by:	November 17, 2005

XE: When creating Marble Blast Ultra, how much of it is new content, and how much of it is derived from previous titles?

Mark: Of the levels in Marble Blast Ultra, we have a completely reworked set of 20 beginner levels as well as 10 fully new multiplayer levels. Even the levels we brought over from the original, including most of the intermediate and advanced levels have received a full graphical reworking and gameplay tweaks.


XE: Being an Apple Mac user I have played Marble Blast quite a bit, but how does working with a Xbox 360 differ from working with a Mac, or PC?

Mark: That’s great! We were really stoked to be able to work with Apple and get Marble Blast included on all their consumer machines. Anyway, the really great thing about 360 development, aside from the raw power of the hardware, is that it is a fixed platform. We don't need to worry about which graphics card a user has, or what OS/driver combinations work with the game. If it works on the development system it just works period. It definitely reduces some of the headaches associated with game development. Another fairly major difference is in control input devices – from the mouse and keyboard to the 360 gamepad. We designed the Marble Blast games originally so that they could be played easily with either input setup, but still there was quite a bit of tweaking done to make sure that the feel was right with the new version.


XE: How will the controls be mapped out on the controller? Would it be possible to use the media remote?

Mark: The left stick controls the movement of the marble and the right stick controls the camera, in a way very similar to FPS style games. All of the other marble abilities (use powerup, jump and blast) are mapped to buttons as well as the shoulder triggers. Right now the media remote is not supported for control input.


XE: How many levels are in the game? Down the line do you see making more levels or any Xbox 360 Live Arcade titles?

Mark: There are 60 single player levels and 10 multiplayer levels. We're assuming that once the skilled Marble Blast Ultra players have beaten all the single player levels and found all the Easter Eggs scattered throughout that they'll take their honed skills online to bash it out in the multiplayer game mode. There's also definitely the possibility of an Ultra expansion, and we will certainly be making more titles for Xbox 360 Live Arcade.


XE: How many people can play against each other? How many Xbox Live achievements will there be, and could you give an example of some?

Mark: Marble Blast Ultra supports 8 players playing against each other in the same arena, which can lead to some crazy marble mayhem – it's worth downloading the trial if only to try the multiplayer. All Live Arcade titles have 12 achievements; some of the ones from Marble Blast Ultra are the "Egg Seeker" for finding at least one Easter Egg, "Gem Collector" for scoring 75 points in a multiplayer map, and "Timely Marble" for beating at least one level in better than par time.


XE: The look of Ultra looks a bit different than Gold or other past Marble Blast, could you give some reasons behind some of the different styles?

Mark: With the original Marble Blast titles we were going for a fairly cartoon-styled look, but given the rendering capabilities of the 360, with Ultra we decided to go for a more raytraced, hyper-real look. We wanted the game to have a visual style that would appeal to both the more hard-core gaming crowd which we expect will make up a good chunk of initial 360 sales, as well as the more casual, family-friendly players.