Exclusive interview with Capybara Games about their upcoming PSN game Critter Crunch

In the weeks leading up to this years E3 we featured a game called Critter Crunch that will be making its way to the PSN on this summer. The game features unique looking characters (one of whom appeared to be vomiting rainbows...awesome!) and a very interesting looking “food chain” puzzle system. Needless to say the Shogun staff wanted to find out more about this game and the team behind it.

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Kris Piotrowski, the Creative Director at Capybara Games, and get the juicy details on the ever so delicious looking Critter Crunch.

Corey - Critter Crunch seems to be much deeper then a simple "match 3 of a kind" puzzle game, but the actual mechanics are not immediately present in the recent trailer.  I was far too distracted by the rainbow barf intro. Can we get an overview on how the "Food Chain" system works?

Kris Piotrowski - Sure, it’s actually quite simple to imagine: the puzzle mechanic in Critter Crunch is based on a “food chain” concept, so instead of using a classic match-3 concept, our game is all about playing with different sizes. There are 3 different critters in the game; Small, Medium and Large. Large critters only eat medium ones, and mediums only eat smaller critters. Feed any critter 2 times and they’ll pop, taking out any surrounding critters of the same type and color, creating long chains of satisfying critter-bursting explosions. Now this next part actually makes no real sense, but makes perfect puzzle sense; Critters drop tasty jewels when they explode, and Biggs (the main character), has to eat these jewels to complete levels. There’s also a whole bunch of other stuff on top of that, like different critter types and power foods to aid with critter destruction.

For those who are new to Critter Crunch, tell us about the blue "power bar" on the left hand side of the screen shots.

The bar on the side of the screen is the “Hunger Bar”. It represents level progress. When the hunger bar is full, Biggs has a belly full of delectable jewels and… umm… he does a little “Level Complete” dance.

The art design for Critter Crunch is really eye pleasing and unique. Who was behind the artistic vision of this game? Was it stylized in house or did you reach out to outside designers?

All of the art in the game was hand-crafted by two artists from Capy:  Nicolas “Qiqo” Stephan did all the crazy character animations, while Sylvain Coutouly did all the lush environment backgrounds and the game interface.  They also did the animation for the first trailer we released. I can’t really say enough about those two guys; it’s just nuts how… nuts… they are. The original art direction for the critters and Biggs was conceived by Vic Nguyen, who was the lead artist for the first incarnation of the game on mobile. All the art was brainstormed and created by capy-folk and it’s something that we’re very proud of. It makes my HDTV happy.

Besides the obvious visual improvements, what other enhancements have been made to the game since the popular iPhone version?

The main addition this time around is multiplayer. We’ve added a 2-player Versus Mode which can be played both hot-seat offline or online against anyone connected to the PlayStation®Network. We’ve also added a Co-op mode which pits two players against a humongous stack of critters, forcing them to work together to survive the never-ending swarm of cuteness. Both multiplayer modes have new multiplayer specific power foods, and we’re also tracking player progress with online leaderboards.

On top of that we’ve added a bunch of new power foods to single player mode, and brand new set of crazy special critters as well. Oh yeah, you can also finally play the game with a controller and genuine d-pad!

Was there any reservation in releasing a puzzle game of this nature on a console since there are many other puzzle titles available, though not as unique.

We’ve always believed that if we put enough love into the game, people will give it a shot. Of course we were, and still are, a bit worried about some crowding in the genre, but we hope that Critter Crunch has enough charm and sheer HD beauty to help it stand out. Plus, none of those other puzzle games have Technicolor barf rainbows. Or Co-op. Or a powerfully mustachioed character named Hank Hudson.

Not enough games have Co-Op these days, let alone technicolor barf rainbows. So can you tell us the different modes of play players will see?

Yup, Critter Crunch has a bunch of different modes: Single player adventure, puzzle mode, survival mode, challenges of all sorts, as well as online and local multiplayer in versus and co-op flavors. There’s a lot of puzzling to sink your teeth into.

For our readers who love multiplayer modes, can you give us details on how we will be able to crunch with friends?

As I touched on before, there will be a 2 player versus mode and a 2 player co-op mode. Both of these can be played online or offline. Versus mode splits the screen in half and has players trying to out-crunch each other. Players who create bigger chains and combos, and chomp down more jewels will dump new rows of critters onto their opponent and eventually crush them with the critter stack. It’s a very classic puzzle versus mode, but it’s very fast paced and crazy, with unique power ups created specifically for this mode. The co-op mode has 2 players taking on an extra wide stack of critters, so both players have to run around the playfield to keep the stack from crushing them. One player controls Biggs and the other controls Smalls (his son) and they’ve got to work together to keep the stack from swarming them. There’s generally a lot of yelling involved.

The XBLA and iPhone App store have traditionally been more accessible to independent and small developers. Was the PlayStation Network the first place you went to for the console version? Or did you look at a XBLA, Steam or WiiWare as potential homes for Critter Crunch?

After winning the Best Game Award at IGF Mobile 2008, we decided that we wanted to take the game beyond mobile, so we started shopping it around to everyone. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) had a lot of enthusiasm for the game and seemed as pumped as we were about the prospect of making it. They sent us really positive vibes and the Publisher Relations team at SCEA were gung-ho about the game (thanks Nate & Jack), so it just felt right to bring it to PlayStation Network first. And when all is said and done, we couldn’t be happier with the choice to be on PlayStation Network. The platform has so many beautiful indie games, like Flower, Everyday Shooter and all the PixelJunk stuff, so it was really an honor to even think that Critter Crunch could one day find itself sharing download space with gems like that.

Are the other consoles still possibilities down the road?

Ideally, we see Critter Crunch as a game kind of like Bust a Move or Peggle; it can work on any platform, and perhaps one day it will!

Thanks Kris - Special thanks to Nathan Vella and the rest of the Capy team members. New screen shots have been added to our Critter Crunch gallery below.

•  
• 1 of 2
• ››