Interview: Arkedo Talks Big Bang Mini on Nintendo DS

Arkedo's Camille Guermonprez: Arkedo was founded in beginning of 2006, as a "shell" for our project Nervous Brickdown. It came after a 6-year period where I was in charge of a more serious studio I founded in 1999: a mobile games one. It is where I met Aurelien. We had to design and deliver quite a lot of games, in rather short periods of time (usually less than 6 months, sometimes 3). We left in 2005, when the studio was around 60 people, and started Arkedo with the idea to make it small enough to fund a whole project ourselves until completion. So we hired Eric and decided 3 was enough *smiles* We also had Maiwenn by our side almost from the start (she was an intern then, but is now Arkedo's fourth member). BUT 4 IS THE MAX NOW, OKAY?!

We say it was a "shell" for Nervous Brickdown because in our previous experience we grew a complex about not actually having even one single games appear in a real, lasting, glorious box...with an instructions manual and shiny pictures...colour ones! If we could not buy it in a garage sale in 10 years time, then the game was not as real as it may seem. So our idea was to make one "real" game, and then maybe do something else. Arkedo was just the single-serving shell for this.

We made the game, sold it to Eidos (while keeping the IP), and really liked the whole process - especially being able to work so well with such a small team. No time wasted in meetings, or calls or trips: just 3 people in one small room for 15 months, discussing and designing Nervous Brickdown. As we were almost spending 100% of our time on production, it allowed us to try many different concepts, and put a lot in the trash quickly. We could see if a gameplay idea was cool by prototyping it in a few days. It was a very fulfilling, creative and, most of all, a nice period in our lives. The fact that we had no idea if we could sell the game in the end, strangely, did not distract us too much from our goal to make a game we would enjoy playing on the DS.

AR: Where did the idea for Big Bang Mini come from and why bring it to DS instead of a different system?

CG: After Nervous Brickdown (NB), and seeing it drove decent sales for such a small project (we are going over 100K sold now, and we even found a Japanese publisher: Success Corp), we realised we could re-invest the money into a new project, and even make a small benefit/profit that we could turn into additional months worth of production.

So, after many failed prototypes, we made a post mortem of NB. As the game was based on the very simple "ball, pad and bricks" gameplay, we had to twist it quite a lot to keep it fresh through 9 worlds and 9 bosses. We wanted to see if one of the concepts we had in NB could be put on steroids. The 'Boss of Shoot' came as a cool way to play shmups: the stylus really added something to the experience. Even our manic shooter friends were interested in the new feeling and accuracy the stylus gave, and the DS can deliver a lot of bullets!

Then Aurelien had this idea of letting the player fire with the stylus too, by creating fireworks from the lower screen, just like striking a match. We made another proto, and this time it clicked immediately: it was really fun - you could shoot anywhere, and most importantly, as much as you wanted.

CG: The project took 18 months approximately. We hired Clement for the Challenge and Mission modes, and the "Yubaba, Smith and Fortune" music guys (Xavier Thiry and Sylvain Hellio) kept on coming each Friday to work on the sound part of the game. They even got an award in France for their work on Big Bang Mini (BBM): it got the Best Soundtrack 2008 Milthon Award, and now they are behaving like rockstars during our Friday lunches *smiles* I'm kidding: I believe the 30+ tracks they did for BBM are great. We have been working with them for NB (with the noteworthy exception of the credits tune, which was done by Dma-Sc) and would trade them for no one else.

As for problems problem during the game, there were none, really. Oh, yes, we had one small problem with the Wi-Fi Connection network: it was hard to implement, but we knew from the start that it would be, so we planned in advance, leaving a big chunk of time solely for that very feature. We wanted to have one of our modes to have a worldwide leader-board where you could immediately see your ranking (Challenge mode, you will like it). It was new to us (we only had DS Download Play on NB), but Maiwenn did a great job, and now we cannot wait to see how quickly many people will ridicule my 500,000 score when the game goes live...

In the end, we showed BBM to about 20 of our gamer friends and they all took the time needed to complete the game and tell us everything that was bad about it. We had the luxury of adding a month at the end of the project to take into account what they said. I really believe this polishing phase was required before entering the QA process.

AR: How do you think your shmup compares to the work of the Nanostray games from Shin'en?

CG: Shin'en do great classic shmups! We are trying to twist the shmup gameplay with BBM, as we tried to twist the breakout gameplay with NB. Hopefully we made a good game and classic shmup fans - after they have beaten Nanostray I and II - will also like the Big Bang Mini experience.

AR: Can you explain how the touch-screen and dual-screen features are used in the game?

CG: You can move your ship anywhere you want with the stylus. And when you are not moving your ship, you can - also with the stylus - shoot a firework in any direction, like striking a match. Most of the time, baddies are in upper screen. When you hit a baddie, a big firework is created. When you miss, it creates deadly bullets that you have to dodge. That is the basis. We wanted to keep it simple.

