Grabbed By The Ghoulies Tepid Seat

Tepid Seat, March 2004:

Q1: Well, hmm, first off, where does the name, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, come from? Due to the obvious sexual implication of the word, it has brought up some lame quips. I also want to know if, when Cooper is “grabbed by the ghoulies” and you have to push buttons in the right order to free him, the button setup is random. One time I had to spell “baby” and thought that was humorous. (Brutusmuktuk)

A: The name of the game actually preceded the game itself – a rarity, I can assure you. Quite often we have games in development for months without names or ones which undergo one or more name changes. Not so Ghoulies. We were talking about something else completely irrelevant one day and someone mentioned being about being grabbed by the goolies. We all thought “what a great name for a game”. Then all we had to do was think of a game that would suit it!
The button pushing is indeed random – why only last week I had to enter Up, Right, A, Trigger, Up, Right and Down to continue.

Q2: How long did actual development of the game take? How long did the planning take? How come you developed such a short and accessible game after developing the epic masterpiece Banjo-Tooie which takes more time to finish than an average BioWare RPG? (Wilhelm)

A: From start to finish it was a little under three years, which seems a bit wrong when the epic Banjo-Tooie only took 27 months. But whereas B-T was a sequel with pre-established content, Ghoulies was an original game that started life as a Nintendo product and had to undergo a change to Xbox. This wasn’t as simple as pressing the ‘convert to Xbox’ key on the development kit either (unfortunately).
You’ve answered your own question regarding the ‘short and accessible’ game. B-T was huge, required a massive player commitment and we doubt that most people actually got anywhere near finishing. (Did you?) Ghoulies was supposed to be a game everyone could instantly enjoy and most people could complete.

Q3: Why exactly do you think Ghoulies got so much flak from macho “M rated” gamers because it isn’t realistic to the point that you can hire a prostitute and shoot her in the face afterward? Have some people warped their minds to the point that things like that are the only real life, or have they gotten so used to very easy FPS and racers to the point that they will never accept something new?
Good job guys, you made the entire Xbox purchase worth it. Kiss my arse Gamespot! (Trann)

A: Don’t know what I can add to this, as you’ve presented a pretty decent answer. Whether positive or negative, being different will always get you attention. If you like the game, then buy it and play it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it and don’t play it. Playing games is all about escapism and doing stuff you can’t in real life and every so often we like to try to create something new and risk failure than do the same as everyone else and just make up the numbers. Glad you liked it!

Q4: Any chance of a handheld version? (The answer is “No” I’m 99% sure of that so that was a pointless question.) Any chance of a sequel? (Yeah, that’s no as well probably.) Were you disappointed with the sales and how badly it was received, because I certainly was? (Fred Neshin-san)

A: At the moment it’s no, no and kind of no. Although the game wasn’t as well received as some in the past, I believe it set out what we were trying to achieve. We wanted to create a fun game that could be played by someone of any age. Yes, it probably favours younger players, and feedback we have received from publications that cater for that age group has been very positive. As Trann mentioned previously, the Xbox probably has the most narrow demographic of the current generation of consoles, and for some players if it’s not an FPS/military-based game or a sports simulation then they don’t want to know.

Q5: As an aspiring game designer and a current animation student at Digipen Intitute of Technology, I’d like to know how you fellas go about developing the concept for a game. Do you start with gameplay ideas, or story and characters? Have you guys ever used ideas from your youth? How long does it take to formulate the whole idea before production? Finally how do you guys see yourself as game designers in the industry? (Jim Burner)

A: A concept for a game can start in any of the ways you mentioned. Banjo started with the character and his abilities, with the game being built around that. Ghoulies started with the name, whereas Kameo began with the idea of turning into monsters. It can literally be anything, but it’s usually one thing.
These ideas can come from anywhere and from any point in your life. As a kid, I always wanted to be a bear wearing tight yellow shorts with a bird in my backpack – I even practiced firing eggs out of my backside. Well, maybe not.
In years gone by, development would start immediately after a concept was conceived, with crucial decisions and direction quite often being made up as we went along. This isn’t possible with the size of teams and commercial importance of games today, so a certain amount of work has to be done before production can start. Even so, developing a game is a creative and ongoing process and the finished product is never 100% what you imagined it to be at the start.
How do we see ourselves? Personally, I would say as entertainers (even though most would say we are layabouts without a ‘proper’ job!). Even if only one person enjoys playing something we create, we’re happy. Of course, if millions like it we’re even happier! Good luck with your studies, Jim.

