The Tepid Seat - Grabbed by the Ghoulies Team

Answers: Grabbed by the Ghoulies development team - March 2004 Q: Well, hmm, first off, where does the name, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, come from? Due to the obvious sexual implication of the word, it has brought up some lame quips. I also want to know if, when Cooper is "grabbed by the ghoulies" and you have to push buttons in the right order to free him, the button setup is random. One time I had to spell "baby" and thought that was humorous.      Brutusmuktuk Rare: The name of the game actually preceded the game itself - a rarity, I can assure you. Quite often we have games in development for months without names or ones which undergo one or more name changes. Not so Ghoulies. We were talking about something else completely irrelevant one day and someone mentioned being about being grabbed by the goolies. We all thought "what a great name for a game". Then all we had to do was think of a game that would suit it!      The button pushing is indeed random - why only last week I had to enter Up, Right, A, Trigger, Up, Right and Down to continue.   Q: How long did actual development of the game take? How long did the planning take? How come you developed such a short and accessible game after developing the epic masterpiece Banjo-Tooie which takes more time to finish than an average BioWare RPG?      Wilhelm Rare: From start to finish it was a little under three years, which seems a bit wrong when the epic Banjo-Tooie only took 27 months. But whereas B-T was a sequel with pre-established content, Ghoulies was an original game that started life as a Nintendo product and had to undergo a change to Xbox. This wasn't as simple as pressing the 'convert to Xbox' key on the development kit either (unfortunately).      You've answered your own question regarding the 'short and accessible' game. B-T was huge, required a massive player commitment and we doubt that most people actually got anywhere near finishing. (Did you?) Ghoulies was supposed to be a game everyone could instantly enjoy and most people could complete.   Q: Why exactly do you think Ghoulies got so much flak from macho "M rated" gamers because it isn't realistic to the point that you can hire a prostitute and shoot her in the face afterward? Have some people warped their minds to the point that things like that are the only real life, or have they gotten so used to very easy FPS and racers to the point that they will never accept something new?      Good job guys, you made the entire Xbox purchase worth it. Kiss my arse Gamespot!      Trann Rare: Don't know what I can add to this, as you've presented a pretty decent answer. Whether positive or negative, being different will always get you attention. If you like the game, then buy it and play it. If you don't like it, don't buy it and don't play it. Playing games is all about escapism and doing stuff you can't in real life and every so often we like to try to create something new and risk failure than do the same as everyone else and just make up the numbers. Glad you liked it!   Q: Any chance of a handheld version? (The answer is "No" I'm 99% sure of that so that was a pointless question.) Any chance of a sequel? (Yeah, that's no as well probably.) Were you disappointed with the sales and how badly it was received, because I certainly was?      Fred Neshin-san Rare: At the moment it's no, no and kind of no. Although the game wasn't as well received as some in the past, I believe it set out what we were trying to achieve. We wanted to create a fun game that could be played by someone of any age. Yes, it probably favours younger players, and feedback we have received from publications that cater for that age group has been very positive. As Trann mentioned previously, the Xbox probably has the most narrow demographic of the current generation of consoles, and for some players if it's not an FPS/military-based game or a sports simulation then they don't want to know.   Q: As an aspiring game designer and a current animation student at Digipen Intitute of Technology, I'd like to know how you fellas go about developing the concept for a game. Do you start with gameplay ideas, or story and characters? Have you guys ever used ideas from your youth? How long does it take to formulate the whole idea before production? Finally how do you guys see yourself as game designers in the industry?      Jim Burner Rare: A concept for a game can start in any of the ways you mentioned. Banjo started with the character and his abilities, with the game being built around that. Ghoulies started with the name, whereas Kameo began with the idea of turning into monsters. It can literally be anything, but it's usually one thing.      These ideas can come from anywhere and from any point in your life. As a kid, I always wanted to be a bear wearing tight yellow shorts with a bird in my backpack - I even practiced firing eggs out of my backside. Well, maybe not.      In years gone by, development would start immediately after a concept was conceived, with crucial decisions and direction quite often being made up as we went along. This isn't possible with the size of teams and commercial importance of games today, so a certain amount of work has to be done before production can start. Even so, developing a game is a creative and ongoing process and the finished product is never 100% what you imagined it to be at the start.      How do we see ourselves? Personally, I would say as entertainers (even though most would say we are layabouts without a 'proper' job!). Even if only one person enjoys playing something we create, we're happy. Of course, if millions like it we're even happier! Good luck with your studies, Jim.   