Today we have the folks from Green Light Projects with us to talk about their recent Xbox Live Indie Game release Carcophony.

Question: How did the idea for Carcophony come about?

For our first project, we wanted to do something simple.  We checked out other 'community games' (as they were back then) first and made notes -  it clarified in our heads that we wanted to do something REALLY simple - we looked through our ideas book, and this concept fitted the bill.  Working title: "the green light project"!
Even at completion, the game remains really simple.  It actually only needs the left stick and the A button (though there are other advanced controls for the experts to find...).   



Question: Could you describe Carcophony for anyone who hasn't seen it?

Colourful traffic pours into a city map at an ever quickening  pace, desperate to leave again by it's own coloured markers. 
Your job is to control  traffic flow, by strategically  changing the available traffic lights to let the cars pass.
And if the result sounds bad, like a jumble of noises (or some might say, a 'cacophony'), then the release of traffic might not be as optimal as it could be (hint hint).



Question: How  long did it take to develop?

Just counting this up - I reckon about 2 man-months full time (or in actuality a few evenings a week, for about 10 months).  Ouch!

Amazing really, since the prototype (to make sure the concept was fun from the outset) had working cars, lights and streets back in January!  Don't underestimate the all the other stuff that needs doing.



Question: Carcophony supports 4 players locally.  Why did you guys decide not to include support for playing over Xbox Live?

Simply scope.  It's already way bigger  and feature rich than it was meant to be as a first trial production.



Question: Looking back on Carcophony what are the things that you are most proud of?

Our main aim  of the process was to go through the xna development process to see what was involved - we've achieved that, a leant a lot along the way.

As for the game itself, it's tight - simple and polished exactly as intended.   We managed to stick to the plan on the whole - resisting evil time-consuming graphics and staying focussed on the gameplay - and overall, we think it came out fun.  And the reviews thankfully seem to be on our side too.



Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Carcophony that did not make it?

We kept a design document throughout production, and hot new ideas went into a section of that and cooled own over time.  That meant we stayed focussed on the core principles.

Having said that, VS mode sat in that document  for a while and never cooled down...we just couldn't resist in the end.  We knew that simultaneously play/dumping hazards on a friend was a killer mode,  so we broke our rule and implemented it anyway  .



Question: Now that Carcophony has released are you planning another Indie Game?

Maybe.  We kind of put life on hold at the end there, so there's a lot of post to open, a house to clean, and family and friends to reacquaint with first  :)



Question: Can you give us some tips or strategies for Carcophony?

Sure.  You could be left thinking that on a simple glance, but we've (perhaps dangerously) left the penny teetering, ready to drop to those that invest a little more time.

Once you realise that the big scores come from streaks (unbroken cars of the same colours) you realise the task is all 'brain work' and not 'busy work'.  That's the depth, but you won't discover it with a fleeting play (or unless we tell you...as...we...just...uh...have).  Again, we're playing a dangerous game there by not spelling everything out from the outset.  But where would the fun of discovery be in that?

There are particular strategies for the individual maps too - too much to say here, but  we   have now added the info about "spaghetti junction", "magic roundabout" and the rest to the website.



Question: If you could change one thing about Xbox Live Indie Games as a platform what would it be?

Peer reviews (a process needed to get your game finally released) are less clear-cut that we'd imagined.  There's more  subjectively that expected  - for example, the 'rules' might say one thing but an individual can fail your game if they personally don't like something else.  Or expects a higher specification than the guidelines do.  This kind of thing could potentially have developers in limbo forever, at the mercy of reviewers with their own agendas.

Having said that we were really lucky, and carcophony went through first time in about 3 days.  Thanks again to all the guys in the xna community that took the time to playtest, review and pass it.  No really, we couldn't.

Overall, it's been pretty smooth sailing though and nothing that would put us off having a second go - depending of course on whether people like/play our first attempt!