During our coverage of PAX East 2011 we interviewed Jay Stuckwisch from Twisted Pixel about their upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release Ms. Splosion Man. Due to poor audio quality the interview was not featured on that podcast. On the eve of the game's release, we at Press Pause Radio would like to take a look back at our time with the developer as we discuss broken controllers, Jetsons cars and explosions. Enjoy!
Andy: So first off, Ms. Splosion Man, you know the original ‘Splosion Man was a big hit. What inspired you to go back to that game, to explore that again?
Jay: When we worked on the original ‘Splosion Man the main thing was we only had six months to ship out the game, so there were parts and many levels that had to be made in a day. It was like “Make this level, we have to get it right the first time” because we would have no time to go back to it. So there were all these other ideas and stuff that we wanted to do but we just did not have time for it. Now once we released ‘Splosion Man and it was doing well, we loved the game and didn’t expect it to hit as well as it did. People loved it, so we could go back and do those things we wanted to do, create a more epic and more authoritative ‘Splosion Man game. The big thing for us was that we wanted to not make just DLC levels, and not make ‘Splosion Man 2. We wanted to make Ms. Splosion Man, so that you knew right off the bat it was a different character, a different game. And from the first level the first boss from the original ‘Splosion Man comes back, and when you fight him it’s this huge epic battle to show the gamer that it’s a completely different game than the original.
George: I really enjoy the way that Twisted Pixel acknowledges their entire library of games within other games. Given that ‘Splosion Man has done really well and people will likely purchase Ms. Splosion Man assuming they own the original game, is there going to be any content or something that the owner can benefit from having both games? Will owning ‘Splosion Man unlock content in Ms. Splosion Man? We already see ‘Splosion Man being captured at the beginning of Ms. Splosion Man, will there be anything else like that?
Jay: We are thinking about doing something like that, we don’t have it nailed down yet. I don’t really have a cool feature to tell you yet but we are thinking about it.
George: One criticism that I really had about ‘Splosion Man was that the multiplayer was only online and you have to have strict communication due to the precision platforming. Any lag or any conditions that could effect that cooperative relationship you have with the person you’re playing with, it made progressing through the game very difficult. Is there any plans to implement local co-op?
Jay: We actually had local co-op in ‘Splosion Man. We did not do a very good job communicating how much different the multiplayer was from the single player mode. I don’t think people knew that we went out of our way and made a completely different set of levels for the multiplayer, and we want to do a better job of communicating that in Ms. Splosion Man. You’re absolutely right, the first game’s multiplayer relied too much on very precise timing. Sometimes too precise, exploding off one another and things like that. So what we are trying to do in Ms. Splosion Man is have more of a sandbox feeling. There are times where you do have to work together, and we’ve come up with new, better ways that you all work together to a common goal. For example we have the multiplayer demoing here at PAX, and in World 1-2 of the demo there are these generators that you will explode on and a glob of energy will come out. You’ll have to work together to herd this glob over to another generator. It will go crazy and bounce off walls, and it’ll be up to you and your partner to keep control of it.
Andy: Something I believe the original ‘Splosion Man is notorious for is it’s difficulty. With Ms. Splosion Man are you preparing to make gamers cry all over again? What is your approach to this now, is it going to be more challenging than the original?
Jay: So ‘Splosion Man is a big conspiracy to cause the breaking of a lot of controllers that Microsoft gets rich over. We have a partnership with the Thumbologist Medical Association for sprained thumbs and other injuries. There were people that probably got frustrated and maybe broke a controller or two. And then there are people that really appreciate that; they want a challenge, these old school hardcore platforming fans. So we didn’t want to nerf the game across the board. So we have this world map, Super Mario World style. Now you can see if you go one way and it’s too difficult, you can pick a different path.
George: The game isn’t linear anymore?
Jay: Yeah you can chose where you can go. Some levels are clearly marked like “Yeah this level is going to kick your ass”. And some levels will have hidden exits so you can work around that challenge if it’s too difficult.
George: I wanted to talk about some of the mechanics of the first game and if there’s anything new. So far from what I’ve seen from the game and the trailers are some explosion accelerators and the zip lines. What other new mechanics are you implementing with the explosion technique, other than bouncing off walls and using the environment? Is there anything new that we can expect?
Jay: There is a lot of new stuff. A lot of it came from the first game when we realized we did not have enough time, like trampolines. We always wanted to have Donkey Kong style barrels that you can jump in and they launch you all over. The main thing with the first game is that you were always trapped in the laboratory.
George: That was my next question, are there new areas to explore?
Jay: You were always in the lab, you actually start out in the laboratory in Ms. Splosion Man, in a very similar area to where ‘Splosion Man started. You’ll see ‘Splosion Man being captured and will start the game right there. As you progress through the level you will get more and more outside of the labs and you’ll see Jetsons style cars flying around. Our lead illustrator always wanted to have Jetsons style flying cars smashing onto the glass and shattering everywhere. The more we go outside of the labs there are different places you will get to go to. We have been showing this tropical area, where there are flying sharks for no reason. There’s also this see-saw that you will be on, waiting for a wave to crash down on the opposite side and send you flying. There’s a lot of gameplay that’s specific to each area.
Andy: Are you going for a Summer of Arcade release, will this be available soon?
Jay: I actually have no idea. We are still working on it and we have to work closely with Microsoft when all of that is going to happen. With Gunstringer (Twisted Pixel’s Kinect game) we are working on both of those so we are not sure which one we want to come out first. So we have no idea yet, this year for sure.
Andy: We’re definitely looking forward to it, and it’s certainly not ‘Splosion Man 2. It has a lot more going for it.
George: It’s it’s own game.
Jay: Seems to us that especially on Xbox Live Arcade, it’s hard for sequels to succeed. There’s always new games and other things that will push away sequels. It’s important to us to drive the point home that this is a completely different game. It’s similar to ‘Splosion Man, but it’s not ‘Splosion Man re-skinned.
Andy: Thank you very much, we appreciate your time.