We Built This (Retro) City: VBlank on RCR’s eight-year history, soundtrack talent

Unveiled earlier this month, Retro City Rampage is a love letter to 8-bit games and 80s/90s pop culture, written on top-down Grand Theft Auto stationary and addressed to WiiWare. The downloadable title has you exploring an open world, taking on missions, and stumbling over dozens of gags appealing to the NES generation — those kids who grew up on ninja turtles and Snoop’s Doggystyle album.

We spoke with the man behind Retro City Rampage, VBlank’s Brian Provinciano, and found out how he turned an NES homebrew project he started tinkering with eight years ago into a commercial WiiWare title, and the composers he’s enlisted for the game’s soundtrack (you’re sure to recognize at least one of them!).

As fans who’ve followed Retro City Rampage might know, the game started as an homage to Grand Theft Auto III, appropriately titled Grand Theftendo. It took place in Portland and replaced the PS2 title’s 3D graphics with 8-bit sprites. Provinciano explains, “The title aimed at recreating a GTA III experience on the actual 8-bit console”

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tags / retro city rampage / vblank / brian provinciano / wiiware / virt / interview / grand theftendo / ec

Tiny Q&A: Atlus on Shiren the Wanderer’s ordeals

Shiren the Wanderer, Atlus’s localized release of Shiren the Wanderer 3: The Sleeping Princess in the Clockwork Palace for Wii, takes its turn in stores this week, ready to punish and delight fans of the ronin and his weasel pal.

We spoke with a team of Atlus staff, including project lead Scott Strichart and editor Clayton Chan, about bringing a hardcore RPG to a new audience. And while they didn’t offer us any information about localization prospects for Shiren on PSP, Shiren DS 2, or the Koppa Wiimote stand, it’s hard to be too sad about that when they offered us so much fascinating discussion about the new game.

Shiren is a really different game from most other RPGs. What about Shiren the Wanderer, in terms of the experience more so than the systems, do you feel it offers that other games don’t?

Scott Strichart, Project Lead: “Different” is a great word to describe Shiren. What I think Shiren offers is a real juxtaposition between the classic rogue-like genre and the mass market JRPG. It’s got the challenge you’d expect from a rogue-like, but its story, characters, and visual style make overcoming that challenge a real joy.

It’s not easy for a game to please both sides of the fence – the masochistic “hurt me more!!” type who want a rogue-like that is going to do everything in its power to give them a game over, and the more mainstream (if you can call them that) JRPG gamer who just wants a great story and a fun battle system. I think this iteration of Shiren is one of the first games that can successfully straddle that fence.

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tags / atlus / chunsoft / sega / roguelike / shiren the wanderer / interview

Q&A: Capy on creating Clash of Heroes, 2009’s best RPG/puzzle game

Despite its low key status as the secret best RPG/puzzle game of the year, you might have heard about Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, if not for its addictive battle system, pretty boy smiles, and inventive take on the puzzle/RPG formula, then for the acclaim it’s received from anyone who spent more than a minute with the DS title.

Both Boing Boing and Gamasutra honored it as one of 2009’s best handheld releases, IGN called it the year’s Best DS Strategy Game and nominated it for Best DS Multiplayer Game, and Penny Arcade has already namedropped it a couple times. The Penny Arcade mention is important, as the webcomic’s kingmakers were instrumental in calling attention to 2007’s puzzle/RPG sleeper hit Puzzle Quest.

We recently caught up with the folks at Capy, the Toronto indie developer behind Clash of Heroes, to talk about the game. Here, the studio discusses how it sought to differentiate its title from Puzzle Quest, where Clash of Heroes fits in the Might & Magic series,  and why pixel art has become so rare in modern games.

We’ve seen an explosion of puzzle hybrid games in the past two years since Puzzle Quest’s success. Did you pick up any lessons or inspirations from those releases for your own puzzle hybrid title?

Nathan Vella (co-founder/president): The single largest thing we learned from those games was that we wanted to create, from scratch, a new take on the puzzle/strategy hybrid. We knew that, no matter what we did, the game would be compared to Puzzle Quest, so we wanted to ensure it was, in a way, nothing like Puzzle Quest.

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tags / clash of heroes / might and magic / ubisoft / capybara / interview / ec

Q&A: Aksys on retelling a detective story

Recognizing that Jake Hunter’s Western debut last year wasn’t everything it could have been, Aksys will attempt a “do over,” re-releasing the detective/adventure game with the episodes and features cut from the English edition, as well as a new script promising more personality.

