Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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New interview with Alexander L. Fernández of Streamline Studios on their new Unreal 3 powered LIVE ARCADE title.

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While Microsoft gets ready to launch its Xbox 360 console, there will be more new games launching for the machine than the ones shipping to stores. Xbox 360 Live Arcade will also be launching a number of games via download and one of them is Hoopworld, an Unreal Engine based sports-action game from developer Streamline Studios. Gamecloud got a chance to chat with Streamline's CEO Alexander L. Fernández to find out more about their plans for Hoopworld.

Gamecloud - First, how did the idea for Hoopworld come about?

Alexander L. Fernández - Our Chief Creative Officer, Hector Fernandez wanted to make a game that was easy and fun to play. Nothing complicated, just something that felt like an old school arcade game with a modern twist. HoopWorld evolved over the course of three years and there were several iterations and styles. The more memorable ones would be the gangster-Maxpaynish version that felt more like a bad time in South Central LA than an over-the-top trick game.

Things really came together when Aubrey Hesselgren, the studios Game Designer, came on board. Hector and Aubrey really synergized and HoopWorld came together almost like second nature.

Gamecloud - What can you tell us about the basic gameplay of Hoopworld?

Alexander L. Fernández - HoopWorld is a multi-player trick game based on the concept of TEAM (together everyone achieves more). Players play together and perform tricks which build up their trick point score. To bank their points they need to score the ball in one of the hoops in the game. Each hoop has its own unique attribute that can work for the player or against their opponent.

Everyone plays, no matter if they have the ball or not. As the team works together they win together. Just because you don’t have the ball doesn’t mean you can’t get the ball. Hence the Basket Brawl, which comes down to kicking or throwing balls at your opponents, or dragon punching the opposing team players to setup a trick dunk. HoopWorld gives the player access to combinations that are not only visual rewarding, but also fun as they are the ones that work together to make it happen.

Gamecloud - What are some of the more unique elements of the game?

Alexander L. Fernández - Beating the crap out of each other and being able to say, “It’s not fair, my controller is broken.” Seriously though, it’s how HoopWorld takes the concept of tricking to the next level by introducing team tricking. Basically take Tricky or Tony Hawk and add more people playing at the same time. Add a ball and an opportunity to bust some ass, you get HoopWorld.

Gamecloud - How did the idea come about to make the game for Xbox 360 Live Arcade?

Alexander L. Fernández - Originally HoopWorld was built for Xbox Live. However, we never received much traction from Publishers because the concept as fun as it was, didn’t make business sense. In other words, it didn’t fit in a category that could be marketed. Hector and the team wouldn’t give up on it and we began to push forward with the concept of brining it to the gamers ourselves.

Last year at IGC we had a chance encounter with Ross Erickson from MS. He loved the product and six months later he emailed asking if we’d like to be a part of Xbox 360 Live Arcade. It made sense for HoopWorld to be a part of the Arcade as the entire concept revolves around arcadish fun and the rest as they say is history.

Gamecloud - What was it like to work with Microsoft to make the game for the console?

Alexander L. Fernández - Working with MS has been great. I can remember Ross and Cherie, telling us that we’d probably hate them after launch because of the stress they would cause us, but that’s never been the case. MS understands HoopWorld and we’ve been lucky to work with a team of people that see the potential it has.

Gamecloud - Will the team be updating Hoopworld with new content after it launches on Xbox 360?

Alexander L. Fernández - CONTENT is the name of the game and Live Arcade offers some unique opportunities that are impossible to do in retail. I can’t get into all the details, but this is only the beginning.

Gamecloud - Are there any plans to bring the game to the PC at some point?

Alexander L. Fernández - We’re focused right now on making HoopWorld the best Xbox 360 Live Arcade experience possible. However, the product was built on Unreal Technology. ;)

Gamecloud - What do you think of the Xbox 360 Live Arcade as a whole? Do you think this service will be popular?

