Viva Piñata Designer Interview
At a Glance
In search of more information about the upcoming Viva Piñata™ game from Rare®, we tracked down designer Justin Cook for some juicy details. He talked about making attractive gardens, attracting colorful piñatas, and helping them with their rather unusual courting rituals. Xbox.com: Will the upcoming cartoon affect how people play and see the game? Justin Cook: I hope so, or the cartoon will have been a waste of time. The cartoon is an easy way to familiarize yourself with Piñata Island. The cartoon is directly based on the Viva Piñata world that we devised (here at Rare), and we shared lots of our development work with 4kids so that the cartoon was true to the game. For example, the models used in the show are built from our in-game models. "As well as natural enemies, there will be friction in the garden as piñatas compete for the same resources."Xbox.com: Though open-ended, what is the overarching goal of the game? Justin: We'd like to think we've made a game for everyone, so our goal is to attract new people to gaming as well as keep those who already like games interested. The game gives you a choice of what to do. You could just collect all the piñatas, or you might want to specialize in one species, finding all its secrets. You may want to build your ideal garden or maximize the value of your garden. We have a few surprises and tasks planned to keep players interested and encourage them to discover more about piñatas.
Build a luxurious garden for your piñatas. Xbox.com: Will the romancing involve any mini-games, and if so, what kind can we expect? Justin: You seem to know more about the game than you're letting on! We have got a couple of mini-games planned, and one of them is involved with romancing piñatas. When you introduce two piñatas they are whisked away to a little maze, where they stand waiting on opposite sides. You take control of one of them and you have to find your way through to your potential partner. This little game is supposed to represent the piñatas getting to know each other. If you can brave the dangers in the maze, the piñatas will hit it off and want to go dancing. If the maze is too challenging, your piñatas will end up brokenhearted. Xbox.com: What is the game world comprised of, and will different gamers have different environments, or does everyone start with the same base environment? Justin: Everyone starts with the same basic patch of land. What you make of your patch is part of what Viva Piñata is about. Because you choose what to grow and which piñatas to keep, the gardens you see are going to be very different. That's what makes starting in the same place so interesting, because you can see compare gardens with your friends and see how different they become. Xbox.com: Can you describe the initial setup process? For example, how do you get your first piñata, and what initial goals allow the gamer to understand the ongoing gameplay?
You can even build houses to attract piñatas. Justin: You start in a ruined garden, the soil is dried out, there's yellowish grass everywhere, and heaps of junk lie on the garden. Even the biggest slob piñata wouldn't consider looking at the garden. So, you start to clear up the mess—you don't have to make a lot of changes before your first piñata pops up. We spend a little bit of time at the start of the game introducing some basics, then you're on your own to see what you can discover. Xbox.com: What sort of Xbox Live® interaction can we expect? Will we be able to trade piñatas? Justin: Would you want to trade piñata? We thought that you would, so yes, trading them with your friends was one of the most important parts of the original design. Trading is a very general term but it means you can send and receive crates packed with piñatas (or almost anything else that you can put into the garden). The trading part is pretty open to allow you to exchange stuff, give friends things, or you might use it as a cheap way to get rid of unwanted sour piñatas … Xbox.com: How do you plan on utilizing Xbox Live Marketplace? Can we expect downloadable content? Justin: Viva Piñata seemed like an ideal game to take advantage of Marketplace. We have plans for new content over Xbox Live, not just to customize your favorite piñata but to add new parts to the game. Xbox.com: Can you give us an example of some of the tricks and abilities the piñatas will have? Justin: Not all piñatas simply walk into the garden when you have the right conditions, some are 'changed' into a new type. Some of the piñatas have some special abilities—for example, Moozipan can make milk. The milk can then be used to … hey, wait! Part of the game is discovering the stuff we've hidden and I'd rather not give too much away. Xbox.com: Can't blame us for trying! How do the relationships between the piñatas work? Are some aggressive against others, do they have abilities that complement each other?
Variety is the name of the game. Justin: We've tried to make the animals behave naturally. Not all animals get along and piñatas are no different. As well as natural enemies, there will be friction in the garden as piñatas compete for the same resources. On top of all that, there are sour piñatas who have heard about your successful garden and want to spoil the party. They each have behavior that is meant to mess up your garden in a new way. Xbox.com: What kind of achievements do you expect to offer? With such open gameplay, the achievements system can offer tangible goals from the start. Do you plan on utilizing the system this way? Justin: We are hoping to give a really good range of achievements, for first-time gamer through to the experts. We're almost spoiled for choice when it comes to what we can give achievements out for, so we are trying to make sure there are achievements for everyone no matter how they want to play the game. Xbox.com: Will the game use any kind of calendar system? For example, will special events take place during a certain time of day or day of the week? Justin: The game uses a day/night cycle because some piñatas are nocturnal. We would like to have some seasonal content available from Marketplace, but that's still a way off. We'll probably need to finish the game first! Xbox.com: What sorts of items and tools will you have at your disposal to shape and change the environments and piñatas? Justin: We only have a few tools to play with. We wanted to make the game simple to use for anyone. However, as you progress through the game, the tools you have become improved. This lets you do more with the tools you already have and it allows you to show off to your friends. For example, the shovel you start the game with is pretty weak and old, but as it improves you can use it to shape the ground and really customize your garden. Xbox.com: Can you interbreed different piñatas to create your own unique breeds? Justin: Pardon? Interbreed? Would the ESRB let us do that? Xbox.com: Good point. Will there be any kind of leaderboards or system in place to compare piñatas competitively? Justin: I hope so. We certainly aim to take advantage of as many Xbox Live features as possible. The other important aspect is being able to brag about the stuff you've achieved in your garden. Xbox.com: How long has Rare been working on this game? Justin: I was working on the prototype game with two other people about four years ago, but we only started full production in its current form a couple of years ago. Xbox.com: What benefits does Xbox 360™ bring to this game? Justin: When we knew we were working on Xbox 360 it allowed us to expand all our ideas. We wanted to fill the machine, and now we have engineers jumping up and down on development kits trying to squeeze as much in before we have to ship. Xbox.com: Is there interaction between non-player characters (NPCs) in the game, or is it mostly dealing directly with the piñatas? If there are NPCs in the game world, what do they offer the player? Justin: Yes, we have NPCs in the game. We call them helpers. These are characters that have been designed to take away some of the jobs that keeping a garden entails. For example, one character weeds the garden. If you don't want to spend time getting rid of the weeds because you'd rather spend time with your piñata, then you can hire a weeder and he'll try his best to do the job for you. The helpers let you change the game, so you can play it the way that you like. Xbox.com: Is there a targeted release period yet? Justin: Look out for us on the shelves this holiday. Xbox.com: Thanks, Jason! We can't wait to get our hands dirty in our own garden! Related Links |