Q: I wanted to know why is there this little door in the grand hall of Ghoulhaven Hall!!! Is it because you're stupid OR that you just wanted somebody to ask the question and laugh of him because he really thinks there's something inside? Anyway if there is a way to open it I THINK you just won't tell me because you did that with the other games.      René Rare: I assume you mean the door in the bookcase. If you were a little more observant, you'd notice that this is the door that Cooper and Amber exit the Archives from in the animated Storybook at the end of Chapter 2.      Alternatively, if you are stupid enough to believe anything, then maybe the response from artist who modelled the grand hall will clear it all up: "Just tell him it leads to the 'stop-n-swap' room..."   Q: You seem to usually have male protagonists as dim-witted and/or goofy and/or hapless whereas your female protagonists seem to be a little more spunky and/or quick-witted and/or mean. Does this speak to a philosophical standpoint on gender of yours or is it just convenient to make your games funny?      Devin Rare: To quote a famous philosopher: "No-one likes a clever clogs but everyone laughs at a fool". Actually I just made that up, but it's a pretty accurate reflection of what players seem to enjoy. Or maybe it's because we're all dim-witted, goofy and hapless?   Q: Why did you choose to simplify the fighting controls to the joystick when there were the face buttons just yearning to be pushed? Maybe an option next time. The more choices the better.      Alex Barrella Rare: Because everyone's been pressing buttons since the dawn of time! We thought it would be cool if you could attack in any direction without having to suffer the usual 'turn to face opponent, press button to attack and then get smacked from behind'. And why do you want more buttons to press? It should be less. You don't see mobile phone companies saying "let's see how many buttons we can fit on our next model and let's make it really difficult to operate it" do you? If gaming is ever to become truly mass market then control systems need to be really simple and straightforward. There, I can get off my soapbox now. Q: Is the Baron based on anyone that any of the team know? And if so please tell me so I can laugh at them. Also are any other members of the Grabbed by the Ghoulies cast based on real people?      Chris Stopper Rare: The Baron is a bizarre mix of the Red Baron (German WW1 fighter ace), British aristocracy and a complete lunatic. Unfortunately this doesn't match anyone on the team, although we do have a few lunatics. Apart from that, Ma Soupswill is loosely based on a school cook from when I was a child, Fiddlesworth is how I always imagined a 'cerebrally challenged', but kind-hearted groundskeeper to be and Babs Buffbrass is again loosely based on the lady that cleans our offices (although she doesn't speak like that at all and never pulls our ears).      I could also say that the Imp is based on Banjo's Jinjo, but the artist responsible will go into a huff - even though it is!   Q: In the manual, under Features, "listen to the soundtrack" is listed. Having beaten the absurdly cruel (and fun!!1!) 21st challenge, I can attest to its absence. I blame deceased US ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson. Care to set the record straight?      Chad McCanna Rare: Indeed, we were contacted by the spirit of Mr. Stevenson shortly after the manual had gone to print, but whilst we were still working on the final version of the game code (it's a matter of Microsoft internal policy that every product manual gets read by at least three undead former ambassadors, prior to publication). He informed us, as I think you rightly supposed, that it would be unwise to include the replay soundtrack feature in its then incomplete state, and thereby risk causing massive international dis-chord (groan).      But seriously, as much as you don't want to, you sometimes have to make sacrifices to get a game done on time. When it's a choice between polishing up functional aspects (that everybody who plays the game will appreciate) and putting in that last feature that would be really cool but that only yourself and about two other people worldwide will ever get to see... well, you get the picture. Unfortunately, the manual had already gone to print by then.      Still, you could always create your own replay soundtrack feature by replaying scenes, defeating all the Ghoulies, and then just not walking through the door...   Q: I love GBTG. It just has that same Rare touch that all of your games have had. Anyways, what did you find to be the hardest challenge in developing this game for Xbox? Since you were only a part of Microsoft Game Studios for a year before GBTG was released, did you run into any unusual challenges?      Adam Rare: Glad you liked the game, Adam. Challenges, eh? Converting from Gamecube to Xbox was probably the first, and one of the biggest challenges. Other challenges we faced included getting the game finished within a year once it was converted, adapting to the way that Microsoft Game Studios tested/approved games and trying not to eat too many fattening snacks (very difficult with growing teams and the fact that each team member brings in a cake on their birthday!).   Q: I'll cut to the chase. I've heard internet rumors that Ghoulies was close to being cancelled, are these rumors true? Were you concerned about how the gaming media would embrace Grabbed by the Ghoulies before it was released? Will there be a sequel? How many projects are you currently undertaking?      