Q6: I wanted to know why is there this little door in the grand hall of Ghoulhaven Hall!!! Is it because you’re stupid OR that you just wanted somebody to ask the question and laugh of him because he really thinks there’s something inside? Anyway if there is a way to open it I THINK you just won’t tell me because you did that with the other games. (René)

A: I assume you mean the door in the bookcase. If you were a little more observant, you’d notice that this is the door that Cooper and Amber exit the Archives from in the animated Storybook at the end of Chapter 2.
Alternatively, if you are stupid enough to believe anything, then maybe the response from artist who modelled the grand hall will clear it all up: “Just tell him it leads to the ‘stop-n-swap’ room…”

Q7: You seem to usually have male protagonists as dim-witted and/or goofy and/or hapless whereas your female protagonists seem to be a little more spunky and/or quick-witted and/or mean. Does this speak to a philosophical standpoint on gender of yours or is it just convenient to make your games funny? (Devin)

A: To quote a famous philosopher: “No-one likes a clever clogs but everyone laughs at a fool”. Actually I just made that up, but it’s a pretty accurate reflection of what players seem to enjoy. Or maybe it’s because we’re all dim-witted, goofy and hapless?

Q8: Why did you choose to simplify the fighting controls to the joystick when there were the face buttons just yearning to be pushed? Maybe an option next time. The more choices the better. (Alex Barrella)

A: Because everyone’s been pressing buttons since the dawn of time! We thought it would be cool if you could attack in any direction without having to suffer the usual ‘turn to face opponent, press button to attack and then get smacked from behind’. And why do you want more buttons to press? It should be less. You don’t see mobile phone companies saying “let’s see how many buttons we can fit on our next model and let’s make it really difficult to operate it” do you? If gaming is ever to become truly mass market then control systems need to be really simple and straightforward. There, I can get off my soapbox now.

Q9: Is the Baron based on anyone that any of the team know? And if so please tell me so I can laugh at them. Also are any other members of the Grabbed by the Ghoulies cast based on real people? (Chris Stopper)

A: The Baron is a bizarre mix of the Red Baron (German WW1 fighter ace), British aristocracy and a complete lunatic. Unfortunately this doesn’t match anyone on the team, although we do have a few lunatics. Apart from that, Ma Soupswill is loosely based on a school cook from when I was a child, Fiddlesworth is how I always imagined a ‘cerebrally challenged’, but kind-hearted groundskeeper to be and Babs Buffbrass is again loosely based on the lady that cleans our offices (although she doesn’t speak like that at all and never pulls our ears).
I could also say that the Imp is based on Banjo’s Jinjo, but the artist responsible will go into a huff – even though it is!

Q10: In the manual, under Features, “listen to the soundtrack” is listed. Having beaten the absurdly cruel (and fun!!1!) 21st challenge, I can attest to its absence. I blame deceased US ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson. Care to set the record straight? (Chad McCanna)

A: Indeed, we were contacted by the spirit of Mr. Stevenson shortly after the manual had gone to print, but whilst we were still working on the final version of the game code (it’s a matter of Microsoft internal policy that every product manual gets read by at least three undead former ambassadors, prior to publication). He informed us, as I think you rightly supposed, that it would be unwise to include the replay soundtrack feature in its then incomplete state, and thereby risk causing massive international dis-chord (groan).
But seriously, as much as you don’t want to, you sometimes have to make sacrifices to get a game done on time.
When it’s a choice between polishing up functional aspects (that everybody who plays the game will appreciate) and putting in that last feature that would be really cool but that only yourself and about two other people worldwide will ever get to see… well, you get the picture. Unfortunately, the manual had already gone to print by then.
Still, you could always create your own replay soundtrack feature by replaying scenes, defeating all the Ghoulies, and then just not walking through the door…

Q11: I love GBTG. It just has that same Rare touch that all of your games have had. Anyways, what did you find to be the hardest challenge in developing this game for Xbox? Since you were only a part of Microsoft Game Studios for a year before GBTG was released, did you run into any unusual challenges? (Adam)

A: Glad you liked the game, Adam. Challenges, eh? Converting from Gamecube to Xbox was probably the first, and one of the biggest challenges. Other challenges we faced included getting the game finished within a year once it was converted, adapting to the way that Microsoft Game Studios tested/approved games and trying not to eat too many fattening snacks (very difficult with growing teams and the fact that each team member brings in a cake on their birthday!).

