Bizarre Creations Interview

We get the inside story on the new must-have game for Xbox Live Arcade, Boom Boom Rocket, directly from the creators at Bizarre Creations.

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Kikizo: Because you've talked about the possibility of doing downloadable content for extra music/levels - I don't know if you're at the stage where you can say if that's more or less likely today - but if you were to do that would you consider adding this online play as well?

Sam: We couldn't really comment on that...

Nick: Once again, we'll see how it goes down I guess.

Kikizo: You've worked with Ian Livingstone on the music, did you consider anyone else as well because you've worked with Richard Jacques in the past?

Nick: Yeah we did actually open it up to pitches from a couple of composers, and Ian's music, it just seemed to click with him straight away; the first track he sent through, became the first playable level in the game, even before we'd really made any decisions on any composers! Obviously we had worked with Ian before on Gotham 2 I think, and Treasure Planet, so we know we can work with him and we know his strengths and weaknesses, but again once we'd started down that route it made sense to stick with him.

Sam: The first track he submitted was amazing. And EA just said, that's it, he's the man for us, there's no question.

Nick: And if the music wasn't good, the game wouldn't be good. It is as simple as that. So that fact he's done a great job with the music is essential.

Kikizo: Will you do more work with him on future projects then if it's up to you?

Nick: We know we can work with him, if the right project comes up, then yeah I can imagine working with him again definitely.

Kikizo: Can you quickly tell us about the other modes of play in the game?

Sam: Well Endurance is basically play the game until you can't play it any more, basically! Multiplayer is good because it really sorts out the men from the boys, it's whoever can last longest. Then you've got the Freestyle mode, which is really good for kids, or people that just want a sort of casual, more relaxed... it's sort of like a toy mode. Then we've got the Visualiser that lets you put your own music in there and you can create nice displays in time to the music.

Nick: There's also Practice mode as well which takes the heat off a bit, and you can kind of run it to a lower speed so that if you're having problems figuring out exactly what the rhythms are, you can always go there and work out the timings so that you can work it out and really nail it. Even if there are bits that you struggle with, you're not going to reach a bit that you can't get past, hopefully, because you can work it out and move forward with it.

Kikizo: When I played just now I unlocked a couple of Achievements but I think they were just basic ones because I was a bit rubbish, have you hidden some really hardcore Achievements in there that are going to be really tough to get?

Sam: There are some in there that are pretty tough... I mean five laps on Endurance mode...

Nick: That difficulty scale is there... as you say the first couple are easy to pick up but the last two or three, I'd imagine, will take some work to get!

Kikizo: Just going back briefly to how the relationship with EA started - was it already in development before they approached you, or did they specifically approach you perhaps because they'd seen Geometry Wars and they wanted to do something with you for Pogo, then you began development?

Sam: I think it was the latter. When they approached us it was purely just the design [brief] was there, and we... well, Nick... made a prototype of that design, and we worked forward from there.

Nick: Yeah, EA came in with a pretty solid idea/design, and then our designers worked closely with EA and Pogo to lock it down into something that really sounded like it had some potential.

Sam: And it worked really well, they let us have quite a bit of control didn't they...

Nick: Yeah, I mean it was a really good working arrangement, I mean because it was quite freeform, it was a case of if it works, let's fold it in, and if not let's try something else, but it wasn't very rigid on either side, which made it quite fresh.

Sam: That Endurance mode we just threw that in really over night, and they were like, yeah, that's pretty cool...!

Nick: Sam just had the idea, since the game was kind of locked to the speed of the music, it was quite easy to just speed the music up and run the whole game faster, and so Sam dropped in some code that just sped the game up over time, and hey presto that's how that game mode started.

Kikizo: Just curious, when you say you made that prototype, what did you make that on, was it just on 360 tools?

Nick: Yeah it was 360, I mean there might have been some PC bits and pieces from the original code but basically the prototype was built on 360, again just to see how much fun it was... I mean on paper it wounded great but it was just to see if in practise it actually worked. And again, that kind of generated a bit of interest within the company, seemed to be going well, sent the build over to EA and things went from there.

Sam: Yeah we've enjoyed making it, and we still enjoy playing it, so if other people do the same then we're really happy with that.

Kikizo: Thanks for your time guys.

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Boom Boom Rocket is out now for Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Points. And our gut reaction from the interview is that we'll see it announced for PS3's PlayStation Network soon.

Click here for Kikizo's interview archive.