Glenn Lear Rare: A real mixed bag of questions there, Glenn.      No, Ghoulies was never close to being cancelled (I wouldn't believe anything you read on the internet - it's only one step up from 'I heard it from a bloke down the pub').      We predicted a reasonably rough ride from the gaming media as it wasn't aimed at the core 'guns and driving' Xbox demographic, it wasn't PD and it wasn't on Nintendo anymore. So we were prepared!      At the moment we have no plans for a sequel, but we said that about Sabre Wulf about 20 years ago!      How many projects would you like us to be undertaking? If we gave you an exact number, we'll just get some people trying to work out what they already know and then wildly guessing (admittedly entertaining for us) what the others are. You should know of three, but of course there are others - we wouldn't be Rare if we didn't have something that no-one knows much about, would we?   Q: Just a thought: Who was it that stood up and demanded, "Hey, let's give the funniest voice in the game to a haunted DOOR!"?      Behonkiss Rare: Actually it was more like someone standing up and saying "Does anyone know what noise a haunted door makes?". Nobody did, so the musician decided to record himself saying "mmmn-mmm-mmmurrr" a lot.   Q: I noticed that in the upper corridor there was a blocked off room that has a few Rare books laying on the ground in a question mark. Is this just a joke or is it actually there for a reason!?!      Tim aka MrPants the Great Rare: The official answer is that it's there purely for a joke and to invite the usual flurry of frustrated emails. But we can't admit that as it will only annoy people, so we'll say that it's a super special secret that will only be revealed when you eject the disc and within five seconds replace it with another, as-yet-unreleased Rare title, while looking at the question mark in, er, question.   Q: Considering Fondled by the Flanges mightn't have been a contender, what were the other titles for the game?      Soon Rare: We had no other titles for the game - it was Grabbed by the Ghoulies even before the first line of code was written or the first polygon modelled. In the opening Storybook, the sign to the next village used to read 'Neede in the Nuts' rather than 'Ghoulsville in the Gloom'. This was to be the name of the sequel if it was ever done, but the folks at Microsoft thought that it was a bit too risqué so I'm afraid it had to go.   Q: Why oh WHY did this game not have a first person view for seeing all of those beautiful cameos up close? I spent hours getting the trigger sensitivity just right to see Banjo-Threeooie and other mock-up game boxes! My poor shootin' fingers, ruined by such a nice, nice game!      Mr. XBizzle Rare: The Banjo games always had a first person mode as it was sometimes essential to have a good look around to work out what you were supposed to be doing or going. As the playing environments in Ghoulies are a lot smaller we thought this wasn't necessary - as it is pretty obvious where to go and what to do. What we didn't expect was that players would want to stare in microscopic detail at the backgrounds. Obviously we were wrong. The fact that there are loads of crude-sounding products on shelves has got nothing to do with it whatsoever...   Q: My question for the Tepid Seat, more specifically, the Ghoulies composer, is about that nifty guitar solo in the "Ballroom Disco" track. If I'm right in assuming that was live (I don't think an electric guitar would sound that good under something like the general MIDI limitations), that was some pretty good... err... playing, there. Is Grant himself responsible for that, or did you guys bring in some random goon off the street?      Void Jay Rare: Aaaah... the Ballroom guitar solo… guilty I'm afraid. Yes, it was played live. Just in case you're interested, the rhythm part was played using a Fender Strat and the solo was on my Les Paul Standard through a line6 Flextone 2 XL. I'm afraid my Heavy Metal roots are showing through, I just thought it'd be a laugh to get a bit of rock in there amongst those Ghastly Ghoulies! Q: Why are there Ghoulies living in washing machines in the laundry room? I mean, there are lots of other good places they could stay, like one of the laundry hampers! There would be a lot more room in one of those, but the washing machines would probably have a hot-tub pre-installed, So I guess it's a matter of opinion. Also, does The Reaper do anything special in his free time?      The Invisible Man Rare: Why would they want to live in baskets full of smelly underpants and sweaty socks? It's much cleaner in the washing machines. Flushed with his success of hassling Cooper in his debut game, The Reaper decided to pick a fight with the 'daddy' of Reapers from Conker's Bad Fur Day, as you may have seen in last November's edition of Scribes...   Q: Here's an interesting question. Just who is that green-haired zombie-esque woman who pops out of windows and screams? Just what was her purpose supposed to be originally? She seems to serve no purpose currently and she was in the unlockable video. Please put this mystery to rest.      Ness554 Rare: She was one of the very first characters modelled, a test almost. While she never became a character you could fight, we wanted to find a use for her - so her speciality became window-peering, arm-waving and screaming.   Q: If you guys could have remade the game with no set deadline; with the knowledge that you have now, what would have you done differently?      