Exclusive Bounty Arms interview

A few weeks ago we featured a story on the indie game Bounty Arms.  Utilizing the Unreal 3 Engine, Bounty Arms showed a ton of promise. Not only was it a visually attractive game, but it also featured old-school side-scrolling gameplay with a new modern twist.

I was able to talk to Open-Reset co-CEO Benjamin Duk to discuss Bounty Arms. Along with talking about the game we also discussed what it’s like being an indie developer and what we can expect to see from the studio in the future.

Ian Fisher - What’s the core premise of Bounty Arms?  Obviously it’s about wrecking stuff with massive weapons, but what’s the over-arching story for the game? Also who/what is that rather cute looking character that’s visible by the health bar?

Benjamin Duk - Bounty Arms main story is centered around a group of bounty hunters called the HOGS. They have been hired by a privately funded organization, to bring down the secret alliance that has been formed by the galaxies most powerful criminals. As you get deeper into the story, your team uncovers that the alliance is a cover for a more sinister enemy, whose plans threaten entire worlds. You must now race against time and space to stop him.

That cute character is Goober. He is the team’s crazy, comic relief character.

Obviously everyone working on the project has a love for the 2D games side-scrolling games of yesteryear, but what was the main inspiration that led to the development of Bounty Arms?

Yes, everyone loves the old-school 2D side-scrolling games of the past. It is what we grew up with, and even though they are old now, they are still great games. The main inspiration to develop Bounty Arms was to have a side-scroller that would push the technical limits of this genre. We thought, how cool would it be if a game like Metal Slug was made with the latest Engine Technology available today.

The one game that Bounty Arms is slightly reminiscent of visually is the old PS1/Xbox game Abe's Oddysee. Were any members of the development team fans of the series or were partly inspired by the visual sensibilities of that game?

We’re all fans of Abe’s Oddysee and how great looking the game was, but I don’t think any of us really focused on a particular game for inspiration. We all just had these crazy ideas and they all came together. I guess you could say that after playing games like Abe’s and Earthworm Jim, that the style gets imprinted into your mind, which is probably the case, but we never actually looked back at those games to see what they did. We just always knew what direction we wanted to take the game in.

Did the critical success of a game like Bionic Commando Rearmed or Shadow Complex make the development team feel more confident in making a game with a similar 3D side scrolling style?

To be honest that never crossed our minds. We just had this idea, and thought that it would be fun and appeal to an old and new generation of gamers. We didn’t even know that Shadow Complex was in development at the time, until much later when we were in the development of Bounty Arms.

Bounty Arms promises to feature power-ups that will greatly alter the character. Now does this mean both in terms of appearance and abilities? And what sort of power-ups can players expect once the game is finally released?

It will be both in appearance and abilities, although it is leaning more towards the main character’s special abilities that get upgraded, and not all of the character’s appearances will be altered. I don’t want to divulge too much information here because we want to keep it a secret, but I can tell you this. Drake Mass, the human character will have a normal shotgun in level 1, and the level 2 upgrade will transform into a Dragon Head shotgun that will take on characteristics on how the weapon looks. So it will still primarily behave like a shotgun, but it will also have added fire damage, longer range, and more spread, with all new effects to boost the new look.

I’ll also tell you a little bit more about Drake’s special ability. Drake is a fast offensive character opposite to Goober, and his special ability is a Rage ability where he goes berserk. In this state, Drake will increase in physical size and in later levels he will also gain armor to his body making his appearance different.

What sort of backgrounds did the development team have in making PC mods? Your website features some highly impressive mods and character designs for Doom 3, but beyond that have anyone made a fully fledged playable game mod or was it always things on a smaller scale like the Doom 3 mods?

Henk, our Technical Director has dabbled in PC mods, but the rest of the team haven’t really worked on mods. Henk has made levels for Doom, The Quake Series, Unreal, and Doom 3 as well as a few other art assets for Quake 3 and Doom 3, but none of us have made a fully fledged playable game mod prior to Bounty Arms. So only small scale Doom 3 mods.

One of the things I liked the most about what I saw of Bounty Arms, was the section where the player jumps on the small mechanical arm as it gradually moves towards a platform. That along with the sections where the player moves between the background and foreground makes the game feel somewhat organic to me given the nature of the level. Are sections like those what players can expect from the rest of the game and what has been the core philosophy when it comes to designing the platform sections of the game?  Are you trying to have things flow a bit more naturally or will the platforming have more of an “old-school” approach?

What we have for the demo, in terms of moving between background and foreground is far from what we want to have for the final game. This demo level is still very linear. What players can expect is a lot more movement between background and foreground, and we also want to have curved paths in the levels, so that the camera bends around paths and corners. So the level is not just straight left to right.

The core philosophy behind designing the platform sections of the game was to bring a depth to them. So for instance in the gears section, you’re constantly moving towards and away from the camera, while still moving from left to right.

