Every now and then you've probably played a game and said to yourself, "I could make a better game than that." But if you've taken a crack at doing just that you'll find it's a lot harder than it looks. I've spent a boatload of time on XNA (Microsoft's game studio that lets community members create their own games) for a piece I've been working on about the service and if I could get my game to look half as good as Pong I'd jump on my couch like a love struck Tom Cruise.
XNA is not for the faint of heart, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get a game through the challenging publishing and peer review process, which is why its so cool that with the New Xbox Experience gamers can now play XNA titles that were previously only available to other XNA members. These independently created gems are just like indie films - they offer something you're familiar with but always with a unique twist.
One of the first XNA games made available was "Weapon of Choice", created by Nathan Fouts. A former Insomniac programmer and developer who also worked at Running With Scissors, Nathan is now running his own independent studio, Mommy's Best Games. Recently we talked about his new release and the process of developing games for XNA.
GamePro: You were a longtime Insomniac employee. Why did you leave and what made you decide to start your own company?
Nathan Fouts: I loved working at Insomniac Games but I've had some pretty weird ideas brewing inside me. While it's fun to make games at a big, powerful studio like that, I decided it was time to try some uncompromised development to see what it might yield. So far that's resulted in lots and lots of dangly, drippy, and disgusting appendages.
GP: When you made the decision to create a game, how did you choose what kind of game to make?
NF: That's definitely the most difficult part. I have a folder with various game ideas covering lots of different genres in several stages of design. I settled on Weapon of Choice and the run'n' gun genre because I felt like I had several, great gameplay features to contribute, such as "Death-Brushing" which lets players dramatically escape death and continue to fight. I love seriously repulsive, bizarre aliens and I felt that the Xbox 360 needed some more of those too!
GP: Weapon of Choice is your first XNA title. It plays very similar to Contra, and has a retro feel. Where did you come up with the idea for it and what were your influences?
NF: The design for Weapon of Choice was like a reduction sauce from all my favorite games served over the finest cut of otherworldly filet mignon. Contra Hard Corp is my favorite Contra and definitely influenced things but some more contemporary games did as well such as Shadow of the Colossus, Otogi: Myth of Demons, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Wario World.
GP: What do you feel makes for a great downloadable title? What kind of experience do you want gamers to have with your game?
NF: I relate most to those gamers whom we at Mommy's Best Games term "Prodigal Gamers". I feel that the time of gamers is at a premium and a downloadable title is often best suited to entertain those gamers. A great downloadable title must take the players for an amazing ride, in a concentrated period of time. The gamer sits down, turns it on, and is blown away by new and fun things, and then can quickly turn off the console and get back to their family, get to sleep, etc.
GP: What difficulties/challenges did you have when creating a game from scratch without the support of a development house?
NF: I'm not that interested in writing pixel shaders or figuring out the interface for a controller pad. Fortunately XNA handled pretty much all of that for us! The extras I had to write, and which added a good four months to the project, include a complex, skeletal animation editor and proprietary animation library, and a component-driven level editor. The good news is we're getting a jump on our next project with that same, proven software.
GP: You've worked on some well known titles (Resistance Fall of Man, Postal 2, the Ratchet series). What are the differences between creating a downloadable game compared to a console game (staff size, time, expense, download vs. disc)? Similarities?
NF: Not messing with a disc, nor having to pay duplication costs, nor dealing with printing manuals is fantastic (though I am a big collector and really wish we could afford printing a nice manual!) The worst part about being so small and independent is not having the fun office atmosphere and the energy that comes with it. Any time I woke up during the year I spent on Weapon of Choice and didn't feel like getting something done--guess what. It didn't get done! Fortunately I almost never had those days because I was motivated by knowing I put my family's future on the line in order to pull this off. And if I felt like wanting that "big studio" atmosphere, I'd just do some wheelies with my Razor scooter while admiring at some Todd McFarlane's Spawn action figures!
Its been a similar experience working on smaller and bigger games in that all the rules of design and development still apply. You have to manage your "feature creep". Play-testing the game constantly is extremely important. And eating lots of Boston cream donuts helps the whole process on a smaller game just as well as a bigger game.
GP: Microsoft has always done a good job at fostering a sense of community and XNA certainly is a nice way for gamers to give game design a try, but it still seems awfully challenging to use (at least for me). What about XNA really works and what about it could use some improvement?
NF: They've covered some of the most difficult areas already. Rendering, playing sounds, memory management, controller inputs, storage devices--all these have coverage in XNA. The website creators.xna.com also carries lots of very nice tutorials for getting started with 3D models, game physics and the like.The biggest area probably still to be covered is a full animation code library. There are several free ones in development and available if you check out the XNA forums.
GP: How has your perspective of the video game industry changed now that you're on a different side of the gaming fence?
NF: I actually really enjoy the positive, healthy atmosphere associated with Community Games and the developers. While there is a natural competitiveness present anywhere humans make things together, it's just a neat feeling to know all the developers can communicate together on the forums. I'm not sure if retail Xbox 360 games have this shared forum and all this communication (could Cliffy B ask a question and have it answered by Dennis Dyack?), but it's very nice see in the Community Games arena.
GP: What advice would you give to gamers who would like to create their own title?
NF:Put that Muffuletta down and go to http://creators.xna.com/en-US/quickstart_main right now!
Related Links: Read GPArcade's recent interview with the creators of Aurora Feint, You do know about our Kingdom for Keflings giveaway this week don't you? Play 8 XBLA games online for free this month