Aksys pulled inspiration from several sources to implant that noir atmosphere missing from the original, adding in bits of Law & Order, Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Brick, and Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon).

We spoke with the localization editor Ben Bateman about why the studio decided to have another go with the game, and what changes we can expect with the script.

Just to clarify — is all the content in Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past taken from Tantei Jinguuji Saburo: Inishie no Kioku (The Ancient Memory)? Or is there any content originally from the series’ other mobile releases in Japan, or Kienai Kokoro (The Abiding Spirit)?

Ben Bateman: Memories of the Past contains Inishie no Kioku in its entirety, but nothing from Kienai Kokoro or any of the other mobile releases in Japan.

I’m sure that every company has published several titles that they might not be satisfied with and wish they could have another hack at — what is it about Jake Hunter that spurred you to actually go back and remake those cases?

BB: The first Jake Hunter was a test to see if there was a market for digital novel style games. Thankfully, it did well enough to warrant another release which gave us the opportunity to give Jake Hunter a little more personality.

Can you talk about any particular feedback that you’ve acted on, as well as maybe specific adjustments to the cases or characters?

BB: People said it was “too dry” or it “didn’t read well”, and they cited numerous spelling and grammar errors. Grammar and spelling, obviously, we’ve gone over with a fine-tooth comb — that’s really the only way to improve on that front.

Although we can’t cite any specific examples of customer feedback that lead to a specific change in the game script or characters, we have made changes to some characters in an effort to give consumers what they were asking for after the release of the first Jake Hunter game.

For instance, the character of Jake’s assistant Yulia Marks was initially pretty flat — she was essentially an obedient foil for Jake, and didn’t have much character apart from agreeing with Jake and getting him coffee. In Memories of the Past, Yulia has a personality: she talks back to Jake, berates him for being stupid, and has something we in the business like to call “emotional range.”

To use a Star Trek analogy, the early Yulia was akin to the ubiquitous Enterprise computer voice — now she is the Emergency Medical Hologram.

The cases themselves, however, haven’t seen much in the way of sweeping changes — after all, we aren’t comfortable straying too far from the original intent/story of the Japanese version.

With the “Jake Hunter Unleashed” comic episodes and the popularity of humorous adventure games like the Phoenix Wright series, would it be correct to assume that Memories of the Past will have a more lighthearted tone?

BB: Although we have done our best to imbue the characters and dialogue of the Detective Jake Hunter episodes with more of a sense of humor, it would be a mistake to compare them to Phoenix Wright, which is — at its heart — a comedy.

If Phoenix Wright is Starsky and Hutch, or CHIPs, then Jake Hunter is more like Law and Order or Columbo. We’ve done our best to give Jake that film noir-ish, dry, see-it-all sense of humor you might hear from Lenny Briscoe or Sam Spade.

Is the localization being handled internally? How is your localization process different this time, compared to your previous process?

BB: Yes, the localization was handled internally, by a team of specially-trained alligators. Aside from the alligators, with this version we decided to focus on style, the content having already been established with the translation/editing of the first game.

We developed a sense of who Jake and his companions were from our initial release — in Memories of the Past we have been able to develop those characters. In other words, you might say our localization efforts this time around have been focused on characterization, rather than simple translation.

Because the first Jake Hunter was a shorter experience than most typical DS titles, it was given a budget price — will Memories of the Past see more standard pricing, or will it also cost $20?

BB: Our projected retail price is over $9000 dollars. ;)

Aksys has yet to announce a release date for Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past. You can find more screenshots and details for the game on the publisher’s official site.

See also: Jake Hunter back on the case

tags / aksys / interview / jake hunter / ben bateman / ec

Tiny Q&A: Lock’s Quest and producing artwork for DS, Part 2

Here’s the continuation of our interview with Jeff Luke, designer and art manager with 5th Cell. In this segment, Luke talks a bit about the art style used in their innovative DS strategy game Lock’s Quest.

Tiny Cartridge: Were there any art elements at all that were carried over from Drawn to Life? Do you have a library of grass, for example?

Jeff Luke: No actual pieces of art were carried over from Drawn To Life to Lock’s Quest, but we definitely borrowed from the style and color palette. As far as libraries of art goes, we really only have the assets from each game we’ve worked on. We try to make the most unique art we can for each title so that way there’s no real confusion.

What comes first, the character art or the sprite? Were any characters changed because their appearance in character portraits looked weird in sprite form?

