Q-Games co-founder Dylan Cuthbert

If there were a definitive encyclopedia of pop culture, Q-Games co-founder Dylan Cuthbert will be located somewhere between Kevin Bacon and Zelig for the way that he keeps popping up in videogame history. Starfox for the Super Nintendo? He worked on that, in Japan, under Shigeru Miyamoto's supervision. Blasto for the PS1? He worked on that for Playstation's American division. Ape Escape? Phil Harrison's beloved rubber duck demos? The Playstation 3's wavey background? Cuthbert, Cuthbert, Cuthbert. He hasn't neglected his Nintendo ties, though, having worked on both the Bit Generations game Digidrive and Starfox Command for the Kyoto giant, with an as-yet-untitled game currently in development as well.

In early 2007, Cuthbert initiated what he calls the PixelJunk Project in order to realize his dream of making 2-D games once again, reaching an agreement with Sony to produce three such games for the PS3. The first game, code-named PixelJunk 1-1, was a top-down slot racing game released under the name PixelJunk Racers in September, to mixed reviews. His newest title, code-named PixelJunk 1-2, is an isometric real-time strategy game that is being titled PixelJunk Monsters. As we said in our preview, it's a clever reworking of the tower defense sub-genre of RTS games for console players, and as such should appeal to both newcomers and anyone who's enjoyed such browser-based titles as Desktop Tower Defense or Vector TD. In Part I of our two-part Q&A with Cuthbert, which we conducted via email, he explains what the name PixelJunk means; why he wants to turn Japanese gamers on to the pleasure of RTS games; and why PSN games haven't yet caught fire in his adopted Japan. Read on.

What does the name PixelJunk mean?

PixelJunk is the nickname I use on the fumufumu-Q blog ("fumufumu" translates roughly from Japanese to the "sound" your brain makes when you are thinking about something). It is a primarily Japanese blog which collects together a mix of tech, culture and art-related articles; a lot of our staff applied for jobs here after reading our those articles. So when I wanted to create a name for this series it seemed like a fun choice--people who like PixelJunk games are destined to be called PixelJunkies. :-)

Where did the idea for PixelJunk Monsters come from?

The idea for PixelJunk Monsters came from a desire to introduce RTS games to Japan somehow. For some reason, RTSs simply do not sell over here, even though if you drag Japanese people screaming and kicking and actually get them to play games such as Starcraft, Command & Conquer, Company of Heroes, etc., they absolutely love them and won't stop playing them for years.

Here at Q we've been kicking ideas around for an RTS for years and even presented some of them to Nintendo and other publishers, but we just can't get a Japanese publisher to take the plunge with that genre, so in the end we had to go ahead and fund it ourselves.

What do you like about real-time strategy games so much that has made you so determined to bring them to Japan?

I was hooked to the RTS genre after playing a game called "Carrier Command" on the Amiga back in the late 80's. It was a full 3-D real-time strategy game that had you in control of a futuristic carrier ship (that had an assortment of vehicles and weapons) in a sea full of islands you could take over or battle for. In order to take an island you build a base on the island of a particular type (defense, manufacture, or resource) and the islands are connected by an arbitrary network of resource lines. This is probably the first game I ever played into the wee hours of the morning (the second being Super Mario Bros 3).

From there I moved on to Dune, Command & Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft, Battle for Middle Earth etc., but for the past four years I've been playing Command & Conquer: Zero Hour, which I specially modded to solve some of the over-inflation balance issues they had in the later game. What I found is that the Japanese guys in the office wouldn't be interested in playing until I forced them to try it, and then they wouldn't stop playing. One thing I noticed that endeared Zero Hour to the Japanese was the cute characterization and voices--we also played C&C 3 a lot but it never quite reached the same status because it is a much more mechanical game (due to the menu system) and designed with less humour. Zero Hour is controlled primarily by a mouse cursor, but you have dozers and workers who walk around and do the actual building of your base; this makes the game far more intuitive than the point-and-click of C&C 3 and helped guide us in the right direction for Monsters.

So I sensed a whole new genre that hasn't fully been explored by Japanese games yet, and from about 3-4 years ago we've been concocting ideas for an RTS game, but we were finding it very difficult to get publishers on board because the genre is fairly unknown over here. Along came PixelJunk and a chance to implement a simple but fun RTS-like game, so we took it.

Do you see any parallels between the resistance to RTS games in Japan and the small number of RTS games that have succeeded on consoles here in North America?

This is a very strong relationship--PC games don't sell in Japan so the whole FPS and RTS genres just didn't gain popularity in the '90s as they did in the West. Even now FPSs [first-person shooters] struggle pretty badly compared to other games. Of course both games are traditionally mouse and keyboard games and play best when controlled in that way and this is one reason why they never quite translated to the same success on consoles over here. The other reason is that the generally gritty, violent warlike scenarios and worlds the West implement in their FPSs aren't suitable for the average Japanese--this is still a culture trying to get over its war-related past.

