

Whilst we're talking about Manny, how does it feel creating characters that become so beloved?

It's awesome to go something like Comic-Con or PAX and see people dressed as the characters. You really feel like you've made, your characters have made, a connection with somebody. Thinking about them being real to somebody else, that's very meaningful. You work really hard on the characters, and you care about them a lot. It's nice.

Why do you think you seem to get it right every time when it comes to making characters like that?

Well, it's a lot of work. I work on them a lot. Like, think them through. I think the trick is that you've got to make them real to you, you've got to make them specific: what were their parents like? Where did they come from? What was their life like? All that stuff. Get to know them really, really well. And then, when you write the dialog, you kind of become them, like you're an actor playing that part, and your writing is like improv acting.

So how are different from other studios?

I don't know, because I don't work at these other companies. I only know the way we do it, which is to have an idea that we care about and then pursue it to its bitter end!

I don't think you'd ever see Brutal Legend from another studio.

I don't like to tell other developers how to work, but I feel that all games should feel that way - where you couldn't imagine that game being made by any other studio. I think it would be great for the if every game had that stamp on it.

Our thanks to for taking the time to talk to us. Brutal Legend is released on the and 360 on the 16th Rocktober.

By Martin Gaston