x360a Developer Interview: Bomberman LiveWritten Monday, June 25, 2007 By X360A Press Team - DaKing240 |
What is your favorite gametype in Bomberman Live, and have any suggestions?
We spend a lot of our time playing Zombie matches. And here's a tip for all you out there… The most important part of a 2-3 minute Zombie Match is the last 20 seconds. So, when you get a Dangerous Bomb & full fire, don't turn the game into a Michael Bay movie (that means don't go blow every thing up). Keep out of the way till about 20 seconds left & then use that Dangerous Bomb a couple times.
What was the most difficult process in making the game?
Getting the game's metrics correct. This is science to Hudson Soft. Early on in the development process we thought the game played very nicely. Turns out there are a lot of specific metrics that go into a Bomberman game. Without giving away all the secrets I'll give you a couple examples.
Notice that the feeling of moving around the hard-blocks if very smooth & fluid. This is because the block's corners are cut at a 45 degree angle. Also, when you get a Power Bomb or a Full Fire, notice how the fire starts at the bomb and moves across the board, as opposed to just exploding and there being fire across the whole length & width of the board. What this does is allow an alert player to slide around a corner to escape being vaporized.
So it was things like this that kept us up late at night perfecting those aspects of the game that you might not initially think of, but would notice if they weren't in there. And those are just a sampling of the tweaks that go into making a Bomberman game.
Are there any plans for short-term, or long-term Downloadable Content (DLC)?
We do have plans for new levels & characters. I would go into detail here but I don't want to blow everyone's mind with how awesome, and by our own admission, genius, the DLC will be. I can say it will involve more levels & many more characters. Let's just say they'll rock you like a hurricane.
What type of process helps with deciding the final 12 achievements?
Probably like everyone else does. Once all the game modes where set & the gameplay was working as it should, we looked at it and thought, there really isn't any argument that can justify Sammy Hagar as a better frontman for Van Halen than David Lee Roth. Then Jarett (producer at our developer, Backbone Vancouver) and I traded e-mails for a couple weeks discussing possible achievements. Eventually we decided that since this is a party game the achievements shouldn't be difficult to get. Early versions of our achievement list involved all online achievements in ranked games. While that isn't inherently bad, we figured it would be more fun to be able to unlock a lot of them without having to invest 100's of hours in the game. We still want you to play for 100's of hours, we just don't want that time to be spent trying to lay 1,000,000 bombs.
Any funny stories relating to any of the achievements?
Not really… But I'd like to point out that as far as I know we are the only game in history of the world to include a Bob Ross reference. Also, the cowboy was initially called “Bomb Wayne”, but when Jarett came up with the Achievement name “The Good, The Bad and the Bombed” we figured we should change the name to “Clint Bombwood” to avoid smartasses e-mailing us and explaining that in fact John Wayne was not in that movie.
Who is responsible for the "Girl Power" achievement?Jarett. That achievement originally had to do with wining a live match against 4 or more people without bombing anyone. Now I'm sure some people out there in the intertubes are thinking how awesome that achievement was and are asking, “Hey Peter, why the change?” Well, we know there's a large segment of gamers who enjoy creating female characters and frolicking online.
Any achievement you want to elaborate on - easiest, or hardest?
I'd say the hardest one will be “Did I just win…AGAIN?!” This is the only achievement that requires a ranked game. That means, unlike the other achievements, you can't use your friends to help you get it.
The easiest will probably be “Paint the town red!” If you're a chump you can just make 2 easy CPU players & beat them in a Zombie match. If you want to be an all-star, make them both Hard.
Do you have any inspirational game, company?
I started playing RPG's on paper and moved to a game called MajorMUD, a text based MUD found on Major BBS & Woldgroup BBS. Also, I played a lot of the Commander Keen games – nothing says awesome like side-scrolling EGA graphics in DOS. Those aren't necessarily inspirational, but I do have fond memories of playing them. Personally, Epic Games get my heart fluttering.
Some of our members had some questions actually with the first being..."Collect-a-thons as the majority of the Achievements? Why weren't there more creative ones like The Good, The Bad, and The Bombed"
Isn't the whole achievements process in general mostly a collect-a-thon? I know, you can't answer a question with a question so I will say this… The two achievements that I assume everyone thinks are the most creative are “Girl Power!” and “The Good, The Bad and the Bombed.” The reason that the other achievements may not seem as fun is only a testament to how amazingly awesome those two achievements are. Another analogy would be this: Hot girls usually have a less attractive (read ugly) friend – what this does is make the hot girl look even hotter. We have a couple of achievements that involve collecting (ugly girls), that just makes the other ones look even sweeter (hot girls).
Bomberman Live is currently coming to XBLA, but will it be making an appearance on any other console in the future?
Naturally I'm not at liberty to divulge such information at this time. I will say that we are certainly exploring all avenues. Also, let me apologize for the corporate nature of that answer – but I really can't say anything definitive. Visit www.hudsonent.com for the latest details.
What are the feelings after the not so good Bomberman Act Zero? What made them stray away from the usual look & feel of Bomberman? Finally what are the chances of putting our faces on the characters of Bomberman using the Camera? An idea for the future maybe?
I will say that there are some who still feel Act Zero wasn't that bad. They took a chance and obviously it didn't work out so hot for them. Word around the water cooler here is that Hudson Soft felt that's what the US Market wanted.
Hudson Entertainment gives the millions, and millions, of Bomberman fans what they want: and unparalleled, often imitated, never matched, explosive, perfectly tuned, highly customizable & undeniably fun game known as Bomberman LIVE.
There are zero chances of putting your face onto a Bomberman. The fact there the winner gets live video feed to display all manner of hand gestures should be enough to keep people busy. But, that's a damn good suggestion – of course should we include that in a future release, I'll claim sole credit for it.
Thanks Peter for the awesome interview, and we look forward to seeing Bomberman Live on the Xbox Live Marketplace in the near future!
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