Q12: I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve heard internet rumors that Ghoulies was close to being cancelled, are these rumors true? Were you concerned about how the gaming media would embrace Grabbed by the Ghoulies before it was released? Will there be a sequel? How many projects are you currently undertaking? (Glenn Lear)

A: A real mixed bag of questions there, Glenn.
No, Ghoulies was never close to being cancelled (I wouldn’t believe anything you read on the internet – it’s only one step up from ‘I heard it from a bloke down the pub’).
We predicted a reasonably rough ride from the gaming media as it wasn’t aimed at the core ‘guns and driving’ Xbox demographic, it wasn’t PD and it wasn’t on Nintendo anymore. So we were prepared!
At the moment we have no plans for a sequel, but we said that about Sabre Wulf about 20 years ago!
How many projects would you like us to be undertaking? If we gave you an exact number, we’ll just get some people trying to work out what they already know and then wildly guessing (admittedly entertaining for us) what the others are. You should know of three, but of course there are others – we wouldn’t be Rare if we didn’t have something that no-one knows much about, would we?

Q13: Just a thought: Who was it that stood up and demanded, “Hey, let’s give the funniest voice in the game to a haunted DOOR!”? (Behonkiss)

A: Actually it was more like someone standing up and saying “Does anyone know what noise a haunted door makes?”. Nobody did, so the musician decided to record himself saying “mmmn-mmm-mmmurrr” a lot.

Q14: I noticed that in the upper corridor there was a blocked off room that has a few Rare books laying on the ground in a question mark. Is this just a joke or is it actually there for a reason!?! (Tim aka MrPants the Great)

A: The official answer is that it’s there purely for a joke and to invite the usual flurry of frustrated emails. But we can’t admit that as it will only annoy people, so we’ll say that it’s a super special secret that will only be revealed when you eject the disc and within five seconds replace it with another, as-yet-unreleased Rare title, while looking at the question mark in, er, question.

Q15: Considering Fondled by the Flanges mightn’t have been a contender, what were the other titles for the game? (Soon)

A: We had no other titles for the game – it was Grabbed by the Ghoulies even before the first line of code was written or the first polygon modelled. In the opening Storybook, the sign to the next village used to read ‘Neede in the Nuts’ rather than ‘Ghoulsville in the Gloom’. This was to be the name of the sequel if it was ever done, but the folks at Microsoft thought that it was a bit too risqué so I’m afraid it had to go.

Q16: Why oh WHY did this game not have a first person view for seeing all of those beautiful cameos up close? I spent hours getting the trigger sensitivity just right to see Banjo-Threeooie and other mock-up game boxes! My poor shootin’ fingers, ruined by such a nice, nice game! (Mr. XBizzle)

A: The Banjo games always had a first person mode as it was sometimes essential to have a good look around to work out what you were supposed to be doing or going. As the playing environments in Ghoulies are a lot smaller we thought this wasn’t necessary – as it is pretty obvious where to go and what to do. What we didn’t expect was that players would want to stare in microscopic detail at the backgrounds. Obviously we were wrong. The fact that there are loads of crude-sounding products on shelves has got nothing to do with it whatsoever…

Q17: My question for the tepid seat, more specifically, the Ghoulies composer, is about that nifty guitar solo in the “Ballroom Disco” track. If I’m right in assuming that was live (I don’t think an electric guitar would sound that good under something like the general MIDI limitations), that was some pretty good… err… playing, there. Is Grant himself responsible for that, or did you guys bring in some random goon off the street? (Void Jay)

A: Aaaah… the Ballroom guitar solo… guilty I’m afraid. Yes, it was played live. Just in case you’re interested, the rhythm part was played using a Fender Strat and the solo was on my Les Paul Standard through a line6 Flextone 2 XL. I’m afraid my Heavy Metal roots are showing through, I just thought it’d be a laugh to get a bit of rock in there amongst those Ghastly Ghoulies!