Alexander L. Fernández - I believe so. It gives people a chance to try products that may have never seen the light of day. Or to relive the magic (as they say in movies) of games that they used to play and in the end it’s all about fun. Arcade gives gamers access to a variety of content and gamers love choice.

Gamecloud - What other projects is Streamline Studios working on at the moment?

Alexander L. Fernández - The core business of our studio is providing creative and engineering services. We will continue to do so, but it’s safe to say that we have other projects in the works. With HooWorld we have shown to our clients that Streamline is able to develop a project from concept to completion and that we can help them with any stage of their projects.

Gamecloud - Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Hoopworld and Streamline in general?

Alexander L. Fernández - We hope that HoopWorld will inspire modders and aspiring gamers to see that it’s still possible to get a game made. Things have gotten a bit more complicated, but if we’ve learned one thing since our Gunman days and throughout the creation of Streamline, is that dreams are only as crazy as you want them to be. In the end determination to see it through is what brings dreams into reality. It’s taken almost 4 years to get here with HoopWorld. We’d gladly put another 4 down to see our other projects through..
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Any playtime on this one, Jesiatha?
 
Everytime I see that list of developers I bust a nut thinking about how awesome this could be.

Super Street Fighter II Ultra + MK2:U would put me in heaven. It would be like I was in the 6th grade all over again :D
 
man, if XBLA could get some of the old school games that i use to play on SNES & Genesis, it would be the best thing to happen to a video game console ever.

:)
 
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2005/id20051014_827471.htm

Microsoft Seeds the Indie-Game Ecosystem
Greg Canessa, manager for the Xbox Live Arcade download service, explains why Redmond is forging links with small developers

As it readies to release its new Xbox 360 gaming console, Microsoft is doing something decidedly out of character: Instead of dealing just with the industry's heavyweights, it's courting independent game developers.

In early October, 2004, the software giant sponsored the IndieGamesCon 2005 expo, which attracted some 300 people to Eugene, Ore. There, Greg Canessa, manager for Xbox Live Arcade, the group which focuses on smaller, downloadable games for the mainstream player, told the crowd that Microsoft believes much of its long-term success in the gaming market will come from small studio efforts (see accompanying slide show "Big Fun with Small Developers").

Why is Microsoft (MSFT) hobnobbing with the indies? In its effort to grab the console-gaming crown away from rival Sony (SNE), Redmond has redoubled its efforts to lure casual gamers -- schoolchildren, grandmothers, and the like playing poker and puzzle games through MSN Games and MSN Messenger a few hours a day.

Wrangling those players is key to the company's goal of taking the Xbox 360 to breakeven within two years of its launch on Nov. 22. And indie developers can help the company attract them.

INNOVATION STATIONS. The new Xbox 360 Live service, which allows console owners to play against each other and download additional game levels, will feature a special Xbox Live Arcade section filled with casual games. One of the dozen-or-so titles to debut will be from indie studio GarageGames. That's a first for Microsoft, which previously has launched exclusively with bigger, mainstream titles (see BW Online, 14/10/05, "Indie Gamers Hit the Right Buttons").

But Microsoft hopes to work more closely with independent game developers in the coming years, both because the indies are known for producing innovative titles and because many of these smaller developers are already well-established in the casual gaming market.

Canessa talked about Microsoft's plans for indie developers and casual games with BusinessWeek Online reporter Olga Kharif on Oct. 7. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

You're sponsoring IndieGamesCon. Why is Microsoft interested in indie developers?
We love and respect Electronic Arts (ERTS) -- we think they're great. But we think they aren't going to put out the entirety of what people are going to be playing.

People like different games. And some of the most innovative gameplay, some of the stuff that defines genres, comes from the independent game developer community.

Just like in the movies, if Hollywood was only about Jurassic Park and Independence Day and Star Wars, the industry would be dead or dying.

How do you ensure that people try games from unknown, indie developers? Gamers might know they want Madden Football, but they'll have no idea about [an indie title such as] Wildlife Tycoon.
Having a recognizable brand can work for you or against you. Madden Football, Grand Theft Auto -- those are powerful franchises. But many franchises have jumped from Hollywood to the game universe less successfully.

