Exclusive Interview with NinjaBee

[Justin Buser]

We were given the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with NinjaBee, developers of the upcoming Xbox 360 Live Arcade game "Outpost Kaloki X". We covered everything from the Outpost game, what it's like developing for 360 Live Arcade, the future of downloadable games, and also what NinjaBee have planned in the pipeline.

Without further ado...

PX360: What it is like developing for the first built-in digital download system for consoles?

NB: It's awesome. For us as a small independent developer, this is a kind of revolution, and we're extremely excited to be a part of it.

PX360: How did the Outpost Kaloki X game actually start? What gave you the idea?

NB: The original idea, a long time ago, for us was to do a tycoon-style game specifically designed for console play. Most console tycoon games are ports from the PC world and don't always translate very well. So we built a prototype of the game and started showing it to publishers to try to get a deal to put it on a console system like the Xbox. Unfortunately, the idea of a tycoon game on a console is a hard sell – almost nobody wanted to take a risk on it. Some industry friends of ours convinced us to release the game independently for the PC downloadable market, so we reworked our control scheme to use the mouse and keyboard and released the game on our own on the PC. We're proud of the PC game, but we felt like we were losing some of the original vision of the product.

PX360: So what more can you tell our readers about the game?

NB: Outpost Kaloki is humorous space station tycoon game with funky alien visitors, good guys, bad guys, princesses, money, action, fame, and glory. You manage a space station, make visitors happy, deal with problems, achieve goals, and explore some interesting stories along the way.

It is also one of the first (downloadable) independent games available on Live Arcade.

PX360: What made you target the downloadable market specifically?

NB: Xbox 360 Live Arcade was really the opportunity we had been looking for to bring this game to a modern console system. We showed the game to some people at Microsoft who had enough faith in the game to be interested in seeing it on Live Arcade, and we latched onto that possibility as quickly as we could. The game works well as a downloadable experience, and doing the Xbox 360 treatment of it was really a dream come true for the team working on it.

PX360: Will Outpost Kaloki have any additional downloadable content?

NB: Yes! This was, to us, a very appealing feature of Live Arcade, so we tried to take it seriously. There will be a number of Outpost Kaloki X downloadable content packages available over time in the months following launch.

PX360: Are there any changes from the computer version of Outpost Kaloki to the Xbox 360 Live arcade version?

NB: Tons! We had the chance to do the specific Xbox 360 control scheme we had originally envisioned, and fine tune it based on early feedback. In addition, the game has new higher quality art, new music, new sound effects, new gameplay and interface elements, and other new pieces of technology built specifically for the Xbox360. On top of that, Outpost Kaloki X includes a bunch of Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Live features such as achievements, leaderboards, unlockable gamer pictures, etc. Finally, there's more than twice as much level content – entire new stories and scenarios built specifically for the Xbox 360, including totally new gameplay such as the radical idea of "blowing stuff up."

PX360: Aside from the actual size of the game, what other limitations must you overcome when developing for Live Arcade as opposed to a regular Xbox 360 game?

NB: Hmm... There weren't really many limitations for Live Arcade itself. There are certain policies determined by the Live Arcade team that we needed to follow, such as how to handle achievements and Gamerscore, but this ended up feeling like more of a way to unify the various Live Arcade games than any real limitation. Besides the size limitation, there are no really significant limits to what a Live Arcade game can do. We tried very hard to take advantage of some of the awesome graphics, processing, and audio capabilities of the machine, given our limited resources. For instance, we did some cool multi-processor stuff to speed up decompression, we wrote custom shaders for the game, and we implemented a 5.1-channel audio system that turned out pretty cool in the open 3d environment in which the game takes place.

PX360: Are there any plans for a full on console version of the game?

NB: The answer is: Sort of, but it's something we don't have permission to talk about in detail.

PX360: Are any other games in development by NinjaBee? Will they be available for the Xbox 360?

NB: Yep! We're working on another Xbox 360 Live Arcade title now, and it's going to be awesome. It's also completely different from Outpost Kaloki X. That one's still under wraps, but we hope to talk about it relatively soon.

PX360: It seems inevitable that downloadable games will become the way of the future, do you and agree, and when do you see it becoming more "common place"?

NB: It seems that a lot of people are interested in the answer to this question, so I've thought about it a lot lately. I feel very sure that online distribution is the way of the future. Along parallel lines, I believe that publisher-independent game development will become more and more viable over time. NinjaBee is very interested in this path, and we intend to make this part of our future. However, I think it may be quite a while before it really takes over. I expect to be buying and developing traditionally published/distributed games for many years. I think new physical storage formats will keep coming and will have long and prosperous lives, and games will be made on those formats for as long as movies and other content are.

[Vaki]

This ROCKS i want a 360 even more now because these games will be cool.
does any one know how much they will cost??????????

[Mojohands]

Vaki,
Most of the downloadable games on Xbox Live Arcade will cost between $9.99 and $19.99. I do not know what that would cost you in England.

This was an exclusive interview granted to us by Ninja Bee. If people have more questions we can certainly pass them along.
This is really a landmark moment for the Live Arcade and for gamers in general. If independent small developers can release games through Live Arcade it will allow us the gamers the opportunity to purchase games significantly cheaper. It will also be much more cost effective for the developers. Ninja Bee should be applauded for their insight.

[Mojohands]

Quick update here guys.
This game will cost $9.99 but only can be purchased using the marketplace system for 800 points. Pricing determined from the 19.99 cost of 1,600 point card available at EB.

Outpost Kaloki X (800 points) – Wahoo Studios