Here is the final part of the David Edery Interview.  Part 1 is here.  Part 2 is here.  (Also posted at XBLArcade.com)

Challenges, Bugs, and Rumors

Many games have come out with some pesky bugs in their release version (e.g., Alien Hominid HD’s save game glitch, Trial to Full game upgrade issue in Mad Tracks, Marble Blast Ultra leaderboard problems, various achievement issues.).  This is despite a notorious reputation for XBLA certification being very difficult.  How has certification changed since launch and what are you doing to prevent these problems from happening in the future?

The certification process is always being reviewed for potential improvements. Unfortunately, it isn’t an exact science, and it’s always going to be harder for newer developers. People often forget that many XBLA developers have never produced an Xbox 360 game before. We help our developers catch a huge number of bugs, but ultimately, we’re only human.

I should also add that the certification process isn’t designed to catch every last possible bug. It’s designed to help, but it’s also designed to guarantee consistency of experience. For example: were achievements implemented correctly? Were leaderboards?

You have talked in the past about encouraging developers to leverage the Xbox Live environment through multiplayer, achievements, and the like.  But specifically regarding achievements, what kind of input does Microsoft have on achievement design? I ask this because as XBLA is positioned as a casual friendly service but achievements like those in Catan (1000 victory points in ranked matches) have disappointed or even offended many of my friends due to their hardcore nature.

We make suggestions, but ultimately developers are not required to adhere to those suggestions. It’s their game.

Achievements are a delicate balancing act. You want the majority to be obtainable by the majority of players, but you also want a few that can be aspired to by your most devoted customers. Some of our games do a particularly good job of leveraging the achievement system by fundamentally changing the way you think about a game or by inspiring a positive community response. I’m particularly fond of the Geometry Wars pacifist achievement and the Small Arms “six degrees” viral achievement.

In your recent call for community feedback, you highlighted many recurring points.  One of those was the challenges (and frustrations) inherent in the current DRM scheme.  As someone who has replaced their console I can certainly commiserate on this one.  Is there any way that this can change or is this hardwired into the system?

Honestly, I don’t know much about the engineering side of our DRM system. We’ve noted that some people are frustrated by it and have passed that along to our platform team. They’ll have to balance the cost/benefit of changing how DRM works against the cost/benefit of making other changes that our customers have been requesting. Ultimately, we want to make the greatest number of people as happy as possible, and we’ll filter all potential improvements via that lens when deciding what our priorities are.

What do you say to all the voices in the forums shouting, “The game is done!  Just release it already!”?

I say “tell the developer – it’s their game and their call.”

Can you imagine what would happen if we forced the developer of a highly-anticipated game to release before they were ready, and as a result, a serious imperfection made it into the final game? Or the game was “too short?” The same people who shouted for early release would shout for our heads on a platter. 

Why do you wait until the last minute to announce the XBLA title(s) for the week?  Is this due to the tenuous nature of certification?  Or maybe due to shorter development cycles with more flexible and volatile schedules?

Sometimes we wait because we want to surprise our customers. But we often wait precisely because XBLA development cycles are (as you suggest) relatively short, and it’s hard to know whether a game will be ready this week or next.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for XBLA as a platform?  Spurring and fostering indie development?  Fighting off the competition?

Personally, I’m most concerned about fostering innovative games (which is related to, but not completely synonymous with fostering indie development.) For years, people have complained that the cost of game development has risen too sharply to permit for experimentation and/or the development of original IP. I think that’s a huge problem because an art that fails to reinvent itself on a regular basis is doomed to stagnation and irrelevance.

That concludes the interview.  I’d like to thank David again for his time and also say that I am very excited about the bright future of XBLA.

Nicky and Ninty are pairing up to promote Brain Training on the Nintendo DS.  What better way for Ms. Kidman to celebrate the dawning of her 40s than by pimping a video game for Nintendo?  I certainly can’t think of any better ideas.  And hey, as a fringe benefit to all the money she’s probably making (Did I just get overly cynical there?), Brain Training is “a great way to keep my mind feeling young.”  And there you have it.

