Console Arcade interviews Xona Games.

In our second Xona Games interview (here's our first), Jason Doucette, lead programmer of our upcoming Xbox 360 shoot'em up Duality ZF, answers questions from Keith Murray and Jamie Davies of Console Arcade.  Here's a few highlights:

On gameplay philosophy:

There are no bonus points for collecting icons, medals, or level completion, etc. Such bonus points arise from enemy kills themselves. The better you kick ass, the higher your score – as it should be. An expert, high scoring “power play” of Duality ZF won’t be dilly-dallying, delaying shooting enemies, chasing fairies – it will show wrecking havoc; causing pure destruction in the most efficient way possible. Finally the gamer achieving the highest spot in the online scoreboards will be the one who is best at surviving enemy attack while decimating them – what shmups are all about.

On Dual Play:

Dual Play was discovered naturally due to desire for challenge from expert gamers; it was not implemented as a marketing trick to get sales. The gamers invented it. It fits naturally with shmups, as Duality ZF shows. It just doesn’t work with other genres, and their attempts to achieve brownie points with it fail. The features of Duality ZF are not gimmicks. They work, and are demanded for, by the true fans.

On gamer reception:

Duality ZF has been referred to as “Raiden on Red Bull” due to the intense firepower.

Duality ZF has also been dubbed the “Geometry Wars Killer”, based on the excitement of Survival mode (before we even beta-tested our Multidirectional mode!) [...] In Duality ZF you’re launching the attack – being the aggressor. You’re not running, whimpering, and hiding, as you do with every other dual stick shooter on the market. The feeling of accomplish via domination is just one of many game mechanics we understand thoroughly, where all others fall flat. [...] There’s absolutely no comparison of Duality ZF to any other multidirectional shooter – and that’s just the Multidirectional mode; one of many bonus modes.

On recognition of gamer accomplishment:

Unlike [...] all other shmups, where only a subsection of their game is credited in the leaderboards, Duality ZF ranks every mode, even multiplayer. [...] It’s going to be fun to see just how far four (or eight) fighters can get! Due to the credit and recognition received for all 96 game styles, there’s a ton of replayability.

On Duality ZF engine:

...the result is the Duality ZF engine: a silky smooth 60 frames per second, capable of handling 8 fighters shooting over 2,000 bullets, colliding with 100’s of enemies, with 1,000’s of explosions. The action literally fills the screen, and you just won’t find this anywhere else. This places Duality ZF in a league well above our XNA competitors, since this type of action is simply impossible with a standard implementation with no optimization, and it challenges the best of the best shmups ever made.

Read the entire interview here: http://www.console-arcade.com/features/xona-games-interview/

Preview Duality ZF?

Preview Duality ZF with our promotional materials.  Contact us if you want anything more.  We do pre- and post-release interviews on Duality ZF / XNA / XBLCG (XBLIG) / indie game / shoot'em up (shmup) development, shmup genre choice, XBLA efforts, and much more...

Also See:

• Duality ZF (official xona.com developer site)
• Duality ZF April 2009 Trailer (video)
• First Duality ZF Interview
• New Duality ZF Screenshots
• Duality ZF FAQ Answers

External Links:

• Duality ZF (official dualityzf.com game site)
• Duality ZF Forums (hosted on xbox.com)
• Xona Games (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo)
• Xbox LIVE Community Games* (xbox.com, Xbox Forums)
• Imphenzia Music (creator of the Duality ZF soundtrack)
• Console Arcade

*Xbox LIVE Community Games soon to be renamed to Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

About the Author:  I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning, team-of-two indie studio concentrating on "intense retro" games (Xbox LIVE, PSN, WiiWare, and Windows PC). We've released Decimation X (XBLIG), a 1-4 player shmup, #1 best selling and #1 top rated XBLIG in Japan. We're working on Duality ZF (XBLA), a groundbreaking 1-4 player shmup, which placed #1 in Canada and #5 in the world in Microsoft's Dream Build Play 2010 contest. It features dual play, the ability to control two fighters at once, and a massively upgradable 32-stage spread/laser weapon system. 4 player dual play allows up to eight fighters at once.  Many of these features are never before seen shoot'em up firsts. Both games feature beautiful electronic Imphenzia soundtracks.  Help spread the word with our official dualityzf.com and decimationx.com websites.

P.S. Watch out for Score Rush (official website scorerush.com), another 1-4 player shmup. Coming soon to XBLIG.

*Shmup also known as: shoot'em up, 2D shooter, scrolling shooter, space shooter, spaceship shooter, retro shooter, etc.