
How happy were you with Schizoid as a whole, from conception to development through release?
Bill Dugan: We are stoked about it and we're sad about it, because you always want to work on a game forever. I'm a glass half empty kind of guy when it comes to being a manager, so all I see is the flaws. We could have worked on Schizoid for another year and made it incrementally better, but you never have time. We're delighted with the way it has come out as a co-op game though.
To the XBLA community, it seemed like Schizoid was in development for a long time. Is there a reason why the development cycle took so long?
Bill: There's a bunch of stuff I could blame it on. Every console game has a whole TCR list of things you have to do to make it work on the console precisely well and if it doesn't hit everything correctly, then you get rejected from manufacturing and you can't publish it on the console. If it would have been a PC game then we would have released it long ago, but it's complicated so we had to polish it up, make it work with profiles and make it work correctly.
You're talking about Microsoft's certification process?
Bill: Not just Microsoft, it would have been the same with any of the consoles.
Speaking of Microsoft, how involved were they in the development of the game, especially seeing that Schizoid was an XNA title?
Bill: Well, it's not like they did any coding for us or anything like that, I mean we did all the work. Though, we did work closely with them in finalizing a version of XNA that would work on the Xbox. Since we're the first XNA game to ship on the Xbox Live Arcade, they had to make a version of XNA that worked on Live Arcade a little bit earlier than they had been planning. So, we were going over there and meeting with them all the time and talking with them about performance and stuff like that. But they didn't write any part of the game if that's what you're wondering. Though, it would have been nice. Not that I'm saying they didn't cooperate or help us, because they were really awesome.
Now that Schizoid has been released, can you talk about the game's success in terms of its sales?
Bill: We're pretty pleased with it, though I would have been a little bit happier if it would have sold as many copies as Braid, but it didn't. The sales also were steady, so it might be that sort of thing where, since it's a multiplayer game, it might have longer legs instead of being a single player game that you get sick of quickly.
Like you said, you wish Schizoid would have sold as many copies as Braid. Knowing this, do you find it hard for developers to make a "big splash" on the Xbox Live Arcade or do you feel like you could have done something differently to market Schizoid to the Arcade community?
Bill: We spent 100% of our marketing money on PR and didn't spend any on marketing or promotion. Maybe that was a mistake and if we had to do it again maybe I would have spent more money on promoting it. You gotta roll your own, all the developers on the Arcade have to do their own marketing and it's just an area where, being a small studio, we don't have a large marketing budget.
What's your opinion on how Microsoft splits up the money for Xbox Live Arcade games between them and developers. Specifically, what do you think about the Arcade pay schedule?
Bill: All that stuff is under NDA so, obviously, they're really uncomfortable with us talking about it at all. As far as improving it, I could say we should get more money, but that doesn't talk about the success of the platform and how much they support it. So it all gets complicated.
How about downloadable content, do you have anything planned for Schizoid?
Bill: We can't do it for Schizoid, because the first version of XNA game studio is a version that doesn't support downloadable content. Schizoid is what it is.
So, it's a technical issue?
Bill: It is with us using the first version of XNA game studio, but I understand that they may have changed that by now, but I'm not really sure. When we look at 3.0 we'll have to look at the feature list.
Do you have any information to share with us regarding Torpex's next project, which platform it's being developed for, which genre it's based on or when we'll see it release?
Bill: We're working on a prototype right now for a publisher and is something we'll talk about at some point in the future.
Do you agree with us that Schizoid's "Sploderific" achievement is the best achievement to unlock out of the 360's entire game library?
Bill: There is no doubt in my mind.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-02-2008 @ 4:54AM
Procris said...
Pretty interesting interview. Though is it just me thats always bothered by developers complaining about certification processes? They say they can get the game out sooner when they don't have to do it (like for PC) but the certification process is there to make sure games are actually playable and not a huge bug filled mess. I'd rather wait longer to play a game thats playable then have bugs that ruin the experience and have to wait for them to be patched.
As for Marketing, i think Microsoft kind of shoot everyone in the foot a little. There are some fantastic titles coming out for XBLA now that they really need to make more noise about. It doesn't just help the developer get better sales but also the 360 in general. But then again, Steam and PSN aren't much different either in this respect.
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9-02-2008 @ 5:11AM
bsinha said...
In order to get Braid-level sales, you have to create one of the best games on XBLA. I bought Schizoid and enjoyed playing it for the co-op, but it's probably around the 50th best game on XBLA, all things considered.
Also even though I enjoyed it, the art style is so freaking atrocious, just look at the nasty pic above with the purple squiggly lines. It's so bad it actually limits my enjoyment of the game as better looking games like Pixeljunk Monsters and Braid compete for my gaming time.
I say this as someone who bought and enjoyed Schizoid: fire whoever is responsible for the horrendous visual style before starting on the next Torpex project.
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9-02-2008 @ 6:52AM
Hoffer said...
When I first saw the game, I thought it looked awesome. I then played the demo and found it impossibly hard. Especially single player, since I don't have anyone to play local coop.
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9-02-2008 @ 7:43AM
Aero said...
Schizoid, like Galaga Legions, suffers from bad release timing. With Geometry Wars 2 releasing a good week or two after, I couldn't really justify a purchase of it.
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9-02-2008 @ 9:47AM
Luay said...
I regret buying shizoid I played the demo and thoroughly enjoyed it so much so that I thought getting it would be great fun. Boy was I wrong. No one is online for this game and local coop isn't a great idea. I have now decided any XBLA game with online I will not get why you ask, simply because people stop playing it. I have yet to find people who play this game to help with the coop achieveme
nts and let alone local coop won't let a guest join me when I did have someone to play.
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9-02-2008 @ 2:45PM
AnthonyGalindoX said...
Dustin, I liked the way you had to sneak in a mention of the achievement you named. Classy.
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9-06-2008 @ 5:48AM
joseph young said...
Great interview. Appreciate the insightful questions to reveal the business aspects of a small studio and working with Microsoft.
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