The guys from Frozen Codebase, the developers of the upcoming XBLA title Screwjumper!, were kind enough to not only answer some of our questions, but also send us the exclusive first screen shots of the game (click for full size!). While they wouldn't talk about any plans for DLC in the future, they describe the game in detail, and have certainly peeked my interest in what looks to be a fast paced, hectic, joyride.

XBLArcade.com:

Tell me a bit about yourself, and what you do at Frozen Codebase.

Norb:

I appear to be Norb Rozek, d/b/a Rev. Norb. I was the lead designer on Screwjumper!, and my current title is "design director," which more or less means I run around doing whatever design chore falls in my lap that day while simultaneously trying to convince people half my age that they should pay attention to my input ((try it sometime, it's great)). I write documents, adjust other people's documents, place stuff, design stuff, request stuff, demand stuff, stamp my feet and throw fits, and spend a lot of time trying to define what the problem is and how to fix it. I find myself eating animal crackers for lunch a lot.

Ben:

My name is Ben Geisler and I’m the managing partner of Frozen Codebase. Currently I’m fulfilling the role of Producer, although I served as both a Game Programmer and Technical Director on Screwjumper. As a producer, it basically means that I am the glue – or, as our developers call me, “Big Ben.” We use agile development at Frozen Codebase, so I run the scrum meetings, set priorities for our current bugs, and generally make sure everything is getting done. Finally, I am the interface to our publisher (THQ) and to Microsoft. But more importantly, last weekend “I closed Wolski’s” (in Milwaukee, WI), and I’m quite proud of it.

XBLArcade.com:

Frozen Codebase has a few former Garage Games people on the team. How has their presence and experience with Torque and with XBLA helped (or hindered) the project's progress?

Ben:

This has been a great help to Frozen Codebase. On Screwjumper!, we were fortunate enough to have artist/designer Justin Kovac, programmer James Lupiani and designer Adam DeGrandis. All three of these developers had previously shipped Marble Blast Ultra. My own experience comes from “Triple-A” development houses like Radical Entertainment and Raven Software. As such, I was used to console development, but not the specifics of XBox Live Arcade functionality or the heavy restrictions on memory imposed by the platform.

Click the "Read More" link to see the whole Q&A (and another screenshot).

XBLArcade.com:

What is a Screwjumper?

Norb:

I dunno, can I see some ID? Er, okay, seriously...a "Screwjumper" is a renegade intergalactic mercenary ex-mine worker. DEATH IS THEIR BREAD! DANGER IS THEIR BUTTER! They're real tough, hard-nosed sorts, who had spent their lives working in deep, perilous mineshafts on planets like Scruto, Libitino, Floratone and Hecateus -- sort of like a secret society of blue-collar loose cannons from space. Automation at the mines, however, has put the Screwjumpers out of a gig, so they've resorted to mercenaryism to make ends meet and grab a quick adrenaline fix in the process. As fate would have it, the Screwjumpers' primary customers these days are the residents of the planets which are being devastated by the mines in which they used to work -- turns out the folks who actually live there want the mines gone, in a big way. So, irony of ironies, the Screwjumpers have now been hired to destroy the mines they once helped build. Eh, it's a living.

Now, as to the parallel question of WHY they're called "Screwjumpers," that's a little more mundane in origin. Back on Earth, our original design for the game called for the characters to jump down the shafts on these huge, sort of corkscrew-like, structures -- so, yes, they were originally supposed to be jumping down on big screws, hence "Screwjumpers." That lasted for about a week before technical unfeasability put the kibosh on the notion of two zillion rotating corkscrews, but the name still stuck, probably because it sounds kinda dirty.

Ben:

Screwjumpers? Two zillion rotating corkscrews? Norb! Stop giving away our secrets! Besides everyone knows that Screwjumpers (ex mine-workers) are named as such because of the vast array of screws needed to patch together the mines of the Evil Alien Corporation. Geez..

XBLArcade.com:

LunarDuality summed Screwjumper! up as a modern Paperboy with jetpacks and high explosives but that's based on very limited knowledge of the game. How would you sum it up?

Ben:

Screwjumper! is a vertical action/racing game which pits the player (a Screwjumper named Skruii, or one of his various associates) against the Evil Alien Corporation known only as the EAC (aren’t we clever?). Skruii undertakes missions assigned by the Screwjumpers Union. He is tasked with destroying alien mining equipment and architecture while plummeting downward in continual, rapid, free-fall descent. The game is a combination of fast-paced demolition and subterranean skydiving.

The objective of the game is to maximize score by crashing into and dynamiting as many alien structures as possible on the way down the mineshaft, then to initiate a detonation and race back to safety on the planet’s surface.

XBLArcade.com:

Why the exclamation point? (^_^)

Norb:

I'd like to say that we used it because the exclamation point has a long association with rock 'n' roll -- heck, Lonnie Mack had an exclamation-point-equipped hit with "Wham!" in 1963, and Mojo Nixon had an album called "Bo-Day-Shus!!!", which had THREE exclamation points ((one for each member of the "Mojo Holy Trinity" -- Elvis Presley, Foghorn Leghorn, and Otis the Drunk from the Andy Griffith Show)) -- and I'd also like to say that alphanumeric characters exude a frisson of 21st Century polycultural angst and danger -- heck, I'd even like to say it was inspired by Grant Morrisson's "Agent !" character in the Doom Patrol comic books -- but, just like the origin of the term "Screwjumper," the real reason is actually much more banal: At one point in time, the powers-that-be decided that it was a good idea ((cough)) to change the name of the game from “Screwjumper” to “Aaah, Screwjumper!” I will refrain from commenting at length about this because I would just as soon not be bagging groceries next week. In any event, the “Aaah” was eventually stricken from the game’s title, leaving only the “!”, which I am actually quite fond of. We’re getting a lot of response to the exclamation point; I had no idea it was such a novelty in the game world. I think our next game has got to START with an exclamation point, that way it’ll be on top of 3D Ultra Minigolf in the XBLA game listings.

