I recently had the pleasure of posing an excruciatingly serious series of questions to the most serious man in the XBLA world: Denis Bourdain. Anyone that has had contact with Mr. Bourdain knows that he hates the spotlight, despises talking about games, and generally lives the life of a hermit. And so, I count my lucky stars that I was able to track down this elusive and evasive man to peel back those layers of shyness.

Without further ado, cue the interview.

XBLArcade's LunarDuality: Denis, thanks for risking contact with the outside world in order to answer my questions. First question: What's the biggest lesson you learned in the aftermath of Mad Tracks' release? And how have you applied that wisdom to Things on Wheels?

Denis Bourdain:

1. Buy a larger coffee machine (from 10 to 16 bars!)

2. Spend more time on the multiplayer lobby system (why do I know you were thinking about this?).

3. Ask the community what they want – after all, we’re doing this for them, why not include them in the process?

4. Don’t confuse people with a wide genre. I think the ‘mini games + racing’ gameplay of Mad Tracks was too wide for some casual players to grasp. We’re stripping ToW to racing only.

After the break find out how Denis feels about NASCAR, desert islands, and whether lawnmowers will be featured in Things on Wheels.

LD: Next question is this -- Load's located in Paris, so how do you feel about the gastronomic offerings in your city? Or perhaps this question would be better answered by your notoriously snarky distant relative Anthony?

DB: I love food. In fact I have some everyday. Living and working in Paris is kind of a food blessing - even if we usually have a quick sandwich at noon (or a quick glass of water when we really don’t have time), we COULD have great food all the time. You really should ask my cousin. If you’re lucky, he’ll add all kind of funky stories with real bits of rock, drugs and mobsters. Go Tony!!

LD: Has ToW been able to take advantage of the new XBLA size limit? Was it ever a major concern?

DB: When we started to work on ToW, the size limit was going from 50MB to 150MB. That was a big bowl of oxygen for us. Now going from 150MB to 350MB doesn’t affect us as much. Mostly because we have developed compression tools that are pretty efficient.
What the community has to realise is that each Meg is some kind of data we have to produce thus making the game more expansive to develop. Since we don’t want to go to the 1600pts category, we’ll keep the game in the 130MB to 160MB range.
To be honest, our biggest concern is with RAM. ToW is much bigger in terms of textures and environment. We have to be very creative to make everything fit in 512MB.

LD: Speaking of textures, what's your computer's desktop picture these days?

DB: Franck Kozic’s Smokin Labbits. (Pictured) I actually have stickers on my laptop, have the toys on my desk, got some for every member of Load Inc., got some at home, and recently got the Smokin Breakfast. Omg, I’m a freeeeaaaak!!!
What do you have? What do your readers have????

LD: Personally, I'm sporting an image by Nanami Cowdroy. I'll let the readers speak for themselves. I digress. Back to the hard-hitting questions. The acronym ToW was teased to the public well before we knew what you had in the works. But now you've teased your next game with the acronym WCTYY which apparently stands for "we can't tell you yet." Why the new level of secrecy? Are we really going to be forced to pay attention to some silly get together in Germany just to find out more? Is this the beginning of a top secret alternate reality game?

DB: I could tell you what this new game is but I’d have to kill you (I borrowed that line). I also could tell you that half the time, studios claim something's secret when they have no clue of what they’re going to do!! (But not Load Inc. of course…)
We have a weird tradition here; the code names tend to stick to the retail game. Mad Tracks was a code name and our first publisher liked it, so Mad Tracks it was. When we started ToW, we thought we had to come up with a goofy code name to make sure we would agree on a real name later, you know, with a marketing team or something… But no, SouthPeak loved our Things on Wheels, so be it. This time we’re striking hard with WCTYY. Who would want a name like this?? Seriously… Tell me! (do you really think they could go for it??).

LD: How can Load offer "100% Fat Free Games" when French food tastes so good?

DB: “100% Fat Free Games” is true, many people have tried to prove us wrong, but never did. Regarding French food, it’s all a fake. We can’t cook in France! We just have a great marketing team that made everyone believe we have great food here. We hire cooks in Belgium, Spain, Italy, China, Pakistan, Tunisia, Germany (not Britain – I wonder why…). We’re just a bunch of drunken liars.

LD: Drunks that like driving games...hm. But back to Things on Wheels...is the title a hint? Can we expect RC racers that aren't cars?

DB: You mean lawnmowers and stuff? Naaaaa, we’re sticking to RC cars.
We put a lot of effort in them. As I told you, ToW was a working title – we didn’t even know what we were going to put in the game when we started! Check here and here for what the ended up with!

LD: Okay, so far I've been going easy on you. The really tough questions start now! Is NASCAR really a sport?

DB: Yes!! I mean think of all the training these guys have to go through to change the wheels, gas up AND clean the windshield in 8 seconds!! (You were not talking about the guy in the car going around in circles, were you?).

LD: Waterskiing or Hang gliding?

DB: Mountain biking. Enduro – downhill. It’s a little bit of skiing, a little gliding, a little dangerous, a little fast and just pure fun. I suck at waterskiing, but I ski --since I was 4 (and I’m 28 now! – yeah, maybe 32 – ok, ok 35 - who said 38?????).

LD: Age aside, your e-mail signature states: "In Dog we trust." Who or what is Dog and why should we trust in it?

DB: Dog runs our life. He hides on the web, like a spider. Knowing our every move just by the vibrations we make on our keyboard. He can decide how much spam you’ll get! It’s also a way of making my own beliefs. Our own path. (Wow, I just got deep in 2 seconds!)

LD: Imagine you are alone on a desert island. Does it suck?

DB: You mean no Xbox, no HDTV, no email, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, no Facebook, no cell phone, no bills, no laptop? Heaven! The only thing I would really miss is www.xblarcade.com (how much of a sucker can I be?).

LD: Your flattery will get you everywhere, sir. To wrap it up though, I'd just like to thank you Denis for your enthusiasm, humor, and for putting up with my insane interview style. Anything you'd like to add?

DB: Thank you for your interest in Load Inc. in general, ToW in particular, and me (moi) overall. We’re always glad to be true, honest, and if we can make a buck doing so, then we’re happy! :)