Continued...

Q) Why base the game's art style on the works of Edward Gorey? What about this artist's style spoke to you?

Matt:  Gorey's style mixes creepy and macabre, and is extreme in its proportions.   

Q) We had read that, originally, what would become The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom started as a graduate thesis assignment at USC. How do it go from a grad student thesis to full-blown XBLA release? Take us through, if you will, how it all went down.

Matt:  The game was originally my graduate thesis project at the University of Southern California. I was a film undergraduate, and wanted to bring my love of silent film into gaming. After a viewing of the film Tango by Zbigniew Rybczyński and late night Red Bull binge, I became obsessed with the idea of time looping and started experimenting with the concept in my school projects. These ideas formed the basis of Winterbottom. After teaching myself how to prototype in flash, I began working on the game and teamed up with my classmate Paul Bellezza. Soon after, we recruited a team and submitted the game to the Independent Game Festival at GDC 2008. The game got into the festival and everything began snowballing from there.



Q) Over the course of developing the game, were there any notable challenges your team faced and had to overcome?

Matt:  The weight gain from eating too much pie. Oh… and figuring out who had to take out the trash… that was a doozy. We have a small studio in which we work and were upstairs from a hot wings restaurant. I know that sounds cool. Who doesn't love hot wings, but trust me, it's not that cool. Sometimes the smell of hot wings got so bad we'd complain to the restaurant. (ed. note: I still think it's cool!)

Q) Some previews compare the game to other titles such as Valve's Portal in terms of the creativity of solutions to the in-game puzzles. Would you say that this is a fair statement?

Matt:  Well, yes I would say it’s a fair statement.  Portal did a really great job of making the player feel freedom, but the puzzles still had one solution that you had to figure out.  We spent a great deal on the recording system in Winterbottom striving for the most open system possible.  This leads to user being able to solve puzzles in any way they choose. This allows gamers to be able to solve puzzles any way they want. Coming up with the open system led to many nights drinking more Red Bull and head scratching.  

Q) Being based on the genre of silent film means that a tremendous importance will be put on the game's musical score. Who is responsible for developing the game's music?

Matt:  David Stanton. We met him in school. David was a student in the music department. He is amazing.  His audition piece was basically the title track for the current game.  He took one look at the concept art and was off running.  



Q) What do you think of Microsoft's recent decision to discontinue Xbox LIVE service for the original Xbox console and games? Sources claim this will lift some 'restrictions' on what XBLA developers can do. As a developer, do you agree with this?

Matt:  I am not sure what restrictions will be lifted besides having a larger friends list… but I am all for less restrictions.

Q) Can you tell us what The Odd Gentlemen have on their development plate next?

Matt:  Something just as wacky as Winterbottom and something in COLOR.  

Q) Will your next project be a return to the Xbox LIVE Arcade or will you take it to the more usual game release end?

Matt:  We love the downloadable space for now and think it's potential still hasn't been fully realized, but anything is possible.

Q) And, finally, is there anything else you would like our readers to know about The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom before we adjourn?

Matt:  I steal pie cause the cake is a lie.

We would like to again thank Matt, 2K Games, and The Redner Group for making this interview possible. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is scheduled to be released on February 17th for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.