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Usually
when you play a video game one of the main objectives is to try to keep
your on-screen alter ego from getting hurt. It just goes with the
territory. This makes Beep Industries choice for a hero a bit off
the beaten path with Vince, a voodoo doll, a device where pain is the
name of the game. The finished product turned out to be a fun
little platformer with plenty of puzzles and a humorous sensibility.
Recently we had the chance to talk with the main man behind the game,
Clayton Kauzlaric, about the trials and tribulations of making the Xbox
title. Thanks for your time, Clayton!
Related
Links:
Review:
Voodoo Vince (Xbox)
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Voodoo Vince (Beep
Industries) Q&A Conducted by
Omni
As is usual at first meetings: the introductions. Who you are, your
role at Beep Industries, your role on Voodoo Vince, your background in
the gaming industry, and describe at least one thing about yourself no
one would guess just by looking at you.
Clayton K: My name is Clayton Kauzlaric. I’m the founder of Beep
Industries, where my title is Creative Director, or “Hey you!” to
most people. Most people would never know that I’m an extremely bad
dancer by looking at me. Oh sure, I project an aura of absolute grace
and poise, but just put me on the dance floor and I look like an ostrich
with a problem. It’s shocking.
Tell us a bit about Beep Industries. (And why “the alien overlord
whipping human workers” as a logo?)
Clayton K: Beep Industries is a vast, powerful corporate empire with
diverse interests across the globe. We’re also a small game company in
Kirkland, Washington. The charming tableau portrayed in our logo has
several meanings. Some days, everyone gets to be the alien overlord,
other days we’re just marching off for another day at the mill. Those
three have names, by the way. From left to right, they are Brenda, Chet
and Arichitor. “Arichitor” comes from a humorous junk mail
misspelling of my wife’s job title. It was sent to Mary Ann
Flaherty/Animator. But somehow, “animator” became “arichitor” on
the mailing label, which is an excellent name for an alien. Mary Ann was
the lead animator for Voodoo Vince, by the way. See? I brought it back
to the topic at hand.
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As a character, how many changes did Vince go through? What did the
early concept drawings look like?
Clayton K: Vince underwent a fair amount of evolution, although some
basic things remained the same from the beginning. His big eye and the
pins have always been a signature part of his look. Here is the step by
step of how Vince ended up the way he is…
First, Vince was
a really quick, ugly little doodle in a notepad in May of 2000.
I followed up
with a more polished picture. More details were added. This is when the
patches and the heart were incorporated.
I had to show
that Vince was a pantload of fun in my first pitch document. These are a
few of the illustrations I did around June of 2000 for that doc. His
proportions started to look more in line with the final version about
this time. We actually ended up using most of these versions of Vince in
the final game.
The first
polygonal Vince was made in January of 2001. Most publishers liked the
concept, but they had a hard time visualizing the game. So, we ended up
making a really basic demo on PC. This is how Vince looked then.
Finally, we
landed a deal and got things rolling. We built a much more detailed
model for a full-fledged prototype around the middle of 2001. This ended
up being the basis for the version which ended up in the final game.
Both polygonal versions were modeled and animated by Mary Ann.
Are the comparisons between Voodoo Vince’s style and that of
LucasArts’ Day of the Tentacle fair? What other inspirations were
drawn on during VV’s development?
Clayton K: It’s completely fair. The parallels exist for a couple good
reasons. I worked with Ron Gilbert for a number of years while I was at
Cavedog. We always got along famously, mostly because we share a similar
sense of humor. We’re still pals today, mostly because we share
similar tastes for gin. The other reason is Dave Grossman, who wrote for
Day of The Tentacle. Few people realize that Dave did some writing for
Total Annihilation. We had that connection and I’ve always been a fan
of his work. I asked Dave to do an edit pass on my script for Voodoo
Vince. He added some touches which will have a familiar feel to fans of
those classic LucasArts adventure games.
Should games cite references to games and other sources in their
credits?
Clayton K: What? And leave nothing for insightful interview questions?
Seriously, I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not. Every form of
entertainment is built on what preceded it, but that’s just a given.
If movies did that, there would be four reel changes during the credits.
Vince has a large arsenal of voodoo powers at his disposal, but what
powers didn’t make the cut?
Clayton K: Mostly stuff that would have made us lose our Teen rating.
These involved all sorts of stuff, like really explicit medical
procedures and social diseases. We also decided to not use everyday
household items or guns, mostly for the same reason. We also wanted to
make some Super Voodoo attacks which would trigger ambitious cinematic
sequences, like making an asteroid hit Vince, but those ended up being a
headache for both artistic and technical reasons. I still have them in
mind, though.
VV features a variety of gameplay including kart-like elements. How
versatile is VV’s game engine? Has it been used to its full potential?
Clayton K: The design doc was created well before the engine. That means
the engine was created so the stuff in the GDD could become a reality.
We didn’t have a lot of extra time for gratuitous technology, so
it’s safe to say we’re just about using the full potential of the
Swamp Engine™. The programming crew did a stellar job of getting all
those different modes of gameplay, vehicles, mini-games and such. I’d
say it’s a great first generation engine, although there are some
things we can build on in the future.
What was the most important consideration to gameplay while making
VV? Was it an emphasis on making it fun?
