Yesterday,Isopod Lab’sVigilante 8: Arcadehit Xbox Live Arcade. The title is a remake of the PlayStation classic that also found its way onto the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. I recently had the opportunity to celebrate the release ofV8: Arcadeby talking to Peter Morawiec, creative director of Isopod and one of the founding members of Luxoflux, the original developer ofVigilante 8.
Early in the conversation we covered the decision behind the remake and then went into the mechanics of the title, including the addition of camera support. We then progressed to other topics like creating an XBLA title, navigating the restrictions, and eventually the impact that XNA developers will have on a smaller developer like Isopod.
We didn’t get the chance to talk about Starbucks and their newly offered item, oatmeal. It comes with up to three packets of brown sugar or your choice of nuts. Despite my error in not broaching that subject, I feel like we had a great conversation. Hit the break for it.
Destructoid: What made you decide to go with remaking Vigilante 8?
Peter Morawiec: Vigilante 8 (PS1) was the first game we’ve developed at our former studio, Luxoflux. We were a very small team back then, just 2-3 guys initially. The V8 games spawned a very loyal following but we just never had the opportunity to make another installment. So, after 10 years of making big games, we’ve decided to do something smaller once again and Vigilante 8: Arcade really fit the bill, as did XBLA.
Aside from the multiplayer support, have you added anything to the core of Vigilante 8: Arcade? Are there any new gameplay mechanics? Is there something that you thought needed to be significantly improved with the title?
The game was rewritten completely anew, but the core features are fairly unchanged. It was a solid set that our fans love, which seemed just right for a downloadable arcade game. In fact, we were already exceeding some of the ‘casual’ XBLA guidelines, so we didn’t want to push our luck. Nonetheless, there are plenty of improvements. We have a simpler default control scheme for the newcomers, a new alternative method for pulling off combos (via charging up), and some of the weapons and special attacks were changed and tuned. We’ve also added a secondary goal of collecting ‘Alien Artifacts’ throughout the single player arenas to unlock a secret.
I’ve noticed that you guys decided to bring in camera support to the title. What was the motivation behind it?
Online support was to be a big part of this release and the camera is certainly a related accessory. However, the main motivation was the simple fun factor of seeing your opponents’ faces during battle. We did some quick experiments – Adrian [Stephens] threw in the support one day, and we all got so much kick out of it that we decided to keep it. Ironically, the camera permission settings cost us some delays during certification and it’s likely to be underutilized by gamers, but it’s in. I don’t think there are too many action games supporting the camera yet.Live Arcade is the first stop for V8: Arcade, but are you planning on bringing it to any other platform like PlayStation Network, WiiWare, or Steam?
Per our original licensing agreement, the title is an XBLA release only. We’re only beginning to investigate PSN, but there are currently no firm plans for it.
Why toss the school bus?
Even though the school bus was lots of good fun, there is always potential for controversy with such things. So, despite the potential for extra publicity, we decided to play it safe this time around.We’re going to be seeing the emergence of XNA Game Studio 3.0 in the very near future and independent developers are putting the final touches on games set to debut on Xbox Live Arcade. What do you think about XNA?
We haven’t looked into XNA too much as it requires a different set of tools, but it’s a great initiative and some of the early efforts show a lot of promise. I was fairly impressed with the self-censorship mechanisms being put in place – anything to make the publishing process easier for the ‘little guy’ is a major plus in my book.
As a small developer, do you think you will find the competition with XNA developers annoying?
It will certainly flood the channel with more downloadable offerings, so it’s a valid concern. Our hope is that commercial downloadable titles will continue increasing in quality, so there will be a fairly clear distinction in terms of production values and scope to allow both types of titles to do well. Especially if the marketplace can move towards 1,200-1,600 pts pricing for quality downloads without losing sales, which would be more in line with the $20 casual PC games model.
What’s the process of creating a game for XBLA like? Where does it start? How difficult is it to find a publisher?
There is a pretty lengthy and involved submission and licensing process, but finding a publisher was not an issue with Vigilante 8: Arcade, with Activision being the owners of the franchise and handling all distribution.
In that same vein, do you find any of XBLA’s restrictions frustrating?
Well, we ran into some of those same challenges experienced by other first-time XBLA developers. I think it’s just easy to underestimate the amount of effort and due-process required to put out a game on XBLA. When you add in online multiplayer functionality, this is really no different than shipping a full retail title. There is an incredible amount of requirements and rules in the technical specs – it’s often difficult to know what applies and what doesn’t, so it takes a lot of conversing with QA and/or Microsoft. And a lot of waiting. The game was virtually done back in May but it took all summer to work through it. It is a big drain on a small indie team, both resource-wise and financially, but much of this is simply experience and can be avoided next time around. We’re all really happy with the results, especially given the pricing; we hope gamers will agree!
What are Isopod’s plans for the future? Do you plan to stick to XBLA for a while?
We’ve made the “investment” so we would certainly like to make another downloadable title. It’s We’ve been encouraged by the successes of recent original IPs on XBLA, so hopefully the downloadable market will continue to grow and remain a viable publishing platform for small studios.
[Destructoid would like to thank Peter Morawiec and Isopod Labs for their time.]
