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1. Exclusive Interview w/ The Odd Gentlemen
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jun 01 2010

   I had a chance to enjoy an extensive interview with Paul Bellezza! Paul is a co-founder of The Odd Gentlemen and one of the masterminds behind the recent XBLA hit, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.
   
   General Thought Questions
   BEN: Where did the concept for The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom originate?
   Paul: Film School, Back To the Future II, Delicious Pie, and a late night Red Bull Binge.
   
   BEN: How long was the game in development? Any work being done for future DLC?
   Paul: The XBLA version of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom began in October 2008 and was completed in November of 2009. However, the student Flash version began sometime around 2006.
   
   BEN: How many people were involved with th game overall?
   Paul: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom was developed by a core team of 6 plus a few friends who helped with writing, music composition, and illustration.
   
   BEN: What is your team’s favorite aspect of the game?
   Paul: Eating delicious pie.
   
   BEN: We’ve heard rumors of the stubbornness it took to get this game made the way The Odd Gentlemen wanted, can you expand on that at all?
   Paul: When we were first pitching the game to publishers after GDC 2008 we heard a cornucopia of suggestions from publishers as to what we should do to the game for the professional development. Some publishers wanted the game to be in color, for Winterbottom to talk or to have him run through movies like Jurassic Park. At the end of the day we chose 2K Play as our publisher because they understood that we wanted to make a silent film inspired game starring a fat man who loves pies and can break the space-time continuum. 2K got it from the get-go, and gave us assurance that we would be in the creative driver’s seat.
   
   
   Gameplay Questions
   BEN: How do the time-bending mechanisms work?
   Paul: You can record instances of yourself wherever, whenever and how ever you want. It’s like having a record button on a camcorder. You can then use these Winterbottom clones to do your evil bidding by standing on their heads, powering machines, stepping on your past self’s dead body, or smacking your own bottom. This open approach to puzzle solving creates interesting solutions to puzzles.
   
   BEN: Just how many P.B. Winterbottoms can there be at once?
   Paul: About twenty.
   
   BEN: How difficult do the puzzles get?
   Paul: They range from quite easy to very difficult. Because the puzzles are open and there are multiple solutions it also depends on how you are trying to solve the puzzles, whether you are carefully plotting them out or trying a more dexterity based solution.
   
   BEN: Where there additional puzzles that didn’t make the cut?
   Paul: Tons…many didn’t make the cut for scope reasons.
   
   BEN: How did you conceptualize such engaging, challenging, yet fun puzzles for this game?
   Paul: A lot of times we would work backwards and visualize the end chain we wanted the user to create. Then we would find all these other ways to solve the puzzles and tweak from there.
   
   
   Style Questions
   BEN: What motivated you to pursue the 20's silent-movie style?
   Paul: Matt, was a film undergraduate and has always held a profound love for the silent film classics of all. On the student version of the game, he wanted to take the charm and appeal of those films and bring them into a game world. This continued into the professional version of the game as well. We drew inspiration from the films of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin. We also are big fans of Metropolis, A Trip to the Moon and the Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari.
   
   BEN: Is the game truly done in silent-movie style (i.e., only a soundtrack)? Or are there sound effects when you interact with the environment?
   Paul: The game does have some sound effects but we tried to keep them minimal and only used for feedback purposes. We wanted the music to be the focus of the auditory experience like in a Silent Film.
   
   BEN: Who composed the awesome soundtrack? Any plans for OSTs or individual tracks to be released? (We’d love to use one for the GoGcast commercial while you’re on the show!)
   Paul: Our composer David Stanton went to school with us at USC, and his audition track was more or less the title track for the game. We gave him the instructions: “Edward Gorey meets Silent Film” and he pretty much nailed it. He’s amazingly talented.
   
   
   Developer/Personal Questions
   BEN: What tools/languages/environments were used to create The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom?
   Paul: The original student version was made entirely in Flash. The XBLA version was created in C++ and utilized Lua for scripting. We built our own engine and tools from scratch.
   
   BEN: How does your company feel about digital distribution? Will it or should it replace physical media? Will physical games ever go away?
   Paul: The future will all be digital, it’s inevitable. Walmart will have to deal.
   
   BEN: What is the video game industry still missing?
   Paul: Games about Space Marines…o….wait…hmm…games about hugs.
   
   BEN: Along with managing the release of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, what else should we look forward to, from The Odd Gentleman?
   Paul: We can’t say just yet, but the next concept we have is just a crazy as Winterbottom!
   
   BEN: What other games have you been involved and do any stick out to you for any reason?
   Paul: I was a QA tester on the prolific Barbie and The Magic of Pegasus. Truly a gem among gems.
   
   BEN: Would you rather be a Giant Platypus or a Giant Caterpillar?
   Paul: Giant Caterpillar because I’d eat all day, sleep in cocoon at night, wake up and fly away. Then die. A simple life.
   
   BEN: What are some of your favorite video games of all time?
   Paul: Toe Jam & Earl, ActRaiser, Kid Chameleon, and Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist.
   
   BEN: As we are a unique video game community, what are the thoughts behind these types of online communities and how can we better connect with game developers and the amazing games they produce?
   Paul: We’re all for the many great communities that exist on the interwebs. Anywhere where people can get together and discuss our shared love for games is a great thing. For our company, it’s a great way to interact with the gaming public. When I was teenager, I was stoked when I got a reply from Sierra Designer Al Lowe in a Compuserve forum and ever since then I’ve known how important personal communication with the community is.
   
   BEN: How do The Odd Gentleman utilize Social Media? Is it a driving force or more of a supplement to your marketing and branding objectives for this game title?
   Paul: For a small independent studio like ours, community is everything to us. It’s where we can actively engage with our players and it’s our fans who help us to survive as a studio. Its grassroots word of mouth that helps spread knowledge of the game’s existence as opposed to giant marketing campaigns. We utilize Facebook, Twitter, and our company blog has our main channels of communication and it’s definitely a driving force in helping us get the word out there.
   
   BEN: As we did with NinjaBee and “A Kingdom For Keflings”, would our GoG community be able to setup a chance to play with some of the developers? Can this even be done without a true multiplayer experience?
   Paul: We’d love to. We can all Live Party Chat while competing on the Winterbottom Bonus Shorts. Sign us up.
   
   BEN: Can we look for a GoG profile from you? (That would be awesome!)
   Paul: Sure thing!
   
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   Want more from The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom? Check out www.winterbottomgame.com

   
   

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BEN has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. DeadManFloating
   Posted On Jun 10 2010

   Always great talking to developers and see what's going on inside their heads.