Interview: 4 Questions for Mike Kennedy, Senior Producer of Unbound Saga

June 30, 2009 by Jeffrey L. Wilson
Filed under: Beat Em Ups, Interviews 

UnboundSaga_PSPscreenshots062209_0004_Layer 6

Interviews can be unpredictable beasts. One  may suffer from incessant marketing speak, while the next may be  littered with all manners of awesome – - the latter is the category in which I place the words of Mike Kennedy, senior producer of Unbound Saga, the upcoming PSP brawler. There are three things that you should keep with you long after reading this:

  • Modern gaming’s deep control schemes may be an impediment to fun
  • Unbound Saga, in a way, is much like bubble wrap
  • Repetitive gameplay isn’t necessarily a bad thing when well-crafted.

The beat ‘em up genre seems to have entered a mini-renaissance as of late with the upcoming releases of Turtles in Time and The Warriors: Street Brawl, not to mention that titles released on Virtual Console, PSN, and XBLA. What do you think has been the genesis of this re-awakened interest in brawlers, and how will Unbound Saga separate itself from the pack?

This could be wholly my own theory, fulla chunky gobs of nonsense and hair, but I believe gamers are getting tired of frustration and complexity. Counter-parry-reversals and stick-down-left-Punch-Punch-Back-Forward controls only serve to make the game LESS FUN. Why you gotta make me use my brain meat on this? I wanna watch bad guys flop around under my fist and feet, I don’t wanna get bogged down by the frame-specific windows of reaction animations and AI enemies that make me embarrassed to be a warm-blooded human being. That to me is what made brawlers so magical: simple controls and straight-forward gameplay that anyone can understand and enjoy. In fact, we’ll even simplify that annoying third-dimension for you by locking everything to a 2D, left-right plane, how’s that? Comfy? Awesome. Have a blast.

That’s not to say our goal was to make an easy game with zero challenge. But we wanted to mitigate the frustration with lengthy stretches of satisfying crunch. To that end, we’ve added realtime physics, an immeasurable amount of breakable objects and weapons, and today’s top in-demand accessory: ragdoll animation. When you punch a guy’s lights out in Unbound Saga, you can practically feel the bulb breaking inside his head. But like a stretch of bubble-wrap, that one pop alone isn’t the complete sensation. It’s 40 of those pops in rapid succession that makes Unbound Saga so much fun.

One of the complaints about beat ‘em ups is that the genre is inherently repetitive; palette-swapped characters and lots of button mashing. What does Unbound Saga do to help quiet those criticisms?

Well, to be completely Franklin here, repetitive gameplay doesn’t seem to be an issue with a whole host of other games on the market these days. I believe these complaints of repetitiveness are largely a reaction to gameplay that isn’t inherently satisfying enough to warrant repetition. So right there, I think we’re in good shape. I’ve been making games for 18 years, and this is the first game I haven’t gotten tired of playing. Something about the way the bad guys flop around.

Beyond that, though, we’ve added a lot of additional material to give those depth-seekers what they’re looking for: unlockable moves, bonus power-ups, over the top combos that reward those who want to look bad-ass in front of their buddies. There are over 70 different upgrades to unlock between the two main characters, and that evolution is paced out over the course of the campaign. If you wanna max out both characters, you might even need to play the whole thing TWICE. But if we did our job right, you’d wanna do that anyway just for the satisfying crunch and character.

You’ve opted to go the digital download route – - what was the genesis of that move?

At the risk of sounding like a biz dev director, it was largely a financial decision. Sounds like a line, but honestly, it makes perfect sense even from our perspective in the bullpens. Going digital cuts out the publisher, removes the expense of costly goods that might someday wind up in a landfill next to ET for the 2600, and totally bypasses a format medium that may or may not turn out to be obsolete in the coming years. Trim those costs off the top and pass those savings onto the user, right? Honestly, anyone with a PSP and an internet connection (and what PSP user doesn’t have an internet connection?) can download this product in a snap. The cost of memory sticks is dropping by the hour, and this game isn’t all that big to begin with. So we’re doing us both a favor by offering this title directly.

Will Unbound Saga have any downloadable content such as new moves, outfits, weapons, levels, or enemies? Dude, we haven’t even launched the core product yet, and you already want more?? AWESOME. Seriously though, we would love to justify more content, and have a ton of ideas for exactly that. But (to put on the biz dev hat for another second) we’re waiting to see how this initial title does. We’re hopeful, no doubt about that, but biz is biz. New content, on the other hand, is easy, and there is no shortage of direction that could take.

How much input did Dark Horse Comics have in the making of the game?

They have been fantastic partners when it comes to developing the brand, characters, and universe, and they have brought some amazing talent to the title, no doubt. But the game itself was pretty well on its way to completion when those talks started. “But wait,” you say, “isn’t this based on a Dark Horse comic?” Well, yeah, sorta, in the fiction it is. See, the bogus backstory has Unbound Saga first appearing 30 years ago, in the mid 70’s, as a backup story in Atypical Tales of Bizzarrity, and then living on to spawn its own black-and-white incarnation, a talking-animals incarnation, a manga incarnation, a foil-cover speculation market incarnation by yet another Jim Lee knock-off, etc. This new comic is just the (fake) re-introduction of the brand after 9 years of hiatus. Truth is, it’s a comic tie in to the game, to support the game’s counterfeit history. I apologize if I burst any bubbles.

But who knows! Maybe in another 30 years there will be yet another Unbound Saga video game based on what REALLY IS a 30 year old title! That’s hoping, of course, the world doesn’t implode in 2012. (Thanks for the sleepless nights, Rolland Emmerich!)

