13 years ago
Klei Entertainment sets the stage for Shank 2
Many years ago a man and his two handy blades, jagged though they were, turned an entire crime organization on its head. Sometimes, when there was another ethereal controller being beside him, he was joined by his fellow anti-gang affiliate. This man, named Shank, armed only with twin shanks (and meat cleavers, and a katana, and a chainsaw, shotgun, SMG and dual pistols) brought frenetic brawler action complete with weapon fast-switching and combos along with crisp art and high-tier animation quality, and it appears that Klei Entertainment aims to give him shank-tion to do it again. We here at XBLAFans were lucky enough to score an interview with Klei Entertainment’s CEO, Jamie Cheng. Take a look at what he had to say after the jump. Read More
13 years ago
Interview: Valve talks Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
We recently had the opportunity to ask Chet Faliszek of Valve questions about the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. When Global Offensive releases in the spring of next year, it will mark the first time that the true Counter-Strike experience will grace consoles. Read on to find out why Valve boldly believes that Global Offensive is the best iteration of Counter-Strike to date.
13 years ago
XBLAFancast Special – Orcs Must Die! interview
Orcs have been a problem throughout the universe for all eternity. Well. Maybe not, but they still have to die! And so they will in Robot Entertainment’s action tower defense strategy game Orcs Must Die! Justin Korthoff, Community Manager at Robot Ent, joins myself and John Laster to discuss the game’s origin, some details about Robot Ent, and of course the awesome points of the game.
Justin goes over the bit of time following Ensemble Studios’ collapse all the way up through the beginning of Orcs Must Die!, and how small the game started at first. On top of that is the birth of a lot of the game mechanics, how three traps turned into over 20, and how the crossbow and various other elements of the game were balanced to ensure that each of the game’s levels played differently. This podcast is full of great insight into the processes regarding this game’s development and the result of those design strategies.
Venture forth and listen!
[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastOMDInterview.mp3[/podcast]
13 years ago
XBLAFancast – Skulls of the Shogun Interview Special
Upcoming turn based strategy game Skulls of the Shogun is being developed by a core team of three gentlemen at Haunted Temple. We were lucky enough to talk with the founder and design director Jake Kazdal (the guy in the dev diary). Fresh from his showing of the game at Fantastic Arcade, Jake was kind enough to venture into the netherworld and sort out some of the details, or rather, pretty much all of the details on Skulls of the Shogun.
Of the massive plethora of topics discussed, up first was mechanics. While the game may look shallow at first, we can guarantee you the tactics go far deeper than one might imagine, without being all that complicated. Spirit walls, eating skulls and haunting structures are just some of the finer mechanics in Skulls of the Shogun. Jake goes on to discuss art direction and story, telling of his time spent in Japan and the myriad of influences that period of his life has had on the development of Skulls of the Shogun.
[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/HauntedTemple_InterviewSpecial.mp3[/podcast]
13 years ago
Interview: John Dennis on Worms: Ultimate Mayhem
We recently had the chance to ask John Dennis of Team 17 some questions about the upcoming Worms: Ultimate Mayhem. Check out the full interview after the jump! Worms: Ultimate Mayhem will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade on September 28, retailing for 1200 Microsoft Points.
Can you start us off by giving us an overview of what Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is?
Hi, of course, Worms Ultimate Mayhem, for us, is the definitive 3D Worms game. The game is a “best of” compilation of the very best content from both Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem, so it’s got loads of the weapons, tons of the customization options plus a selection of new ones, making for well over 100 individual customization elements in total, and it has 60 single player missions from games both as well, making it a just massive game.
13 years ago
Awesomenauts’ Jasper Koning talks shop in this Q&A
Awesomenauts, upcoming 2D MOBA game from Ronimo Games, is paving the way to an entirely new way to play MOBA games without abandoning all the things we love. However, with a change of dimension comes several other things. Arguably games like League of Legends are actually pretty simple to understand and can be very accessible. However, getting good, or passing the “barrier of competency”, is a very long, uphill battle requiring either tons of gameplay experience or a lot of research. Awesomenauts seeks to simplify and streamline the mechanics surrounding the depth that MOBA games are known for without removing any of it. In that effort, Ronimo Games has employed a simple, understandable and customizeable “item”, or rather upgrade, structure and shop system into Awesomenauts. How exactly that lofty goal will be achieved is, in short, explained below and after the jump.
13 years ago
Interview with Phoenix Games
Tell us a little bit about yourself/company/team?
We are small team of four members located in Nis, Serbia. Our team was born during our college days (computer science college). After few student projects we realized we share the same passion for playing and making games. We are here to bring high quality games to the players by pushing our knowledge to the limits. Because we are small team, we all share jobs of programming, modeling, animation, music etc. Our goal is to become professionals in game development industry. We are currently “bedroom” studio with no funds and we are planning to change that in future.
13 years ago
Interview with Emoks and Eric, the conductors for Train Frontier Express
Tell us a little bit about yourself/company/team?
Emoks: We’re a duo; Eric has done all the coding and particles effects for the game, and I worked on the art. We’ve both worked on traditional games for the mainstream market, but had always wanted to try making something on our own and out-of-the-norm.
What made you decide to use the XBLIG platform for your game?
Emoks: It’s accessibility to the console market is what’s drawn me to XNA and XBLIG. Throughout the development process having that Xbox controller in my hands has been a good feeling (D-pad aside), knowing that console readiness was already there.
Eric: If you have a small game with less risk, then XBLIG can make sense as a platform and is a great way to get a game on a console quickly. I had reservations with XNA, since it’s limited to Microsoft platforms. It’s proven a blessing and a curse.
13 years ago
Interview with Alex Jordan, the mind behind Cute Things Dying Violently
Tell us a little bit about yourself/company/team?
ApathyWorks is me, Alex “AlejandroDaJ” Jordan, a 27 year old who lives in Washington, DC and works for the U.S. Department of Labor. I started programming and doing level design in elementary school, graduated to modding, and eventually hit the ground running with indie game design with XNA in early 2009. Cute Things Dying Violently will be my second title for Xbox Live Indie Games.
While I certainly enjoy helping out workers and the unemployed at the Labor Department, my real passion lies with game design and writing, and some day I hope to do it for a living. Although it’s currently just a hobby of mine, the “apathy” in my studio title is a complete misnomer that hides my desire to create worlds and experiences and to share them with others.
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13 years ago
Interview with Alejandro Gonzalez of Milkstone Studios
Tell us a little bit about yourself/company/team?
We are an indie game development company created in Asturias, Spain, and have released many successful titles on Xbox Live Indie Games. Our games feature polished gameplay and high production values.
What made you decide to use the XBLIG platform for your game?
Our first game, Little Racers, was a hobby project that we did on our free time. We chose XBLIG because there were very few options to market an independent game on a non-mobile device and it was easier to develop on a closed platform as the Xbox 360. After the unexpected success of the game, we just kept releasing games on that platform. We’ve tried other platforms in the past, but there’s no magical platform yet.
What was the biggest hurdle in getting this game finished?
Usually our biggest hurdle is to cut somewhere and polish everything. The only exception has been Raventhorne, were we had a tight deadline so we ended up cutting before we intended.