James Cadden Rare: Cooper would have been a gravelly-voiced, stubble-faced martial arts expert of few words, who ruthlessly ran the Ghoulies over in really fast cars while shooting innocent bystanders, drinking beer and making lewd suggestions to scantily-clad prostitutes.      Seriously though, the original concept had more adventure elements in it and we would probably include more of this, giving the player some choice to how they progressed. Some kind of upgrade system for the fighting would have also been cool.   Q: Not being a Rare employee on the GbtG team, I obviously don't know for sure what the game's origins are or how long it took to make the game. So my questions are when did you start making GbtG, was it ported from the Cube or built from scratch, and why did you bother with a loading screen? Those are pretty simple questions for bright folks like you.      Nathan Drews Rare: GbtG was started in October 2000 and was ported from the Gamecube to the Xbox in September 2002.      The loading screen is quite obvious there for when information being loaded in off the disk. Or was that question meant to be aimed in a more technically clever way? If it was, then I've got absolutely no idea - that's left down to the clever technical people.   Q: How do you guys call the graphic technique used in Grabbed by the Ghoulies, is it Cell shading? Do you have any plans of making a multiplayer version of the game? I think it would be a lot of fun on Xbox Live!! And what is the Grabbed by the Ghoulies team going to do now that they have finished the title? Are they going to start working on Banjo-Kazooie for the Xbox Next???? Or help speed up the process of making PDZ???      Master J 007 Rare: We gave up with fancy names for graphic techniques after ACM in DKC. We never had an official one for Banjo (although we came up a couple of stupid ones - one of which was 'ARSE' - can't remember what it stood for, though). Ghoulies didn't have one at all, so how about we just say "it looks nice" and be done with it?      The game was too far into development when we switched to Xbox and too close to its deadline to consider Live! We did have a same screen co-op mode running though, but again to make it work properly would have required time and resources we just didn't have. Live! would have been good in a more open playing environment, i.e. 16 players all over the house at the same time. Or maybe even all 16 in the same room!      Do you really expect us to tell you what game we are doing next? That's like a politician admitting they arsed something up or that other opposition party is right about something. It's not going to happen, I'm afraid. But we're diligently toiling away as you speak...   Q: Do you feel that there is a certain beat-em-up revival-type movement going around? Three games probably aren't enough to judge, but we had Turtles, Batman: Sin Tzu, and Ghoulies coming out all during the third quarter of last year.      JetDog Rare: Sadly, I don't think so - although I'd love to see a new Double Dragon or Final Fight. Maybe if there was a revival it might encourage us to dust off the Battletoads for another soiree. Or maybe even KI3!!!!!*      (* Mention of KI3 does not necessarily mean Rare is developing it, but feel free to keep asking Leigh anyway.)   Q: My inquistion question to you may or not be answered honestly, but I will ask anyway just for kicks. Since the acquisition of Rare by Microsoft, do you feel that your talents in game development are hindered by time deadlines set by MS or do you have full freedom to say to the higher ups at Microsoft Games Studios that your game is not of "Rare quality"? Also do you all feel that Rare has lost some of its core audience since you no longer focus on a younger demographic like you did with Nintendo? I just want to say to you guys that not all Xbox fans are hardcore first person shooters and that there are many fans who love the stuff you put out... why not... we grew up with you on the Nintendo 64...      Sergio Zorola Rare: We always answer honestly Sergio. If we can't, we'd rather try and give you an entertaining but answer-avoiding response than a lie.      Microsoft wants Rare to produce quality games in a timely manner. As you may have noticed, the 'timely manner' is something that we are trying to improve on. Microsoft understands the way that Rare works and is fully supportive of the decisions we make. Why only yesterday we phoned up Bill for a quick chat and told him our new game would miss its deadline by at least two years. As you can imagine, he was more than happy - "why not miss it by four years and you can all have a year off?" he replied. Seriously though, we are more than pleased with Microsoft's commitment to allow us to continuing developing the games in the way that has worked for us in the past. But we are working on that time element!      Rare has always tried to aim the majority of its games at broad appeal audiences. While in the past this was often seen as targeting the younger demographic (as they were the predominant audience), we feel that the whole player demographic is changing. The average age of gamers is increasing, and even the younger players want to experience more maturity in what they play.      While it's true that not every Xbox player is an FPS fan, it is fair to say that the Xbox demographic is skewed towards more mature games. Rare's ability to produce mass market appeal games will hopefully draw in a new market of Xbox players as well as satisfying loyal fans like you, Sergio.