Title: Penalty of Heroes
Platform: XBLA
Developer:
Databox Games
Publisher:
Databox Games
MSRP: TBA
Writer:
Martin 'lost' Perry
Penalty of Heroes Interview
They say that good things come in small packages. The diminutive team at Databox games will look to prove it with their wildly imaginative XBLA co-op scrolling beat-em-up.
The game's mix of 2D and 3D art creates some startling scenes. See more at our gallery.
We’re nine friends that started Databox Games in the autumn of 2008. Everyone is studding either the bachelor or master program of gaming at the University of Gotland in Sweden. So before we started Databox Games we’ve been working on about 20+ games together, so we knew what to expect from each other.
How have you found life as an independent developer so far? Has it been difficult to get your foot in the door?
We know that life as an independent developer can be very hard so we decided to start Databox Games and develop Penalty of Heroes while attending our final year of University. This so we could have access to the mentors, hardware, knowledge and resources that a University has to offer. As mentors for this game we have people from IO Interactive and Crytek. We also have lectures/seminars from Microsoft, Grin, DICE and so one.
Our school has also been really generous with sending us all around the world to big game events such as GCDC in Leipzig, Germany, Future Play in Quebec, Canada and Nordic game Malmö, Sweden. At these locations we have been able to show games that we have made earlier. This year we have also entered a few competitions such as SGA (Sweden Game Awards) GGA (Gotland Game Awards).
It might sound as if life’s all fine and dandy right now, but we have had some difficulties as well. One of our prior game “Drinks” for the Nintendo DS is 99.9% done, but since we have been unable to get a devkit from Nintendo we’re not able to release it.
Your first game, Exhaust, was released onto Xbox Live Community Games. Tell us a bit about it. Has it managed to move Penalty of Heroes into the main Arcade?
Exhaust is a 2.5D monster truck racing game that utilizes physics and gravity in order to progress through the levels. Exhaust was a game that our programmers made while they researched and learned how to program for the Xbox 360 using XNA. So while the rest of the team worked on game play, concept art and story for Penalty of Heroes our programmers researched and programmed the tools used in Exhaust. This meant that when the rest of the team was done with the concept the programmers had already finished a close to complete game engine and level editor.
One of the goals with Penalty of Heroes is to get a dev kit from Microsoft, this would make things easier and we could also fine tune future games much better.
How did the idea for Penalty of Heroes come about?
Our producer Håkan have had this idea/dream for over two years about a game that combines all the good things from old school arcade and console games and mix them together and use next gen graphics and physics.
Magic attacks will feature prominently but each of the games characters will have particular strengths. See the enemies you will face at our gallery.
Well I’m going to be rude and not tell you why, this because it has something to do with the main story of the game. So if you want to know why it’s called Penalty of Heroes, you’ll have to play the game.
What is the story behind Penalty of Heroes?
Penalty of Heroes takes place in the world of Nimo that is on the doorstep of industrial revolution. Our four heroes are sent out by the great king to try and make peace with the rebelling tribes. During the game the player will be familiar with all of the different environments in Nimo, from dark forests to snowy mountains to big cities.
Now, Penalty of Heroes, your new game is a quite traditional in its concepts. What titles have been particularly influential in the game design?
One of the reasons why we wanted to make a game like Penalty of Heroes in the first place was to take the elements that we loved in old school games and combine them into a new one. Games that we love and have influenced us for Penalty of Heroes are Golden Axe, Turtles in Time, Secrets of Mana and Diablo. The game design philosophy for Penalty of Heroes was to take the best features of old school arcade and console games and then mix it with next generation graphics and physics.
Describe the gameplay for us.
Penalty of Heroes have four unique playable characters (tank, healer, dps, range) which have different weapon, fighting style and magic. All of the characters are in play all the time, so in single player mode you can swap between the characters as you want. If you need a character with a range weapon you swap to the range character, if you feel you need more muscles you change to the tank character. So in a way you’re controlling all of the characters.
We designed the game for co-op play and we hope that it will encourage team in co-op mode. One example: one character use range attacks to take out enemies at a distance, while another use close range bash attacks on nearby enemies, while another one use magic to heal the fourth that just have taken massive damage. That’s how we want the player to experience the 4 co-op mode in Penalty of Heroes.
What are the big draws for gamers? What features make Penalty of Heroes really stand out from the crowd.
Penalty of Heroes will have four unique characters with different fighting styles, weapons and magic in play at all times, the player can swap between these characters “in game”. The player will also be able to upgrade and customize the characters through hidden gems throughout the game. This means the game can be played in many different ways.
We hope that we can achieve an original look for the game mixing 2D hand drawn backgrounds and 3D characters. Penalty of Heroes we also have an original story and score written specificly for the game.
Will the games four player co-op be online?
We develop for XNA so it’s difficult and time consuming to make it work on-line. This lead us to skip that feature for this game and focus solely on co-op and game play. We will however include online play in our future games. If there are any good XNA network coders out there, don’t hesitate contact us!
How complex will the combat system be? Are you sticking to simple combos and magic attacks?
Penalty of Heroes can be played as a straight forward arcade hack’n slash game or as a more advanced hack ‘n slash where you swap character all the time, use magic and “customize” characters using different gems.
The art style that can be seen in concept art is very distinctive. Are there any particular influences or art genres that are driving the game's design?
The art style of Penalty of Heroes is inspired not by one specific style but many. When making a game, especially in a genre like hack ‘n slash, functionality is just as important as the looks. Therefore we’ve tried to pick out the best parts of different visual styles and combine them into something that doesn’t just look unique but that also works towards furthering the functionality of the game. The final goal however is a perfect mix between both aspects. Most importantly we want the game to have a perfect mix between 2d and 3d.
Co-op is at the heart of the game design. See the beautiful character concept art over here.
We believe so. It gives us an opportunity to share what we’re up to with everyone and this inspires us to make progress and be creative. Too many multimillion game studios keep the lid on their games and only show people what their marketing people have decided what they should show. We want everyone to be able to see how a game on the Xbox 360 is being made, so we update our daily.
Any last words?
If you’re interested in how the game is progressing or if you just want to watch a game takes form all the way from concept to product, just head over to our daily updated blog.penaltyofheroes.com. There we share everything that we’re doing from daily scrum meetings and project/sprint plans to concept art, videos and in game images. It’s a great chance to see a game taking form in real-time.
When can we expect to see Penalty of Heroes?
You will be able to hack’n slash your little hearts out in the fall of 2009.
Closing Comments
It's pretty clear that the guys at Databox are committed to making something fresh yet traditionally engaging. There is no shortage of demand for co-op focused games and 'Penalty of Heroes' mechanics certainly seem to suggest and almost 'Left 4 Dead' level of reliance on you actually having friends. Microsoft would do well to support the title with a dev kit and I'd implore these guys to keep trying. Perhaps they will even go as far as to provide enough support to get those all important online features in. Thanks to Jens and all at Databox!
Anyway hope this preview about our game "Penalty of Heroes" cheers somebody up 
