PinataIsland.info's exclusive Trouble in Paradise interview

[jimmcq]

PinataIsland.info recently chatted with Will Bryan and Justin Cook from Rare to learn about their latest offering, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

What was the inspiration for the title "Trouble in Paradise"? Is Professor Pester up to his old tricks?

Oh yes. Pester is back, badder than ever. His latest scheme went wrong and that has caused chaos in the garden. You need to repair that damage as you play through the game. He’s going to be showing up more often too with some nasty tricks.

Is there anything you can tell us about the new piñata species? Do you have a favorite?

There are more than 30 new Piñatas, some of which have been seen and talked about since their appearances in the 4Kids cartoon and many that haven’t. We also have some new twists on the familiar Piñatas.

We all have favourites as you’d expect. We’ve voiced all the new ones on team again as well which always adds a little bit more personal attachment to a particular piñata. I could tell you my favourite, but it’s not been revealed yet so I better keep quiet.

I think people really liked the idea of cross-breeding a Pigxie with a
Swanana... is there anything new along those lines to discover?

Nothing that’s quite the same as the Pigxie. That will always be a special piñata. But we have crammed in all sorts of hidden features for fans of the last game to discover.

Are new terrain types like hills, snow, and sand included?

The desert and arctic animals have to come from somewhere. The Desert Dessert and Pinarctic that you can see either side of your garden are where you’ll find those critters.

Will the Downloadable Content options be increased this time around?

We don’t currently have any plans for DLC but we’ve spent some time on our new Piñata Vision feature that I think fans will enjoy much more.

There were some pretty strict item limits in the original game that would cause your garden to become full. Are there still limitations of this type in place?

All games have limits ultimately, but we’ve been busy over the last 18 months to increase those this time around. We’ve put a lot of effort in to getting a much wider variety of content in to VP:Trouble In Paradise and each and every garden the players create. We’ve also improved the messaging if/when you reach a limit to ensure the player knows exactly what that limit is.

Will the players be confined to a square plot of land, or will they have more freedom to explore Piñata Island?

You will still have a garden like you did in the last game, but we will let you see a bit more of the Island this time.

Will we finally get a chance to see the online co-op feature to visit a friend's garden?

We’re not ready to talk about online features, just yet.

Is the Dragonache still king of the hill or does another Piñata topple him from his throne? Has the Dragonache gotten any updates to make him more useful than a mobile ornament?

Do you really want me to answer this? Part of the fun is finding out, all I will say is that we have made some changes.

Is there a finally use for Peanut Butter?

Telling you that would spoil the fun.

Will there be any new garden features to build such as bridges?

There are a number of things we’ve tried to do in this area: Community sites such as www.PinataIsland.info showed how proud people were of their gardens and they would spend hours creating themed ones. These were created using a combination of careful digging, planting and the placement of garden ornaments and paving. So, we’ve added an extensive collection of new ornaments and paving types that can be used to create even stronger themes within gardens. We’ve also added interactive toys for the piñata, including space rockets and musical instruments. We’ve even got a selection of trains that will trundle along the train track paving you can now put down. Piñata’s will interact with all these toys, including riding on the trains!

For the more sporting players, we’ve also introduced a mini-golf game using the spade, a seed-hole and special ‘golf ball’ sweet. You’ll also be able to keep Sour Piñata if that’s your thing.

Is there an in-game screenshot system like PGR3 or Halo 3?

Yes there is. An additional ‘camera’ tool allows you to grab screenshots of your creations and add them to your journal. From the journal you will be able to upload them to the VivaPinata.com website. Once on the website you’ll be able to grab them to a PC, email them or just add links from the community sites. No more fish-eye camera-phone images on the forums, you’ll be able to share HDTV quality screenshots. We’re also looking to integrate ‘Piñata Vision’ with these images, but more on that later.

Will the wild-card piñatas make a return?

How many forum posts have we had in the last 18 months about the chances of getting a wildcard? It’s certainly been one of the longest running threads on PinataIsland.info. In the first game, wildcards were acquired based on a small but entirely random chance. For VP:TIP we’ve enhanced the mate mini-games to allow the player to earn wildcards through their own experience and skill. We’ve also introduced a lovely new option for the mini-games that drops the camera down to Piñata level and follows you through the maze in third person.

Has the in-game Post Office system gotten any updates to allow for actual ‘verified trades’ or C.O.D. (Cash on Delivery) crates rather than one-way gifting?

We think that amongst friends the current system is most flexible and allows most fun. To change it would be kind of letting the bad guys win.

Does weather have a larger effect on game play?

We’ve done some nice things in order to integrate the Pinarctic area and Piñatas in to the game. You can’t have a Jeli without real snow wafting around in the air.

How was development this time around different than the first game?