When converted into interactive media, those brands just didn't meet the customers' expectations. So now, people see movie- or TV-related games and they shy away from them. They expect those to suck.

The quality of indie games varies widely. How do you pick and choose the next-big-thing for the Xbox Live Arcade?
We have experts in all types of games. They look at games on a submission basis, and pick and choose to make sure that our portfolio of games is representative of what our customers wants.

For now, we're going to pick what we view as, say, the best Hearts game. As the market expands, it will support three or four or five Hearts games. Longer-term, we're interested in establishing an ecosystem for third-party developers.

How will the growth of the casual-gaming market, through services like the Xbox Live Arcade, reshape the industry?
Ultimately, what Microsoft offers will be a phenomenal opportunity for developers, both indie PC-game developers and those developing for consoles. Hopefully, it will be a very profitable financial opportunity and we'll all win. We'll have more games, we'll have more innovation in this space, we'll have people buying more Xboxes, and the consumer will have a broader game selection.

Financially, will it be more beneficial for indie developers to work with Microsoft than with other companies?
We aren't interested in squeezing an extra $2 of margin out of the little guys. It's more interesting for us to have a viable ecosystem of developers and products in order to sell more Xbox consoles. So it's in our interests to make sure it's an attractive situation for indie developers.

You've talked about how this ecosystem will encompass not just the Xbox but MSN Messenger and mobile-phone games. Why is Microsoft looking at all these markets?
The future lies in the convergence of gaming on different platforms. We want to create a unified gaming community [where the points you've earned playing MSN Messenger games show up in your total score in your Xbox Live account, for example. Or where you can play poker via your mobile phone with your grandmother, who's playing on her PC.]

What will have to happen before that scenario is a reality?
We're already moving toward convergence. We've created a common set of tools across the PC-game and the Xbox development community so that game developers can spend more time making games fun and less time worrying about porting them [to different platforms].

Another example is the MSN Messenger and MSN Games badges. We are trying to create a common badge system, so that you can earn a badge for achieving 1,000,000 points in the Hexic puzzle game, and that badge appears in your Messenger profile and your MSN games, no matter where you are. So these are a few examples of our baby steps toward conversion.

How do you expect Messenger games to evolve going forward?
There's an evolution and expansion that needs to happen. We have a lot of first-party-developed games now, but we're interested in making it more of a marketplace that we can open up to third-party developers.

We will be creating a set of developer tools that would facilitate easy Messenger game development, perhaps an easy set of tools for PC game porting. There's an opportunity to create something like the Xbox 360 Live Arcade in the Messenger framework. You click on a button, and you go into Messenger Arcade, and you can download games.

Do you plan to get third-party developers involved in your mobile-games efforts?
We view cell phones as a huge opportunity. It's a large and growing market, and we have a lot of games that are relevant to that audience. Up till now, we've done some work with mobile-game publishers In-fusio and Jamdat, which took some of the Microsoft Game Studios' properties into the cell-phone environment. We've also just announced that developer and distributor In-fusio will do Halo games for mobile.

So we're starting to get a toe in the water through licensing. Going forward, we're interested in doing our own mobile-game development. It's definitely an amazing space and an exciting time.
 
Jesiatha, just one question if you can answer it: I see that game is UE3-powered, I suppose it's a huge engine for such a small game... Will it be a very heavy download? I hope Live Arcade (and other 360 content downloads too) will have system to pause and resume downloads, expecially for bigger ones...
 
Spider_Jerusalem said:
Jesiatha, just one question if you can answer it: I see that game is UE3-powered, I suppose it's a huge engine for such a small game... Will it be a very heavy download? I hope Live Arcade (and other 360 content downloads too) will have system to pause and resume downloads, expecially for bigger ones...
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All Arcade games will fit on an MU, so they'll only be a few dozen MB at most. I'm not sure if resuming downloads is supported, but I think so. That is something that is more useful for HD trailers or retail demos.

