We’ve been following the progress of Aussie developers Red Tribe's Wii game for quite some time. This time last year, we interviewed CEO Chris Mosely about the game and the company- now one year later, with their game Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal now finished and released (in America at least). We sat down again with Chris to talk about both the Development and game's contents.
Interview Inside.
I’m here with Chris Mosely, the CEO of Australian developer Red Tribe. Chris, thanks for speaking to us again.
We spoke to you nearly one year ago about Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal (LTAA). At the time, we didn't know what you were developing it, but later it was revealed that Red Tribe was working on the game. The game is now finished and released in the US - now that it’s out, are you happy to have the game out and for people to enjoy?
Yes the game is all done. It was a big effort making a game for 3 platforms. We also had to develop the technology across all those platforms at the same time, including online Xbox live support. It’s especially challenging making a game that works on a PS2 and the next-gen platforms simultaneously. I’m happy to say the publisher is happy with what we did and we’re now starting to talk about future projects with them. Bigger budgets too. It’s a great feeling getting a game done, I have to say.
LTAA (Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal) is a departure from typical combat game systems. We went with something different and unique. Most of the core mechanics were developed through extensive 3rd playtesting with the target demographic. It’s a new take on platform combat, it’s not what you might expect (smiles) but it takes some commitment to uncover the gameplay. We made some radical design decisions and it’s an all or nothing outcome. In LTAA it’s all about style. It’s not just about killing off enemies and progressing through levels, it’s about taking them down with style. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and if you’re not expecting something new and unique then you probably won’t see 80% of the gameplay. (smiles)
There’s a lot of eyeball competition out there right now, so innovation isn’t always a good thing. It takes time and commitment to get into something new, and it’s hard to get that from a licensed title. People come into the experience with set views and pre-conceived notions. It becomes a communication problem and we’ve learnt a lot from this already. The game needs to communicate how it works on its own. That’s hard to do, but the best games do it well.
We had a great deal of leeway with this particular game. We got to experiment with a lot of new gameplay ideas. This isn’t usually the case with licensed properties. We knew we had to design the game for kids so they could easily pick it up and play it, but we also wanted to add depth. We wanted to add something for the more avid gamers too. In the end, we took a design risk and decided to go down the path of developing a reward-based combat system (think style points for doing things right). The idea is that you reward the player for making the right moves, rather than punish them for making the wrong moves. We deliberately removed counter attacks (sometimes referred to as anti-spamming techniques in combat savvy circles). It’s quite a departure from your typical combat game. We prototyped out our ideas and play tested them with the target market (using a US based play testing lab).
The kids gave us some great feedback and we evolved the design with that in mind. Over time, we started to rate highly with the new kids that tested the game each week. In a way the experience was created by the kids themselves. It’s up to us to implement their ideas and communicate the gameplay to the wider audience. That’s the hard part. (smiles)
Being innovative with a licensed game is a big risk we’ve discovered. The risk was that you either got what we had done or you didn’t. We were doing something different, something unique and that takes commitment on the part of the player to get into the experience. You either learnt how the combos work, thereby unlocking the majority of the game, or your entire experience would be pressing a few keys during combat and you would probably think there was little to the experience or worse. It’s very hard for a licensed kids game to get taken seriously and you need the player to be open minded and committed to finding out about your game if you’re trying something new.
It’s a communication dilemma and I guess we failed to educate the player properly in the early stages of the game. The hope is that marketing and PR will get your message out there, but that’s not always possible and you’re competing for face time with some pretty hard hitting games. Unless you’re Bioshock or Halo 3, what we’ve discovered is that you have to explain exactly what your games about and how it works or the avid gamers will not give you the time of day. There simply isn’t enough time and the competition is just too fierce these days. It’s a hard won lesson (smiles)
Kids love the reward based combat. It’s very rewarding seeing a 10 year old do a COMBO 10 (which means they kill 10 enemies with a single strike combo). I think that kids are more open to new ways of making games (new combat styles). They seem to get the reward based combat system. They should, they helped evolve it (smiles). We’re proud of what we’ve done, but you’re never fully happy with the end result as a developer.