Q18: Why are there Ghoulies living in washing machines in the laundry room? I mean, there are lots of other good places they could stay, like one of the laundry hampers! There would be a lot more room in one of those, but the washing machines would probably have a hot-tub pre-installed, So I guess it’s a matter of opinion. Also, does The Reaper do anything special in his free time? (The Invisible Man)

A: Why would they want to live in baskets full of smelly underpants and sweaty socks? It’s much cleaner in the washing machines. Flushed with his success of hassling Cooper in his debut game, The Reaper decided to pick a fight with the ‘daddy’ of Reapers from Conker’s Bad Fur Day, as you may have seen in last November’s edition of Scribes…

Q19: Here’s an interesting question. Just who is that green-haired zombie-esque woman who pops out of windows and screams? Just what was her purpose supposed to be originally? She seems to serve no purpose currently and she was in the unlockable video. Please put this mystery to rest. (Ness554)

A: She was one of the very first characters modelled, a test almost. While she never became a character you could fight, we wanted to find a use for her – so her speciality became window-peering, arm-waving and screaming.

Q20: If you guys could have remade the game with no set deadline; with the knowledge that you have now, what would have you done differently? (James Cadden)

A: Cooper would have been a gravelly-voiced, stubble-faced martial arts expert of few words, who ruthlessly ran the Ghoulies over in really fast cars while shooting innocent bystanders, drinking beer and making lewd suggestions to scantily-clad prostitutes.
Seriously though, the original concept had more adventure elements in it and we would probably include more of this, giving the player some choice to how they progressed. Some kind of upgrade system for the fighting would have also been cool.

Q21: Not being a Rare employee on the GbtG team, I obviously don’t know for sure what the game’s origins are or how long it took to make the game. So my questions are when did you start making GbtG, was it ported from the Cube or built from scratch, and why did you bother with a loading screen? Those are pretty simple questions for bright folks like you. (Nathan Drews)

A: GbtG was started in October 2000 and was ported from the Gamecube to the Xbox in September 2002.
The loading screen is quite obvious there for when information being loaded in off the disk. Or was that question meant to be aimed in a more technically clever way? If it was, then I’ve got absolutely no idea – that’s left down to the clever technical people.

Q22: How do you guys call the graphic technique used in Grabbed by the Ghoulies, is it Cell shading? Do you have any plans of making a multiplayer version of the game? I think it would be a lot of fun on Xbox Live!! And what is the Grabbed by the Ghoulies team going to do now that they have finished the title? Are they going to start working on Banjo-Kazooie for the Xbox Next???? Or help speed up the process of making PDZ??? (Master J 007)

A: We gave up with fancy names for graphic techniques after ACM in DKC. We never had an official one for Banjo (although we came up a couple of stupid ones – one of which was ‘ARSE’ – can’t remember what it stood for, though). Ghoulies didn’t have one at all, so how about we just say “it looks nice” and be done with it?
The game was too far into development when we switched to Xbox and too close to its deadline to consider Live! We did have a same screen co-op mode running though, but again to make it work properly would have required time and resources we just didn’t have. Live! would have been good in a more open playing environment, i.e. 16 players all over the house at the same time. Or maybe even all 16 in the same room!
Do you really expect us to tell you what game we are doing next? That’s like a politician admitting they arsed something up or that other opposition party is right about something. It’s not going to happen, I’m afraid. But we’re diligently toiling away as you speak…

Q23: Do you feel that there is a certain beat-em-up revival-type movement going around? Three games probably aren’t enough to judge, but we had Turtles, Batman: Sin Tzu, and Ghoulies coming out all during the third quarter of last year. (JetDog)

A: Sadly, I don’t think so – although I’d love to see a new Double Dragon or Final Fight. Maybe if there was a revival it might encourage us to dust off the Battletoads for another soiree. Or maybe even KI3!!!!!*
(* Mention of KI3 does not necessarily mean Rare is developing it, but feel free to keep asking Leigh anyway.)

Q24: My inquistion question to you may or not be answered honestly, but I will ask anyway just for kicks. Since the acquisition of Rare by Microsoft, do you feel that your talents in game development are hindered by time deadlines set by MS or do you have full freedom to say to the higher ups at Microsoft Games Studios that your game is not of “Rare quality”? Also do you all feel that Rare has lost some of its core audience since you no longer focus on a younger demographic like you did with Nintendo? I just want to say to you guys that not all Xbox fans are hardcore first person shooters and that there are many fans who love the stuff you put out… why not… we grew up with you on the Nintendo 64… (Sergio Zorola)

