An interview with the Frobot developers

Over the past week or so, Valay and I have had the pleasure of getting some of our questions answered by the guys over at Fugazo regarding their upcoming WiiWare title, Frobot. For those that aren’t familiar with the game, Frobot can be summed up best by reading a snippet from the press release issued by Fugazo a few months back; Imagine if Wii Tanks and The Legend of Zelda had a baby. That baby’s name would be Frobot. Taking inspiration from two fantastic titles and throwing them together with a spike of funk? Sounds like a great plan to me! Check out the full interview after the break!

NE = Nintendo Everything
Andrew Lum = Producer
Eric Esteb = Designer
Peter Lim = Lead Artist

NE: To start things off, who is Frobot? I’m sure most of us know what the game is and how it’s played, but from a character standpoint, does he have a history of how he became so funky, or did he just wake up one day and decide “Hey, I’m gonna be funky?”

PL: Frobot was born in the year 0000 AH. His creators are unknown, but their hope was that he, and he alone, would stop the millions of evil robots bent on destroying the world. The creators felt that Frobot was a success, but they soon realized that all he wanted to do was dance and pick up chicks. So when did Frobot become so funky? I’d say it was innate.

NE: From the story to the characters to the gameplay, Frobot is shaping up to be a pretty unique experience. Obviously you drew influence from games like Tanks and The Legend of Zelda, but what other sources were there for inspiration on gameplay, character and story ideas?

PL: Our characters and story ideas are fairly original (kinda), but we did take inspiration from old blaxploitation films. Characters and dance animations were inspired (totally) by people in the office and people outside my window. I’ll let the designer speak about his gameplay inspirations though since I had a little (none at all) part in its development.

NE: Gameplay-wise, your assessment of “Zelda meets Tanks” seems like a pretty good one, but what can gamers expect to see that makes the gameplay of Frobot stand out from these two titles?

EE: A lot of the puzzles in the game are completely unique. Many of them involve finding good angles to ricochet from like you would if you were playing pool. Others are physics based, like using a crane to knock over a wall that is in your way, or catapulting a box across the room to land on a trigger that opens a door. Others still involve sneaking past indestructible sentries or timing your way past moving dangers. Zelda and Tanks are definitely heavy influences, but I think there is plenty to distinguish Frobot from both gameplay-wise.

NE: How long can we expect the game to be? Will there be any replay value in the campaign, or will it be chock-full of enough content to keep gamers satisfied after one play-through?

EE: Initial tests suggest that the game length is going to be very disparate depending on the player. The game is a head scratcher, so it is not unreasonable to think that someone might spend an hour on a level. However, once you know a level an advanced player can beat a level in 5 minutes. We have speed run awards for beating a level in a certain amount of time, so after you play through the campaign and figure out the puzzles, there is an additional challenge in collecting all the speed run trophies. Also, even after you have gotten all the speed run trophies, the multiplayer battles never get old.

NE: Why did you choose WiiWare over platforms like Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade?

AL: Well first off I am a serious Nintendo fanboy so there’s no doubt that had some influence on why we chose WiiWare. I’m such as Nintendo fanboy that I actually submitted a naked video audition for the Nintendo Street Team Challenge when I was in college. Remarkably, they were impressed and hired me for the Nintendo Street Team. . Totally serious here’s the link to my video. http://andrewlum.net/movies/NintendoStreetTeam.wmv

On a more serious note, the ricochet puzzles in Frobot requires accuracy and a control scheme that wouldn’t really work on PSN or XBLA.

NE: Purely from a developmental standpoint, do you find it easier to develop for a platform like WiiWare or for PC and Mac?

AL: In developing Frobot we used Unity3D which is cross platform for PC, Mac, and Wii. So for Frobot we were essentially building all three versions of the game at the same time. There are some differences: the PC and Mac builds support multiple resolutions and the WiiWare build has local multiplayer, so I suppose the WiiWare is a little more work.

NE: Have there been any rumblings about the release date and/or price of the title?

AL: We’re pretty close to completing Frobot and we are shooting for a Q1 2010 release. We haven’t settled on a price point yet but hopefully we’ll be able to release that information shortly.

NE: What can you tell us about the personality of Frobot’s girlfriends? We’ve heard lots about Frobot himself, but does he have any preference in the personality of his ladies?

PL: Frobot’s lovely ladies were created by Joel Casebeer (another artist at Fugazo). I’d like to believe that he put a little bit of himself into each of their personalities, such as his love for film and tribal dancing. (he’s single) Frobot doesn’t really have a preference in his ladies except they be well-oiled machines so they can keep up with his marathon dancing.

NE: Are there any plans for DLC?

AL: There aren’t any plans for DLC for Frobot.

NE: Has Nintendo’s file size limit for WiiWare been an issue for the development team?

AL: I’m happy to say that the compression techniques in Unity3D have allowed us to fit everything we wanted into the WiiWare file size limit.

NE: Is there any online functionality in Frobot?

AL: We wanted to have online multiplayer for Frobot but at this time Unity3D doesn’t support online multiplayer for WiiWare.

NE: How does Fugazo feel about Nintendo’s peripherals such as WiiSpeak and Wii MotionPlus? Could any of them potentially be incorporated in Frobot or perhaps future WiiWare projects?

AL: I own Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Sports Resort and I definitely use WiiSpeak and Wii MotionPlus! While neither peripheral will be incorporated into Frobot, we’d love to use Wii MotionPlus in the future assuming the design calls for it.

NE: Nintendo has announced that there are plans to bring WiiWare demos to the Wii Shop Channel. What do you think about the idea? Would Fugazo be willing to put a demo of Frobot on the service if Nintendo were to allow it?

AL: I think WiiWare demos are a great idea. XBLA is proof that demos can help drive sales. If Nintendo asks us to put together a demo of Frobot we would very happily oblige.

NE: After Frobot, what’s next? Do you guys have any interest in DSiWare?

AL: Well assuming Frobot is successful we’d like to continue making WiiWare titles. Fugazo is primarily a casual game developer and Frobot was our first experiment in making a game that appeals to the more traditional video game audience. Hopefully we’ll continue making titles for WiiWare!

A huge thanks to the guys at Fugazo for giving us the chance to learn a little more about the game, and we wish best of luck to them in getting the title out and making it successful!