Co-founder of Stainless Games Neil Barnden was kind enough to answer a few questions about Crystal Quest, XBLA Development and there next game Novadrome.

[XBLArcade.com] Can you please say who you are and what you do at Stainless Games?

[Neil] Neil Barnden, Co-Founder of Stainless & Creative Director. I design the games, the look of the stuff in the games, and try to make sure they retain a cohesive look and feel. I’ve been known to occasionally generate some of the assets, modeling/animating and recording/generating/mixing sound.

[XBLArcade.com] Other than your own game, what XBLA game has caught your attention the most?

[Neil] I guess that would be Mutant Storm. It’s soooooo pretty.

[XBLArcade.com] How have sales of Crystal Quest done compared to your original expectations?

[Neil] It’s doing really well – which you always hope for, but it’s great to see everyone’s work being so enthusiastically received. As the original was pretty ubiquitous on early colour Macs it proved its gameplay credentials many years ago, so we just had to hope that there was an appetite for the update. So far it looks like there was!

[XBLArcade.com] Are you surprised that more XBLA developers haven’t released add on packs (either free or premium)?

[Neil] It’ll come – maybe it’s taking time for developers to get used to the idea! In the past, add-ons have either been something taken up by the 3rd party modding community, or released in the form of major ‘mission packs’. Perhaps a shift in Developers’ thinking might be needed, to realise how they can maintain a game’s profile by offering new, relatively inexpensive data packs. Obviously, the games also need to be ‘mod friendly’, and this might not be the case with some of the early titles.

[XBLArcade.com] Will we be seeing any more DLC for Crystal Quest?

[Neil] Almost certainly. Although with work going on apace to get our next XBLA title finished, I couldn’t hazard a guess as to when there will be spare time to work on any!

[XBLArcade.com] Now that CQ is released and doing well, what lessons will you take from its dev cycle that you can apply to your next XBLA title?

[Neil] All the intel gained from going through the submission procedures was invaluable, as is developing a solid basis for the code and data framework of our XBLA titles. Keeping the code and data stored in a modular way means it can be easily expanded with extra content (as discussed above) and enables it to also be easily patched during the alpha/beta bug-fixing phase. We also learned a lot about what to offer in the demo experience – what balance has to be got between offering enough, but not too much, so people who download the demo actually still feel like buying the full game!

[XBLArcade.com] Will you have your own booth at E3 and if so, will we be seeing a demo for Novadrome?

[Neil] Stainless won’t have its own booth at E3, which means that its representatives will be free to roam the Expo at will. Scary.

[XBLArcade.com] We were able to dig up some sparse details about Novadrome, and it seems that it was originally supposed to be released for multiple, last generation consoles, but now it’s coming out for the XBLA. Can you talk at all about how that came to be?

[Neil] Nova was an internal ‘filler’ project which was started in between other, commissioned commitments. Versions of it were working on various platforms at various times, as it was used to continue development of our in-house ‘Beelzebub’ engine/API across PC, PS2, Xbox and then Xbox 360. But, as soon as we began work on a contracted title, Novadrome was put to one side. In the meantime it prompted interest from various publishers, but nothing took off or got to contract stage before Microsoft saw it, and requested that we release it on XBLA.

[XBLArcade.com] Have Novadrome’s graphics changed much from the screenshots we saw back in 2004?

[Neil] Moving the spec of the game up to Xbox 360 has allowed us to increase the complexity of the in-game models, and add a further layer of effects and polish to the visuals. The environments are essentially the same, but smoother and more highly accessorised. The aliens have been completely re-modeled and look way better than they did before. There’s an all-new particle system going in too.

[XBLArcade.com] Is there anything else you can say about Novadrome?

[Neil] We can’t wait to see it in the list of Action Games available to download!

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

[Neil] Yes: Please, no futuristic buggy racing games with guns and aliens, guys. We’ve got that one covered. Thanks. (But if you insist on persevering, then I guess I’d recommend that pointer above about “keeping it ‘modular’”…)

[XBLArcade.com] I just want to add that I know that you are all very busy and we
really do appreciate you taking the time to answer these.