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Written by Jigsaw hc
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Monday, 11 May 2009 11:07 |
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The fine folks over at Kindling Games were nice enough to answer some questions about their recently updated Xbox Live Community Game Hieronymus Bash.
Question: How did the idea for Hieronymus Bash come about?
Answer: The group of us had never worked together before, so when we first got together last October, we wanted to start with a simple project that we knew we could finish. A really simple dodgeball game seemed like an accomplishable goal. It got little bit more ambitious once we got into it, but in the end we managed to keep it fairly simple.
Question: Could you describe Hieronymus Bash for anyone who hasn’t seen it?
Answer: It’s a 1-4 player game of super cute apocalyptic dodgeball -- Super Smash Bros. meets Scorched Earth with a little bit of sacrilege thrown in. You can play Team or Free-for-All mode against AI bots, friends, or both.
Question: How large was the team that created Hieronymus Bash and how long did it take to develop?
Answer: Six of us worked on it off and on in our spare time for about six months. In general, group size and time estimates are a little less meaningful when you’re talking about fun hobby projects… We worked on it when we felt like it, rather than working a strict regimented schedule. For example, we probably put in as much time during the last couple weeks creating the AI as we did from January to March.
Question: When you first set out to make Hieronymus Bash was it always planned to be a dodgeball fighting game?
Answer: It was always planned to be a dodgeball game. The side-view platforming aspect came up after a little bit of prototyping. We also tried a top down view for a bit… and even discussed the idea of a 2D first person perspective!
Question: Hieronymus Bash supports 2 to 4 players locally. Why did you guys decide not to include support for playing over Xbox Live?
Answer: We did consider it seriously, but there were a couple of major reasons that we decided against it. First, it would be really challenging for a fast paced game like ours to keep players truly synced over the network. Normal latency would make every match potentially frustrating without some seriously complex predictions happening when there’s any lag. Second, we’ve never done any network multiplayer before, so we figured we’d rather release a polished experience with fewer features than a sloppy game with more bells and whistles. The final straw was that there’s just not enough people playing community games to support a player base… Basically, it would be really hard to find people to fill a game, so the only real purpose would be for you to be able to call up a friend to play with remotely. Instead, we decided to focus our efforts on adding AI to give people the ability to play even if they didn’t have friends on the couch.
Question: Looking back on Hieronymus Bash what are the things that you are most proud of?
Answer: Finishing a game and seeing it actually release was a pretty proud moment. We’ve all started plenty of little hobby projects that eventually just die off, so it was great to actually complete something! Within the game itself, I think we were all pretty proud of the AI system that we pulled together in the last couple weeks… particularly the pathfinding solution. Without going into any boring details, let’s just say that if you play against the AI, you can pretend that it’s online multiplayer against all of us!
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Hieronymus Bash that did not make it?
Answer: We added AI and sudden death mode just recently in an update… so they didn’t initially make it in, but we felt strongly enough about them to update it. Besides that, there are always more things to add (more characters, power-ups, new moves, new level objects), but we feel like our game is now a complete experience of our original goal: a fast-paced, simple, and shout-inducing multiplayer game.
Question: Now that Hieronymus Bash has released are you planning another Xbox Live Community game?
Answer: We’re kicking around ideas now, but you can expect something else silly and strange from us soon enough. If you ever wonder what we’re doing, you can always check up on us at www.kindling-games.com.
Question: Can you give us some tips or strategies for Hieronymus Bash?
Answer: There’s one secret mechanic that we don’t explain in the tutorial but you can definitely feel and take advantage of it if you’re paying attention. If you hold the thumbstick in a direction and throw the ball, it’ll fly out at a reasonable velocity… but if you whip the stick in the direction you want to throw and pull the trigger right after, you’ll launch the ball MUCH farther and faster, making it a lot tougher to dodge or catch.
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