A: We always answer honestly Sergio. If we can’t, we’d rather try and give you an entertaining but answer-avoiding response than a lie.
Microsoft wants Rare to produce quality games in a timely manner. As you may have noticed, the ‘timely manner’ is something that we are trying to improve on. Microsoft understands the way that Rare works and is fully supportive of the decisions we make. Why only yesterday we phoned up Bill for a quick chat and told him our new game would miss its deadline by at least two years. As you can imagine, he was more than happy – “why not miss it by four years and you can all have a year off?” he replied. Seriously though, we are more than pleased with Microsoft’s commitment to allow us to continuing developing the games in the way that has worked for us in the past. But we are working on that time element!
Rare has always tried to aim the majority of its games at broad appeal audiences. While in the past this was often seen as targeting the younger demographic (as they were the predominant audience), we feel that the whole player demographic is changing. The average age of gamers is increasing, and even the younger players want to experience more maturity in what they play.
While it’s true that not every Xbox player is an FPS fan, it is fair to say that the Xbox demographic is skewed towards more mature games. Rare’s ability to produce mass market appeal games will hopefully draw in a new market of Xbox players as well as satisfying loyal fans like you, Sergio.

Q25: Throughout the game there’s tons of pictures of your former Banjo games, why? To promote buying it? Surely you can’t be that stupid, the Nintendo 64 is “retired”. What’s the point? You put pictures of freaking eggs and a key. That’s not scarry. There’s obviously a reason for doing so. There’s too many references. Why? Why?! (Kanzure)

A: No, we’re not stupid. The N64 may be retired, but Rare owns the Banjo licence – so why not advertise our own characters? It’s kind of become our team’s trademark – how many references to other games can you spot?

Q26: Was anything removed from Ghoulies for content issues (I’m guessing yes)? If so, how much? Any characters or levels? (Tucker Beard)

A: Not too bad actually, Mr. Beard. There were quite a few requests from the ESRB (the ratings board) that included stuff like green goo spurting from the Zombie’s severed arm, some innuendos from Fiddlesworth and not mentioning the word ‘kill’. No characters or levels, though. Do you think we’ve learnt our lesson and become responsible in our old age? Not likely!

Q27: I’m just wondering why you went and did the whole mansion thing after it had already been done on GameCube several times (Luigi’s Mansion, Eternal Darkness, Res Evil… if not more). Why not rather have a game’s setting down the toilet or in my old grandmother’s stomach? Originality people! (Ryan Chonowitz)

A: Originality you say? Okay, let’s see where your originality gets you. Imagine there are three games on the shelf at your local game store. Turdtris is a puzzle game in a toilet where you have to rotate different shaped poos to form lines so they are flushed away. Gut Gut Mix Revolution is a dancing title that requires you to mix various foodstuffs inside a senior citizen’s stomach by tapping buttons in time to music and pushing the results into the ‘exit’ (which could lead onto a Turdtris sub game). Alternatively, you could go for the action-packed romp around a fantastic haunted house. So which would you choose? What do you mean, Turdtris? Why, you…
Actually, when Ghoulies was started we had never heard of, let alone seen, Luigi’s Mansion and Eternal Darkness.

Q28: Did the team use something like Renderware or did they write their own engine? I’ve played straight through and the game is massive, looking at the credits how did so few people achieve so much? (Jez)

A: Almost everything you see in Ghoulies is written in-house. Bink Video (used for the animated Storybooks) is one exception I can think of. By writing our own stuff it gives us full control and understanding, also allowing us to make changes and modifications very quickly. And if it’s good, we know that no one else can use it! The disadvantage is that it takes considerable time and resources to achieve this, so much so that we may possibly look outside of the company for certain resources in the future.

Q29: Did you ever feel the urge to add in some form of crying toothbrush? ‘Cos they’ve had a pretty bad time of it recently. (Daniel Masters)

A: Sorry Daniel, but I’m afraid to say that crying toothbrushes were never considered, as Zombies don’t need them due to toothpaste ruining their carefully kept rotting teeth.

Q30: Can you give us some details as to why some of the “Missing In Action” Ghoulies were removed, like that massive Red Snake? (I call him Clive.) Was it because they (I think this is the Rare Technical Term) “looked crap”? Were they too similar to other Ghoulies? Were they part of an area of the game that was removed, making them redundant? (Aussie Ben)

A: The ‘missing in action’ characters seen in the unlockable art section have varied, but similarly sad, stories. Some are characters that were modelled and never used (e.g. Venus Fly Trap) while others became something else (‘Clive’ the Red Snake is actually the snake fountain in the Walled Garden). Like you guessed, others featured in areas that were taken out. A good example of this was the unused Museum room that would have contained all of these ‘unwanted’ characters – where they were going to moan woefully about their lack of use as the player passed by! Unfortunately that never made it in either. Drat.

