Tobe's Vertical Adventure is a classic 2D platformer with cooperative play. Today we talk with the creator Raymond Teo about how the game to be on Xbox Live Indie Games.
Question: How did the idea for Tobe's Vertical Adventure come about?
The game was largely inspired by the 8bit NES classic, Ice climber. I had tons of fun with the game when I was a child, and wanted to create something similar. As I began my research, I realize myself constantly looking at games from the 8bit and 16bit era, and I decides to create a game that was a tribute to my childhood games.
Question: Could you describe Tobe's Vertical Adventure for anyone who hasn’t seen it?
Tobe's Vertical Adventure is a 2D platformer where player plays as Tobe, an unwilling treasure hunter on his adventure to search for the treasure of King Garuza. The levels takes place in different caves where Tobe explores to find the treasure deep down below. Upon finding the treasure, the place starts to collapse and Tobe will have to escape in time.
Question: How large was the team that created Tobe's Vertical Adventure and how long did it take to develop?
The team was about 4 man team most of the time, but we've got a few freelancers to work on some minor elements. The production took 8 months including the peer review, but unfortunately, we weren't always working on it full time.
Question: Tobe's Vertical Adventure has a very unique graphical style. How did you decide on that look for the game?
Since the game was meant to be a tribute for classic games, pixel was obviously the way to go. But as the only artist, I didn't had enough time to draw a very detail and realistic tile set, so I came up with the idea to use repeated patterns as a graphical representation instead.
Oh, I like to add that the character art was heavily inspired by Annabelle Kennedy a.k.a NanakoStudio. The female character from the game, Nana was actually a tribute, both to her and Nana from Ice Climber.
Question: Looking back on Tobe's Vertical Adventure what are the things that you are most proud of?
I'm not sure if it was good enough for everyone, but I'm actually pretty happy with the level design. Each level was designed to be played twice. Once when you go down to collect the treasure, and once when you try to escape. Yet a lot of times, changing one would change the other, and the original puzzle just won't work anymore. I was worrying about it a little when the game was released, but we have had gamers writing to us about how much they enjoyed it, and that really made my day.
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Tobe's Vertical Adventure that did not make it?
We definitely wanted to throw in things like analog support and some further tuning for the co-op play. Unfortunately, the programmers had already moved on to serve their national service by the last 2 months. Ikhwan, our main programmer is now back again to fix the game up with a patch, so hopefully, it gets to pass the peer review fast.
Question: Now that Tobe's Vertical Adventure has released are you planning another Indie game?
I'm hoping to take a break from XBLIG and work on a different platform for a while, but I definitely see myself coming back. After all, nothing beats seeing your game on big screen TV. It's just orgasmic.
Question: Can you give us some tips or hints for Tobe's Vertical Adventure?
Use your items when you can. There's many of them lying around, so don't be afraid when you missed where you were throwing. Also, 80% of the treasures and animals are within reach when you were exploring the place, so figure out how to reach them before the place collaspe. Collecting treasures and animals helps to upgrade your health and item capacity, so if you really have a problem, revisit the areas in level select and collect the treasures you missed out. And if all else fail... well, email me, and I will teach you what to do, lol.
Question: If you could change or enhance one thing about Xbox Live Indie Games as a platform what would it be?
I'm probably gonna get flamed for saying this, but I hope to see some improvement on the peer review. A couple of days after our games was released, we submitted a patch to include analog support for the game, but it's taking quite a while for it to pass, as most fellow developer has probably already tried the game.
I was actually hoping to work on an extra mode or level to the game as a thank you for the players who bought the game, but looking at the speed things are going, it's probably not going to work. Point is, peer review is good, and everyone was friendly and truthful, but it would be great if we have a separate place for patch and expansion.