Krypt0nian - I probably won't see it until after launch. It isn't going to be available on launch day and right now we are intently focused on getting those games up to release quality.
 
Jesiatha said:
All Arcade games will fit on an MU, so they'll only be a few dozen MB at most. I'm not sure if resuming downloads is supported, but I think so. That is something that is more useful for HD trailers or retail demos.

Krypt0nian - I probably won't see it until after launch. It isn't going to be available on launch day and right now we are intently focused on getting those games up to release quality.
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I keep forgetting to ask...is there multiplayer in Hexic HD?
 
krypt0nian said:
I keep forgetting to ask...is there multiplayer in Hexic HD?
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Nope :(. The project happened very late and we didn't have enough time to add in new game modes. It has all the same modes as Hexic Deluxe on the PC, plus completely new art (well, there is one thing left from the original), Live leaderboards, achievements, etc. Hopefully we'll do a sequel with some multiplayer modes - there are some interesting ideas as to how that would work.
 
Jesiatha said:
Nope :(. The project happened very late and we didn't have enough time to add in new game modes. It has all the same modes as Hexic Deluxe on the PC, plus completely new art (well, there is one thing left from the original), Live leaderboards, achievements, etc. Hopefully we'll do a sequel with some multiplayer modes - there are some interesting ideas as to how that would work.
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No worries. I'm in regardless. Multi will guarentee a sequel purchase. :)

rastex said:
I don't want to derail the thread, but can you comment on the status of these? I'd love to be able to download a bunch of game demos on launch.
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If you mean LIVE ARCADE demos then you're all set. Its a lock. Not sure what non-ARCADE demos are up for launch if any.
 
Please obtain :

Worms World Party HD online playable

Saturn Bomberman HD online playable

I would seriously pay a lot to have this on X360.
 
OMG I didn't even think of games like this! 6 player Bomberman on Xbox Live = gaming HEAVEN! Someone do it! NOW!!!!

Worms - PERFECT XBL Arcade candidate, IMO
 
rastex said:
I don't want to derail the thread, but can you comment on the status of these? I'd love to be able to download a bunch of game demos on launch.
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I'm not sure what demos will be ready at launch. Kameo seems likely since it is the MGS game that was furthest along.

Agreed that Worms and Bomberman in Arcade would be awesome - they both come up all the time when we do brainstorming.
 
You can download game demos at launch? Wow, that is cool as there's a lot of games I'm unsure about. PGR3 is a must-buy but everything else is a bit of an uncertainty, IMO
 
123rl said:
You can download game demos at launch? Wow, that is cool as there's a lot of games I'm unsure about. PGR3 is a must-buy but everything else is a bit of an uncertainty, IMO
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I'm not certain - it depends if/when game publishers get them done. There may not be any at launch. On the other hand (and getting back on topic), EVERY Xbox Live Arcade game has a free demo :).
 
Nice New York Times write-up on LIVE ARCADE:

Bringing the Arcade Home on a Video Game Machine

By MICHEL MARRIOTT
Published: November 7, 2005

Buyers of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's second-generation video game console, will, of course, expect to play big, expensive marquee games like Call of Duty 2 from Activision and Madden N.F.L. 06 by Electronic Arts.

But the Microsoft Corporation is also banking on them to play small arcade-style video games, purchased and downloaded from the Internet.

Unlike its competitors, the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, the new Xbox, which goes on sale Nov. 22, can play games on two separate tracks. One is the familiar terrain of big budget, deeply immersive games that feel more like interactive movies than games. The other is a return to the video game's arcade roots.

But don't call the arcade games simple, said Greg Canessa, group manager of Xbox Live Arcade, part of Microsoft's Xbox division.

"Arcade games are really miniature Xbox 360 games," he said. The price is somewhat miniaturized as well; the arcade games cost $100,000 to $200,000, compared with $15 million to $20 million for the larger games.

