As shown in tuesdays XBLA montage, a new tile-based puzzle game will be hitting the service sometime in 2007 titled: Poker Smash. Drew Card of Void Star was kind enough to answers some questions about their upcoming title.

Click "read more" to see his answers:

What was the reasoning behind leaving Oddworld Inhabitants and starting Void Star?

Well, we didn't really leave Oddworld to start Void Star. Ryan and I both had stints at other companies in between leaving Oddworld and starting Void Star. I guess part of our motivation was to try and recapture some of the magic from Oddworld.

It's been a great experience working with Microsoft; in particular the Arcade crew is very helpful. Developing for the Xbox 360 is just plain awesome, because the system tools are so robust. We have a very small team (just three guys) and that is only possible because the Xbox is so easy to develop for.

Poker Smash is a fast paced puzzle game with a poker twist. Colored cards are presented on an upward scrolling grid style game board, and the goal is to clear cards by making poker hands before the board hits the top.

Poker Smash was developed specifically for the Xbox 360, so all the features in the game (graphics, sound, controls, community) were designed to work with this system. The result is a game that has casual appeal, but with features that hardcore 360 fans will totally appreciate.

The game has 11 action mode themes. We also have a puzzle theme and a head to head theme. All together the game will showcase 13 themes each with an original three minute soundtrack written and performed by David Sease our lead sound designer. We have packed everything possible into Poker Smash, and look forward to releasing more downloadable themes at a later date.

My favorite part of the game is making chained combos, and we've added a lot of features to make it easier to execute super long chains. So, it's safe to say there will be a lot of chain based achievements. Another interesting one is called “Self Restraint” and it is awarded for playing through the first 10 speed levels only making 3 of kind hands. It’s tougher than it sounds.

Ryan is very very excited about designing gamerpics; he already has about a dozen floating around. I'm not sure how many will be offered with the initial download, but we will certainly have a few gamerpics to choose from.

Absolutely not! Ryan and I are both pretty hardcore gamers, so multiplayer is really important to us. Poker Smash supports up to 5 person multiplayer tournaments, and they are pretty visceral. Multiplayer is insanely fun and usually involves much shouting.

I'm sorry, but all I can say is that Poker Smash will be out later this year.

We are so happy with the music in our game. David has done an amazing job cranking out original songs, and he tracks all of this stuff in his house! As I said earlier Poker Smash features 13 full-length three minute songs, and I think people will find that pretty cool. It definitely adds a level of polish the final product to have totally original music.

First, thanks for the kind words. The biggest factor in our polish has been the hard work Ryan and David have put into the visuals and sound. It's true we have a small team, but these guys are superstars. Another very important thing that I learned at Oddworld is to data drive everything so you can get out of the way of the artists and let them tweak parameters. My job as the programmer is to put the right knobs into the game so Ryan can work his magic and make it look great. I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turned out so far. Hopefully gamers will agree!

Well, I'm certainly not the guy to go to for career advice. Breaking into the game business can be tough, so I would say if you love games be persistent and try to stay as current as possible. Being passionate about games can go a long way, but at the end of the day you have to bring something to the table, so try soak up as much as you can from every work experience.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions!