Today we've got Joel & Darren from All Seeing Eye Games talking about their recent Xbox Live Indie Game release of Drum Studio. Drum Studio lets you play, record, edit, save, and playback your own song creations using your Xbox 360 drum kit.
Question: How did the idea for Drum Studio come about?
Joel: I’ve been playing music for years, so I think the thing that made me want to do Drum Studio the most was me having to live in an apartment. I’m a huge fan of banging away on the drums and creating music, so the idea of having a full virtual heavy metal Drum Kit which I can play any time without getting yelled at by the neighbors pretty much sold me. Thought others might think it was cool too!
Question: Could you describe Drum Studio for anyone who hasn’t seen it?
Darren: Drum Studio is a drum recording app for Xbox 360 that allows you to play, record, edit, save and playback your own song creations using your Xbox 360 drum kit. It has hundreds of customizable drum sounds and features fully animated drummer characters. It's pretty neat.
Question: How large was the team that created Drum Studio and how long did it take to develop?
Darren: The core of the team was me and Joel. Joel handled the game design and art while I did the programming. We also had plenty of people help us out. One guy recorded many of the drum sounds in the game and another one edited the promo trailer for us, just to name a couple. It was equivalent to about two full months of work for us, spread out over seven months.
Question: Looking back on Drum Studio what are the things that you are most proud of?
Joel: Honestly, first off, since this is my first game as lead designer, the feedback and response we’ve gotten, especially from sites like you guys and TeamXbox really made my month. Really proud of the game in general, but my favorites are probably the recording tools, the breadth of drum sounds, and all the customization, including multi Drum kit support!
Darren: The recording tools. They're simple, intuitive, powerful and very addictive. Every time a reviewer tells us they were up all night jamming with Drum Studio and were late for work because of it, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Drum Studio that did not make it?
Darren: Where to begin? I'm a believer in streamlined game design over a more-is-better philosophy. With every feature we weighed its benefit against how it would complicate the game. For example, we really wanted to include a metronome. While it was definitely a useful tool for timing, we had no buttons available to control it with since the recording controls already took up all the available buttons. Ultimately, we decided that it wasn't worth complicating the recording controls to include the feature.
On the topic of cut features however, we are happy to report that our first title update, which will probably be out by the time you read this, adds support for velocity-sensitivity with Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero drum kits. This gives players even finer control over their songs by making the game's audio reflect how hard they're hitting the drum pads. This is a feature that didn't make it into our initial release because of the complexity of reading the velocity-sensitivity and the fact that only some players have velocity-sensitive drums. After release we looked at it again and saw it as an opportunity to add another dimension to the game without complicating it for players.
Question: Now that Drum Studio has released are you planning another Indie game?
Joel: Absolutely. Now that we have the groundwork laid, definitely eager to work towards the next game, and see if we can continue to improve.
Darren: Drum Studio is the first in a line of music games. We have many exciting features planned for the future. We know a big part of music is customization and sharing. I think I'll leave it at that for now.
Question: Can you give us some tips or hints for Drum Studio?
Joel: For sure, first off, if you want to jam along to music, press the Xbox Guide button, scroll to ‘Media’, then choose ‘Select Music’. Then stream music, and jam out to your heart’s content! Also, if you’re interested in getting another Drum Set, try Craigslist.com. I picked up both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero kits for around 40 bucks, and cymbals for 20. Perfect ways to enjoy the new Velocity sensitive feature coming very soon in Title Update 1!
Darren: Drum Studio is a game where you get what you put into it. If you go into it expecting to be guided along and have your hand held, you're going to be very disappointed and probably a little confused. But if you go in willing to create and to embrace the freedom it gives you, you're going to have a blast.
Question: If you could change one thing about Xbox Live Indie Games as a platform what would it be?
Joel: It would easily be a better back-end browsing interface! Please Microsoft, I love the new dashboard, but please give the old games some love, and make it easier and sexier to find games. Steam is a great example, even something simple like featuring a tab that lists random games, or games of interest would be great.
Darren: I agree. The lists on the Dashboard are arbitrarily limited to 15 or 20 games and if a game isn't on one of them, it's basically impossible to find. With over 1000 indie games on the market, that's a lot of games that aren't getting the exposure they deserve. Players should be able to scroll through a list and then be like, okay, now show me the next 20 games and so on instead of just having those first 20 and nothing else available to them. It would give more choice for players who want it and more exposure for developers.
Today we've got Joel & Darren from All Seeing Eye Games talking about their recent Xbox Live Indie Game release of 
