More stuff, this time about two things!

Alright, I've got some info about Blast Works, and about what's happening at Smart Bomb Interactive!

1. The many boxes of Blast Works were done by Majesco's Marketing Team, not Budcat.

2. Even pseudo 16:9 is a no-go for Blast Works.

3. Asking why and about any sort of difficulty regarding any additions, as well as dates and delays, I got this very detailed response:

In the case of the pseudo 16:9 mode, it probably won’t take too long to get in there. The problem is that there are dozens of ideas that we can say the same thing about. In order to get a game done, you have to lock the features and get it out the door. Every game developer has to do it.

Would it be costly to slip by 1 week? Yes. No one working on the project works for free, in most cases we can’t (you know problems like rent, and food). There are collateral costs that are harder to measure. Since people don’t work for free, work on a new project has to be lined up and ready to go. If those people are busy because the date has slipped, the new project gets behind schedule before it’s even started.

It’s important to hit the release date for numerous reasons. There’s a huge amount of coordination that goes into the marketing and advertising. Magazine ads have to be placed months in advance. Weekly flyers that places like Best Buy put out have to mocked up weeks in advance. To know that there is some good shelf space reserved for your product in the stores on the date you promised the retailers that they would have it is very important. If you’re off by a week, that shelf space will go to another product, one that actually shipped out to the retailer when it was promised. Majesco (in this case) is a publicly traded company. If they don’t deliver the number of titles they’ve promised per quarter then their stock goes down, and this effects thousands of people who own the stock.

If the product doesn’t get into manufacturing when it’s been scheduled, the equipment might be busy manufacturing another product that did get in when it was supposed to, this can further delay your ship date.

How were the original dates chosen?

Usually ship date targets can be determined by budget. A fixed budget is set aside to do a project, so it’s development can’t go beyond a fixed date (because that’s when you’ve run out of money and most people on the project can’t work for free). If we go over budget on a project is that publisher going to work with us again? There are a lot of developers out there. I know if I was the publisher I would be more inclined to work with the ones who can make their dates, and stay within their budget. It’s important for us to make our dates, so that we can keep our doors open.

I suppose I could have just said, that it’s very important to us to make our dates, but I want you to understand. It’s very important to make our dates.

So there you have it! Delays don't happen unless it's VERY necessary!

4. regardless of the ever changing box and logos, Budcat is trying to keep the logo as similar to the current one as possible. A change would take mere minutes, so that shouldn't be a problem for them. So Blast Works won't pull a Crash of the Titans and Endless Ocean. XD

As Jason said:

The lettering for the words Blast Works is the same. The other things, like the Build, Trade, Destroy aren’t the same as the box. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say that on the title page, which is the main menu. There really won’t be room to add that other stuff to the screen.

As you cursor hovers over the different menu options, different ships appear in the center of the menu. The menu is kind of circular.

You’re right though, changing out a bitmap only takes a couple minutes, and as long as it’s the same size and bit depth as the previous one, there’s very little chance that one might introduce new bugs.

5. On to Smart Bomb. They are currently developing a Wii and Xbox 360 game (WTF, no PS2 version hidden somewhere? Is this the apocalypse?! O_o).

6. Both versions are being developed side-by-side, so no version is being shoehorned into the other.

7. 480p, 16:9, Dolby Pro Logic II, and 60 Frames Per Second ARE A GO in the Wii version! :D

8. Both versions are releasing in early 2009.

9. Judging by the attention and careful timing of the game, I'd assume it's an original IP (Smart Bomb had to keep their mouth shut as far as Bee Movie goes as they were forced by Activision, so Activision were the ones to ask about anything regarding the game). But Clark Stacey didn't say anything about my assumption.

And dat's da end!

That was quick! A tiny bit of new info... but it's not good info.

Okay.

I've got a confirmation that the developer Big Red Button Entertainment, currently has no plans to develop for the Wii, which most likely means that all 6 of their planned new IPs are not heading to our favourite little white console.

Sad day, I was looking forward to a potential Crash/Jak & Daxter style platformer. :(

Well Ready at Dawn is bringing Okami to the Wii. Hope Steel Penny Games delivers, regardless of their casual puzzle game direction.

What's that? A new post?! It's about Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for the Wii!

I finally have something new to report!

Okay, this is going to be long.

First of all, unlike what IGN said in their preview of the game back at E3 2007, the game only supports 480p and runs in 60 frames per second, but it does NOT support 16:9, it also does NOT support Dolby Pro Logic II.

Laziness? Most certainly not!

I've had a conversation with Jason Anderson, a Senior Partner at Budcat Creations, who spends most of his time coding. The messages are in Italics.

My 1st message:

Dear Budcat,

I'm just wondering if Blast Works for the Wii supports Dolby Pro Logic II?

And I want to say how thrilled I am that you included 480p, 16:9, and made the game run at 60 frames per second, that's what I love to see in games, and I'm very grateful that Budcat included those in the game! I read this in IGN's preview awhile back.

Thanks, and I wish Budcat the best of luck with all of their projects!

Reply:

Thanks for the nice words. Sometimes magazines don’t quite get things right, so to clarify.

BlastWorks does support 480p, but doesn’t specifically support 16:9. If you select Dolby Pro Logic II in the Wii System menu, BlastWorks will output regular stereo.

Best Regards,
Jason Andersen

I then asked:

Thanks for the correction.

Is there ANY chance of 16:9 and DPLII being added by the time the game is complete? The game isn't coming out until May, so I'm sure there's enough time to include those features.

Please disclose why it may not be possible if it isn't.

Thanks again.

His reply:

Pretty much there’s no chance of either of those options making it into the game.