I am very curious to see what channels the TV ads will run on.   But, what’s more interesting and funny to me is this: why does Nintendo have to advertise at all when sales numbers for the DS are mopping the floor with the competition?

 [via BBC News]

Here is part 2 of my interview with David Edery (Worldwide Games Portfolio Planner for Xbox Live Arcade).   Part 1 can be found here.  (Also posted at XBLArcade.com)

Competition

David Jaffe (Calling All Cars) was quoted likening XBLA to Ashlee Simpson and an oldies radio station.  How are you combating the notion that XBLA is merely for ports and retro arcade titles?

Jaffe is a brilliant designer, but he’s not exactly an unbiased observer. It’s a bit disingenuous to ignore XBLA games like Geometry Wars, Marble Blast Ultra, Assault Heroes, Small Arms, Catan… etc. It’s also a bit ironic, given that XBLA still offers significantly more original content than the PlayStation Network.

Phil Harrison, speaking last year prior to the launch of Sony’s e-Distribution Initiative (eDI), said “…what we’ve seen on other systems tend to be retro 2D games, and we’re pushing the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation 3.”  How is XBLA competing against Sony’s eDI which emphasizes 3D and does not have the same size constraints placed on XBLA?

We’re lacking neither 3D content nor fun games. The best thing about XBLA is that it offers such a diverse array of great content. We have beautiful 3D games like Roboblitz and Undertow, casual titles like Zuma and Eets, classics like Doom and Castlevania, and all of them have been updated to include LIVE functionality. We’ll continue to lead the console downloadable games market by focusing on staying true to a vision of accessibility, diversity, and LIVE-enabled gaming.

Where do we go from here?

Will we ever get to that Live Anywhere dream of buying a game once and playing it on multiple platforms? (Refer to 3:54pm in the link)

Yes.

Will we see cross platform XBLA titles that can play with Window Live users?

Yes. Cross-platform UNO, as demonstrated at CES, is a perfect example.

The episodic gaming model has created some recent success stories (Sam & Max and Half-Life 2 come immediately to mind.)  Will we be seeing the episodic game model arrive on XBLA?

I’m really interested in episodic games, and have been for a long time. That said, we’re still trying to figure out the best way to bring episodic gaming to XBLA. We want to be sure that when we offer episodic content, it isn’t simply a mechanism via which to extract more revenue per hour of content from our customers. Episodic gaming can and should be more than a sales gimmick – it should engage consumers and it should evolve in response to consumer feedback, much in the way that good TV serials do. And it’d be nice if our episodic games had something to offer the community in between episodes.

Have you considered putting more large titles (i.e. retro retail titles) like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the service?  How does that change the focus of Arcade?  Will you (and if so, how so) differentiate these games in any way from the more bite-sized games of XBLA?

We’re always open to bringing more titles like Castlevania onto the service, but in general they are going to be exceptions rather than the rule. We want XBLA to be a place where you can quickly jump in and enjoy yourself. Too many people avoid or have given up on video games because they are so complex and time consuming. XBLA is one answer to that. That said, we’re quite cognizant of the fact that there’s tremendous demand for great games like Castlevania, and we’ll do our best to occasionally surprise you with those games. 

Where are the trivia games? (You Don’t Know Jack, Trivial Pursuit, etc.)

We’ve definitely been evaluating trivia offerings, and we’ll keep you posted on if/when they’ll make an appearance on XBLA.

That concludes Part 2.  Part 3 will cover David’s thoughts on the XBLA game certification process and XBLA’s notorious DRM amongst other tidbits.

Recently, I had the opportunity to contact David Edery (Worldwide Games Portfolio Planner for Xbox Live Arcade).  Such opportunities should not be squandered, so I posed a massive number of questions to him about the past, present, and future of Xbox Live Arcade.  The questions (and his candid answers) will follow in this multi-part interview.  (Also posted at XBLArcade.com)

Successes, Sequels, and Casual Gaming

Here we are in the middle of 2007 and it seems that Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is finally hitting its stride.  Was the flood of releases just inevitable or is this a perfect storm of sorts?

I’d like to call it “inevitable”, but the portfolio would not be hitting its stride if not for the tremendous efforts of our production, marketing, and PR teams, as well as the significant efforts of our many developers and publishers. There was a time when very few people believed that XBLA would be successful. A handful of very passionate, very hard-working people got us where we are today, and I’m lucky to be working with them.

