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1998-08-21
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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.