Talking about the Wii version, the console obviously is not as powerful as the 360 and because of that, the focus is shifted to the motion controls and the Wii remote. How do you make a game, such as Looney Tunes, take advantage of the Wii Remote without making it seemed forced or tacked on?
It was very challenging mapping the controls to the Wii. We had a prototyping team that was dedicated to the Wii controls and we tried lots of different combinations of controls. We also play tested this out. In the end the controls evolved. We felt the final result was slightly counter-intuitive, but as the player gains skills with combos and jumps you start to understand why it’s mapped out the way it is. The Wii version is my personal favourite, it really takes skill to play, it’s elegant (in my opinion) and the controller makes you feel more like you’re a part of the action for some reason. It puts you in the game world (or at least it feels that way).
We also did a number of unique things on the Wii. It’s all 480p, we have projected shadows and we even managed to add bloom like on the 360 version. In the end working on the Wii was quite a bit of fun, although some of the engineers might disagree with me on that. It’s a great console in my opinion.
Initially, we took an educated guess and played around with that. Ultimately, however, the controls evolved through playtesting. When something worked well we kept it, if something came back and tested negatively we fixed it and went from there. It’s a tough problem. I don’t think there is a simple answer. I think the more experience we gain with these kinds of things; we will make better use of the controller. We’re all still learning what the controller is capable of. It’s all about trial and error.
The game features a Co-Operative mode, how does it work and how does it change the gameplay?
In co-op mode, two people can play split screen. The idea is that you work together to get through the levels. This works on all platforms (it’s quite an engineering feat). The enemies are harder to kill and have some additional moves and so forth. Additionally, there are special COMBOs that work in co-op where two players have to pull off the combos together. We called them ATOMIC COMBOS. You can work up ATOMIC COMBOS and they’re great fun. You also have to work collaboratively to work your way through the levels. For example, it’s important that you stay close together. There’s also a deathmatch mode, which hasn’t been looked at. In the office we all loved playing deathmatch. You get to play with all the weapons in a deathmatch style, arena style game. It’s one of my favourite parts of the game.
Can you be able to describe the Graphical Style? It isn’t full-on Cel-Shaded, but still retains the Cartoony look. Why did you choose the look?
We went with a full 3D look. The Cel-shaded thing has been done to death, so we thought imagine doing the Looney Tunes as fully rendered 3D characters. We’ve gotten a good reaction from this and there’s even talk of doing a fully 3D cartoon series using these models and concepts. With the environments, we tried to re-create the look of the cartoons in 3D. Some of the level renders look like shots from the cartoon.
The game features all the voices from the shows. Aural comedy is a big part of Looney Tunes, How was it working with Warner on that?
Warner has amazing resources at its disposal when it comes to voice talent, studios and the like. We tried to get as much out of this process as we could, but there are always budgets and timelines that need to be looked at. Sometimes it’s more important to hit a particular date than squeezing in extra content and we have to take that into account also. I reckon a game is never finished, only ever abandoned. (smiles)
If you look at the game credits we have some outtakes (fully animated). They’re hilarious. You get to see what Bugs, Daffy and Porky are like off camera.
The game story involves a mad scientist going back in time to destroy the Looney Tunes, with the Looney Tune characters going back in time to save themselves. The game features levels such as Ancient Egypt, Mars, Camelot and the Wild West among others and certain characters are going to fit into those levels more than others. How were the locations chosen?
We actually watched every single episode of the Looney Tunes and picked what we felt had the most potential as game levels. One of the lead designers even counted how many times a mallet was used by one of the characters.
We wanted the different levels to be as eclectic as possible (just like the cartoons). We wanted different art styles and experiences for the player, so we divided the levels amongst individual level builders and told them to play. In many cases the levels actually look just like the cartoons that inspired them.
