Dan Paladin of The Behemoth Talks to GameZone about Castle Crashers
by John Wrentmore

GameZone is back with the Behemoth for an inspiring interview to warm the heart and free the mind…we also talk about their latest project.

When GameZone first interviewed The Behemoth in 2004, the company was wrapping up production of its first title Alien Hominid.  Since then, the game has been met with critical acclaim and the studio has won numerous awards including several from the Independent Games Festival and a “New Studio of the Year” nomination from the Game Developers Choice Awards.

We recently caught up with Art Director Dan Paladin to discuss Alien Hominid’s release on Xbox Live Arcade, the success of the independent game company, and the Behemoth boys’ newest project titled Castle Crashers.  Although the final storyline hasn’t been confirmed yet, up to four players take on the roles of spell-casting knights determined to get revenge for the abduction of their idol.

While conducting the interview, one thing remained certain: Dan, Lead Programmer Tom Fulp, Producer John Baez, and the rest of the Behemoth team never lose focus on the ultimate mission statement…making great games that simply must be played.

How has The Behemoth changed since the release of Alien Hominid?  Have you traded your mopeds in for Ferraris yet?

Dan Paladin:  I think we're somewhere around the Honda Accord level.  Alien Hominid did pretty darn well despite the seemingly non-existent ad campaign in America.  That's not too huge of a surprise since word of mouth is what got it known in the first place (for the online flash game).  I am thankful that we just got to game #2.  That's all I wanted.

I recently visited a game rental store and spotted a checked-out copy of Alien Hominid for GameCube.  The game is almost two years old, completely hand-drawn and animated, and yet still finds an audience.  What does this say about the industry-wide belief that 2D is dead?

DP:  I'm not sure if that belief is industry wide -- but it really can seem so.  Most of the "No's" that we ever get from people in power are reluctant words.  They actually WANT to fund us, but have to say no because 2D doesn't fit their business model.  The game business is a strange animal.

You are remaking Alien Hominid for Live Arcade.  Are there any new additions?  How does it look in high def?

DP:  You should have been at Comic-Con!  We showed it there and there was a great response.  Looks terrific on those TV's!  As far as I know we're not releasing any super-tasty details...yet.

How did the concept of Castle Crashers first come up?

DP:  Tom suggested an adventure game with four different people.  We had some early characters that were based off of known explorer-types like Indiana Jones.  One of them was a knight and he was just plain cool.  Well, not that cool.  Because we ended up redesigning him as well as the rest Castle Crashers.  This really helped us get an absolutely awesome game together.  Basically like Valve did with Half-life 2, rebuilding it from scratch and being much happier in the end! 

Can you explain each character and their magic powers and abilities?

DP:  Green is acid & poison.  His stuff hits people with an initial blast and then withers their health away for a short time.  Blue is ice.  He freezes dudes in their tracks and in my opinion has some of the more comical attacks.  Then you have Red who shoots lightning and fries people.  You can see their skeletons flash and stuff which is also pretty funny.  He has a pretty unique area effect that can be held down to continually zap guys.  And finally Orange, who is fire.  He'll char everybody.

My favorites are probably Blue & Green.  All enemies have certain resistances to magic, so different worlds are going to prove more challenging for certain knights.  But you can be smart and get around that.  You obviously would prefer your sword to firing a fireball at the lava beasts, right?

You have decided to develop Castle Crashers for online download on Xbox Live Arcade.  Why?

DP:  We like XBLA.  It's a great system for everyone involved.  First of all you have the people playing the game that can just download it and not have to pay off-the-shelf prices.  And then you have the ol' "cutting out the middleman so everyone wins" gig of not needing a publisher which really helps out the business end of things.  That will give us a greater chance of being able to make a profit and stay afloat so we can make yet another cool game, right?  And of course, Microsoft has to like the business model too since they invented it and all.  So seriously - everyone wins when a developer creates something for Live Arcade.

Looking at the available titles on Live Arcade, what is The Behemoth doing to make Castle Crashers a stand-out hit?

DP:  In all honesty we just choose what we think people will like.  So far so good!  We're all oldschool fans so we look at those games for inspiration (my personal influence and favorite game of all time: Rivercity Ransom).  Another thing I should really mention is our game is not nearly as difficult to survive in when compared to Alien Hominid.  We had people who don't play games because they claim they suck playing Castle Crashers, and they defeated the first boss.  I've never seen someone jump so high in my life.

In Alien Hominid, there were two controllable characters (Hominid and Hominid with a hat) that could be on screen simultaneously fighting a handful of enemies.  The battles were awesomely chaotic but it could get overwhelming from the all the effects.  Developing Castle Crashers, how will you make the four-player gameplay more explosive while still playable?

