Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is ready to assault players with missiles and flying fruit on May 4. Before you try the game read what Mitsuru Yaida, Director, had to say about developing a Bangai-O game for Xbox 360. We asked Yaida how the team created stages and why the weapon selecting feature from Bangai-O Spirits is not in Missile Fury.
How has Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury evolved from Bangai-O Spirits?
Mitsuru Yaida, Director: Based on the lessons we learned from Spirits, we aimed to create a game that would be played through strategically. On top of that, we tried to make the appearance and the gameplay flashier to an extent to match the platform. We also implemented phases to the maps, which made it possible to create dynamic maps. That was a big change too.
Why did you assign weapons to levels instead of letting players pick them?
We wanted to emphasize more on the map solving aspect.
Spirits had many interesting levels like the stage where you played inside a Nintendo DS. Other stages were inspired by classic games. Were there any levels like those in Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury?
This time we limited the amount of parody elements, but Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury has more variety compared to Spirits, so the stages are extra fun to play.
The Bangai-O games have a unique sense of humor. How do you come up with dialogue and what is your favorite moment in Missile Fury?
Our team has a very strange sense of humor and it shows in their designs as well as the dialogue. My favorite line in Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is Dr. Ban’s last line in the demo version. If you know the N64/DC version, it might bring a smile to your face (but this might just be for the Japanese version…).
How did you plan cooperative play into Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury and what were the challenges of developing a multiplayer mode?
Co-op was actually available in Bangai-O Spirits too. And so of course, we planned to have co-op from the early concept stages of the XBLA version. We really wanted to please fans so we pushed and did our best to create a fun co-op play experience. Since this was our team’s first time developing on the Xbox 360, not only was the multiplayer difficult, but everything became waves of hurdles.
How many missiles and projectiles can you display on screen at the same time in this game?
About 5000!
After the game comes out, will Treasure design any more levels using the map editor to share with players?
As of right now, we have no plans to do so but we look forward to seeing the users’ creativity.
Can you discuss the process of creating levels for Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury? Where do you get ideas from to create the puzzle-like stages?
We started off with our base designs, utilizing the game’s Level Editor Tool. We continued to tweak the levels throughout the process. Our overseas Namco Bandai QA team also provided inspiration as they created a lot of unique maps for us. And those inspired our team’s designer to create more great maps. It was a great creative cycle with a bit of competition built in.
Which level in Bangai-O HD is your favorite and can you tell us how you created it?
The last stage of BONUS EXTREME. This is a simple but big map, perfect for the final stage. The foundation was created by the QA team (mentioned above), but there were sections that were incomplete, and we created the final boss.
Published: May 2, 2011 01:32 pm