Now, when you progress from one World to another, you learn new tricks. You get special features (homing missiles, mirror shields, time stoppers, etc), which you activate either by making gestures with your stylus (for example horizontal dash=shield, backward dash=stop time, hold stylus still=fireball) or by pressing a trigger while shooting (homing missile). These features are unlocked as you progress in the game: some of them are specific to a World, some of them you keep for the rest of the game.

CG: You have 9 Worlds in Arcade mode, each with 9 levels and a Boss. It's the main mode. The Challenge Mode is a score mode where you can publish your score via an online leaderboard using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (you can also track your friends' progress with Friend Codes). It was done by Clement and is basically an infinite level with a score, and real bits of adrenaline. It is heavily combo-based, and the Yubaba coded a tune that would slowly become more complex and punchier as the game becomes hellish and new enemies come and say 'Hi'! The graphics on this one are really minimalistic (neon/vectrex) in order to focus solely on the action.

Then, there is the Vs. Mode. Two DS systems, one cart, all accessed via the DS Download function. You hold your DS like a book (there is a left hand option, so do not worry!), and you shoot fireworks at your opponent. Add to this a little "volleyball" feeling, as you can pick your opponents shot when they fall in your screen, and throw them back (faster, of course *grins*) at your opponent. You also have 4 power-ups to help you, but can only use them once during your match. Maiwenn, who did the multiplayer part in Nervous Brickdown, was in charge of this aspect.

Clement also did a Mission Mode (you have to beat the game to unlock this): think "Advanced Levels" when you killed GladOS. 25 missions to complete, with sick constraints (beat this level in less than 22 shots, kill this boss in 30 seconds, etc.). So, with Relax Mode and Alarm Clock on top of that, we really tried to stuff the cartridge with as much as possible (we used the same size as with Nervous Brickdown). One thing we are really proud of is that Nintendo selected us for having a DS demo via the Wii, and even on interactive demo units on retail stores in the US! I think it will go live for 2 or 3 months, a few weeks before the game is out, so perhaps in the beginning of January 2009. Hopefully it will help people to try the game and enjoy it.

CG: Yes, yes and yes! *smiles*

AR: Are there any lessons you learned from the development of Nervous Brickdown that have helped to make Big Bang Mini a better product?

CG: Yes of course, we were better organised! But at the same time we felt a bit insecure: it's always hard to make a second game. I believe that's why we kept on adding modes and trying to polish it as much as we could: it was just to soothe the angst!

CG: Well, we have lived with BBM for 18 months now and usually it would now be the time where you just start to hate your game and cannot see it anymore. Yet we still play it with a smile, so we are cautiously confident the game is good. Our goal was to present something fresh to manic shooter players; an experience they could not have anywhere else, while at the same time introducing other players, hopefully truckloads of them, to a cheerful, easy-to-pick-up shmup on the DS. With fireworks!

One of the things we love about real boxes, also, is that you can make cool things with them, provided that you have a publisher backing you. For Big Bang Mini, we have been able to make a lenticular boxart, and we are really (really really) happy about it. Remember the cool Tony the Tiger "animated" stickers in your cereal boxes? The ones with a 3-frame picture you could animate by slightly turning the card? Now, it's 15 frames. All our boxes in the US are going to be like that, with animated fireworks exploding on the cover...To my knowledge - and I may be wrong - going lenticular is a first time for the DS (I remember there was WarioWare: Twisted! for the GBA, but nothing for DS). For Europe, though, it's pending as to whether or not it will happen. It will also be officially priced around $20 in the US, so we are also proud our publisher accepted to keep the prices so low, while putting so much into the box design.

CG: It did 100,000 sales. We are happy!

AR: Does Arkedo hold the rights to both Nervous Brickdown and Big Bang Mini, or did your publisher take control?

CG: Yes, we own all the Intellectual Properties of games that we develop. And for the moment (*knocks on wood*), we have managed to find publishers who leave us with complete creative freedom.

AR: Following on from the previous question, have you considered bringing either game to Wii?

CG: Why not? We would love to do Big Bang Mini with its addictive blending on a bigger screen...

AR: And what are your thoughts on supporting the WiiWare and DSWare services?

CG: WE WANT BOXED GAMES *grins*

AR: So what exactly is next on the cards for Arkedo?

CG: We have a signed contract already, which is rather cool. It took us ten years to have a full project financed in advance, while keeping complete creative freedom, so yay for 2009! I hope you can understand the least we can do is to leave our publisher to announce this when it feels like doing so. It's the least we can do to be polite people!

Right now we are polishing the demos and the trailers and then we'll go to Japan a bit to try and find a publisher there.

AR: Do you mean polishing the demo/trailers to try and get Big Bang Mini a Japanese release, or are you talking about this new 'secret' project? And this 'secret' game, can you at least tell us what system it'll be on?

CG: I mean polishing the DS Demo version of Big Bang Mini for the Nintendo Channel on Wii and for the Retail Interactive Demo Units in the US. I was also refering to the Big Bang Mini trailers we are doing for the US and PAL releases. (Our next project in on the Wii, by the way *grins*)