After NinjaBee’s Outpost Kaloki was initially released for the PC in the indie try-before-you-buy downloadable model, it quickly won notice from gamers for its addictive gameplay and playful presentation. Now, NinjaBee is gearing up for the debut of the updated Outpost Kaloki X on Microsoft’s new Live Arcade service for the Xbox 360. Lead Designer Jeremy Throckmorton was nice enough to answer some questions for us about the game and what it’s like for a smaller developer to take an independently made PC game into the console market.
What kinds of features are being added to Outpost Kaloki to take advantage of Xbox Live’s social atmosphere?
We added all the Xbox Live bells and whistles: gamerscores, achievements, rich presence, and more. Outpost Kaloki X is still a single player game, we didn’t make any changes to that, but we didn’t want players to be cut off from their friends while playing either.
What other unique game play features are you adding for this edition of Outpost Kaloki?
There’s a ton of new content in the game, but the biggest addition to the core gameplay is probably the combat. Our second set of missions introduces robotic attacker ships and defense expansions to deal with them. Each defense expansion is a gun emplacement that will automatically open fire on any attacking ships and earn the player a bounty for each ship destroyed. It adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay, and hopefully makes the experience a little more exciting.
What kinds of differences do you anticipate from moving from targeting the PC demographic to the new demographic of Live Arcade?
We’re hoping to expose a whole group of people to our game that may not see it otherwise, and the structure of Live is the perfect way to do it. Outpost Kaloki was originally designed with a console platform in mind; we simply lacked the means of getting it published in that arena. I guess you could say the PC never really was our target demographic and we had to scale the old version to the PC. Now with Live Arcade, gamers can download the demo and see what we envisioned from the beginning: a tycoon game designed for the console.
Were there any needed changes to things like game difficulty or presentation to adjust to the new market segment?
We were really happy with the original Outpost Kaloki, so there weren’t any changes we felt needed to be made for it to be a viable Xbox Live Arcade title. However, that doesn’t mean we didn’t take the opportunity to make improvements. We revamped the look of the game, added tons of new content, gameplay, and features, as well as tweaking the existing gameplay. We take a lot of pride in our work and are really excited for players to see the new game.
What kind of changes did you need to make to adjust from a mouse-based interface to a controller-based interface?
Since Outpost Kaloki was conceived of as a console game, switching from a mouse to a console controls took surprisingly little work. It’s not well documented, but the PC version can actually be played without the use of a mouse as is. Moving to the 360 controller was really just a matter of tweaking what we already had.
What kind of technical challenges did you face when porting from the PC platform to the Xbox 360?
Happily enough, I don’t really have much to say about that. Development on the 360 went very well. It’s a great platform, and the programmers tell me some of its development tools are second to none. Any 360 specific development was mostly complying with the standards set forth by the console manufacturers and integrating the features of Xbox Live.
As the number of available titles increases on Live Arcade and the market becomes more saturated, what kind of things can developers do to steer potential customers to their games?
That’s a question we are all trying to figure out. Live Arcade is such a new market for everyone involved and Microsoft has control over the structure of the marketplace. We’re learning as we go. It’s not like the Internet where you can determine all of the content and structure of your web page. Each game on Live has the same amount of banner space and whatnot to deal with, so you really have to figure out a why to catch a player’s attention through that. Hopefully, you can build a reputation for quality, and that will prompt players to check out your new game demo.
What kind of quality testing did Microsoft require for Live Arcade?
Microsoft requires all Live Arcade games to go through their own testing department, so I’d say the required QA is as strict as it is for any Xbox 360 title. Microsoft really wants to make sure Live Arcade is a serious venue for indie games. They’ll let you put wacky stuff out on it, but you’d better make sure that wacky stuff is professional quality.
What kind of price point will Outpost Kaloki be released at?
The game is being priced at 800 Microsoft Points, which is approximately $10.
The console arena in general continues to get more and more expensive to develop for. What are your thoughts about the opportunities the Live Arcade platform can open up for smaller development studios?
It’s great! Live Arcade gives small development studios a new way to get their games out there, and on a console to boot. Being published on a console has always been a bit of a ’holy grail’ for many indie developers. Now Microsoft has given us a way to do that. Getting a game, any game, on a console under the traditional retail model is very expensive – more expensive than most developers can afford – so publishers are usually the ones who provide the cash for development. Because it costs so much it is really hard to convince a publisher to put their money behind something that doesn’t fit whatever is regarded as "standard" at the time. They may like what you show them, but they want a guaranteed return on their investment. Outpost Kaloki is a great example of that. Everyone who saw it thought it was great, but nobody wanted to put their money behind something that was so different. The just didn’t know how to sell it, so we released it ourselves on the PC. Now with the 360 we are able to make the game the way we always wanted.
Do you guys have plans to make any other games for Live Arcade?
Definitely! I can’t go into any details, but you can expect to see some really cool things from NinjaBee in the near future.
We’d like to thank Ninja Bee’s Jeremy Throckmorton for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us.
