Interview: Comet Crash: Bionic Swarm

Pelfast’s Comet Crash was a solid Tower Defense style game for the PlayStation 3, but provided a few cool twists such as the ability to set up your own bases and send forth your own troops, much like a cut-down, focused version of Command and Conquer.  We catch up with the studio’s head John Bates as they prepare to unleash the first expansion to the game: Bionic Swarm.

TSA: Hi John.  For starters, what are the main differences with the Bionic Swarm expansion?

John Bates: For Bionic Swarm, we have added some major new features that in some cases make it look like a new game. Whether it is the transforming swarm creatures, kamikaze drones or guided nukes, there are plenty of surprises waiting for players.

There are new late-game strategies to help ramp up the gameplay excitement and prevent stalemates in long battles, too. These late-game strategies come in the form of a Research tower where various upgrades and features can be purchased.

What sort of upgrades are you offering?

Scouts and Tanks can be upgraded into swarms that take shape as airborne snakes and fire breathing dragons. These swarm creatures can not be hit by ground-only weapons, so they provide new strategies to break through enemy defenses. The kamikaze upgrade gives drones the ability to crash and explode onto nearby airborne enemy units. Kamikazes are one defensive tactic against the snake and dragon.

Guided missiles provide a new way to turn the tide of a strategic battle. In Bionic Swarm, players can research and build missiles that they can launch at any area on the map to obliterate a cluster of buildings and units. Defensive strategies must take into account these guided missiles with the option to build missile defense towers for protection.

Finally, there are new resource gathering strategies with the Harvester tower and health upgrades for the player ship to help it navigate enemy territories.

What have you learnt from the development of the core Comet Crash game?

We were experts at the technical side of game development, but new to the business aspects. Publishing Comet Crash was our crash course in the business side of things. There were constant surprises and tons of stress, but we look back on it as a great learning experience. Everything from subcontracting and submissions to PR and marketing has gone smoother this time with the Bionic Swarm expansion pack.

Comet Crash offered some nice twists, such as being able to fight back and some multiplayer options, do you think these extra features were communicated effectively to potential buyers?

Those were some of our biggest selling points, so we made sure they were communicated to potential buyers via our website, press releases and on the PlayStation Store product description. The free demo also helped to convey our unique gameplay elements.

How important was it to offer that free demo, and what was the take-up from those testing it to those purchasing the full game?

I think the free demo is critical to ensure that players are happy with their purchase. Not everyone likes strategy games, so without a demo it’s possible for there to be upset buyers that feel they were duped by marketing or reviewers. We see anywhere from 5% to 20% conversion depending on the month.

What are your thoughts on the differences between a Tower Defense game that lets you plan your own paths as opposed to one that enforces a level structure?

Good question, I can see you did your homework! Logically speaking, I think the possible strategies in fixed-path TD games are a subset of strategies in dynamic path TD games. Having more strategies or choices is exciting for creative players, but it can also be more difficult.

Comet Crash is basically the middle ground, though, with some elements in place but with the ability to make your own paths on top of that.

Yes, in Comet Crash, we decided it was best to go with a hybrid solution. Since dynamic pathing can be confusing, the first few levels of Comet Crash have mostly fixed paths to help ease the player into building their own paths. Our level designer could choose anything from fixed paths to open and dynamic paths, and I think that resulted in a lot of fun variations in Comet Crash levels.

What did you think of Pixeljunk Monsters (and VectorTD, probably my favourite minis game just now)?

I didn’t make it all the way through Monsters, but the levels that I played had solid, addictive gameplay. Lately, I haven’t had much time to play games outside of occasional StarCraft 2 binges. Now that we are almost done with the expansion pack it sounds like I will have to try out some minis.

Do you think the sci-fi graphics helped or hindered sales of Comet Crash, do people expect a certain type of game when they see visuals like that?

Comet Crash has more aggressive twitch gameplay than many TD games, so I think the sci-fi style conveys that quite well. If it had more cartoonish visuals, players might be surprised by the often fast-paced and intense strategy.

The game garnered lots of positive feedback from reviews, what motivates you to keep producing new content?

The most motivation comes from reading emails and comments from individual players. We have been blown away by the feedback and praise from Comet Crash fans, so they deserve a lot of credit for keeping us busy on new content.

Are there any plans to get Comet Crash onto any other platforms?

We were considering a port to Xbox 360, but our application to Microsoft’s Registered Developer Program was turned down. It is probably for the best though, because we have honed our skills for PS3 development and publishing. We have had some requests for a PC version, so a PC Steam port is another possibility.

Turned down?  How was working with Sony?

SCE was incredibly supportive and flexible for allowing Pelfast to become a licensed developer. Even though we were unproven, they saw us as having the potential to add value to the PS3. As a 3rd party developer and publisher, we worked directly with account managers from four SCE divisions in order to ship worldwide. A lot of our interaction during the submission process was trial by fire as we learned the procedures, so it was helpful to have a direct communication channel to each territory when questions came up.

The PS3 features useable features, like Youtube uploading and custom background music – where these important to you?

Video record and YouTube upload probably wasn’t that important, but it was relatively easy to implement and many players appreciate the feature. BGM (custom background music) is important because music tends to be subjective. It is common for AAA games to have musical scores that are integral to the gameplay, but I think with most small-scope PSN games it is best to give the player veto power over the music.

Thanks for your time, John.

We’ve been playing the latest installment of Comet Crash for almost a week and it’s a really enjoyable addition to the core game, with stacks of new content.  If you’re yet to grab the original then now’s the time – it’s a deep, open-ended Tower Defense game but with enough twists and new ideas to ensure it’s absolutely worth your time – it’s available on the PlayStation Store right now, and if you’re still unsure then check out that free demo.

Bionic Swarm, the expansion, is out today.