Developer Interview-Bizarre Creations

Alrighty geometry wars fans this interview is for you. In my 10th developer interview here on the “The Xbox Domain” stepping up to the plate to answer some questions is Ben Ward, who is the community and web lead for Bizarre Creations. Here it is…

1-Tell us about Bizarre Creations.

Bizarre Creations is an independent development studio based in Liverpool, England. Bizarre was formed just over 10 years ago, and we’ve steadily grown over that time. Right now we’ve got about 140 people working here, organised into two main game teams and several shared tech teams. We’re best known right now for the Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars games, but probably the most successful game we have made was Formula 1 on the original PlayStation.

Right now our two main teams are working on The Club and Project Gotham Racing 4, but we also have a few smaller projects going on which we haven’t announced yet. J

2-How long did it take to develop Geometry Wars:RE?

The majority of the development on GW:RE was done by Stephen Cakebread on his own. However towards the end the Bizarre Audio Team helped out by writing the sound engine and designing the sound effects. Also, one of our artists worked on the various Xbox Live graphics. In total I think we spent about 3 months working on GW2…

3-Geometry Wars has been such a hit on Xbox Live Arcade. What were your expectations when Geometry Wars was launched last November?

Well we didn’t really have any expectations. We launched the game at the cheapest price that Microsoft would let us, because we saw the game as an Easter Egg to our PGR3 gamers. Xbox Live Arcade was just a convenient platform to get the game to a wider audience, but we didn’t expect it to be as popular as it turned out being!

4-At what moment did you realize that Geometry Wars:RE was “BIG”?

Well it’s still growing, so I don’t know… J

5-Who made the music that is played in the “Evolved” portion of GW:RE?

The music was created by a company which we contracted specifically for the task. They’re called Audio Antics, and the head of that company (Chris) is actually the brother of Bizarre Creations boss Martyn Chudley!

They had the difficult task of making a “Geometry Wars style” track, which looped well and didn’t drive you insane after a few minutes of gaming! I think Chris succeeded in this, and judging by the amount of requests we get every week to release the soundtrack I think gamers must like it too! J

6-What do you feel makes Geometry Wars:RE so appealing to so many gamers?

Personally I think it’s the addictive gameplay and the “just one more go” factor which keeps people coming back. Beating a high score has universal appeal… it’s not like you need to understand a complicated story or decipher some crazy game mechanic. You just need to beat the high score… and everybody understands that.

7-Bizarre Creations released a statement in August regarding the “Geometry Wars Clones” that were being developed by people. What made Bizarre Creations finally speak out on this problem?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We understand that, and we always try to encourage homebrew and amateur game development. Many of our coders and artists here at Bizarre made their first steps in the world of homebrew; myself included. For that reason, we let the clones do their thing for many months… However, after about half a year, one of the more prolific clones began to attract notoriety as “the free version of Geometry Wars”. Obviously this is bad news for us, and bad news for Geometry Wars. We decided to put a stop to this clone simply because it would be damaging our future plans for the franchise, and damaging the name. Getting something like GW:RE off the ground in the first place is so difficult, and clones would only attack it’s fragility.

We encourage originality as much as possible. Homebrew development is no different… why rip off somebody else’s hard work when you could make your own original concept? We hope more amateur developers will follow this mantra in the future…

8-What do you say to Gamers who are dying to play Geometry Wars:RE but do not own an XBOX 360 or simply cannot afford one? Does Bizarre Creations have any plans to cater to the non XBOX 360 owning gamer?

Obviously having to buy a new console just for a ‘retro’ game would be mad! We understand the frustrations of gamers who want to play GW, but don’t have a 360. However there are good reasons behind not us wanting to announce anything beyond the 360 version just yet – hopefully all shall become clear in the very near future!

9-Geometry Wars:RE fans have been wanting themes and gamerpics for the longest time. Any plans to release some to Xbox Live Marketplace?

Yes, I think they’re happening. We’ve been trying to get something sorted for ages, and the last I heard was that they’ve been created and are going through the production processes. Gamer Tiles and Dashboard Themes would be awesome!

10-Can you confirm that Bizarre Creations is working on a new Geometry Wars title? And if Yes can we expect it to be released this year?

I can confirm nothing. J

11-What new features are being discussed or planned in adding to Geometry Wars 3?

Me no speaka English…

12-Does the Bizarre Creations team feel any pressure to live up to the success of Geometry Wars:RE?

Well Stephen certainly feels that he has a lot to live up to in his future endeavours. However, the number of great ideas definitely outweighs the number of worries, so it’s all hands on deck to do better for the next project (whatever that might be).

13-Is Bizarre Creations planning any other original titles for Xbox Live Arcade?

Live Arcade is awesome, and we’d like to work on it again in the future. However, we’ve got nothing to announce just yet. Again, watch this space. J

14-Can we expect any patches or updates for Geometry Wars:RE or will you leave it as is?

I think development on GW:RE is pretty much done now. You won’t see any changes in the future.

15-Have any last words for Geometry Wars:RE fans?

Come join us on the www.bizarreonline.net forums if you have any more questions, and we’ll do our best to answer them (in the least cryptic way possible!) J —

Thanks alot to Ben Ward and Sarah Chudley from Bizarre Creations!