Q31: Why is it that Ghoulies often like to dye their hair psychodelic colours? Are they really relics from a bygone era of love and rock’n’roll? Is that why they are so far out? Also, which action adventure games from other developers do you enjoy – which influenced you and which game developers do you have a healthy respect for? UbiSoft’s Beyond Good and Evil? Nintendo’s own Warioworld? C’mon, spill the beans… er, not the guts. (Richard Townrow)

A: Haunted houses are always grim and dingy places, so the Ghoulies dye their hair to stop bumping into each other in the gloomy corridors. It obviously rubbed off on one of our software engineers, as he turned up one day with bright blue hair. Claimed it was a failed dying experiment but we know that he wanted to be a Ghouly.
There are loads of games by other developers that we all play and enjoy, that change almost weekly. Current barn favourite seems to be Counter-Strike (before that it was Top Spin), but it has some way to go to eclipse the seven year lunchtime playing session of Goldeneye. Personally I’ll always remember Naughty Dog’s Way of the Warrior on 3DO. It may not have been the best game ever, but compared to today’s shiny high production values it had a simple charm and an endearing ‘knocked together’ feel that I fondly remember from Rare’s earlier days. Need someone to do the voices? Do it yourself. What about the moves? Get your mate to do them. And whoever came up with the steroid-taking, brilliantly named ‘Major Gaines’ and his appalling British accent deserves a medal.

Q32: Grabbed by the Ghoulies absolutely stinks of the Rare I know and love. In a good way. O, how it stinks. O, how I love.
How deliberate was it for Grabbed by the Ghoulies to obtain a reputation for being aimed at “The Kids”? In retrospect the Rare acquisition was perceived to be an active step by Microsoft towards accessing a wider (read: younger) audience, and some Microsoft spokesperson or other said as much, so I would like to know how conscious the team was of this status, and whether any part of the game was altered accordingly, especially considering that GBTG is no more “childish” than most other Rare titles. Your thoughts? (Richard)

A: MS wants Rare to continue producing the games that Rare are known for, so GbtG was not altered in any significant way for the Xbox (but we did put an Xbox box in the Gaming Room, if that counts).

Q33: Well I was just wondering where the idea for Ghoulies come from, I mean did it come from Banjo, did it come in someone’s dream or coma. Come on, there must be a reason you did Ghoulies. (J. Docherty)

A: The game started with just the name. From there it developed into a humorous light-hearted action game in a haunted house. Scooby Doo was obviously an inspiration, but not the newer versions with annoying Scrappy Doo or the even worse really modern ones with that crappy little kid and ‘fashionably’ clothed characters. And the new van is really rubbish, too.

Q34: Have you been criticised for ripping Luigi’s Mansion with Grabbed by the Ghoulies? It’s a really great game by the way!!! (Better than Luigi’s Mansion at any rate.) Oh, and I know that everything is all about having online games with Xbox Live, but are you going to make the rest of your Xbox games majorly online enabled? Because the majority of Xbox owners are not able to connect to Xbox Live (including moi)… (Sean Turner)

A: We’ve had a few comparisons, but that’s like saying Gran Turismo is a rip-off of OutRun. As for Live! content, it’s a great feature and we do intend to have some elements in most games that utilise this. But you’re also right that most players don’t have Live! – I think it’s around 1 in 10 that do at the moment.

Q35: There are several points in the game in which numerous posters, ornaments and Xbox games can be seen. My questions to the genius gurus over in Blighty: are any of those Xbox games actually in development? You know, Killer Instinct, Atic Atac, etc. Can any of the posters be taken as a sign that certain characters will be returning in some of your future games? Ummm, Mumbo Jumbo and Grunty’s Hunchback Servant Dude for example. Are you planning to make any of the other posters into Xbox or Microsoft titles? Underwurlde (hopefully nothing to do with that current movie) and Jetpac… (Patrick Concannon)

A: We’ll let you choose an answer to this one, Patrick:
1. Yes, all those games like KI and Atic Atac are in production. Why not come and have a look and suggest a few more? Battletoads? Taboo 2?
2. No they are not and never will be – guaranteed.
3. They may or may not be, now or in the future, but who knows what may happen and we’re not going to tell you, etc. etc.
Personally, I fancy an update to Jetpac. The original only took a few weeks to write, so if we spice it up a bit with pointless FMV, chuck in a couple of new rockets and give it some spacey music we should have it wrapped up in a couple of months. Then we can all go on holiday until 2005.