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.

We received a collaborative effort from the team behind Impulse. This incredibly innovative group of designers has pooled their collective knowledge into a compilation of wonderful advice for aspiring independant game developers.

G4: How long was the game in development?

The game was in development for 10 weeks and has received a little extra work since it was finished, but it's ultimately the same game.

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

Andy Phelps was the professor of the game development class and really liked explosions, so we started with that and then expanded it to "forces" in general.

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

The team has lots of favorite games and there is no way we could possibly cover them all.

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

It would be fairly interesting to meet with Will Wright as cliche as that sounds.

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

The biggest games out there are MMO's, so that would probably be a cool project to work on if we didn't have to worry about resources.

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

Personally, I found Assassin's creed to be a really awesome game with lots of room for improvement.

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

I hope it continues to grow and allow fantastic games like Braid and Schizoid to get in front of people all over the world.

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

Just simply make games. Start small and progressively make more games. You will learn from each one, and hopefully every game will get better and better.

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

There were probably too many lessons we learned to call out just one, but if I had to... it would be things you think should be simple never turn out to be easy to get working.

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

People on the team have all kinds of hobbies such as playing games, camping, snowboarding, programming for fun, composing music, the list goes on...