To kick off X-Play's unprecedented coverage of the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, we've asked each of the PAX 10, the Expo's top ten highest rated indie games of the last year, to answer some questions for us.

Joe Rheaume, creator of Chronotron, was eager to answer our questions and fill us in on his experiences as an independent video game designer and one of the PAX 10.

G4: How long was the game in development?

JR: Seven months, but I was only able to work on it during my spare time.

G4: Where did you get the idea/inspiration for the game?

JR: I got the idea to do a game that had a time-travel mechanic from an article I read about Braid. It made me remember the commercial for Blinx which said you could "pause, rewind and even record time". That got me thinking of all the possible puzzles you could make with a platform game where you could go back in time to assist yourself. A lot of the gameplay was inspired by The Lost Vikings, as well.

G4: What's your all-time favorite game?

JR: That's pretty hard to say. I have a huge soft spot for Link's Awakening for the Game Boy. That's probably the game I've played through the most.

G4: If you could have dinner with any one developer, who would it be and what would you eat?

JR: I've been told I should have dinner with The Behemoth, since they've got experience porting Flash games to consoles, which would be pretty awesome. What do behemoths eat? Leaves?

G4: With unlimited resources, what kind of game would you make?

JR: With unlimited resources, I would make every kind of game.

G4: Which existing franchise would you like to work on?

JR: If I worked on an existing franchise, I wouldn't really have the kind of creative input necessary to make the hypothetical situation that enjoyable for me. They'd be like "You wrote a game in Flash? Good, you can do the website". That said, I'd be interested in developing some non-sports games for the Wii Balance board. So I guess I'll say the "Mii" franchise.

G4: Where do you see indie gaming going in the future?

JR: The same place all indie media is going. The tools to develop and publish games will get cheaper easier to use, so more people will have the ability to try and make the games they've been daydreaming about since the first time they picked up a controller.

G4: What piece of advice would you give to someone looking to develop their own indie game?

JR: Well if you're making a flash game, look into how you're going to make money from it before releasing it on Newgrounds or sites like that. You either want to look for a Primary Sponsor who will still let you include ads and sell non-exclusive licenses to other sites, or have some kind of model like "The Fantastic Contraption" where you have a free game that advertises a premium version of the game that you sell on your website. In fact, if you're making a Flash (or Java, or Silverlight) game, sign up for a developer account on FlashGameLicense.com, where you can get feedback on your game from other developers, and have it available for potential sponsors to bid on.

G4: What was the biggest lesson learned from your development process?

JR: Don't use multithreading for a time-travel game, and you can never have enough playtesting.

G4: Besides the obvious—making games—what are some of your hobbies?

JR: I used to make a webcomic before Chronotron took off, I'm involved in the Artificial Life community at Biota.org, and I play D&D and/or Shadowrun with my friends.

G4: Favorite movie, food, sports team, video game character, and actor/actress?

JR: Brain Candy, buffalo, The Venture Bros. (okay, not a sports team, but I don't watch sports and a TV show fits the motif of this question, right?), Samus Aran, and Billy West.