Clayton K: Absolutely. We always wanted to build an accessible, funny
game. I really wanted to emulate the style of classic platformers, while
throwing in some contemporary bells and whistles. Getting the right snap
to the character controls was the first big job. The other was getting
the pay-off for using voodoo powers to a satisfactory point.
It may seem a tired question, but what was the biggest challenge the
team had to overcome during VV’s development? And how was it overcome?
Clayton K: It’s hard to say what plagued us the most. I’ll probably
go with the voodoo powers themselves. We actually tried two completely
different incarnations of “voodoo combat” before settling on the
system that ended up in the game. We started with 100% voodoo
“reversed damage.” The entire game consisted of hurting Vince. It
ended up lacking that contact between Vince and the monsters, which was
ultimately less satisfying. Also, hitting yourself on the head is easy,
so the skill factor wasn’t where is could have been. We wanted to make
a relatively easy game, but that was ridiculous. It took almost a year
before we ended up with the “knock beads out of monsters to power up
the voodoo” system. There are still facets of the older systems I’d
like to explore, but I’m pretty happy with where that ended up.
It’s been “reported” by varying sources that the platformer
genre is dead or at least dying. Were you trying to buck the trend or
did no one tell you?
Clayton K: Everybody told me! That’s why it took a year to land a
publishing deal. I didn’t really care. When you’ve been around this
business for a while, genres are pronounced dead all the time, only to
come back. I figured if I could just make a decent game, there would be
an audience for it regardless.
How far into development were you when the release date for VV was
decided? And why the 4th Quarter when it’s more difficult to get a
game noticed?
Clayton K: We knew we’d ship the game in time for Christmas ’03 from
the very start, and that never changed. But, silly us, we shipped a
little early. At least we’ve had the window before the deluge of
Christmas titles all to ourselves. Plus we shipped well before
Halloween, which sort of works for a game like Voodoo Vince.
What does VV have going for it that other games don’t?
Clayton K: I believe Voodoo Vince is the first game to use laxatives as
a weapon.
Explain the writing process behind VV’s dialogue and story.
Clayton K: It was mostly a matter of fleshing out a very straightforward
rescue story with some fun characters, jokes and absurd situations. I
really just started writing at the beginning and kept going until I got
to the end. Along the way, there were some fun story sessions with the
Beep crew and lots of little revisions leading up to the studio sessions
with the actors. We’re a pretty sarcastic bunch, which comes through
all through the game. We’re also pretty cynical, which is probably why
everyone Vince meets screws him over at some point.
Music can play an important role in setting the mode of any game. Did
VV’s music help set the mood and level design or did the visual
presentation help set the music? Or are these elements even separable?
Clayton K: They’re kind of separate, but it’s hard to imagine the
game without Steve Kirk’s music. The first original music didn’t
start showing up in the game until late 2002. Before that, I had some
placeholder tracks which I thought had the right mood. I referred Steve
to these as his compositions got underway, and we communicated a lot
about the style, arrangement and tempo of various tracks. When it was
all done he did more than I ever dreamed was possible for the tone and
texture of the whole product. It really is one of the best musical
scores I’ve ever heard in a game.
From initial incomprehensible doodles to going gold, how long did VV
take to develop?
Clayton K: Incomprehensible doodle was drawn in May of 2000. The game
went to manufacture in early September of 2003. So, three years and a
few months.
Did the final product meet your expectations?
Clayton K: Yes and no. I’m really happy with the game, but no game
I’ve ever worked on has met my expectations. If a designer is doing a
good job, they’ll always have a long list of things they wish they
could have put in the game, or tweaked and tuned just a bit more. If you
get everything you want in a game, that basically means you’re out of
ideas. That’s a bad situation for any creative person.
Game budgets seem to be getting larger. What was the budget for VV?
(Just a ballpark figure.)
Clayton K: Most ballparks cost a lot more than Voodoo Vince. I probably
can’t say without getting in trouble. Let’s just say it cost more
than some, but is nowhere near the most expensive game ever made. The
budget for VV is sort of in the middle somewhere.
Are there any hidden Easter Eggs in VV that aren’t widely known?
Clayton K: We hid a lot of jokes in the game, mostly in the form of
juvenile humor. A few people have noticed the “procreating cows” in
the Dolly Playtime level. I think someone forgot to flush something
nasty in the pirate ship interior. Now that the game has been out for a
month or so, people are starting to notice some of the signs.
Is there much camaraderie in the gaming industry or does everyone
pretty much keep to themselves out of fear that they’ll have ideas
stolen?
Clayton K: I think there is a lot of camaraderie, or there would be if
we ever saw each other. One problem is, the work makes everybody into
hermits. When game developers do get a chance to hang out, they usually
have a good time. Stealing ideas isn’t really a problem. Games are
usually so expensive and hard to make, it would be like trying to steal
an ocean liner, and then cover up the fact that you did it. Getting a
publisher to fund an idea is the tough part.
What’s one question you wish someone would ask about Voodoo Vince?
(Feel free to answer it as well!)
Clayton K: Let’s see… um… “Has Vince always had the same
voice?” To which the answer is “No.” He originally sounded like a
cross between Popeye and Tattoo from Fantasy Island. It sounded okay for
little quips, but didn’t hold up very well for longer pieces of
dialogue in the cinematic sequences. We ended up using an actor named
Ken Boynton for the final voice, who did a dandy job.
(October 25,
2003)
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