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Small arms dev interview

 

1-Can you please tell us about Gastronaut Studios?

 

Don–Gastronaut Studios is a small independent developer that focuses on high quality downloadable console games. We especially like to focus on sociable and multiplayer titles, whether it's friends on the couch, or over the internet. Our first title "Fuzzee Fever" was released for the first xbox LIVE arcade in the end of 2004. We have since grown to a whopping 4 people, and are hard at work at our upcoming multiplayer fighting/shooting game "Small Arms" for Xbox 360 LIVE arcade.

 

2-Can you give us an overview of "Small Arms"?

 

Don–Small Arms is a hybrid fighting/platforming/shooting game. Up to four players battle it out with a set of interchangeable "gun arms". Each character starts with an initial weapon, and can pick up new ones as the match progresses. The levels in the game are looking really cool, and contain a number of interactive elements.

 

3-I have read comments from people who have viewed the gameplay video of Small Arms and they said it resembled Nintendo's "Super Smash Brothers"series. Is this what you were hoping for?

 

Don–A number of review sites are writing the game off as a 'Super Smash Bros' Clone, but in reality it plays quite differently. The combat focuses on ranged attacks which make for a less claustrophobic , more tactical game. I think 'Small Arms' has just as much in common with games like 'Abuse' and 'Metal Slug' as with 'Smash Bros'. Also, while the characters in the game are a bit cartoon-ish, the weapons and environments give the game a much more gritty feel than most Nintendo titles. We think it will fit in very well on the Xbox 360, and will really stand out to most gamers compared to the other games on Arcade.

 

4- How many playable characters will there be?

 

Don-We are currently planning to ship with 10-12 characters in the full game, with the possibility of releasing additional characters on Marketplace. Some of them will be unlockable as you progress through the story mode as different characters.

 

5–What type of weapons can be used?

 

Don–The game will ship with a different weapon for each of the initial characters. Each weapon supports a primary and secondary firing mode. I don't want to give too much away, but I can give a couple examples.

 

'Marky Kat' is our cyborg cat character who sports a 'chain gun' as his default weapon. The primary attack is a rapid fire stream of bullets, while the secondary is a shotgun type burst shot. Another character 'Mr Truffles' is an assassin truffle pig who uses a sniper rifle as his default weapon. The primary attack is a deadly accurate sniper rifle with a laser sight. As a secondary attack, the sniper rifle provides 'proximity mines' which you can leave behind around the level for unsuspecting opponents. There are also a number of less traditional weapons, such as one that shoots multiple boomerang like saw blades, and a mysterious psychic glove.

 

6-How long has 'Small Arms' been in development?

 

Don–The game has been in development for roughly 8 months.

 

7-What type of gamers is 'Small Arms' directed to?

 

Don–We are making the game very accessible to all types of players; putting more focus on a pickup and play game style, and deviating away the more hardcore style of play. However, we believe that both hardcore players and newcomers alike will find 'Small Arms' gameplay to be very appealing.

 

8-How many MS points will 'Small Arms' cost?

 

Don–This is yet to be determined. It will be in line with the other titles on arcade.

 

9-When will 'Small Arms' be released?

 

Don–The release date is also yet to be determined. A rough estimate would be end of summer.

 

10–What type of Multiplayer modes will 'Small Arms' have?

 

Don– Multiplayer is a major focus in 'Small Arms'. It supports up to 4 players on xbox LIVE with a very similar experience to playing against friends in the same room. We are planning for a number of different 'rule sets' for multiplayer matches, including timed matches, and lives matches.

 

11-What are your thoughts on the xbox LIVE arcade in general?

 

Don– It's our bread and butter! We love arcade, and want to make many more original titles for it. We are glad to have such a great platform for delivering small, fun games to break up the cycle of sequels and bloat the industry has fallen into.

 

12– Has the 50 MB limit been a problem while developing 'Small Arms'?

 

Don– We really haven't had many problems at all. We set out from the beginning with a design that we knew we could do in that size. Also we have a great set of tools that really pack the content in, and still have it look great. 'Fuzzee Fever' had to fit into 15 MB, so we're enjoying the leg room.

 

13- Any plans for Marketplace goodies? Like Gamerpics, Themes, ETC

 

Don–We are planning to release both gamerpics and themes. Additionally we have the capability of releasing new characters and levels for the game on Marketplace, so expect to see those too.

