Chili Con Carnage is also adding multiplayer to the mix - would we be right in expecting something a little crazier than straight deathmatch?
We decided from the start that we weren't going to do "just another deathmatch". It's just not that kind of game. What we wanted to do was something much more in the spirit of OUR game so we came up with Fiesta mode.
Up to four players play towards a set score. The first one to reach the score is the winner. This should entice people to use outrageous moves and string long combos. During gameplay, the enemies you take down will appear on the opponents' machines making life more difficult for them.
On top of that we invented 'baddies' - like the opposite of a goody - that the player can pick up and use against the opponents. Stuff like earthquakes, weapon steals, camera twisters - fun things to send to your opponents. Lots of gloating, shouting and anguish is heard when we play Fiesta in the office!
We understand Sega level designer Junichi Yamada is working on Chili Con Carnage - how did he arrive on the team?
Junichi joined us from Sega Amusement Vision where he had been design section manager and worked on the Super Monkey Ball games, F-Zero and other great arcade titles.
It's very exciting working with a personality like Junichi who has so much experience from a different development culture and background. He and his wife moved to Denmark in the winter/spring of 2005 wanting to see and experience working outside of Japan. Sega's loss is our gain, you could say!
And how has he taken the jump from future racers and monkey-puzzling to Mexican gun-slinging? What have his ideas brought to the game?
Junichi's input has been invaluable on this project and has really helped us streamline it to a much more arcade action-oriented game. His focus on tight gameplay has vastly improved the play experience and we wouldn't have had Chili Con Carnage in the form it is now without his involvement.
There's just some je-ne-sais-quoi quality with the work of Japanese developers, and in Chili Con Carnage you can feel it in the super-tight gameplay, crazy bosses and addictive skill-based action.