Very different. The team size for VP:TIP has been a pretty consistent 26 people, less than half the number we had to ship VP:Classic. As soon as VP:Classic had shipped we went back to our big list of things it would have been nice to do and then we started reading all the enthusiastic feedback on the various community websites and forums. We had to look at what resources were available to us, how long we had and then we had to judge what we could achieve. We set out with plenty to do, but we’ve actually added more great things as we went along. We hope the VP community will be very satisfied with what we’ll have to offer them in VP:TIP, whilst also attracting many new VP fans.

Has the existing game engine been updated or was this one created from scratch? What's new 'under the hood'?

VP:TIP is running on an enhanced version of the engine from the original VP, which all the greatest VP fans will know originated from the underground Xbox game, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Aside from the big new game play features, we’ve been busy behind the scenes to make existing features and content, better, faster and smarter.

Is there anything else that you'd like to tell us about what we have to look forward to?

We had lots and lots of feedback from parents. Some found their children just got stuck in, some struggled, and some just enjoyed digging with the spade for hours on end. Some kids got on really well until things started to go wrong, like Sours appearing or fights breaking out. So, we’ve added the ‘Just For Fun’ mode of game-play. This allows more casual players and younger children the opportunity to see many of the Piñatas in an environment where bad things don’t happen. They’ll still tend their garden, dig ponds and plant seeds, but it’ll be easier to attract the Piñatas and Pester and his Ruffians won’t come calling. To ensure we don’t short-change the dedicated players, you won’t be able to crate Piñatas out of a ‘Just for Fun’ garden or earn achievements. We’ll also be keeping some Piñatas for the dedicated players only, however the ‘Just for Fun’ players should find more than enough to satisfy them and they can always get a friend to send them the more exotic ones.

Couch Social

As well as ‘Just for Fun’, we’ve also introduced another new great feature that can be used by dedicated players or parents and children. ‘Couch Social’ allows you to take a second controller at any point in a garden, press Start and join the game. When you do this you’ll have two cursors and two sets of tools in the one garden. The second player can also earn additional powers to tinker items and heal sick piñatas. The second player can pop in and out of your garden at any time, just by hitting the Start button on their controller.

Piñata Vision

Piñata Vision is a great little and rather unexpected addition to VP:TIP. Along with the photo upload facility, we hope the VP community will take it and run with it. If you’ve got an Xbox 360 LIVE Vision camera, simply plug it in and off you go. Piñata Vision uses printed media, cards, media-players (Zune, IPod, etc) as a method of introducing Piñatas to your garden, influencing the weather and much more. Show the image to the camera and voila, the content is in the game. If you and a friend have Zune’s you’ll be able to beam content to one another.

We are also looking at the possibility of integrating Piñata Vision in to the photo upload tool, so that you will be able to gift Piñatas and other game content via the photos you take. This will allow you to email a Piñata gift to a friend.

The 'Just for Fun' and 'Couch Social' modes seem to make the game more accessible to young kids and non-gamers alike. Is there anything else that has been added to ease newcomers into the game?

We’ve made some big changes to the tutorial. You now play through 3 challenges rather than reading lots of text -- for some reason people seem to enjoy it a lot more than last time.

Can you give us a specific example of how Piñata Vision might be used?

Players can change the weather, drop animals into their garden, and alter the time of day as well as some other stuff that we’re keeping up our sleeve. We’re also looking to integrate Piñata Vision in to things like players guide, so the printed content is complemented with content from the game itself. With the photo upload tool we plan to let you capture piñata in your photographs, upload them to the server and then you can email the image itself, a link to the image or print them as gifts for other players. The recipient can show the image to their own camera and the content will appear in their garden.

Thanks Will and Justin! We really appreciate the time that you took to answer our questions and we're looking forward to the release of Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise in September 2008.

[FeralKitty]

Thanks Will, Justin, and the VP and VP:TIP teams!

It's been wonderful that Rare is actively involved in the VP community, and has incorporated so much into this sequel!

[PINATAcast]

we now forgive you for not making any new download-able content. =)

[rashberry]

Originally Posted by PINATAcast

we now forgive you for not making any new download-able content. =)

LOL. So who is going to propose via Pinata Vision?

Rashberry

[PINATAcast]

Originally Posted by rashberry

LOL. So who is going to propose via Pinata Vision?

Rashberry

dunno. there have been like 3 or 4 couples that have done it via Halo3 now, so the proposing over the 360 might be over rated now.

Jenn and I are Extremely excited about the local coop though, but were both alphas so we might end up just buying two copies so we don't get divorced over someone ruining the others garden.

[charlietheunicorn]

*stares gape mouthed* SEIROUSLY! I NEED TO SAVE UP MY MONEY!!!!

[PINATAcast]

here is another interview.

[taneer]

*stares gape mouthed* SEIROUSLY! I NEED TO SAVE UP MY MONEY!!!!

Yea, time for me to get off my lazy butt and get a job!

[Newtgat]

You’ll also be able to keep Sour Piñata if that’s your thing.

I love you guys.

[Spartan]

Thanks for the interview guys. There is alot of interesting info in there.


Jim, when you say hypothetical, you are such a liar....