1. The beat em up genre seems to enter a renaissance as of late with the impending releases of Turtles in Time and The Warriors: Street Brawl (not to mention that ones released on Virtual Console, PSN, and XBLA). What do you think has been the genesis of this re-awakened interest in brawlers, and how will Unbound Saga separate itself from the pack?
This could be wholly my own theory, fulla chunky gobs of nonsense and hair, but I believe gamers are getting tired of frustration and complexity.  Counter-parry-reversals and stick-down-left-Punch-Punch-Back-Forward controls only serve to make the game LESS FUN, imho.  Why you gotta make me use my brain meat on this?  I wanna watch bad guys flop around under my fist and feet, I don’t wanna get bogged down by the frame-specific windows of reaction animations and AI enemies that make me embarrassed to be a warm-blooded human being.  That to me is what made brawlers so magical:  simple controls and straight-forward gameplay that anyone can understand and enjoy.  In fact, we’ll even simplify that annoying third-dimension for you by locking everything to a 2D, left-right plane, how’s that?  Comfy?  Awesome.  Have a blast.
That’s not to say our goal was to make an easy game with zero challenge.  But we wanted to mitigate the frustration with lengthy stretches of satisfying crunch.  To that end, we’ve added realtime physics, an immeasurable amount of breakable objects and weapons, and today’s top in-demand accessory: ragdoll animation.  When you punch a guy’s lights out in Unbound Saga, you can practically feel the bulb breaking inside his head.  But like a stretch of bubble-wrap, that one pop alone isn’t the complete sensation.  It’s 40 of those pops in rapid succession that makes Unbound Saga so much fun.
2. One of the complaints about beat em ups is that the genre is inherently repetitive; palette-swapped characters and lots of button mashing. What does Unbound Saga do to help stymie those criticisms?
Well, to be completely Franklin here, repetitive gameplay doesn’t seem to be an issue with a whole host of other games on the market these days.  I believe these complaints of repetitiveness are largely a reaction to gameplay that isn’t inherently satisfying enough to warrant repetition.  So right there, I think we’re in good shape.  I’ve been making games for 18 years, and this is the first game I haven’t gotten tired of playing.  Something about the way the bad guys flop around…
Beyond that, tho, we’ve added a lot of additional material to give those depth-seekers what they’re looking for:  unlockable moves, bonus powerups, over the top combos that reward those who want to look bad-ass in front of their buddies.   There are over 70 different upgrades to unlock between the two main characters, and that evolution is paced out over the course of the campaign.  If you wanna max out both characters, you might even need to play the whole thing TWICE.  But if we did our job right, you’d wanna do that anyway just for the satisfying crunch and character.
3. You’ve opted to go the digital download route–what was the emphasis behind this move?
At the risk of sounding like a biz dev director, it was largely a financial decision.  Sounds like a line, but honestly, it makes perfect sense even from our perspective in the bullpens.  Going digital cuts out the publisher, removes the expense of costly goods that might someday wind up in a landfill next to ET for the 2600, and totally bypasses a format medium that may or may not turn out to be obsolete in the coming years.  Trim those costs off the top and pass those savings onto the user, right?  Honestly, anyone with a PSP and an internet connection (and what PSP user doesn’t have an internet connection?) can download this product in a snap.  The cost of memory sticks is dropping by the hour, and this game isn’t all that big to begin with.  So we’re doing us both a favor by offering this title directly.
4. Will Unbound Saga have any downloadable content such as new moves, outfits, weapons, levels, or enemies?
Dude, we haven’t even launched the core product yet, and you already want more?? AWESOME.  Seriously tho, we would love to justify more content, and have a ton of ideas for exactly that.  But (to put on the biz dev hat for another second) we’re waiting to see how this initial title does.  We’re hopeful, no doubt about that, but biz is biz.  New content, on the other hand, is easy, and there is no shortage of direction that could take…
5. How much input did Dark Horse Comics have in the making of the game?
They have been fantastic partners when it comes to developing the brand, characters, and universe, and they have brought some amazing talent to the title, no doubt.  But the game itself was pretty well on its way to completion when those talks started.  “But wait,” you say, “isn’t this based on a Dark Horse comic?”  Well, yeah, sorta, in the fiction it is.  See, the bogus backstory has Unbound Saga first appearing 30 years ago, in the mid 70’s, as a backup story in “Atypical Tales of Bizzarrity”, and then living on to spawn its own black-and-white incarnation, a talking-animals incarnation, a manga incarnation, a foil-cover speculation market incarnation by yet another Jim Lee knock-off, etc.  This new comic is just the (fake) re-introduction of the brand after 9 years of hiatus.  Truth is, it’s a comic tie in to the game, to support the game’s counterfeit history.  I apologize if I burst any bubbles.
But who knows!  Maybe in another 30 years there will be yet another UnboundInt Saga video game based on what REALLY IS a 30 year old title!  That’s hoping, of course, the world doesn’t implode in 2012.  (Thanks for the sleepless nights, Rolland Emmeri


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Comments

One Comment on Interview: 4 Questions for Mike Kennedy, Senior Producer of Unbound Saga

  1. Vogster's Unbound Saga Now Available From PSN for $15 | 2D-X on Thu, 16th Jul 2009 10:26 pm

    2. [...] characters who wage war against the book’s creator (”The Maker”) and his minions. I pow wowed with the game’s senior producer not too long ago about the creation of the game and play mechanics; it may prove a worthy read [...]

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