Mayles, Betteridge and Cook in the audio spotlight
IGN 360’s editorial team interrogates Rare on their podcast
Despite being rather busy over at Twycross these days, the leads behind Rare’s 2008 line-up still find the time to venture out of their schedules to accommodate an interview or two. The latest episode of IGN’s Three Red Lights podcast invited Nuts & Bolts‘ Gregg Mayles, Trouble in Paradise’s Justin Cook and studio head honcho Mark Betteridge to talk about their respective efforts on the Xbox 360, as well as share their thoughts on the dashboard’s upcoming avatar system.
While the beginning of the Trouble in Paradise discussion covered much of the additions we already know about, more interesting was Betteridge’s thoughts about the franchise’s appeal: “Viva Piñata at root is a constructive, collaborating game; it’s non-aggressive. And that appeals to a lot of people: some hardcore players, but a lot of younger players, a lot of women, girls etc will like that type of gameplay. I think it’s that non-aggressive style, combined with the depth and the pace of the game… it is very appealing to a lot of people.” Perhaps, but in many ways that appeal was deceptive to the point of turning its potential audience away from purchase. “A lot of people seemed surprised at the amount of depth in the game. And whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, whether we undersold it… we always like to give a lot of depth so that people can play the game for a long time.”
It’s an issue that Rare clearly understands more when promoting Nuts & Bolts, which shares Piñata’s hidden depth. “We always start [development] with the most difficult part, and here that’s the construction element,” says Betteridge, which poses a contextual problem: the viewer doesn’t understand what it’s for, or why it’s there, until the concept is tied into the gameplay Banjo is known for. “Once the game’s been demoed, people seem to have a eureka moment where they say ‘Ah, so you give me a task to do, and I can complete it any which way I choose to play it’.” That moment has clearly been occurring steadily since the unveiling, and it’s the context that’s key. “We’ve only recently been doing the start of the game… the tutorials. That does cause us some issues in terms of early development. From the demos we’ve done recently, that’s come on absolute leaps and bounds, and the response from E3 was very positive.”
So where are they now? Heads down, keyboards out, bug-crunching up to release for the Banjo team, it seems. “We’re feature complete, everything’s in there,” assures Mayles. “Just fine-tuning what we’ve got, trying to get it all together, and getting it all balanced.” Betteridge is adamant at no delay, despite Mayles joking to the contrary “yeah, just one year.”
Banjo-Tooie heading for XBLA? Mum’s the word at the moment. “We don’t have anything to announce as of yet… that would be a natural one for us.” “Stay tuned” are the ominous words we’re forced to hang on to.
On the subject of Avatars, Betteridge explains where the idea originally came from, deftly avoiding any mention of Nintendo. “It basically came from a concept to give the 360 a softer feel on the dash.” Enthusiasm from third parties has reportedly been phenomenal, with developers given the opportunity to customise their appearance to their game (though within the aforementioned E10 barrier, for now). Though neither Trouble in Paradise or Nuts & Bolts use the system, Rare does expect to be using it themselves in the future.
And where to leave off? No less than a curious mention of Battletoads, which in turn reveals Mayles’ once incredible ability to play the speeder bike level one-handed during testing of the game. “I got so good I could actually eat a bag of crisps while avoiding the gates,” he admits. “Though I think now I’d run into the first gate.”
Somehow related news
- Edge Magazine on the new Avatar system ()
- Rare accepts Wwise audio solutions ()
- Rare to answer your Trouble in Paradise questions next week ()
- Chris and Tim Stamper have left Rare ()
- ¡Viva Piñata 2 Pronto! ()