Will we continue this relatively frantic pace of releases? 

I’m not sure I’d call it “frantic,” but yes, you can (generally) expect this pacing. We’ll still have some weeks with just one title. There’s the very remote possibility that we might even have a week with no new game releases. But more often than not, we’ll be releasing two titles a week, and who knows… you might see three a week someday. The goal is to eventually reach a point at which the vast majority of our customers are saying “wow, there’s something I want to buy every single week!”

Do you work to keep the number of weekly releases down in order to highlight each game that arrives?

Managing the XBLA portfolio is a very delicate balancing act. On one hand, we really want to offer our customers as much content as possible. But on the other hand, XBLA is still a maturing market, and many of the developers who pitch us their games are indies who are planning on self-funding their work. We need to maintain a reasonable probability that good games will generate meaningful returns for their developers – otherwise indies will suffer, and the innovative content they are bringing to XBLA will (with rare exceptions) simply disappear.

Other things factor into the size of the portfolio as well. For example, we’re adamant about maintaining a certain level of quality, which has become easier to do now that so many people are excited about our platform. We also want to make sure that multiplayer games don’t suffer from a lack of available players. If we were to distribute 10 new multiplayer games every week, it’s almost 100% certain that most of those games would lack the critical mass of players necessary to offer a fun experience.

At the end of the day, we try our best to do what’s right for the XBLA ecosystem. If we have to err, we’ll err on the side of more games. We know that’s what people want.

Microsoft has made it very clear in this generation that Xbox is not just for the hardcore.  With an internal push within Xbox to gain traction with casual gamers, do you feel a particular burden on XBLA to attract those casual users?  And how are you reaching out to them?

XBLA was founded, in part, on the principle that casual games can and do have a strong audience on the console. That’s why we launched with games like Zuma and Bejewelled 2, and that’s why we’ll continue to include a healthy selection of casual titles in our portfolio. I’m personally interested in increasing the number of multiplayer casual games that we offer – especially cooperative multiplayer casual games. I’m also looking for casual games that take advantage of user-generated content in interesting ways.

XBLA may be designed for casual gaming but hardcore gamers (myself included) have latched onto it very strongly.  Why do you think that is happening?

I wouldn’t say that XBLA is “designed for casual gaming.” We’ve got games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doom, and Street Fighter 2. That isn’t accidental.

What we’re really striving for is a service that offers something for everyone. If there’s an overarching theme, it’s accessibility. Casual games are an extremely important part of that, but great “hardcore” experiences that are easy to get into (like Geometry Wars and Small Arms) are equally important.

Considering the success of certain games (such as Marble Blast Ultra), do you ever feel pressure (or exert pressure on developers) to produce sequels?

Developers and publishers have more than enough internal pressure to produce sequels. We don’t need to add to it.

How successful was Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1?  Is a Vol. 2 likely?

Unplugged served an important purpose – it helped make consumers aware of the existence of XBLA. The battle for awareness never completely goes away, so we’ll continue to evaluate our options, and another Unplugged SKU is one of them. There are others, but unfortunately I can’t discuss them at this time.

The XBLA size limit has now been raised to 150MB.  Has that affected the development of any games already underway?  (We know The Behemoth said that Castle Crashers would be delayed partly to add more content.)

Some XBLA developers have opted to take advantage of the new limit, yes. But many developers remain committed to the idea of delivering great experiences in small packages. For example, we’re particularly excited about Undertow, a gorgeous game built on Unreal Engine 3 that delivers 16-person multiplayer action in under 50mb.

Part 2 will cover how David sees the competition and where he sees XBLA heading in the future.  Stay tuned.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Band of Bugs, and maybe I am too much of a tactics fanboy for my opinion to matter. But I truly think that if a tactics type game could entice and hook casual players, this is it. NinjaBee set out to create a game with a casual point of entry and a hidden depth and I think they have succeeded. NinjaBee’s visual style and humor are here in spades as well.

