Toejam & Earl Productions (Toejam & Earl III) Q&A

Just how will ToeJam & Earl be more "adult"? (Will this be in terms of the music, the content, or the return of the Hawaiian hot tub?)

On many levels, ToeJam & Earl 3 has been aged up for the Xbox audience. That shouldn't be too surprising, given that ToeJam and Earl have grown up over the intervening years. Much of the in-game dialog offers humorous and risqué double-entendres. We don't expect that little kids will understand most of it, but adults should be entertained. In TJ&E3, we've also created a game with more depth of play and strategy, not to mention more controls and default player abilities. We hope that little kids will still be able to play the game, at least for the beginning levels, but we've tuned the play balance assuming a more savvy and experienced player.

Will the tunes have that distinct Toejam & Earl flavor to them? In other words, will there be updated and remixed tunes from the original paired with entirely new tracks?

Yes, absolutely! We've updated the old classic themes, and added many more songs with a similar groove. The music is a central part of the TJ&E world, and we're crazy about it. We hope everyone appreciates that aspect of the game as much as we do.

Gamers already know some of the history of Toejam and Earl, but what's Latisha's story? Will each character's origins be explained?

If you're really anxious to get the scoop on the world of Funkotron (including Toejam, Earl & Latisha), we've created bios for all the characters, which can be found on the TJ&E3 game pages at Sega.com. These give a nice backgrounder, and they'll undoubtedly be included in the game manual. But getting to know our characters is best done through playing the game, as we've included a mountain of in-game dialog that brings out their unique personalities.

Good question... We've invested a great deal of time and energy in designing and honing the random level generator, mostly for added replay value. From a designer's perspective, one of the great fringe benefits is that we continue to enjoy our game as we play-test and balance it, since every time, it's a new game. But random level generation does introduce more than a few challenges, both in creating a believable and interesting looking world (which our artists have become experts at), and, of course, in debugging the game.

The trick to random level design is in making all the right things random, while ensuring that the game difficulty ramps smoothly and in ways that keeps players interested. This time around, we created two games in one, with a Fixed World game that's always the same via pre-selected level generation seeds and lots of special-case code, and a Random World game that mixes it up more for the more experienced player. The Random World is unlocked as a result of players completing the Fixed World game. This way, we can be more deliberate about how game elements are introduced in the Fixed World so that players don't become overwhelmed with game features.

Will gamers be able to access the TJ&E3 tunes like a CD from their Xbox (or at least copy them to the hard drive) so they can enjoy the tunes even while they aren't playing the game?

We promise to make the music available in one way or another. Exactly how players will be able to access it has not completely been worked out, but it's a priority for us!

Last time out (in this format) Toejam and Earl had pretty basic control, but now we have to worry about Rhythm Play and Funk Fu. How are you finding implementing control?

There's no doubt a learning curve to TJ&E3. Fortunately, we don't expect players to do everything expertly from the moment they grab the controller. For example, in the Fixed World game, we let players get used to using Funk-Fu before they're expected to fire Funkify Notes at the earthlings. We've also dedicated the right analog stick to camera control (much like other games have done successfully), but we also dedicate one of the triggers to the camera, so that players can always quickly snap the camera to face forward in the direction of their player-character is facing. We've worked these controls, and reworked them, with an aim to make learning the game as intuitive as possible. Some of the best advice we ever got (this coming from our producer, Scott Patterson) was, "Don't innovate on boilerplate." What's that mean? If everyone is used to controls that do a certain thing, or provide certain functionality, try to do it that way so players feel comfortable when coming to play the game for the first time. I think this strategy is paying off for us.

Will the Jammin' Mode from the original be included in TJ&E3?

Yes and no. We've improved on the Jam Out mode this time around... We started with something closer to the rhythm-matching mini-game of Panic on Funkotron. In TJ&E3, players can use a "rhythm-matching attack" that's seamlessly incorporated into gameplay. Players don't even have to stop moving around in the world to use this attack (although some of our more rhythmically challenged fans might find this option more than they can handle.) By matching the buttons correctly, players can earn points toward their next rank, thus becoming stronger; Or, if they're near unconverted earthlings, they can convert those earthlings to the ways of Funk with ever-increasing effectiveness based upon the difficulty of the rhythms they're matching. The difficulty is dynamically adjusted so that players with limited ability won't get overwhelmed, while players that have proficiency with rhythm-matching can be challenged.

Thanks to everyone at Toejam & Earl Productions for giving us some of your valuable time!