Producer Interview

Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays recently kicked off with the release of Frogger®, the coin-op classic from the eighties. We recently caught up with Rick Davidson, a Producer at Digital Eclipse, to get some more details about the game. Frogger is available now for download from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Xbox.com: Although it's a classic, there are many players out there on Xbox Live® who have never played this Frogger. How would you describe it to someone who had never played it?

Rick: One of the reasons that Frogger is a classic is because of the simple, yet increasingly challenging gameplay. The notion of navigating your frog across the road and over the river to the peaceful tranquility of home is pretty straightforward. Controls are pretty simple, just up, down, left, and right—even someone new to console gaming can easily pick up the controller and go for it.

Split-screen play is one of the new features.

Once you get five frogs "home," however, the game steps up the pace by increasing the speed and quantity of the cars as well as providing more challenging river obstacles. To master Frogger, you must be willing to take risks but also be patient and know when to sit calmly waiting for the right log to float by.

Xbox.com: Why did you decide to include options for using either the original graphics and music or the new enhanced graphics and music?

Rick: Many of the gamers who will download Frogger will be people like me who remember playing the original Frogger in the arcade. We felt it important to provide gamers with the option of reminiscing about yesteryear by experiencing the authentic arcade game—the full glory of the pixilated graphics and twangy tunes.

On top of that, we wanted to give the game a modern look and sound by taking advantage of Xbox 360™ technology. Our goal was to make full use of the power of High Definition while staying as true as possible to the original game. We had the mindset of, "If Frogger traveled forward in time 25 years, what would it look like?"

One of the cooler achievements challenges
the player to stay in the middle of the road
dodging cars until the timer is nearly finished.

Xbox.com: Can you describe some of the things you changed in enhancing the graphics?

Rick: The development process we followed was to extract the original graphics from the game and then have our artists digitally paint new graphics that matched the size and shape of the originals. Some of the graphics were modeled in 3-D whilst others were painted in 2-D applications. In addition, one of the cool things we spent a lot of time on was the particle systems for the game. As an example, we attached particle systems to the cars to look like exhaust and logs to look like water spray to give these elements a more dynamic and lively feel.

Xbox.com: Did you have someone compose the new music for you?

Rick: As with the graphics, our goal with the audio was to modernize the game's ditties and sound effects while staying true to the original. We worked with our Sound Director to add an extra level of richness and detail to the audio so that it would sound crisp and deep on today's sound systems.

Xbox.com: Can you explain how the Versus Mode will work?

Rick: Versus Mode allows two players to play head-to-head simultaneously. Because of the vertical aspect of the original game (the fact that it is tall and narrow as opposed to wide), we decided to go with a split screen set up for Xbox Live multiplayer games so that each player can see what the other is doing. The goal of Versus Mode is pretty simple—get a higher score than your opponent.

The game ends as soon as a winner is clear, that is when one person loses all their lives and has a lower score than their opponent. The Xbox Live leaderboard tallies the number of wins and losses for each player both on a weekly basis (reset each week) and over all time. The best thing about having weekly leaderboards is that when the new week starts everyone has another chance to be the best in the world!

The graphics and sound have been given the next-gen touch.

Xbox.com: How does Versus Mode differ from Versus Speed Mode?

Rick: While normal Versus Mode is all about staying alive as long as possible to get a better score than your opponent, the winner of Versus Speed Mode is the first player to get all five frogs home. Each player has unlimited frogs but can't be too careless because each time a frog gets squished they have to start back at the bottom of the screen, losing valuable time.

One of our intentions for this mode was to create a quick, frantic game that lasted a minute or so and encouraged players to take risks and throw caution to the wind. Versus Speed Mode is really cool and a lot of fun!

Xbox.com: How will the Cooperative Mode work?

Rick: The goal of Cooperative Mode is for two people to get the largest combined score possible. Both players play simultaneously and their scores are combined to make one overall score. When both players have lost all of their lives the game is over so it is important for both players to concentrate and help post the largest score possible.

Xbox.com: Did you build any new levels into the game? How many levels are there?

Rick: Everything about the actual game play has been faithfully emulated. We didn't add any new levels for the game.

Xbox.com: How many achievements does the game have? How many Gamerscore points will you be able to earn overall?

Rick: The game has 12 achievements which combine to give a total of 200 points. We spent a lot of time fine-tuning the achievements so that they would be challenging but attainable for all gamers. One of the cooler achievements challenges the player to stay in the middle of the road dodging cars until the timer is nearly finished and then to quickly speed their frog all the way home.

Xbox.com: How about gamer pictures or downloadable themes?

Rick: We have indeed created gamer pictures and a downloadable Frogger theme. This content will be available on Marketplace some time shortly after the game's launch. There will be six gamer pictures in the pack, which range from fairly sensible to pretty quirky and crazy!

Xbox.com: We can't think of a better game to kick of Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays. Thanks for your time, Rick!