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Monday, 11 April 2011 08:34 |
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The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile Developer Interview
 With The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile hitting Xbox Live Arcade last week James from Ska Studios was kind enough to talk with us about his latest release. Lets just jump right in...
Question: What sort of changes or improvements can fans of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai find in Vampire Smile?
Vampire Smile is actually built on a totally new engine I made to up the fidelity of the graphics and animation detail, as well as to retool the combat to be more hyper and fluid. In terms of new stuff, the game features two playable characters with interacting storylines, insane new bosses, and about a dozen weapons that run the gamut from plain old shotguns to oversized syringes.
Question: Could you describe The Dishwasher series for that one dude who hasn’t seen it?
The Dishwasher games combine dark stylism, relentless combat, and way too much blood. I sometimes describe it as a comic book that explodes when you press buttons.
Question: How large was the team that created The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile and how long did it take to develop?
It was mostly just me again, though Dustin made a few levels in arcade mode and even though Michelle wasn't with us back then, I snuck some of her art into the Grim Tower level as paintings. It's been almost exactly 2 years to the day between the launch of Dead Samurai and the launch of Vampire Smile, though probably about 75% of that time was work on the game content and 25% was getting all the bugs fixed and everything ready for certification.
Question: Looking back on The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile what are the things that you are most proud of?
I love the expressiveness of the heroes and denizens; I'm really proud of the animation. The game's characters have over 10,000 frames of animation, all created and tweaked by me (some within weeks of final cert!), that really define the game's hyperkinetic look and feel.
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile that did not make it?
Plenty! I wanted to have Chef as a playable campaign. I wanted some sort of Left4Dead style adversary mode (that I guess Mindjack used, though evidently not to great effect) where people join "solo" games with the ability to possess and control bad guys. I also wanted a "Guitar Villain" mode where a player could play a guitar minigame where their performance accuracy determined which and how many monsters would spawn for the hero to defeat.
Question: Now that The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile has released are you planning another XBLA game?
Yep! We have Charlie Murder coming out on XBLA next year; it's a fairly dumb, goofy, totally punk rock 4 player street brawler.
Question: How fun or challenging was it to implement the Achievements?
We definitely had some fun with Achievements; our most obscure one involves getting all "Achievables." I don't want to spoil it too much, but it's got an obscure Mortal Kombat reference, an epic boss battle, and "Bleep Bloop!"
Question: Can you give us some tips or hints for The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile?
Warp and evade around a lot! You can always use the right thumbstick to do some sort of evasion move; this is paramount for controlling the flow of battle, keeping yourself out of harm's way, and dealing as much hurt to the bad guys as possible!
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