The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Interview
XE: How long have you been working on The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai?
James Silva: Two years, give or take maybe. I've had the concept floating around for Five years and even starting coding twice on versions that were thrown out (probably a good thing)
XE: What were some of the concepts before you decided on the final build?
James Silva: I think I originally envisioned it as a third person shooter with an emphasis on acrobatics and stuff, but, ahem, was a bit over my head. I think Torque had just been released and I was thinking that would make all of my dreams come true. Then I wanted to make it as a side scrolling shooter, kind of like ZP2K9. Then a 3D side scrolling brawler, which is the closest to what it is now but still pretty different. I put quite a bit of work into the 3D side scroller.
XE: Did you scrap that or hope to release it in the future?
James Silva: That's 100% scrapped. Kind of a shame, but at some point I realized I was putting tons of work into it to get very little out of it. That's sort of the thing about 2D vs 3D--you can put a fair amount of work into a 2D game and get great results; the same amount of effort won't get you nearly as far with a 3D game.
XE: What was your motivation throughout the process to keep going on with The Dishwasher?
James Silva: it was just an idea that I really liked. It seemed like every time I was bored, I'd mull over another go at The Dishwasher. Eventually it all clicked
XE: Who is this Dishwasher and is there a story behind him?
James Silva: The Dishwasher is a guy who washes dishes and through crazy circumstances and angst he is transformed into a tireless, ruthless samurai. The story has evolved as well although the one where it now is the *real* one. The Dishwasher has his heart removed by cyborgs as part of cyborg in-processing but is mysteriously saved and somewhat alive so he's out to destroy them
XE: What type of multiplayer features was included in the dishwasher?
James Silva: There's a co-op mode called Arcade, 50 levels of arcade challenges.
XE: No story co op?
James Silva: story co-op is interesting. There's no Live story co-op but there's a half-easter-egg-half-feature mode. You can play as the Dishwasher's shadow or as the phantom guitar. The shadow can drop in by pressing A on a free controller. The phantom guitar can drop in by pressing the green fret on a free guitar.
XE: So it works with a rock band or guitar hero guitar?
James Silva: yep, I hope I don't get sued. *laughs*
XE: Are there other people behind creating this title?
James Silva: Well, I did all the coding, art, music, yelling, etc. One of the songs is a remix of a song my roommate made.: The XBLA team at Microsoft provided a lot of support and basically managed the title's progress to XBLA.
XE: Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid has mention that the Xbox live's certification process and requirements causes some unnecessary hurdles that aren't needed. Do you feel the same way?
James Silva: You know, the process is what it is. They've got standards and requirements, and if your title meets the requirements, you pass. If it doesn't, you fail. They don't let any failing titles on the platform. I can see where the frustration comes from, having experienced a bit of it myself. But that's the way things have to work if you want a platform with standards and gamers expect those standards. You know, PC gaming is a viable platform; if you don't like the standards for XBLA, don't develop for it.
XE: I remember reading the gamasutra article where Jonathan Blow said that people become so focus on those standards that the time could be sent on improving the game somehow. Not a direct quote but i believe that was the gist of it.
James Silva: Yeah, I remember that and can sympathize. I mean, I spent tons of time getting Dishwasher in shape for that, and in retrospect I could probably have added a ton of content in that time
XE: Do you feel there could be anything to improve the xbla certification process?
James Silva: With the Dishwasher, I kept getting posts on my blog like "release the game already!" and it was at points where I could've released it. But there were sloppy bits here and there; it would give the wrong error messages in spots, there was some boss you'd be stuck at if you were playing co-op and on and on...so it would've been mostly functional but definitely sloppy. So the question is about what level of tolerance you have for glitches and such? All things considered, I think Microsoft is pretty tolerant but still, the level of polish, The Dishwasher has is greater than anything I've ever created. Also, it's localized in 7 different languages
XE: Have you thought about making new titles or port a previously made game to another console?
James Silva: eh...the thing about XNA is it's all C# and I've gotten really, really efficient at making games with XNA. If I dealt with other platforms (besides PC of course) I'd have to give up not only the good stuff that makes XNA so useful, but also the XNA-specific experience I've gained. iPhone seems tempting now and again but I don't have a Mac or an iPhone. It seems like it would be a question of making crappy games on the iPhone or good games for Xbox 360.
XE: Have you thought about making games for the Zune?
James Silva: Yeah, if they put together an app store and get some momentum going that seems like it could be pretty fun. However, I don't own a Zune or an iPod.
XE: Maybe Microsoft can give you one to work with after this interview. *laugh*
James Silva: One can hope.
XE: Any type of limitations or problems you had while working on the Xbox 360/Xbox Live, or XNA. (Anything that pops up specifically)?
James Silva: We used this special library called e4a to bridge the gap between XNA and XBLA, and, while it was really, really good, there were a couple of bugs and limitations. There were a couple of points where we had to do some back and forth with support to figure out what was going on. But for the most part it was really seamless and still vastly preferable to developing in native code, which is not a particularly developed skill of mine by any measure.
XE: Whats the next new game you're planning to create?
James Silva: I've got a couple of XNA projects in the pipeline but would be a shame if The Dishwasher's universe were never revisited. That's all I'll say there, particularly because I don't know.
XE: Do yo plan to release a sequel, downloadable content or except future patches?