When I stated at the beginning of this epic hands-on experience that they had hooked me I was not exaggerating. I literally came home, booted up my 360, and thought to myself, “I’ll just play some Band of Bugs…oh…wait…” So, I have been suffering alongside all of you who have been looking forward to this game too. The only difference? I have known exactly what I am missing.

Well, thanks to everyone that sent in questions.  Here are all the answers I could scrounge up.  If there is still something on your mind, feel free to comment and I’ll try to answer as new ones come up.  All answers are from me unless noted as being directly from Steve Taylor (President, Wahoo Studios/NinjaBee).

On with the show:

Q from AC91: Release date and price please…

A: As if my NDA allowed me talk about such things… [Update]: Well, the cat’s out of the bag now so get it on 6/20/2007 for 800 MS Points!

Q from staticwrap: Downloadable content?

A from Steve Taylor (aka stay): “We’re trying to avoid discussing DLC details for now.”

Q from AC91: What are examples of achievements?

A: Check ‘em out at x360a.org.

Q from Measure: How hard will BoB be to learn?  Will I have to spend hours just to get the hang of it? If I do spend dozens of hours in the title, is there enough intricacy that I will continue to learn new strategies?

A: NinjaBee went out of their way to make this title extremely accessible to those who are more casual gamers.  The tutorial is very well structured to give you an idea of exactly how the game works.  Despite the casual focus, the game does have some serious complexity to it that is nearly transparent to the casual gamer (because it’s not necessary to have fun playing the game) but will be engrossing to the hardcore player.  Ultimately, NinjaBee has pared down the tactics genre, but even with this distilled version Band of Bugs is filled with depth.

Q from staticwrap: About how long does a match take (on average)?

A: It all depends on the size of the map and the turn time limit you set, but most multiplayer games I played were under 15 minutes.  I played single player for hours at a time, but that’s just my nature.

Q from dezombie: Is there options to shorten the average game length also? Such as reduced HP of all characters, blitz modes (shorter timers on turns), or even a simple time limit?

A: Yes.  You can reduce the hit points and general power of a character by lowering its level.  You can put time limits on turns as well.  There is no option for a timed objective or anything like that, but games are so relatively quick (see above) that I can’t imagine having a match that takes an overly long time.

Q from AC91: Can you have an army of Ninjabees in a custom made online match? Can you change the bugs each army has in the game lobby, or is this all determined by the original map maker?

A: There can be only one!  And it would be wise to avoid angering the NinjaBee with these claims of clone armies.  One NinjaBee is enough to lay waste to your enemies.  As for the bug types on the map, they are all predetermined.  The exception to this rule is Spider Hunter where you choose your bug type when you start the game and you can change your type any time you die.

Q from AC91: Can you change the skill levels of those bugs?

A: Skill levels can only be adjusted in the Level Editor.

Q from ART0R1US:  Don’t remember if you already covered this, but will there be local multiplayer?

A from Steve: Yes, there is local multiplayer.  It was a big deal to me to get that in.  It works pretty much the same as everything else.  Unlike Worms, it’s not hot-seat – you have to be signed in with your own controller.  The controller rumbles when it’s your turn.  When it’s your turn you get control of the camera and target.  The game supports up to 4 players in local MP.There’s no local multiplayer Spider Hunter, but the other modes are all supported – elimination, capture, and escape.  Any maps available in single-player skirmish are available in local MP, including custom maps.  

Q from Measure: Any chance of giant tourneys for BoB? Does XBox live not allow for this? Burnout does giant tourneys, but that’s on EA’s servers.  Anyway, if it was at all possible, I think being able to have say, a 64 player tourney would turn up the fun on these mulitplayer games quite a bit.

A: Steve and I have been in discussions about this for some time and we hope to offer a way to sign up and administer tournaments through the forums.  So, keep your eyes peeled.

Q from AC91: What will leaderboards show?

A from Steve: There are unique leaderboards for each level in the main campaign, a summary campaign leaderboard, and a bunch of other leaderboards including something weird we’re anxious to find out if people like.

Q from AC91: Do stats from single player carry over to online, or are the stats different?