The arcade games will be sold only online, downloadable through the Xbox's broadband-only Internet connection. While Microsoft has not officially announced prices for the games, it is widely expected that they will cost between $5 and $10. By contrast, new Xbox games sold at retailers like Best Buy are likely to cost $60, or about $10 more than previous Xbox games, according to some game publishers.

The new cream-colored machines, slimmer and more powerful than the original Xbox released in 2001, will cost $300 for a basic model and $400 for a model with a 20-gigabyte hard drive. They will also be able to play DVD's, CD's and standard music files, including MP3 and Windows Media Audio files, as well as display digital snapshots on a TV screen.

Those functions and the arcade-type gaming feature are central to Microsoft's strategy to reach a broader family market, beyond the young male players who have been the Xbox's primary audience.

To do that, Peter Moore, vice president for marketing at Xbox International, said Microsoft would eliminate the need for credit cards in making online purchases of games, accessories and upgrades. Instead of credit cards, the Xbox Live online service will accept Microsoft value cards that can be purchased in various denominations online or at retail and convenience stores, Mr. Moore said. The value cards would function, in effect, like tokens in an arcade.

"We have to get credit cards out of the way," said Mr. Moore. "We've got to broaden this to younger demographics."

Another big selling point for the 360 is its enhanced Internet connectivity through the Xbox Live service.

Microsoft will give Xbox 360 owners a free subscription to Xbox Live Silver, which gives players access to the online system's features, including the ability to buy and download games. A Gold membership, at $50 a year, permits users to play games with others over the Internet.

Mr. Canessa said that each arcade game could play at 1080i high definition, and most could take advantage of the 360's ability to communicate with other players over a broadband Internet connection.

"We will have from 12 to 15 games by launch," Mr. Canessa said, adding that at least 75 percent would be capable of being played live online by more than one player.

Each Xbox 360, he said, will include a free copy of the full version of Hexic HD, an arcade-style puzzle game developed by Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris.

"We created a whole market, a whole new world, for downloadable games," Mr. Canessa said. While online arcade games have proved popular on personal computers, he said he believed the 360's embrace of arcade games would further invigorate independent game design.

"The indie game developers is one of the opportunities I'm most excited about," he said. "You have small, independent, three guys in a garage making games, totally innovating. It's the Sundance Film Festival, if you will, of games."
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LIVE ARCADE hands-on preview at talkxbox.com

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3.jpg
 
dorio said:
Jeseitha, what's the policy on mature games like a strip poker etc?
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I imagine strip poker would be AO, and we would not publish that. Smash TV is rated T, and I suspect we would publish M games as well.
 
Jesiatha, any word on webcam functionality being intergrated into Live Arcade games?

Oh and do you have anything for me on Bankshot Billiards 2 such as what game modes are available?
 
Dr_Cogent said:
MS should make a free Xbox Live Arcade SDK and give it to PC devs.

We could get some sweet indie games maybe.
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Garage Games is working on a updated version of their Torque Engine that works on Xbox 360.
 
Yusaku said:
It's already ported, as I believe Marble Blast Ultra uses the engine.
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Yeah. I was playing Marble Blast Ultra. Fun stuff, but I don't think the Xbox 360 support is in the engine yet that you can download. That should be coming soon.
 
element said:
Yeah. I was playing Marble Blast Ultra. Fun stuff, but I don't think the Xbox 360 support is in the engine yet that you can download. That should be coming soon.
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It's highly unlikely they'll ever be an actual 360 engine you can use yourself. More likely you make the game using the Windows engine and use that to convince MS to port the game to XBLA for you.
 
Spinning Plates said:
Jesiatha, any word on webcam functionality being intergrated into Live Arcade games?

Oh and do you have anything for me on Bankshot Billiards 2 such as what game modes are available?
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It would make sense for us to support the 360 camera pretty heavily once it comes out. More details will probably be available once a release date for the camera is announced.

Bankshot has a decent number of modes - around eight. That includes trick shots and such, but it has all the "standard" billiards games.
 