James Silva: XNA on XBLA currently doesn't support DLC, though there will be pic packs and a theme. I plan on getting a pic pack. I've wanted a Dishwasher gamerpic since forever... not sure if anyone else will. In terms of a sequel like I said it would be a shame to not revisit The Dishwasher's universe. But nothing solid in plans
XE: Does the dishwasher story leaves room for one?
James Silva: most definitely
XE: How much is the dishwasher going to cost?
James Silva: I'm not allowed to say that yet but It will not be a controversial amount of money though. I have had people tell me they'd gladly pay 1600 points for it. 1600 points would be a controversial amount of money
XE: Is it coming out as a arcade title or community title?
James Silva: XBLA. Otherwise it would have been out months ago, and would have no achievements, leaderboards, and polish.
XE: What was the most fun you had working on the dishwasher and what positives came from developing it?
James Silva: It was really neat to work on a dev kit to implement the XBLA-only stuff like creating my own achievements, and then, for the first time, earning my own achievements, gamerpics or creating the premium theme, that was pretty neat. I guess just getting the "we're a real developer now!" stuff to work was pretty awesome.
XE: Are you getting any type of funding for this project?
James Silva: my primary investors are my parents They help out with rent while I have no cash flow.
XE: Does Microsoft help in any way in funding?
James Silva: They're publishing the title, so they've obviously invested some resources into that. I can't really get into specifics, though.
XE: Anything you had to leave out of the game due to XBLA size limits?
James Silva: Nope, I think it's around 120 MB now. Everything compresses fairly nicely; I probably could've compressed music a lot more without any noticeable loss in quality.
XE: Anything left out of the game due to time constraints or something you wish you could of put in?
James Silva: I don't think so. I think actually what happened was I ended up with too much time so I put in a lot of stuff that has no business being there (that was half-facetious). But there's a guitar minigame in there; phantom guitar, shadow co-op, 50 arcade levels. That stuff was stuff I put in while I was waiting for Microsoft to do one thing or another I think. I mean, I look at the game from the dream build play build, to the GDC build, to now, and it just kept getting bigger, better and cleaner. It's at a point now that's just great but yeah, I'm pretty proud. It takes a bit of retrospective for me to see how far it's come. I think gamers are gonna love it.
XE: Anything to say to the fans who are going to play it when it comes out?
James Silva: There's a cancel-dodge trick where you can cancel any animation by switching weapons, then cancel the weapon switch into a dodge. In fact, the weapon switch cancel is probably one of the most useful techniques for keeping in control. It's a hardcore game... it's not very forgiving, particularly on higher difficulties, but there are some crazy techniques to pull off that will just wreck the enemies and and that's the fun part.
XE: What inspirations you had making the dishwasher?
James Silva: Well, I definitely drew inspiration from all over. Bruce Lee, for instance, was a dishwasher-turned-kung-fu-hero. I like the art styles of Tim Burton and Edward Gorey. I always loved Edward Scissorhands and Versus.
XE:Its weird now that you mention it and how it resembles the dishwasher guy.
James Silva: Edward Scissorhands?
XE:Yeah with his hair and pale look.
James Silva: heh, yeah, it's sort of a gothic fairytale look I suppose. I like macabre beauty I guess and no, I don't rock the trench.
XE: Any reason behind the atmosphere? Seems gloomy and dark or did it all fall together as you went a long?
James Silva: well, sort of like emergent gameplay, the art style is a bit emergent; I basically started creating bits of art in grayscale and then arranging them in maps, then high contrast black and white characters. I played around with shaders and particle effects until it looked right. The gloom of it just fits perfectly. It wasn't the product of crippling depression, though I tend to be a gloomy person at times.
XE: Any information on the exact release date or which game it is following (Days of arcade list)?
James Silva: Nope. we'll know soon...I mean, I know but I can't say.
XE: what is your favorite game?
James Silva: hmmmm, good question. I think the one game that had the biggest impact on me could've been Marathon, running on 25Mhz of Macintosh power.
XE: Any game your looking forward to play?
James Silva: COD:MW2, and Bioshock 2. Who said Xbox 360's were all about FPS's? :)
XE: Any plans on a rpg?
James Silva: heh.. ya know, just a few weeks ago I had this idea--I said "I want to make an RPG called ZombieRPG." and that's about it. I was thinking something like Exile meets FF7 minus the Japanese-ness of FF7.
XE: Any advice for future XNA programmers?
James Silva: Don't try to make a JRPG! *laughs* Generally, I'd say start small and slow. Make pong, you need to get comfortable with walking before you can run. Space games are a good point to learn from as well.
XE: Any good tutorials to learn from like your book?
James Silva: My book's actually pretty unique in that it doesn't do things the *right way*. It cuts a lot of corners and does a lot of weird things but it works. It comes from the perspective of someone who isn't a great coder so might be good, might be bad.
XE: I think you have a kitty.. was it the game tester and trying to catch bugs?
James Silva: haha, Neko. Yeah she's on my lap this instant in fact. She's in The New Pornographers, they have a few songs in Rock Band. Oh and one in a University of Phoenix commercial! But yeah, Neko probably does more harm than good. She gets in my way when I'm trying to type.
XE: Is it as good as this cat? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuSzFXe1Irc
James Silva: hehe no, she's possibly the stupidest cat I've had
XE: Thanks for your time in doing this interview.
James Silva: Cool, thanks!