A from Steve:  “Stats” as in leaderboards are separate for single-player and multiplayer.  Rankings for ranked multiplayer play is done with TrueSkill.  “Stats” as in bug stats don’t carry from match to match.  In single player, bug level progression is part of the normal sequence of the campaign. 

 Q from AC91: Will the online seamlessly let [other players] in by taking over a CPU spot, or do they have to be in the party from the start? (a la Cloning Clyde)

A: Spider Hunter allows for drop-in, drop-out multiplayer and will probably be a great place to congregate as you wait for your buddies to get online.  The other modes require all players to be in the party from the start.  And since everyone ends a match at the same time, you can avoid the “I got killed first and now I’ll just wait forever till the match ends” problem.

Q from AC91: Can we expect a [Band of Bugs] video sometime soon?

A: It’s almost as if you had a premonition.

The following questions all refer to pieces of the video which is linked above:

Q from AC91: Do the doodads in the map editor affect gameplay at all? For example, does that log serve as a barrier? Can you get on it, over it? Shoot over it? Use it as cover?

A: I answered this in my Level Editor Preview, but here’s the short answer again: Doo-dads can affect gameplay by blocking attacks or hindering movement.

Q from AC91: The change environment screen has three options (leafy, rocky, and golden). Will more tilesets be available to download in future DLC? Basically is it possible?

A: See above comments on DLC.

Q from AC91: I love that there are different types of fish! (Slow, dizzy, and another one!) And the mushroom description is great!  I like the Words of Wisdom on the loading screen there.  Also love how the loading screen took a little split second.

A: These are more comments than questions but I wanted to say something about them.  First, the animated doo-dads (such as the fish) are really cool in general.  Second, the loading screen text is pretty funny but sometimes the loading is so fast you don’t have time to read it.  Funny that a loading screen could be too fast.

Q from AC91: Was that sweet knockback a one hit kill? That was cool!

A: Knockback, by itself, is not a one hit kill.  However, if you knock your opponent off the map, into a bottomless pit, or into water (unless the unit can fly) that bug will be instantly killed.  You can also instantly kill an enemy by melting the ice under their feet and drowning them.

Q from AC91: How does quicksand movement work? Overtime or a one turn thing?  I dig the sarlacc pit thing at the bottom of one!

A: Quicksand (or any conveyor type tile) moves your bug one tile for each turn in a round.  So, remember to calculate how many turns are left in the round before throwing your bug into harm’s way.  Otherwise, it may be sucked into a bottomless pit or into other danger (exploding mines, runes, etc.) before you have a chance to move it again.

Q from AC91: On the very last scene, what is that tent thing for?

A: It’s just a doo-dad.

Q from AC91: In single player, can maps be bigger than the 12X12 limit for multiplayer (looks like it)?

A from Steve: 12×12 is only the limit for user-created maps.

Q from AC91: Does single player involve going from point A to point B in a level to accomplish an objective, or just using your space to effeciently kill the enemy?

A: Single player levels are just like multiplayer.  They might require a complete annihilation of the enemy, the capture of a location, or for one of your units to escape to a designated area.  At least one of them requires you to hold-off the enemy for as long as you can and some actually require you to destroy certain objects.

Q from staticwrap: What would you give this game out of a 10?

A: I’d say 8.5/10.  But I imagine when some really great user created maps come out, it’ll move closer and closer to a 9. 

Q from AC91: What was your favorite part of the game?

A: My personal favorite part…hmm…that’s tough.  If I had to choose I would say the Level Editor.  But I love small touches in the game like the NinjaBee flip and the particle effects in the spells.  Oh, and knockback.  See! – I can’t choose.

Q from AC91: What other games did you get to check out at NinjaBee (other than Space Station Tycoon and Band of Bugs)?

A: Well the other games I got a chance to see were mostly Wahoo Studios games and not NinjaBee games.

I got quick peek at Space Station Tycoon (Wahoo Studios/Namco Bandai).  Steve Taylor actually showed me the opening cinematic which was really funny and Brent Fox and Jeremy Throckmorton demoed the game a bit for me.  No hands-on unfortunately.

What I will say about it though, is it seems like a micromanagers dream!  Even more so than Kaloki, and I assume most people know how much I love that game.  This game’s arrival will probably also signal the day I buy a Wii.

