Monster Madness - An Artificial Interview

Southpeak's Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia, the flagship title for developer and middleware provider Artificial Studios, is something of an interesting beast. A marriage of old school gameplay not unlike Smash T.V. and Gauntlet and bleeding edge physics technology from Ageia Technologies, a game such as Monster Madness is truly unique.

While recently we were afforded the opportunity to site down with the game, which is set to debut for the Xbox 360 and PC in April, eToychest also recently had the chance to speak with the game's senior producer, Artificial Studios' Bobby Steele, to get some more insight into this upcoming, somewhat unconventional title.

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us regarding Monster Madness: Battle For Suburbia. Other than the slight name change, what else has happened with the game since we last saw it at E3?

A better question is, "What HASN'T happened?!"
We added the online multiplayer functionality, nearly all of the campaign content was added, got the game up and running on the Xbox 360, created over 70 new monsters, and added some online co-op, just to spice things up!

With so many different monsters in the game, do you have a favorite?

All of our monsters are quite good and have their own comical reactions, but my favorite is definitely Billy. He is a character that has a mind of his own. He'll come onscreen with his chainsaw and pretty much attack the nearest moving thing to him, whether it be you, or another enemy. You always have to be careful when he's around!

One of the things that worried us some at E3 was that the controls seemed a bit loose, and that coupled with the manic action on screen made for an experience that was almost too frenetic. After playing the game recently, it seems as if the controls have been tightened up quite a bit since the show. Is this accurate?

Yes, the controls just went through a fairly major overhaul. Among other things, we have automated the targeting for objects above and below the player in order to make a far simpler control scheme. We will be doing a similar overhaul for vehicles in the final months of development.

The sell sheet for the game indicates that you all are also developing a PlayStation 3 version of Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia? Does Artificial Studios have a PS3 dev kit then, and is this project currently in production?

As a developer, we are definitely interested in developing the PlayStation 3, but we can't confirm that the game will be releasing on the PlayStation 3 at this time. Right now, we are focused on finishing the PC and Xbox 360 version, and then we will be able to look into whether the game would make sense for other platforms.

As Artificial Studios obviously has a vested interest in the next-gen console arms race, what excites you most about the console wars now that all the cards have been dealt, so to speak?

What excites me as a developer is the fact that every console gets to have its time to shine. Right now, the Wii is looking really solid, but with its limited horsepower, how long will it last? The Xbox 360 has the potential for staying power, and it sold very well during the holiday season.

Of course,who knows? Sony could win the format war with its Blu-ray DVDs. Then we might see the PS3 roar in with a late charge towards the end of the cycle. It's all really fascinating and exciting, and in the end, all the competition between the platform developers really make the consumer win in the end.

Is there something you find particularly troubling about the next-generation, and if so, how would you see fixing it - if indeed it is fixable?

I think there are some people who are waiting to find out who wins the format war before deciding on a system to buy, but there is no set timeframe for when the results will be in. If you're a gamer in this market, you are going to win all-around.

Have any compromises had to be made between the console versions and their PC counterpart? If you had to choose, which would you say will turn out to be the definitive Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia?

The use of the mouse vs. keyboard and no Live support for finding friends are the main elements that will be different, so really, both versions are very "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia," - it just depends on whether players would rather control their player with a mouse or keyboard, and whether they want the Live support.

With Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia supporting up to 16 players, four per console, how in the world can you tell what's even going on with this many players going at it? Is it a Zen thing?

We have 16 player maps, and they are VERY big. While they are not so big as to make players wonder, "Where is everyone?" they are definitely big enough to where, even with 16 players, the action probably won't get crazy enough to where you'll need to have Neo-like powers to survive.

Is this 16 player gameplay strictly for competitive play? Is the main game restricted to just four player cooperative gameplay?

We have CTF play modes, Team Matches, and FFA for the 16 player maps. We have one map, currently that supports online co-op, and it is a 4-player map which has no bearing on the main storyline. The adventure mode is restricted to 4-player offline co-op.{/quotes}

With online and digital content playing such a huge role in the current console generation, do you anticipate offering content for download?

While gamer pics are currently available for gamers and fans to download, we hope
to offer additional downloadable content on Marketplace Live soon after the launch of Monster Madness:Battle For Suburbia. We hope to be able to make additional announcements soon on other possible content.

Thanks for your time. Is there anything you would like to add?

We're hard at work making this the best game it can be! It's been a blast developing this game with Immersion Games and we are excited about our first release as a company, and all the help that SouthPeak Interactive has contributed to make this game happen! It's been a tough and challenging process, but I think everyone will be pleased with the results.

Feb 8, 2007 - 2:12 pm | 0 comments
Jason Dobson