Interview | Cubed3 Talks to Bloober Team

Piotr Babieno, President of Bloober Team: Bloober Team was established in 2008 by veterans of the videogame Industry who have years of experience in developing and publishing entertaining products. The company has more than 30 full-time employees and several freelance programmers. Initial capital funding assures the studio's long-term financial stability and provides prospects for further development. We have already developed several games for a variety of platforms including the Nintendo Wii and DS, Sony PlayStation Portable; mostly as work for hire.

AR: What is the connection between Bloober Team and Nibris? Does Nibris still exist separately and do both companies ever work together?

PB: The relationship between Bloober Team and Nibris can be described as a good friendship (the same is true with other Polish teams since this is a small market). As far as we know, Nibris still exists, but the two companies are not co-operating and we are not planning to do so. The owners of Bloober Team worked for Nibris for several years, but their interests diverged, and the two developers went their own ways.

AR: How long Last Flight been in development?

PB: As we want to create unique, exceptionally good game for WiiWare, we have been developing the game since December 2008. Rome was not built in three days; neither is a great videogame. It takes time and effort. We are perfectionists!

AR: What has been the biggest challenge during development?

PB: The biggest challenge has been to package our dreams within Nintendo's required capacity and specifications. We would like to push the envelope with Last Flight and bring new quality to WiiWare.

AR: Where did the initial idea come from? Did any movies and games influence the style of Last Flight?

PB: We have been inspired by the culture of the 21st Century. Seriously! The game is teeming with cultural references, auto-video industry irony, a great amount of humour, and violence; much like Tarantino's movies. We are going to introduce the videogame world to the post-modernist, inter-textual era. Also, after working on "Sadness," we wanted something less depressing!

AR: What sort of feedback have you had about game so far?

PB: The game has been greeted with a warm reception. Journalists and fans alike have enjoyed the screenshots we have released. We know that they are anxiously awaiting the game's release. Although nobody, except developers themselves, have played the full game yet, we can assure videogame players everywhere that it is going to be a blast!

PB: The launch of the first of the four episodes is scheduled for Q2 2010 in the European and US markets.

AR: How much are you hoping to sell the game for?

PB: We have created a game that will be affordable and accessible. Games on WiiWare are usually less expensive than boxed ones. By releasing our game on WiiWare we wanted to broaden the game's audience appeal. We are convinced that users of Nintendo WiiWare want to play more adult games.

AR: What is the game's storyline and will there be multiple characters to play as?

PB: The protagonist: Larry Adelman, a culinary critic with stunning knife and cleaver skills, is a passenger on a flight to Europe.

The woman: A Romanian beauty on board the same flight whose mission is to get her father's body to the Fatherland.

The twist: It will not be a huge surprise that the dead Romanian guy (the father) is not quite dead; he is actually a vampire. A thirsty vampire, no less! This vampire escapes his coffin (as they are wont to do) and starts to attack passengers, further populating the plane with an epidemic of vampires. Larry, our culinary combatant, is there to salvage the Space Titanic.

The Story: There are plenty of characters aboard that are meant to surprise and challenge you. In the first episode, the user will play as Larry. Picture this; you are a chunky, bold American cook master in a Tiki-style shirt, who can cut a tomato perfectly into 100 pieces in four seconds! In the second episode we are planning to give players the option to choose what character they wish to play.

PB: In the first episode you will be introduced to the world of the game through Larry's eyes, so this will be one player. We don’t want to go into details regarding multiplayer, but that's something we discuss a lot internally. And yes, there will be online content available, as the Last Flight will be digitally distributed with online downloads of the next episodes.

AR: How well does Last Flight make use of the Wii controls? Did you think about including MotionPlus controls?

PB: Last Flight is an action-adventure game with the control system designed to be as natural as possible. To attack with a weapon (cleaver, knife), the player needs to swing either the Wii Remote or Nunchuck. Certain attacks performed one after another in a short period of time are tied into a combo that can be finished with a deadly final blow. Our system was designed to work well with standard controllers. While we might add MotionPlus support in the future, I don't think it would add that much to the experience in this particular case.

AR: Approximately how long will it take players to complete Last Flight? What has been included to encourage gamers to replay the game?

PB: It is going to take 2-4 hours for advanced players to finish the first episode. As for your second question, you'll find out soon enough!

AR: Are the Balance Board and Wii Speak features something you would have liked to include if you had more time? Will these be used in future projects?

PB: No, we do not envision the use of the Balance Board and Wii Speak in the first episode of the game, but that does not preclude their use in a future.

AR: Do you already have ideas for a Last Flight sequel?

PB: The Last Flight is an episodic game, and each episode will have a new adventure that can be played separately. So we do not plan for a sequel, but it all will depend on the reception of the first season, which is comprised of four episodes.

AR: Nibris has previously stated that Bloober Team now has the rights to both Double Bloob and ROTR. Are both these games still in development for DS and Wii?

PB: Bloober Team has copyrights to both games but we are not planning the development of them in proximate future. Bloober Team previously worked on a 'work for hire' basis, but now we would like to focus primarily on our own projects.

PB: We have not heard about Double Bloob being too similar to Mitchell Corporation’s Pang/Buster Bros. We have not received any information from Nintendo regarding this issue.

AR: What is the status of Bloobs Kart and Rolling Bloobs; are they still being developed?

PB: They are not in Bloober Team's possession, so we have nothing to say regarding their development.

AR: Does Bloober Team also have the rights to Children of the Night, or is that still owned By Nibris?

PB: As far as we know, Children of the Night was only the idea, not a real project and we do not have the copyright for it.