Someone usually makes a sketch of a character at first and then samples are worked on in sprite form. With Lock’s Quest, we had concept art for each character that actually turned into the chatbox portrait, with some modifications. When changes were needed, it was easier to tweak the portrait then to request brand new sprites and animations for a character .

Is there an overall color theme for Lock’s Quest, and does it differ from Drawn to Life? I noticed that both games had a lot of similarities in the color scheme, but LQ had more brown and grey (for obvious reasons).

I’m really glad you picked up on the color scheme similarities of both titles! We definitely wanted to borrow that really charming feel of that Drawn to Life had. Bright and vibrant colors, giving it that almost dream like appearance. With Drawn to Life, we wanted over the top brightness and lots of contrast. Even in some situations we had conflicting colors just to make you notice certain things. It definitely had a more over the top cartoon feel to the color palette. We wanted to keep that same art standard and quality when creating the assets for Lock’s Quest, but we also wanted to make it feel more grounded to earth. We felt that these more natural tones would help bring out the important parts a bit more as well as giving it a bit more of a mature look.

Does the style of art used influence the game, or is it more the other way around? Are certain types of games better-suited to 2D?

I really think it just depends. With Drawn to Life, we had a specific art style in mind; something charming and fun and very friendly. This resulted in a game that was easy for a younger audience to pick up, yet still fun for an older audience as well. With Drawn to Life, it was a game about making art so we wanted the rest of the game to look as gorgeous and welcoming as the art you yourself created. I think that to an extent, art will always have a bit of an influence on what the game is exactly, but at the same time, when creating the game idea, it usually has some influence on the approach you end up taking with the art. It’s really a mixed bag. They both influence each other in the end, sometimes one side more than the other.

As far as certain types of games better-suited for 2D. Well, I’ll be honest, I’m a bit biased. I grew up playing Mega Man and Blaster Master, so to me, the platformer genre fits best on 2D. I feel like a limitation in graphics gives the player a bigger chance to use their imagination and fill in certain “gaps”. I think a lot of games are lacking in that nowadays because the graphics give you all of the information you would ever need. When games start to take that approach towards total realism, it just ends up becoming an interactive movie instead of a story that you get to be a part of. I remember being young and some of the sprites in older games were ambiguous so they really gave you a chance to just make your own interpretation on exactly what that enemy was. I feel like imagination is just as important in a game as gameplay. We get mail from kids who play Drawn to Life and they are just writing us stories about Baki’s or other random enemies and characters in the game. Seeing that makes me feel like we’ve made something that will stick with these kids like playing Super Mario Bros. 3 did for big kids in the 20’s to 30’s now. So, to reiterate, platformers should stick with 2D. There’s still a whole world that is waiting to be discovered.

Thank you for this opportunity and all the support!

Thanks to Jeff and to 5th Cell for the time and the consideration!

tags / drawn to life / 5th cell / interview / jc / lock's quest

Tiny Q&A: Lock’s Quest and producing artwork for DS

I love the distinctive 2D look shared by 5th Cell’s Drawn to Life and Lock’s Quest — two games for which art is an important aspect (especially Drawn to Life, which requires players to create some of the objects and sprites). There’s just something about the sprite work and the color palettes that make their DS games look better than just about anything else on the system. Scribblenauts looks to carry on the signature 5th Cell look.

Jeff Luke, who does game design and art management for the company, kindly answered some questions about the process of creating art for a 2D DS game. This first portion deals with some of the technical details of art production and conversion. Check back tomorrow for the second part of the interview, which is more stylistic in focus.

Tiny Cartridge: Is the character art drawn on paper and scanned or drawn on the computer? How is it colored?

Jeff Luke: Well, it all starts out as an idea on paper, which we then send to our partner studio in Malaysia, Sherman3D. We give them a description for how we want the art to be along with some examples and the original art which we scanned in.

After they are finished, they usually send us a few different examples. We give them some feedback on what we like and don’t like and then they make the necessary changes. After a few rounds of that, we settle on a design and move forward with it.

This process actually sets the basis for the rest of the game as well. Once we have a few main pieces of art, we have a standard that has to be followed for every piece of art we make.

When it comes to color, our Art Director Edison Yan, will color the original concepts and sends those to Malaysia. This gives them a color palette to work off of. Malaysia replicates those colors and creates a 16 color sprite, which is converted, optimized and put into the game .

What kinds of programs are used to create the in-game sprites and environments?