Yes, we wanted to have a more natural flow to the platforming, and not just have floating geometry in the air. There’s nothing wrong with floating geometry of course, but we wanted to have a more realistic reasoning behind the level design.

You may not be able to divulge details yet, but what sort of multiplayer gameplay will the game offer? Will players be able to go through the campaign with a buddy via co-op play? Or will there be Super Smash Brothers style competitive multiplayer modes given the core mechanics of the game?

In the final game, the campaign mode will have a 4 player co-op mode. Bounty Arms will be heavily based on team play and co-op interaction. There are some ideas of other multiplayer modes that the team is thinking about, but we’ll leave you to wonder what we will eventually have.

As an indie studio how has it been developing a game like Bounty Arms, especially since it’s a unique IP? Has the freedom of being an indie developer helped the project more since you’re able to tailor it to your liking or have there been a few difficult bumps in the road?

Developing a game like Bounty Arms has been loads of fun. It has been such a collaborative effort between the whole team, and we all seem to have similar ideas to each other. So one person would mention an idea, and everyone would agree because they were basically thinking the same thing.

Having the freedom to drive your idea forward, in a direction you believe in, makes the project more special in my opinion. Having constant input and being able to contribute ideas, makes team members feel more a part of what you’re doing.

There were some down sides to the development because the demo didn’t have official funding. We suffered on the programming side for a long time, but it all worked out in the end. We got some help from a friend that we used to work with in a previous gaming company who also helped with the game design, and an awesome programmer found us towards the end of the project to help us move everything to the UDK.

So it was bumpy at times, but now everyone on the team is fully focused on Bounty Arms, with an aim to make it a commercial product.

Is Bounty Arms a project that you would like to see pop up on the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade at some point? And based on the video that was released early this month coupled with the demo, have any publishers contacted you about possibly publishing the game?

Absolutely. We have always looked to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. We also want to have a disc format release.

We have received very helpful and early energetic support from Epic Games, and we can’t express our gratitude to them enough. We are currently talking to publishers but have nothing specific to report at this time, stay tuned!

As an indie developer, what’s your take on how companies such as Sony and Microsoft have helped publish games created by smaller studios? Sony has been on the forefront through publishing games like Everyday Shooter and Flow, while Microsoft has taken a big step with their XNA initiative.

Do you think we’ll ever get to a point where more indie games get the attention they deserve from big publishers instead of playing second fiddle to franchise games and sequels? Also, do you think the PSN and XBLA will ever get to the point where they take a note from Apple and allow practically any game (pending content) on the store?

I think it’s great what Sony and Microsoft are doing to help smaller studios, but I still think it is extremely difficult for small indie companies to get their work noticed by publishers.

Right now I don’t see that indie games will get the attention they deserve. It’s sad, but big publishers like to go with studios that have a good track record and are guaranteed to make money. It is a risk to go with a new studio, but I think publishers need to take that risk. It’s nice to have a new studio mixing it up every now and then.

I can’t see PSN and XBLA following the Apple route, because they’ve always had a tighter control of what they want on their market place. Maybe this will change at some stage but I don’t see it happening any time soon.

Being based in South Africa, what’s the general vibe of the game development scene down there? And this may be a bit silly to ask, but has stuff such as Neil Blomkamp’s projects like District-9 helped things in a way since it’s showcased that South Africa is home to some talented artists such as yourself?

The game development scene in South Africa is very small. Most of the game development studios here are developing mobile games. There are just a handful that I think are moving in the right direction towards next-gen games but it’s moving very slowly. We have the talent. We just need to be given the chance to prove that we can produce world class products.

District-9 has been great in bringing an awareness to South Africa, but because all the visual effects were done outside of South Africa that it hasn’t really helped to showcase local talent. I do understand why it was outsourced to international companies like Digital Domain. They have the knowledge and infrastructure to handle a project on that scale.

Maybe Neil Blomkamp could do what Peter Jackson did for New Zealand, by starting a visual effects company in South Africa. So you would get experienced international people in key positions that would train and mentor some local people, and in time you would build a Weta type studio.

Blomkamp is new to the scene though and with the success of District-9, he might consider doing this at some stage. It would be great.

After Bounty Arms is finally released, where would you like the series to go next? What sort of projects do you want Open-Reset to tackle down the road? Is there a particular genre you would like to develop for and will the studio perhaps stick to making side-scrolling games or branch out a bit?

The series will actually carry on from the first title, because the story has been planned to follow a 3 story title arc. Even though it is a side-scroller, I’ve always wanted the story to have a bit of depth to it.

For now we just want to make Bounty Arms the best game we can make, so we haven’t thought of other projects just yet. I think it’s wise for a small studio like Open-Reset to stick to a particular genre at first, and do it well before we consider branching out to other genres. If you spread out too quickly and too far, you can get yourself into a mess.

I would like to thank Benjamin for taking the time to talk about the game. Bounty Arms is one of the more impressive indie games we've seen so far and it looks to have a bright future ahead of it!