 

14-What makes this game better than any other Xbox LIVE arcade title?

 

Don–Two Words. Rotisserie Chicken. (See Screenshot)

 

15-What Graphics engine does 'Small Arms' use?

 

Don–The engine used in 'Small Arms' was developed entirely in house. When we started working on the 360, we took the engine from Fuzzee Fever and bought it up to speed with all the fancy next-gen features gamers expect now. Full HDR rendering pipeline, soft-shadows, lots of per-pixel lighting, normal maps, cool procedural textures, and impressive poly-counts for a downloadable game. I think people will be amazed at what downloadable games can do.

 

16-Is Gastronaut Studios working on any other titles for the xbox LIVE arcade?

 

Don–Nothing we can talk about yet, but we love making bite-sized downloadable console games. Microsoft has really set the bar for network services with this Xbox 360 LIVE arcade, and we've really enjoyed working with their platform.

 

17–Any last words for gamers out there?

 

Don–Check out the games website @ http://www.smallarmsgame.com. As we approach launch, we'll launch more features: character/level/weapon info, tips & tricks, and community/tournament organization. We look forward to playing you online!

 

 

http://thrillskilla.wordpress.com/2006/06/12/small-arms-dev-interview/

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privateer Crazy Insomniac

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UNO surpasses Geometry Wars for demo > purchase conversion:

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/11143/UNO-Surpasses-Geometry-Wars-DemotoPurchase-Rate/

 

Microsoft announced today that since "UNO" hit Xbox Live Marketplace last month, it has become the single-most successfully-demoed game on the service.

 

Its demo-to-purchase rate is currently between 40-45% (depending on the day), beating the previous demo-to-purchase rate record (39%) set by Geometry Wars.

 

Developed by Carbonated Games, UNO is a classic party card game where you compete against three other players to match colors and symbols. Add-on theme decks offer new art and new card effects, keeping the game fresh and challenging.

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Minor Dash update

 

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that there is dash update that will start to roll out around 0200 (am) PT today. There are no new features in this update. There is one, small fix that improves character recognition for those users that are using the localized Chinese language version of the dashboard on their Xbox 360. You'll get prompted for this mandatory update the next time you connect to Xbox Live. (Yes, you need to take the update even if you don't use the Chinese language version of the dash keyboard.) I wanted to let you guys know what's in the update, since I was sure you'd ask anyway. emotion-5.gif

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June 2006 Back Compat titles added:

 

1. 4x4 EVO 2

2. Amped® 2

3. Bad Boys 2

4. Big Mutha Truckers

5. DOOM 3®

6. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

7. Fatal Frame™

8. FlatOut™

9. Grabbed by the Ghoulies™

10. Intellivision Lives

11. LEGO® Star Wars®

12. Minority Report

13. MLB SlugFest 20-04

14. The Punisher™

15. RalliSport Challenge

16. Silent Hill® 4: The Room

17. Spawn® Armageddon

18. Spider-Man

19. Star Wars Battlefront™

20. State of Emergency

21. Zapper™

 

Additional Japanese-only titles:

 

Bistro Cupid 1

Flight Academy

Othello Seminar

Igo Seminar

Shogi Seminar

Mahjong Seminar

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Xbox 360 is the only place you're going to be able to play Gears of War, Halo 3 and GTA IV

 

Shane Kim MSFT Game Studio GM comments:

 

BIZ: Now that you guys have announced that GTA IV will be on Xbox 360, I'm wondering, is there a particular IP that you'd really like on 360 that you haven't been able to secure?

 

SK: I don't know. I think we're always working... the third parties have done a great job at leveling the playing field and I think that's the major story with the GTA IV announcement. We look at that and we've taken away one of the major exclusives that drove Sony's PlayStation 2's success, and I think from a third-party perspective you have to support Xbox 360 because we are the leader in this generation. And with the rising cost of development... not supporting Xbox 360 is just too extreme. So I think you're going to see most third parties publishing their content for both platforms, which means it's up to the first party, Microsoft Game Studios, to deliver the exclusive content that's really going to differentiate the platforms. With the announcement that we have with GTA IV, now Xbox 360 is the only place you're going to be able to play Gears of War, Halo 3 and GTA IV.