DPL2 doesn’t make much sense for this game, since it’s not 3D. Positioning of objects relative to your ship is always either left or right … not in front of or back. For the in-game music, it would have to had been created with a 3d specialization built into it. The music was licensed, and that’s not how musicians tend to create things.

On the 16:9 front, in a normal 3D game, 16:9 support is normally done by expanding your field of view, so that you can see more information on the left and to the right. If we tried to do this to BlastWorks, then we would have to have 2 sets of levels, because spawn points would become exposed, the current levels would become unbalanced, and or look weird. Most enemies are spawned just outside of viewable space. This may not sound like a lot of work, but it really is a _lot_ of work.

Hopefully what I’m saying makes sense,

Jason

It makes sense!

I then asked:

I understand now, and thanks for the detailed explanation!

It does make sense.

Out of curiosity, would it make sense to go the Mario Party 8 route and just make the menus and such 16:9, and just add a border on each side of the in-game screen to make it 16:9? Maybe animate the borders so that it won't cause burn-in.

Just an idea as you'd probably be forced to do this if this was an XBLA game, but I guess that's why it's on Wii, more freedom for the developer! ;)

Makes sense, as it's better than nothing right?

The reply:

I’ll make sure your suggestions get passed on to the project lead.

If it were designed for XBLA it would have been 16:9 only, and high def. :)

Thanks,Jason

I then said:

So basically, if the game was for XBLA, then the game would've been designed to be 16:9 only, as in the screen would've been optimized for the wider screen so enemies would've appeared from even further away and such. But as this game was designed for the Wii and it was decided to be 4:3 standard, and most likely due to keeping the game as faithful to Tumiki Fighters as possible (am I right? ;) ), the screen was made so that the enemies would appear closer and such, and adding 16:9 to the game which uses 4:3 as the standard, would be very difficult as it would force the team to basically start from scratch.

I'm getting this correctly right?

Thanks again!

I think it's a great idea if they did it the Mario Party 8 way if they can't put in 100% true 16:9 at all. Though Hudson not doing that for MP8 is inexcusable, I mean it's full 3D, so what was keeping the game from being in true 16:9?!

His reply:

In the case of BlastWorks, all the levels are currently tuned for play on 4:3 aspect ratio. If we widened the area of view, the current levels would need to be re-tuned. All the enemy spawn points re-adjusted, then everything re-tested for play balancing. It wouldn’t be a matter of starting over, but it would be a couple of months of work for the team.

The extra content was originally all 4:3 as well, you’re correct.

If we’re fortunate enough to have BW do well in the market, we might get a chance to do a sequel. I personally would push for 16:9 if we get the opportunity.

That'd be great!

I then said:

That'd be great! Hope BW does do well!

BTW, to put my suggestion into greater detail:

Have the menus and such be in proper 16:9, no borders, widen the viewing space and such.

But in the portions of the game that you can't do this so easily, add the borders on the sides of the screen!

That's what I meant in case you misunderstood even a little bit. ;)

I have some other questions.

1. By any chance, does the game allow you to use the Wii's MP3 upload function like in Excite Truck and in Endless Ocean? If it doesn't currently, how long would it take for the team to add that?

2. On to Budcat's second Wii game, Our House. Does that game support 480p, 16:9, and Dolby Pro Logic II? And when can we expect to see the first screenshots and such?

3. Finally, does Majesco or Budcat own the Our House and Blast Works IP? Was the rights to Cho's games bought, or just licensed to make on the Wii?

Thanks again!

His reply (in red):

That'd be great! Hope BW does do well!

BTW, to put my suggestion into greater detail:

Have the menus and such be in proper 16:9, no borders, widen the viewing space and such.

But in the portions of the game that you can't do this so easily, add the borders on the sides of the screen!

That's what I meant in case you misunderstood even a little bit. ;)

I have some other questions.

1. By any chance, does the game allow you to use the Wii's MP3 upload function like in Excite Truck and in Endless Ocean? If it doesn't currently, how long would it take for the team to add that?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have support for this. We can’t implement this due to licensing reasons. It would be really cool feature though.

2. On to Budcat's second Wii game, Our House. Does that game support 480p, 16:9, and Dolby Pro Logic II? And when can we expect to see the first screenshots and such?
It’s up to Majesco to decide when the project is ready to release screens. It’s really not far enough along for me to be able to say with a lot of certainty, but I do know the game engine supports 480p, 16:9, and DP2. Designs tend to change during development.

3. Finally, does Majesco or Budcat own the Our House and Blast Works IP? Was the rights to Cho's games bought, or just licensed to make on the Wii?
Our House, and BlastWorks a properties of Majesco. The Kenta Cho games were appropriately licensed, and have his blessing.

:)

I then said:

Thanks for that again!

Two more questions.

1. Does Blast Works indeed run in 60 frames per second? And does it dip at all?

2. Finally, what do you do at Budcat? Are you a producer, CEO perhaps?

Thanks!

He then said:

BW does run 60 frames per second, and all the levels that we’ve packaged have be designed to run at 60. I believe it is possible to get it to dip, but you have to get an insane amount of crap on the screen. Sine the editors are included, if you work at it (ie make really complicated objects, with complex bullet patterns, and pack them into the screen), you can over load the system.

I’m one of the partners here at Budcat, but I spend most of my time coding. My business card says Senior Partner.

I also like to make sure that web site emails get answered. I know in the past some email inquiries have fallen through the cracks. We get an incredible amount of spam. I suppose, since the email links are on the web site.

Take care,
Jason

And I finished with:

Thanks a lot for the chat, I truly appreciate it!

You take care as well!

And I wish you and everyone else the best of luck at Budcat, regardless on what you are working on!

That'll be all for today, thanks again!

No reply after that, but all conversations must end, and that was a fine ending anyway. :P

That's it for now! Thanks for reading!

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