You have to play through the entire game to find out why the Evil Scientist is trying to erase the Looney Tunes. The Evil Scientist cartoons are some of my favourites.
The Game features an upgradable weapon system such as Bugs’ Banjo, which can upgrade to a Guitar among other things. What do other characters have and how did you choose each characters upgrades?
This was a big point of contention for us. What weapons? Who gets what? There are so many weapons in the Looney Tunes universe. In the end we counted how many times a particular weapon was used (in all Looney Tunes cartoons) and the top 10 made it into the game.
What is your personal favourite upgrade for any of the characters?
I love the Freeze Ray gun and the Flubber Gun. With the Freeze Ray gun you can freeze any enemy and get close in to follow up with melee attacks. In some areas of the game when all hell breaks loose, it’s a great way of getting in and COMBOing the enemy. It’s also useful when you’re navigating a tricky puzzle to stop enemy ranged fire. The Flubber gun is hilarious. You need to do a number of cool COMBOs to earn enough cash to buy this gun from a vending machine. It’s in the first level of the game. Flubber bounces off everything and causes enemy damage.
Red Tribe was responsible for developing the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 2 versions. How has it been developing basically what nearly amounts to 3 games simultaneously? How is that managed, how much is useable between systems and what had to be done separate?
Doing 3 platforms simultaneously is a huge engineering task. It not just a technical challenge, it’s a logistical challenge also. Ideally you would work on maybe 2 next-gen platforms or even one, but the reality is that we need to make games for multiple platforms to be commercially competitive. It’s all about the dollars.
There’s very little, if any low level engine rendering that can be used between the two platforms. The gameplay engine, however, is fully cross-platform and the game code is shared amongst all platforms. You write the game once and it runs on all platforms simultaneously. There’s a huge amount of work that’s gone into the engine since the release of LT and its will be interesting to see how we realise some of its capabilities. LT also did some unique things on each platform. On 360 we use a shadowing technique whereby all characters, objects cast shadows. This is being enhanced and added to. There’s Bloom (High Dynamic Range Lighting FXs), specular, normal mapping, bump mapping, parallax mapping and a whole range of generational eye candy.
We have a game coming out in January and another one due in March. The January release is a small licensed game that’s coming along well. It’s a 360-only title. In March, we release our second platformer which is very different to LT again. It’s based on a new movie from the original creators of Shrek.
It’s looking very good so far. We’ve also commenced work on our own original game. More details to follow (smiles). It’s going to be around 2 years in development. It’s always been my dream to work on our own game, and we’re finally in a position to be able to do it and do it right. That takes time. You need the cash, but more importantly you need the technology and people to make it a reality. That takes a long time to get right.
To finish up, what is your most favourite experience from working on this game, and your worst or most troubling?
My favourite experience was seeing deathmatch working for the first time. I can’t tell you how funny it was running around arena style controlling Daffy Duck and hunting down Bugs Bunny. It’s really fun. We added deathmatch quite late in development.
The most troubling experience has been getting the message out about how the gameplay works. Innovation is great, but also risky. You have to communicate your madness to others. It’s a communication challenge and we’re learning a great deal from the experience. What I’ve learnt is that a big part of the gameplay experience for the user is ‘learning’ to play the game and your game should do that as part of the game experience (not a tutorial). We’re going to add this to future games. If you go to the trouble of creating a great user experience, a deep rewarding game mechanic, then you need to educate the player. They need to know how to play your game and unlock the gameplay. It’s a big deal. The competition these days is fierce and it’s only going to get stronger. We want to be up there with the best of them. That’s what we’re aiming for. It’s not about the number of games you make; it’s about making games your proud. We’re getting there.
That’s All Folks, Thanks Chris for your time and Sam at Red Tribe for setting up the interview. Best of luck for Red Tribe’s future games.
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