I also got to peek over someone’s shoulder while they were testing Saga (Wahoo Studios) which looks to be shaping up really well.  I’m very curious to see how an MMORTS game could work.

In addition to all that I also got a peek at some ultra secret stuff on a white board that I probably wasn’t supposed to see (sorry Steve!  It was just out in the open.) but gets my interest piqued about their next NinjaBee project.

Q from Measure: What exactly is your relationship to Ninjabee? Are you outside with contacts inside, or an official blogger from inside Ninjabee?

A: You can read a bit about how this whole journey got started on my blog.  As for my relationship: I am, first and foremost, a huge NinjaBee fan.  I’ve been a huge contributor on their forums for over a year (e.g., 15% of all forum posts are mine, I have a higher post count than Steve Taylor now).  They were certainly generous to help me come out to Utah and let me get a peek behind the curtain.  I hoped to repay them in some way by writing up as much about my experience as possible to help them reach as wide an audience as possible because I truly believe in their games and their mission.  In fact, I still have quite a bit of stuff I’m still working on getting written up about NinjaBee culture and some quick interviews and such.

So, I’m not on their payroll or their “official” blogger by any stretch but I have strong ties within the organization and hope that I can spread around the joy that NinjaBee has brought me.

That concludes the debriefing questions.  If you have any more questions feel free to post a comment anywhere this story is posted and I will do my best to answer.

Here is part 2 of my Level Editor breakdown with two new exclusive screens.  Part 1 can be found here.

Creating maps hooked me right away because the maps did not require a crazy amount of detail to be fun.  I could easily test an interesting idea and if it sucked I had not wasted hours working on a bad idea.  I just scrapped it and started a new one.  However, with some advanced editing techniques you can often turn a bad design into a great one.

Much more after the break.

Tip, Tricks, and Advanced Editing

After testing or playing a map you may find the map is not quite balanced.  Fixing it is easy though.  Many times rebalancing the map merely requires editing the levels of individual units without changing anything else on the map.  In the picture you see above, the Rogue’s level is set to 6 but it can easily be incremented down or up.  A quick and easy fix and you are right back to playing a rebalanced map.  In fact, many of the most powerful spells and abilities do not even appear in the campaign.  So, experimenting with unit levels can add some serious new challenge and excitement, even after you have played through the entire campaign (wait till you try out the high level Fire Mage spells – wow).

Height also plays a big part in the strategy of map building.  You can create choke points and walls and all kinds of effects with a simple height change.  Falls from a height can also do damage.  And since the edges of the map can be used to great advantage (read: used to insta-kill enemies by knocking them off the map) you should always take your map’s edges into account.  Personally, I also enjoyed putting bottomless pits in the middle of the map.  They act just like the map edges (i.e. bug gets pushed in, shuffles off its mortal coil.) and can be highly dangerous to walk past when fighting bugs with knockback.  Water also provides an instant means of bug disposal.

In addition to the basic map building blocks, doo-dads can also add strategy.  Many doo-dads can block ranged attacks or serve as a wall.  Then again, the dizzy fish is just cool to look at so go ahead and gussy up your map while you are at it.

Finally, you can also completely change the look of a map by selecting a different lighting set or by changing the tileset.  (You can actually see this effect in the recently released trailer – it changes from the Leafy tileset to the Golden tileset.)  One selection and the whole map has a different feel.  That speed and ease of use is one reason why this map editor is great for me.

I think it is also important to note the following: more stuff is not always more fun.  The maps that I had the most fun with were often very simple in concept but required smart strategizing.  Do not be afraid to simplify or even shrink the map.  I even created some small maps that were like puzzles (Escape style maps work great for that kinda thing).

My secret map editor hint for you: you can zoom in and out by clicking the right thumbstick.

Here you see a finished map (not that you couldn’t edit it at any time after this point)– 6 nimble and versatile Rogues against 4 powerful but slow Barbarians.  Note the use of water, doo-dads (inlcuding those useful bridges), and even the unique map shape (read: not just a simple square).