DP:  Some people say the videos are confusing, but we did not receive any comments regarding confusion from people playing the game at the tradeshows.  So that's a great thing.  I changed the palette quite a bit in Castle Crashers, where the backgrounds are darker and greyer.  The characters stay in full-bright colors so they are easier to spot.  I did some other artsy-fartsy stuff but I'll stop there with the technicalities.

It is true that if you have four people spraying area effects all over the screen you can momentarily lose your player if you move behind the smoke, ice, etc.  So don't spray area effects all over the place with four players.  Simple as that, people : ) 

Will players have the opportunity to earn achievement points during the game?

DP:  It is a requirement when making a game for 360's Live Arcade to include achievements.  So yes, there will be achievements for both Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid!

Is there an online co-op mode?

DP:  No official word on that one other than "We want it in there because we know it rules."

You have indicated the possible inclusion of a Versus mode.  How will that work?

DP:  Versus mode (if multiplayer is in there, of course) would basically be like the rest of the game, but being able to strike the other players with attacks.  In the normal adventure you cannot hit other players.

You have said before that Microsoft has required the size of the game to be limited to 50 megabytes.  Does this limitation restrict what you can do?

DP:  Not really all that much since our tech guys are absolutely astounding.  They work some serious magic.  The hardest issue so far would be music, but nobody over here is worried.

You have attended many public events including Comic-Con and the Penny Arcade Expo.  How has Castle Crashers been received?

DP:  As mentioned a little earlier before - absolutely awesome.  Alien Hominid was really well received by people coming by the booths in earlier years, but Castle Crashers has been above and beyond that. 

People love the fact that they can clear a level without dying and they love the fact that they can choose different powers.  It's really refreshing to take these games to Comic-Con and gauge the response because every type of person you can think of comes to these conventions.  So you get great feedback.  And when nobody really has any suggestions for you, you know people are going to love it because they just DID love it and it's not even done yet!  It's wonderful.

Can we expect a cameo from our favorite yellow alien?

DP:  Just keep those fingers crossed and we'll see when it comes out.

How do you compare the development process of Castle Crashers with Alien Hominid?

DP:  Well, we remade Alien Hominid.  But with Castle Crashers we made a console version and then remade that console version.  So that was a pretty big difference since that is much more time consuming but with a great advantage if you can pull it off.

We had more people local to each other within the company for Alien Hominid, but we also have worked as a team before and know each other's boundaries and capabilities so it doesn't seem to be impacting much at all.

We have more people working on Castle Crashers than Alien Hominid if I am adding up the numbers in my head properly.  But it wouldn't be by much.

Four-player is a more difficult process than two-player.  And if you make a singleplayer game it is leaps and bounds easier.  There are many strange things you have to take into account when dealing with multiplayer.  What happens when the enemy is holding you but then someone dashes at that enemy from the front?  And the back?  What happens when they are lit on fire while throwing you?  While throwing them?  And what happens when two players are messing around on steep ledges?  Which one does the camera follow?  Where is the camera's center point?  The question list can go into the thousands.  The programmers are seriously amazing on this project.  To compensate for all those things is like being Neo in the Matrix.  I love all of them but I never tell them that because that'd be too awkward.  And it'll be even more awkward when they read this… 

What are you most excited about with the game and the future of the company?

DP:  I really do think this game is going to be received well since we've had every demographic we can think of playing the game with a smile on their face, and people yelling "OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" at something.  Those kinds of things are extremely important for you to have a game that people enjoy.  I think one of the most exciting things for me will be to download and play the game through the service I've already been enjoying.

I have a personal goal to create things that people can interact and have fun experiences with, so working on these games at the behemoth has been a great time for me.  I'm sure the other guys feel the same way since you can really see the passion in everyone's eyes.  The long arguments we have on gameplay issues really shows that we care rather than just picking something and going forward with it.  Tom & I had a several month argument about how the map system should work, and that argument only got longer when we pulled some of the other guys into it.  That's a good thing because everyone has a different view and we can all compromise.  As long as we reach that compromise then that ensures that most players will enjoy the game.

The future of the company?  Well, just having a future for the company is exciting enough!  I've worked at the behemoth longer than any other game studio, so we have got to be doing something right! ...right?  : )

Thanks Dan, we all look forward to the game!

Castle Crashers is scheduled to release February 2007 while Alien Hominid should arrive this holiday season on Xbox Live Arcade.  For more information about The Behemoth, Alien Hominid, or Castle Crashers, visit www.thebehemoth.com

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