Had you played Flash Element TD and Desktop Tower Defense before you began work on PixelJunk Monsters? If so, what did you think of them?

Yes, the Warcraft tower defense mods, as well as the more recent Flash-based variety definitely helped us work out what elements of an RTS can appeal to the broader market. I loved the way those games had taken the essence of base-building and automatic defenses, and totally simplified the AI; one problem with RTSs in general is that playing against the AI is nowhere near as much fun as playing against people. No matter how good the development team, RTS AI always feels mechanical and I think that puts off the average Japanese player considerably. The tower defense genre cleverly solves that problem by making the AI as stupid as it could possibly be, and it works!

What were the challenges you faced in bringing this kind of game to the PS3, where the twin sticks are not as precise as a mouse?

With Monsters, right from the beginning we decided to drop the very PC user-oriented mouse/cursor control and, instead, have the game controlled by a proper character; a little guy you make run around the forest, who has to dodge the monsters and collect the money and gems they drop, etc. By doing this, the game feels much more like a regular character-based action game instead of a point-and-click RTS. I think this is very important for gaining a wider audience, especially in Japan, and it makes the game more endearing. The limitations of the analog sticks--when compared to a mouse at least--become a natural part of the game's controls rather than a hindrance to accuracy, as they would have been if we had gone the cursor route.

How did you approach the multiplayer elements for PixelJunk Monsters?

I really wanted co-op play! It is one thing to be battling against the monsters by yourself, but to be able to do it with a friend or girlfriend is something I wanted right from the beginning. From our initial monitor testing, we realized this game really has a universal appeal to both sexes which is great. I hate to say it but probably the first game I have ever made that women also enjoy! We support online ranking in 1P and co-op 2P with separate high score tables, so the battling for the best score is going to be pretty heated.

In co-op mode, you have separate money, but you share the gems that are used to upgrade or research new towers; this means the two players have to really communicate well (physically, i.e. by talking to each other) in order to beat some of the fiendish stages we have designed. I'm hoping it sells well so we can afford to make Monsters 2, I would really like to take it all online and I also have some great ideas for Vs. play that I am desperate to try out.

What kind of behavior did you observe from your extensive testing of the co-op mode in PixelJunk Monsters? What kind of interactions did you see emerge from your testers?

We observed a huge amount of communication--the power of two minds trying to solve the various stages was interesting to watch. One pattern that emerged from two of our main testers was that one would be the "look out" guy and build defenses near where the monsters come in, and the other guy would be the "last resort" and researching guy (or girl of course) and hang around near your home; and then depending on the types of monsters coming in they would sometimes combine to dance-upgrade strategic towers to a certain level. I never saw any arguments but some of the conversations I overheard were really funny as people got quite animated about how the defenses should be laid out. When they failed though, they were bashing their buttons trying to get back in to try out another strategy--that was a good sign regarding the addictiveness of the game.

PixelJunk Racers had a very sleek, crisp modern art style: predominantly chrome, concrete and bright colors. Why did you decide to go with a more hand-drawn, nature-inspired art style for PixelJunk Monsters?

I really liked the style of old SNES games and I wanted to make at least one game in that style--back at that time I never got a chance to make a 2-D game, as I was always working at the forefront of 3-D technology with games like Starglider and Starfox. The PixelJunk series is a chance for me to re-live those really creative years, and also to teach the younger staff here about the raw creative ideas and output that existed back then. These days games take years to make and a lot of that energy is lost in the process.

So PixelJunk 1-2 (Monsters) is our homage to that era. As you noticed, the style is completely different to Racers, and PixelJunk 1-3 is completely different again. I want to experiment with all kinds of looks, and not just stick to one style; where's the fun in that, eh? Apart from a couple of notable exceptions, recent games have all begun to look the same, they all use the graphics hardware in the same way so they end up with similar results to each other. With PixelJunk we are trying to use the hardware in different ways by pushing 2-D and Full HD.

How have Japanese gamers responded to the concept of games for download on the PlayStation Network?

So far, it really hasn't caught on in the same way it has in the West--the problem in Japan is a traditional aversion to using credit cards, as opposed to the West where it is second nature. A lot of restaurants over here don't accept any credit card at all, and when you order things online to be delivered the majority of people pay on delivery or even by online bank transfer as opposed to using a credit card. Pre-paid cards are definitely the way to go forward to solve these problems, but they only rolled out recently, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Next: In Part II of our exlusive Q&A, Cuthbert discusses his desire to collaborate with artists outside of the game industry; explains why his 2-D high-def games are designed to be played on a single screen, and expresses his sympathy for Jeff Minter's recent rant about gamers' reluctance to support short session titles.