Interview with Ole Teglbjærg (Max and the Magic Marker)

Hey guys. Ole is back for Round Two with us. You can see the previous interview I did with him here as well as at Nintendojo. I suggest going back and reading that interview if you haven't, because the information there was quite impressive. Let's get right to it then, shall we?

What are some of the benefits of working on WiiWare as opposed to a retail style game?

Basically I think the whole business model of WiiWare or any of the other download platforms, is better suited for first time developers like us, who self publish and do not have a lot of money. On these platforms it is possible to publish a game without having the big investment needed to produce the physical copies or the logistic network required to get it out there. Other than that I guess the size limit provides some sort of freedom also. I know it sounds like a paradox, but it forces you to be creative with what you have and make the best of it. Eventually this means the emphasis is on creativity and good and "simple" game play, rather than fiddling around with some insane AI or spend years refining every pixel on every 3D model in the game. That said, retail of course provides another kind of freedom in terms of having all the space you want, but we choose to look at it from a positive angle.

We know there is a size limit of around 40MB for WiiWare games. Has this been an issue through the development of Max? What if any limitations have you had to put on yourself and has it been a hinderance at all?

As mentioned above, the size limit has given us a kind of freedom, but to be more specific it has also been a pain in the ass during the development. We've had to restrict the amount of graphics, reduce quality of the music, and cut out game modes and features, which otherwise would have made it to the game. So it definitely puts a limit to what you can do.

All of the screenshots we've seen featured an orange magic marker. Are there going to be any other colors that might have different effects on gameplay?

We've had long and hard discussions on this issue, because it seems like such an obvious good idea. However, we have eventually decided not to go for the multi-marker mechanic. But it is definitely relevant for a sequel.

One of the most talked about games right now is Scribblenauts, which seems to have a near endless amount of player created options available. How many different actions will you be able to perform in Max and the Magic Marker?


Scribblenauts, which I think looks like a fantastic game, had a team of designers going through Wikipedia finding words, defining behavior and categorizing them and they've ended up with "tens of thousands of words" as one of the designers told me when, when I talked to her in Madrid at the Ideame conference. That is a lot, but our approach is a lot different. What we did was to define a principle of "providing as much freedom as possible under the laws of physics". That meant we did not want pattern recognition like we had seen in a lot of other drawing games. We wanted actual drawing - the bumps on the line should be felt within the game. That also means that the creativity and the number of things to do, is only limited by the amount of ink you have collected and your imagination.


We've seen some shots of a large purple creature who wields a vacuum. What can you tell us about him? Are there any other villains in the game that you can talk about?

The purple monster is the one Max created with the marker before he knew it was magical. I won’t say too much about him just yet, but he has an irritating ability to turn Max's friends the "Gobos" into purple monster look-a-likes.
These will kill Max if they get in contact with him. The only way to make them good again is to drop things (or ink) on their heads, when they are not looking.

WiiWare now has a rather extensive library of games covering a large number of genres. What games have you been playing and what are some of your favorites on WiiWare?

My personal favorites are 2D boy´s World of Goo and Swords and Soldiers by Ronimo Games. Two very different games, both with qualities I admire. I don´t think anyone would disagree on the beauty and uniqueness of World of Goo. And Swords and Soldiers is just such a cool take on the RTS genre. I love it when games are boiled down to focus on one well designed mechanic, and this is in my opinion what both 2D boy and Ronimo has done in their games. Other than that, our game has been compared to LostWinds a lot, and I can definitely see the similarities. However I thought LostWinds was a bit slow. My hope is that Max will be a faster game, but still leave room for the puzzle part.
- Run, Jump, Think, Draw! As we say.


You recently gave us a sneak peak at some more audio for the game and how it will be integrated into the gameplay. What can you tell us about the music in the game and how exactly will it work with what's going on on-screen?

The music will be dynamic in the sense, that depending on where on the level you are, it will change accordingly. Asger Strandby who is working with the implantation of the sound, has along with the rest of Analogik recorded numerous tracks evolving around a unique theme for each world. The tracks can be played on top of each other creating new variations and that is what gives the dynamic feel. Furthermore, the ingame sound effects are synchronized to fit the music by a metronome. This means even the footsteps will end up following the rhythm of the music. This gives a really nice touch e.g. When picking up pickups.

The game was shown during GamesCom in August. Was that the first time it had been shown to the public? How was the reaction by people who got to see the game?

The reaction was overwhelming and people were very excited about it. It was only on display in the business section though, so consumers still have to wait.

Can you tell us anything about your other titles we've talked about in the past (Hard Plastic, Octoracer)?

Right now we've just entered preproduction on Hard Plastic laying down the art direction and basic rules of the game. We're pretty excited about it ourselves, but it still has a long way to go.

On Octoracer, I think we've skipped the "Racer" in Octoracer. We have done a lot of prototyping, and we love the basic movement mechanic, but it doesn’t work as a racer. So we'll have to can that part.

Max was announced to be in Alpha in July. Can you tell us how close you are to being able to announce a release date yet?

Sorry... no.


I'd like to thank Ole, once again, for joining us and talking about Max and the Magic Marker. Stay tuned to Nintendo Okie for all the latest information concerning this game as well as other titles in the future.