The Ugly Bit

The only criticism I have of the Editor is this: I cannot immediately test a map I have created.  I had to exit to the Main Menu and start up a single-player Skirmish game to test it out.  But because the menus load so quickly (a ton of asynchronous loading speeds up all the menus and cuts down on loading screens throughout), this seems like a minor quibble.

Conclusion

The level editor is a key addition to this game and should be a major selling point.  It is full of features and yet reasonably easy to understand and use and should even appeal to those with short attention spans like me.

The long wait is finally over.  Here is the first part of my breakdown of the Level Editor (complete with exclusive screens – 1 now, 2 later) which is, in my mind, the best part of a great game.

(Click for the full 1280×720 version)

NinjaBee has said that they used their editor to layout all the levels in the single player campaign and I absolutely believe them.  It takes a little while to get used to using the editor, but the slight learning curve is only a result of the editor’s robustness.  Every available button is used in the editor.  The d-pad allows you to switch between the following: (see right, clockwise from top) tiles, doo-dads, units, and items.  The left thumbstick handles moving around the map itself, and the right thumbstick handles choosing the specific piece you want to place in or on the map (in the top picture, all the different tile choices are shown at the top).

(More after the break)

This interface may seem clunky or bizarre at first, but after reading the quick instructions that pop up when I launched the editor (and do read them) I was able to jump right in and start making my first map.  And after playing around for about 15-20 minutes I was whipping around the editor like a speed demon.

Basic map creation consists of the following:

• Laying down tiles and changing elevation as necessary
• Adding units for each team (up to 4 teams, up to 16 total bugs)
• Adding necessary objective markers (e.g., escape points, capture points)
• Adding items
• Adding doo-dads to give the map some flair

Of course, other than the first step you can do these in any order or combination you like (because once the tiles are down you have a place to put units, items, and doo-dads).

NinjaBee has given us a robust tool to create maps and then share them quickly and easily.  But they did not just stop at function.  Cool little effects, like the dust or splash effect when you lay down tiles (see top picture), help to make the editor easy on the eyes and fun to play with.

In the next part I will cover advanced editing concepts, tilesets, share some more screens, talk about why the editor has me hooked, and also about my one gripe about the editor.

Now that I am drawing toward the final bits of my Band of Bugs Preview (more exclusive screens upcoming!) I would like to invite you, the XBLA community, to ask any Band of Bugs questions that might be pressing in your minds. 

Of course, I have yet to cover a couple key topics (I know, I know, get to the Level Editor already) but I want to collect your questions in order to post a bunch of answers at once.  So, anything that I did not cover that you are dying to know about (besides release date and price, of course)?

Post your questions here or at XBLArcade.com and I will do my best to answer them (NDA willing) or get them answered!

Two topics on the docket for today: Camera and DLC.

First, the Xbox Live Vision camera support.  If you play other camera-enabled games this will all feel familiar to you.  In multiplayer matches, when you arrive in the pre-game/post-game lobbies, you will see either a person’s gamerpic or his/her camera stream.  Once you are in the game, the streams and pics are relegated to a small section on the right side of the screen.  Within the lobbies the video feeds add something fun (when is it not fun to witness the look of defeat on your enemy’s face?), but in-game the windows are so small that they are barely interesting.

Click below for info on DLC.

Second, Band of Bugs has also been built with extensive Downloadable Content support.  After helping pioneer DLC on XBLA with Kaloki, NinjaBee were not about to lose this prime opportunity.  Actually, “prime opportunity” seems like a major understatement.  Games like BoB cry out for add-ons of all kinds.  Nothing to announce yet (gotta get the game out first, right?) but rest assured – if you have imagined possible BoB DLC, they have most likely already considered it.  We shall see how ambitious they get. 

Also, here is the word direct from foregone conclusion territory: BoB will also get the typical picture pack(s) and theme(s). 

When I get any details on DLC specifics (and I will be getting them) you will find all the details here.

Bonus Topic: Unlockable Gamerpics!

In proper NinjaBee fashion, there are unlockable gamerpics built right into the game.  Just play the game (online and off) and you will likely unlock both.  A nice free bonus for the NinjaBee community. One of them is even the dreaded NinjaBee itself.  And who wouldn’t want to strike fear in their rivals by displaying 100% pure striped death on their gamercard?