Q&A: INTERVIEW WITH THE 
PRODUCER, NICK CLARKE


Q: Who created Buck Bumble? How 
many people were on the team?

A: In the winter of 1996 a research 
project was started to investigate the 
capacities of the N64.  It was, at the 
time, a very new console and we were 
very keen to get it working.  The concept 
of Buck Bumble came out of that 
investigation. The initial team of 3 
included a lead coder, an artist and a 
game designer.  The team now 
consists of 3 coders, 3 artists, 2 game 
designers and me (the producer).

Q: Why did the development team 
come up with Buck Bumble's concept? 
What inspired them? 

A: Once we had the idea to shrink the 
lead character and the view on the 
world it was easy to go to any garden 
and get all the inspiration we could 
handle.

Q: How long has the game been in 
development?

A: The decision was taken to turn what 
was a research project into a game 
around March of last year.

Q: Why did you decide for the hero to be 
a bumblebee?!! 

A: The team wanted to create a 3D 
shoot'em'up with a difference and not 
one that had the usual blasting 
suspects.  Spaceships and 
conventional war craft have been 
around since the dawn of the genre. 
We wanted something new a 
shoot'em'up with a character.  In the 
early stages when the programmers 
were playing with flight dynamics the 
idea of the bumblebee got started and 
we decided to put the game at a micro 
level giving Buck a unique but very 
familiar environment in which to blast 
his opponents.


Q: How was the title "Buck Bumble" 
chosen?

A: We wanted a name that was 
synonymous with an action hero, 
something punchy that instantly gave 
some pace to the game. We could 
hardly call him Trevor or Malcolm!!! 
When we looked into names a little 
more we found that, in films especially, 
heros have really short names so that 
was a start.  Then we looked at the 
futuristic theme to the game and we 
immediately thought of "Buck Rogers" 
and the Buck thing just seemed to fit 
the character.


Q: How were the graphical worlds 
created?

A: All the artwork in the game was first 
drawn in 2D before we even turned on 
a PC. We built all the game geometry 
and applied textures in 3DS MAX.  The 
textures were created both in 3DS MAX 
and Photoshop allowing us to add 
colour to the game.  Building the worlds 
in Buck Bumble made us look at nature 
from a new perspective - the insect 
view on the world is very different from 
our own. It's important for us to create a 
real sense of scale in our environments.

Q: How is the game multiplayer?


A: The multiplayer game is split screen 
and at the moment we are planning to 
implement a 2 player option only. At this 
stage of development we are going for 
Doom-like 2 person gameplay. We feel 
that this will increase the tension of the 
game.

Q: Buck Bumble looks to be an 
excellent shooter for the N64. How 
does the gameplay differ from, say, Star 
Fox? 


A: The main difference is that the player 
has total control of the character which 
enables him to go in any direction in a 
3D world. This feature enables us to 
add some adventure puzzles to the 
game. Buck Bumble, therefore, will be 
more than an excellent shooter -- it will 
be a combination of a fast action 
shooting game, and an 
adventure/action "use your brain" 
game. In this respect, Buck Bumble 
will resemble Golden Eye more than 
Starfox.

Q: Is Argonaut working on any other 
games for Ubi? 

A: Yes, Argonaut is working on a game 
for PC and PSX that currently has the 
codename CHAOS. It will be presented 
at E3 this year where we think people 
will find it to be an extremely ambitious 
3D action game.

 Q: How many missions are in the 
game? 

A:There are 22 missions in the game 
with an extra hidden section.  These 
missions span throughout the varied 
environments that make up Buck's 
world.  These include the garden and 
forest areas moving through ever more 
alien environments ending with the 
final confrontation with the Herd Queen 
in the Alien Hive itself.  


Q: How many enemies are in the 
game?

A: There are a number of very varied 
enemies in the game that are all deadly 
mutated versions of the insects you 
would find in most gardens.  The list 
includes Attack Wasps, Killapillas and 
of course the Herd Queen.

Q: How many weapons can Buck 
choose from?

A: Buck can choose from a devastating 
selection of eleven weapons ranging 
from plasma pistols to homing 
missiles and lightning bolts.