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Earlier this week Certain Affinity announced Xbox LIVE exclusive action RPG Crimson Alliance. We caught up with President Max Hoberman to find out how the game came to be and how much the team loves Diablo.
Q: How did the game come to be and why did you choose XBLA over full-price retail?
Max Hoberman: We love RPG games, and have wanted to make a great action RPG since Certain Affinity was founded. XBLA was a natural choice for us, because it’s such a fun, experimental space these days. You can really innovate on XBLA in a way that is harder to do on a full retail product. And of course, it’s perfect for games with a multiplayer focus like this…
Q: How much of an influence has Diablo been on Crimson Alliance?
MH: There’s not a person at the studio who hasn’t played and loved Diablo. So of course we were influenced by it, but there are things we wanted to do differently – most notably focus on fast action combat, where the characters are highly mobile and dynamic, forced to use cover, think about sight lines, and lots of other stuff we’ve learned making shooters.
Q: If this release is a success could future iterations be full-blown retail releases?
MH: We’d love that! There’s so much we’re doing here that is closer to a full retail game than a traditional arcade game. It’s a really full-featured game, and we very much hope to continue the franchise, going bigger each time.
Q: Can you expand on how players will be able to work together, and detail some of the special moves performed as a group?
MH: Many of the encounters are a lot easier if you work together with friends. For example, one person can draw enemies out while the others flank. Then, we’ve got a cooperative revival mechanic that we’re going to talk more about later. And of course, there are the complementary cooperative abilities – for instance, where one character can freeze enemies, which then sets someone else up for a special finishing move, and so on.
Q: How long will the campaign take to complete?
MH: An experienced gamer can complete a fast play through in 6-8 hours; someone who wants to explore the entire world, defeat all the challenges, find all of the secrets, and really tweak the heck out of their character will take much, much longer. And then there is a scoring model and leaderboards that should keep people playing for even longer.
Q: You’ve announced that the game will include three classes. Could we see more added post-release via DLC?
MH: We’re not ready to announce anything about DLC yet… But I will mention that XBLA is perfect for offering new content, and that we all love the idea of keeping the adventure alive with new content for months or years after launch. We want to build a community who love to play together…
Q: Crimson Alliance is coming to XBLA. We’ve already seen Torchlight hit the service and from the outside this looks very similar. Is there room for both?
MH: Definitely. They are very different games. Plenty of room for both! 🙂
Q: There seems to be a growing number of XBLA games targeting hardcore gamers, whereas retail releases are becoming increasingly mainstream and casual focused. Is XBLA the place to go for gamers displeased by the impact of Wii, Kinect and Move on their hobby?
MH: XBLA seems like a great place for gamers of all types! Crimson Alliance definitely has a certain old-school vibe that we believe many gamers will appreciate, but that doesn’t detract from its accessibility. In some ways, it’s an homage to some of the games of old that we love, but in a format that old and new gamers, and even non-gamers can all pick up and play and have fun with immediately.
Q: Do you know what price the game is going to sell for?
MH: Not yet.
Q: Will the game be part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion?
MH: No comment 🙂
Crimson Alliance is due for release exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade this summer.
