GN: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse has been in development longer than most thought it would be. How’s the project going?
MATT: Pirate’s Curse is wrapping up nicely. We’ve been in full production for what’s approaching 2 years, with the team working at an aggressive pace. I was optimistic that we could develop the game faster than the original Shantae or Risky’s Revenge, but in the end CURSE is landing at just a hair under the development time of its predecessors. All three handheld Shantae games were self-funded, so smaller teams with longer dev times is typically how we get them done. We know that fans have been waiting a very long time for this one, and we really appreciate their understanding. I’m pleased to report that the extra time has been well spent!
GN: This is Shantae's first time on the 3DS. Does the 3DS' power and feature set allow you to explore avenues with Shantae that you never could before?
MATT: Yes, I love developing for 3DS! The resolution is great for pixel games. We were able to use the Risky’s Revenge sprites as a base and work from there because the screen is only a bit larger than the Nintendo DS. As a result the characters are a little smaller, which means we can build more complicated situations and puzzles, speed up the enemies and really elevate the action while still using 1:1 ratio pixel art. The color depths are pretty much unlimited, so we’re doing a mix of high resolution paintings and pixel graphics. The audio is equally amazing, and the character illustrations by IntiCreates are exceptional. We’ve developed a new way of displaying 2D art in stereoscopic 3D, and the characters look… well, like nothing we’ve seen before -- We can’t wait to show it off!
GN: Just how big is Pirate's Curse going to be? It seems like a grand adventure!
MATT: Pirate’s Curse is the biggest Shantae game to date. Depending how you slice up the content, you could say it’s 20% larger than the original, or around 60% larger than Risky’s Revenge -- based on Labyrinths, Bosses, locations, play time, etc. It’s a retail game by every measure, except that we’re offering it as a digital only title.
GN: Can you give us any idea when we might be able to get our grubby hands on the finished product?
MATT: We’ll be submitting the game to Nintendo after about a month, maybe 7 weeks of testing and other minor improvements, so our best guess is a late summer release. Right now we’re taking parts that are already good and making them even better. Improving pacing, adjusting hit boxes, punching up dialogue, and stress testing the game to make sure it holds a smooth 60 frames per second in every scene. We’re also taking time to add additional scrolling layers for players who view the game in 2D, since they will experience “visual depth” differently than players who prefer stereoscopic 3D. We want the game to look equally great to everyone!
GN: Shantae: Half-Genie Hero came together due to the success of a Kickstarter. Just how did having a successful Kickstarter boost morale at WayForward?
MATT: That was huge! The campaign brought in more than double our funding goal thanks to our fans (and to the employees who stayed up ‘round the clock making it happen). Knowing that people actually want what we’re serving up is a huge boost, since we usually have to just wait and see if we have a hit or a dud on our hands after doing all the hard work. Yeah, it helps a lot!
GN: This is Shantae's first outing only available on consoles. Just how much different is it developing a Shantae title for consoles instead of portables?
MATT: It’s a whole different beast. The team is bigger, the platforms are many, and there are a lot more boxes to check just to get the game up and running. But our engine team is on top of it, with the game already able to deploy to Wii U, Xbox 360 and XboxOne, PS3 and PS4, PC and Vita. With that taken care of, we’re able to focus on the fun.
GN: How much does fan input factor into the development of Half-Genie Hero?
MATT: Fans have had a major impact on the game already, and we haven’t even started the voting yet! Fans will decide several of her transformations, and some backers will be designing enemies or contributing artwork for our gallery. We’ll provide a lot of guidance and quality control to make sure the game remains consistent – our goal is to elegantly incorporate fan input so that their ideas really sing!
GN: Do you feel more pressure with Half-Genie Hero after seeing the huge outpouring of fan support?
MATT: Ha ha, yeah definitely. We’ve got over 20,000 people to please! But rather than focusing on being a “people pleaser” I’m thinking of this whole thing as a sold-out show. Every seat is full, and they’re here to see us do what we do best. We’ll make something fun, challenging, visually stunning, and full of surprises…. Which is really the toughest part, since everyone’s in on the act. That’s why we’re going to hold at least a few surprises ‘till the end.
GN: How has the development process been moving along? Any updates on release timeframe?
MATT: It’s going great, and there is a lot more flexibility to bring in extra talent due to the game being fully funded. Our original estimates pointed at 2014, but that could change now that we’ve hit multiple Stretch Goals that upped the amount of chapters and content. We’re all the way up to 8 playable character variations and with our PayPal still open, it could jump again. We just re-launched wayforward.com and added “WayForums” to help us communicate with our fans and backers to find out what’s most important to them! After all, we’re making this game together and want it to be amazing!