We actually use a few different programs. We use Pro Motion by Cosmigo, Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Certain programs we use for different reasons. Backgrounds and detailed environments are usually done in Photoshop by our Art Director, but we also do some sprite work in Photoshop as well. More recently, we’ve been doing animations and tile sets in Pro Motion, simply because the program is designed for that purpose in mind. Paint Shop Pro is used mostly for the conversion process which I will get into later.

Does any software for art production come from Nintendo? Do they provide any tools for DS art production?

Nintendo actually does provide their toolset for art conversion, where we take the raw art and convert it for use in the actual game. Their toolset could also be used for doing sprite work, animations and palette work. Basically, the tool is made for converting the raw art into a file that can be read by the Nintendo libraries for DS development.

Other than the resolution, what else do you have to keep in mind when working for the DS screen?

Well, one of the biggest things to keep in mind is the different brightness settings. You need to make sure your game looks good on all brightness levels which can sometimes be quite a hassle, but in the end, it’s the attention to detail that can make or break the experience for gamers. In conjunction with the resolution, screen real estate is a really big issue. You need to always be aware of exactly how much space you have on that screen at all times. Make a GUI sprite too big and you just end up having to redo it. As an example, in Drawn to Life our character was a bit larger than the average platformer character so we had to be aware of his size at all times when creating levels and enemy placement. One last thing would be layer blending. Blending between 2D and 3D layers can sometimes be a bit tricky.

Approximately how many frames of animation are created for each character?

We try to limit each animation to 6 frames or less. This provides us with additional memory to work with, and challenges us to create animations that still manage to look smooth with as little frames as possible. 6 frames doesn’t sound like much, but when you think about all the different animations a character might have, it adds up quickly. The average character in one of our games has anywhere between 6-10 unique animations. So, we’re looking at anywhere between 36-60 actual frames of animation per character, which takes up a lot of space when you have a lot of unique characters. So, ways around that are using palette swaps on generic characters (swapping the colors) so we don’t need to keep making unique animations for each one.

Do you have machinery in place to convert to other sizes/resolutions for other hardware formats— just in case?

Our machinery is called Adobe Photoshop. Haha! But seriously, we really don’t ever have to worry about size conversion too much. Anything that could ever need to be higher resolution, we just make sure we create the original assets in high res and then scale down from there for in game art if needed. All of the portraits in Lock’s Quest started out as massive, multi-thousand pixel, full-body images of the characters that we then scaled down and took just the upper body portion of for the portraits. Perhaps one day, if we move to consoles, we will need to initiate a process for scaling art to different resolutions more efficiently, but for now, working on one system, we’ve got a process that works perfectly for it.

See also: Custom Lock’s Quest DS Lite, Lock’s Quest IGN advertising

tags / 5th cell / drawn to life / lock's quest / art / interview

Tiny Q&A: Zombie BBQ’s Gammick and EnjoyUp, part 2

In Part 2 of our interview with Gammick and EnjoyUp, we cover some of their other works, along with a bit about the companies themselves. But we can’t let one bit of info about Zombie BBQ pass without comment: IGN’s review is in — 8.6!

What is the current status of Chronos Twin? It was rated by the ESRB but has yet to appear in the US. Is it cancelled?

EnjoyUp: Crave Entertainment has the publishing rights for US. They are working on its release. We hope that it will be on American shelves soon.

What lessons did your team learn during the development of Chronos Twin that helped the production of Zombie BBQ?

EU: We have learned how to have better control over the gameplay and the strategy. This can be perfectly seen with the boss fights that the consumer will find in Zombie BBQ. They aren’t just about shooting, as every boss will act in different ways. Of course, all the shooter elements of Chronos Twin were useful for us, as we applied and improved them for Zombie BBQ.

How do you feel Spanish-developed titles differ from games developed in other regions (U.S., Japan)?

EU: Being compared with territories like U.S. or Japan means Spain is in the initial stages of earning respect as game development territory. This makes it more challenging and interesting. The money that companies invest on this is much smaller, so we’re making competitive titles for the current market with the fewer resources. The development of Zombie BBQ in US or in Japan would have cost three or four times more.

As for Animal Boxing, was it always conceived as an upside-down DS game? Are there any other games in development that use the DS this way?

Jose M. Iniguez: When I design a game, I always try to find things that will catch the attention of the people. Something original, different. When I designed Animal Boxing I figured out that in a boxing match, they always hit on the top part of the body and that´s how it came to my mind to turn the console upside down. Answering to your question, it was decided from the very beginning. In Gammick Studios) we plan everything. Random means problems and a more expensive development.

tags / destineer / little red riding hoods zombie bbq / interview / jc / gammick / enjoyup