DO IT EZRA!!
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Where is Ezra Dreisbach? Seriously, somebody needs to be heavily harassing him about Death Tank Drei on Live Arcade. If he won't do it, somebody needs to totally rip it off ASAP. Geez, I was so pumped for Dee Dee Planet on Dreamcast Online.
 
The Live Arcade interface itself is also brilliant. One of the best design choices was the simple addition of a scoreboard that displays the top scores of your friends in any given Arcade game. Might not seem like much at first. But consider, if they have a high score in a game, that game must not suck. And if you have a bunch of friends playing a game, you’ll see their scores constantly being updated from day to day. If they continuously play a game, you will probably look into getting the game. Hell, you could just send them a voice message and ask them how it is! The Xbox 360’s emphasis in community isn’t just there for marketing, it is a design mentality that permeates every aspect of the console.
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Jesus tits!!
 
Yusaku said:
It's highly unlikely they'll ever be an actual 360 engine you can use yourself. More likely you make the game using the Windows engine and use that to convince MS to port the game to XBLA for you.
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Where was talk about GG supporting Xbox 360. MS wouldn't give two shits about porting some game, but if you can show them the game already running on the hardware, it is pretty impressive. Shouldn't be that difficult to get the Torque engine on X360 with a devkit and the XDK.

Ezra is at Snowblind last time I heard.
 
How are you supposed to test your program when you won't be able to run the code on your 360? They're not going to give devkits to non-licensees.
 
Yusaku said:
How are you supposed to test your program when you won't be able to run the code on your 360? They're not going to give devkits to non-licensees.
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You don't need a dev kit - write a demo on the PC using DirectX. If you have a demo for a great game then you can get signed and get access to dev kits.
 
puebla said:
what game is that??

looks nice as hell
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The top one is Wik: Fable of Souls. It won some indy game awards (IDGA?). You swing around the level Bionic Commando style, suck up bugs, and shoot them.

The bottom one is Mutant Storm. It is a dual stick shooter (like Robotron, Smash TV, and Geometry Wars). It is probably my favorite game in the Arcade launch lineup - very slick graphics, very tight controls, and a ton of fun. It also has a same console co-op mode which is a blast.
 
Jesiatha said:
The top one is Wik: Fable of Souls. It won some indy game awards (IDGA?). You swing around the level Bionic Commando style, suck up bugs, and shoot them.

The bottom one is Mutant Storm. It is a dual stick shooter (like Robotron, Smash TV, and Geometry Wars). It is probably my favorite game in the Arcade launch lineup - very slick graphics, very tight controls, and a ton of fun. It also has a same console co-op mode which is a blast.
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thanks for that

i didn't expect the arcade games to look this clean & sharp.

XBL & XBLA is really to me what's gonna seperate the 360 from the PS3.
 
puebla said:
XBL & XBLA is really to me what's gonna seperate the 360 from the PS3.
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You know...I haven't heard one bad word about ARCADE this go around.

You have to feel good about all the excellent write-ups its getting, Jesiatha. :D
 
krypt0nian said:
You know...I haven't heard one bad word about ARCADE this go around.

You have to feel good about all the excellent write-ups its getting, Jesiatha. :D
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We really appreciate all the kind words and nice write ups we're getting. Right now the team is stuck in a strange place - all this excitement is really cool, but we're working 110% trying to get games done in time for launch. Especially the test team. Launch day will be extra sweet since it means work will become normal again ;).
 
Sorry if this has been asked before, but what is the release schedule for these games? Is it a weekly schedule kind of thing or do the games go up whenever they're ready? Thanks in advance.
 
Osorio said:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but what is the release schedule for these games? Is it a weekly schedule kind of thing or do the games go up whenever they're ready? Thanks in advance.
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There should be around a dozen available launch day. After that, I'm pretty sure they will go up as they're ready (as opposed to having a set schedule).
 
i was just wondering if there's any media (vids or screenshots) from the arcade games.

we see alot of screens & vids for 360 games. so if anybody could drop some, be my guest.
 
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