Recently we had a chance to ask a few questions of both Jacob Van Wingen (Founder, Director, Programmer) and Don Wurster (Co-Director, Programmer) of Gastronaut Studios.

Check out there answers and some screenshots (although they "aren't final and things are likely to change before release") after the jump

[XBLArcade] We found this old interview with you from IGC '03, could you give us a brief history of how you went from trying to convince PC users that Fuzzee Teevee was better with a game pad to working on Small Arms?

[Jake] IGC ‘03 was a pretty crazy time for me – it was the first time that I’d showed Fuzzee Fever (then Fuzzee Teevee) publicly. The response it got was overwhelming as the casual game market was just starting to boom. Lots of casual game publishers wanted the game, but they also wanted to change it into a casual game: make it 2D, focus on the single player, make it mouse controlled. I wanted to finish the game that I started - not change it for the casual market. Fortunately, I met James Gwertzman (then of Sprout Games) there who got me connected with the just forming Xbox Live Arcade program at Microsoft. The game went on to be a finalist in the IGF in 2004, and actually showed on the GDC floor running on an Xbox – which was a first for the IGF, I believe. The game launched shortly after the first Xbox Live Arcade came out.
I took a break for a couple of months, and then called up Don to see if he wanted to work on the next game with me. We were able to pitch Small Arms for Xbox 360 Live Arcade – and we’ve been busy working ever since.
Something to note in the interview is one of the seeds of Small Arm’s design: “Sometimes I joke to my friends that I should just give up and give all of the characters guns and not have to think about the design anymore.” The 2006 me might tell the 2003 me that it’s not that easy.

[XBLArcade] What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of working on such a small team.

[Don] Gastronaut currently has a team of 4 people working full time on Small Arms. With only four of us, we all have to wear a lot of hats. The best thing about the small team is getting to work on so many parts of the game. We’ve all heard the horror stories of artists getting stuck making football helmets for a whole year for Madden 20XX.

The hardest thing about having such a small team is usually deciding what to get for lunch.

[XBLArcade] What are the major differences between working on XBLA for the original XBox and working on the 360 version with small arms?

[Jake] Well, I really enjoy working on the technology of games, so I’m going to say that I’ve been really happy with the power of the 360. As soon as we started the project, we took Fuzzee Fever’s engine and multithreaded the crap out of it. I added in a new particle system that runs across the extra cores, and a new character animation system that does the same. Writing shaders for the 360 has been pretty great as well – there is just a huge amount of power and potential in the system.
As for the actual XBLA differences, we’ve been more free to develop more intricate Xbox Live interactions and system integrations in the game, as XBLA games have been built into the system design from the start.

[XBLArcade] Could you tell me about Small Arms?

[Don] Small Arms is equal parts platformer, run & gun shooter, and fighting game. You control one of four characters on a 2D playfield (Rendered with 3D graphics). Each character has a starting weapon, and is able to switch to other weapons that spawn throughout the match. Each weapon has two firing modes (using the left and right triggers), and the vast majority of the combat uses ranged weapons.

[Jake] Yeah, the mechanics are very simple – which is helpful because the game is extremely fast paced. A lot of the environments are interactive with places to duck and cover, or jump and attack. It’s tactical, frenzied, loud, and a lot of fun.

[XBLArcade] What do you have to say to those who might write off small arms as a Super Smash Bros clone?

[Jake] While both games have similar structures, they have very different forms of play. Super Smash Bros is all about accessible fighting game combos, while Small Arms is a 2D multi-directional shooter wrapped up in a platforming game package.

[XBLArcade]Can you shed any light on the price or release date for Small Arms?

[Don] These details haven’t been worked out yet. We are very busy now trying to make it the best game possible, but details should be emerging soon.

[XBLArcade] Will we be seeing any new characters or levels as Downloadable content?

[Don] That is our intention, the game is written to allow both levels and characters to be downloaded from Marketplace. We don’t know yet what the packages will look like, but we have been throwing around the idea of having a download of a couple characters, and a level that is themed to go with them all bundled together. All that being said, we are currently planning to ship the game with about 10 levels and 10-12 characters. We think this is a great amount of content for a downloadable game, and the price range for arcade games.

[XBLArcade] Have you had any communication with any other XBLA developers?

[Jake] I chat with some of the guys from Garage Games from time to time, they’re quite nice. Like you mentioned earlier, my game Fuzzee Fever had its first appearance at Garage Games’ conference. We’re also friends with some of the folks over at Popcap, which is here in Seattle.

[XBLArcade] What other XBLA games have caught your eye?

[Don] Cloning Clyde looks really cool, and we are also excited about Street Fighter, of course.

[XBLArcade] It's been noted on several independent game sites that there is a fear of the large developers moving in with there large catalogs of content and squeezing out the independents. Any comments on this?

[Don] Yeah, this is something we have thought about, and we’ll just have to see what happens. The big publishers don’t have a track record for creating small scale downloadable games for consoles, and we were lucky enough to get in early. We have a leg up in this way.

We are one of the few studios that can say we have developed original content for this new distribution platform (downloadable console games), and we are optimistic about being able to compete. It’s really up to the users of the platform to vote with their dollars (MS Points in this case), and show if they are interested in seeing new and innovative content, or just mini-versions of the games they have already played.

[XBLArcade] There has been a few companies that have raised a stink about the 50MB limit, has Gastronaut Studios had any issues with this?

[Don] We started this game with XBLA in mind, so we had a plan for how we would make it fit. All our technology was built from the ground up to really pack our content into these tiny packages. The raw data for *one* of our levels in Small Arms can easily take up to 100m. Our tools let us pack it down to less than 3Megs with very little loss of visual quality.

[XBLArcade] Finally, as is customary at XBLArcade.com, any hints to rookie dev teams looking to
make a name with XBLA?

[Don] Well, first of, I want to say it’s not quite as easy as some people seem to think. The first step is obviously making an amazing game (or amazing pitch if you are lucky enough to have the right person’s ear). Make sure to keep the scope of the games small. With smaller games it is important that the gameplay is very focused and that you have a plan for all the time it takes to make the final, polished product.

[XBLArcade]Also, thanks a million for taking the time to do this

[Jake]No problem.