 

BIZ: Microsoft Game Studios recently added Lionhead Studios to its stable of developers. What went into the decision to acquire them and what will this mean for Microsoft Game Studios?

 

SK: We've had a long, great and fantastic partnership with Peter [Molyneux] and Lionhead on Fable—and of course he's been working on Fable 2 for a little while—and every acquisition is different but I think in this particular case Peter really valued the partnership that we had. He said he looks at Microsoft Game Studios as being a great publishing partner, in terms of helping him to realize his greater vision. He's always talked a lot about how challenging it is to be an independent game developer, and I think he looked at the experience and financial stability of Microsoft that Microsoft Game Studios can provide and I think that's what really attracted him to us.

 

For me, it's a fantastic opportunity to bring one of the industry Hall of Famers into Microsoft Game Studios. Peter is the kind of guy who is going to help lead us to the future of interactive entertainment, the frontier of really making this a mainstream form of entertainment. And I look forward to Peter just having a tremendous impact on everything that we do at Microsoft Game Studios.

 

BIZ: Microsoft's struggles in Japan with the Xbox and now Xbox 360 have been well documented. What does MS have to do to finally make some progress over there?

 

SK: Well, we need to do deliver more Japanese content that Japanese gamers want. That's why we continue to work super hard with Japanese game developers and publishers. It's why our efforts with Sakaguchi-san and Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are so important. Because those are the kinds of titles that can really drive new users to our platform. [We need to] demonstrate to everybody in Japan that we're very serious about being more successful in Japan. I think our expectations are realistic there; we don't expect to win in Japan but we definitely expect to do better [with 360]. And we need to deliver on Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

 

Our third-party guys are doing a great job with the Japanese third-party publishers, getting more and more of them to support us; you saw Capcom's presence here. They see the success that Xbox 360 is having in Europe and in North America; they're not immune to the rising cost of development issue as well. So it's getting harder and harder to have a viable business when you support just one market and one platform. So I think you're going to start to see more Japanese content and Japanese consumers coming to Xbox 360... And it's going to be interesting to see how Japanese consumers react to the PlayStation 3. There's a 20,000 Yen+ difference between their 20GB option and the Xbox 360, with a 20GB hard drive. That's asking a lot of Japanese customers.

 

BIZ: How much do you think the problem in Japan stems from the notion that Japanese gamers may not want to buy an American console?

 

SK: I think that bias angle is somewhat overplayed. Is their loyalty to Nintendo and Sony because they've been so well entrenched in that market? Sure, that makes sense. There's been some loyalty to those brands in America too because they've been so established. So we have to go earn our own brand loyalty [with Xbox 360]... and that's what we're focused on doing. Is there some normal bias or natural bias towards the Japanese companies? Well, we'll just have to work harder to earn their purchases of Xbox 360.

 

BIZ: Is Microsoft planning a price drop for either SKU of the Xbox 360 for this holiday season or to coincide with the PS3 launch?

 

SK: I think we feel very good about where we are in terms of pricing and the value that we offer customers. I guess it's always an option that we have, but certainly with Sony's pricing we're already at a significant pricing advantage, especially when you consider that's just for the base system, and you have to start layering in additional controllers and games and so forth. Sony's really making their customers pay for their Blu-ray ambitions. So we feel pretty good about where we are with pricing, especially when you then factor in that we have better online, better content and so forth.

 

BIZ: I know Microsoft is planning some updates for Xbox Live, and Peter Moore briefly mentioned this as well. Can you talk a bit about what the future holds for Xbox Live? What can we expect?

 

SK: What we want to do with the tremendous success of Xbox Live Marketplace—we've had 18 million+ downloads coming into E3 and then on Wednesday within a 19-hour period we had over a million downloads with all the E3 content we put up—so as more and more success happens we're adding more Xbox Live Arcade titles, more downloadable content for games, more music videos, movie trailers and other entertainment content. We've just been putting up more content on Xbox Live Marketplace but we have to make it easier for customers to find the content that they want, when they want it, whether it's digital entertainment or games content. That's really what Peter was alluding to. We've got to make it a better experience. We've done a great job already with Xbox Live in general. We'll bring those same continuous improvements to Xbox Live Marketplace

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