XBLArcade.com:

What can you tell us about the story?

Norb:

Well, you got the gist of it already – you used to work in these exceptionally dangerous mines, and now you’re laid off and have been hired to destroy them instead. The Screwjumpers Union dropship drops you into a mineshaft, and you go hurtling around, smashing stuff as you fall, and tossing dynamite at stuff you can’t quite reach yourself. And, of course, there are mines and missiles and lasers and grinders and little dudes shooting at you and other such niceties. You have to destroy X amount of stuff before you get to the bottom of the shaft, or the automatic defenses kick in and you get fatally gassed. Assuming you reach the bottom and you haven’t been fatally gassed ((or blown up or electrocuted or shot or etc. etc. etc.)), you toss dynamite into the reactor core that’s powering the mine operations, reverse your jet boot polarity, and blast back up thru the mine – hoping to make your escape before the whole thing goes down in flames, or up in smoke, or whatever the proper metaphor would be. You bring down bunch of mines, across a bunch of different planets, and if you destroy ‘em all, you’ve driven the Evil Alien Corporation ((d/b/a “The EAC”)) and their mines from the Four Planets, and we buy you a metaphorical beer at the Union Hall.

XBLArcade.com:

What excites you most about working on an XBLA game? What frustrates you?

Ben:

We love the XBLA platform. The idea that small, innovative games can be created on a console system is something which really appeals to us. Our studio is a mix of hardcore and casual gamers; as such XBLA is the perfect blend. We like the ability to prove our gameplay ideas and quickly move on to other ideas if these are not working. This gives a true feeling of iterative development.

Additionally, the Leaderboard, Achievement, Voice Chat, and Profile functionality is top notch. During the creation of Screwjumper!, many other game ideas came out of these and other XBLA features. I’d like to see developers (self included!) pushing the envelope more with the base functionality provided by XBLA. All I can say for now is that you will have to stay tuned to see what we do on our next XBLA title!

XBLArcade.com:

How has working with Microsoft been? Any certification horror stories that seem somewhat prevalent?

Ben:

In October, Norb and I flew out to Microsoft with our concept and a first playable of Screwjumper. I was very pleased to get quick and honest design feedback from them. Certification has been similar to what I remember on AAA titles. Despite the level of scrutiny required by this process, I’m actually thankful for it. Everyone wants a better game at the end of the day -- Microsoft, THQ and Frozen Codebase.

XBLArcade.com:

How did you guys hook up with THQ? Is their any added pressure in developing the first game that they are publishing on the service?

Ben:

Peter Armstrong of THQ/Valusoft was our external producer. That particular branch of THQ is located in Minneapolis, which is basically in our backyard. Peter was a great source of insight, gameplay critique, and was also very helpful at connecting us with the right people during testing.

XBLArcade.com:

What different game types can we expect? How about online?

Ben:

Well, for single player, apart from the core game, there’s also Race Mode, where you’re competing against AI bots; there’s Time Trials, where you’re just trying to get down and back up again as fast as you can; and there’s Endurance Mode, where you get three lives total to move thru as many of the twenty levels you can. It’s actually pretty hard to get thru Endurance Mode; not quite “Room 89 in Mutant Storm Reloaded” hard, but getting there. As far as same couch multiplayer goes, we do have a split screen mode, in case such occasion arises as you feel the need to toss dynamite at your kid brother. And, of course, we have network multiplayer, which is two to four players all racing down the shaft, trying to blow stuff up, knock each other off course, and escape without dying in a hideous ball of flame or similar fate.

XBLArcade.com:

Any plans for DLC after the release?

Ben:

No comment.

XBLArcade.com:

What tips do you have for us as we first start to play Screwjumper!?

Norb:

Well, first off, when you can, try to aim your trajectory at the greenish platforms that look like big Hot Wheels tires, those bring the core health down the most quickly. Things that can deal you damage, like missile turrets, yield lots of points when you destroy ‘em, but don’t bring the core health down as quickly as the big green Hot Wheels tires. Use your jet boots to increase your speed, because you can destroy more types of items that way, but be careful – if you use your jets for too long, you’ll burn up. Always aim for the center of a cluster of items; you can often cause a destructive chain reaction that way. Dynamite is the safe and easy way to destroy things, but you won’t get as much of a chain reaction by dynamiting things as you would by physically smashing into them, and if you run out of dynamite, you might be kinda screwed towards the end -- so don’t waste your dynamite on minor targets, or things you can just as easily smash into yourself. When you get to the bottom and toss the dynamite, you’ll start rushing up the shaft much more quickly than you likely came down it; keep away from the walls ((did I mention they’re electrified? Yeah, they’re electrified)) and jeez, watch out for the lasers! They’re the worst. Some of those shafts can really be a bitch to escape from, but if a shaft seems prohibitively hard in ascent mode, take note of how much time you’re given to escape – most of the really hard shafts have very generous escape times, so just take your time and you’ll be all right. Also, please don’t bounce on the reactor core, that really pisses us off.

XBLArcade.com:

With XNA becoming more and more popular, if you had one piece of advice for a would be game developer, what would it be?

Ben:

Focus on core gameplay first, and polish second. Remember your scope -- even the most trivial ideas can become very complex when adapted for a full-featured system such as XBLA.

XBLArcade.com:

Thank you both very much for answering our questions. We look forward to getting our hands on the game when it finally releases!