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The Collective - An interview with the team behind the Buffy Xbox game

Making Buffy feel real
  What sort of challenges were involved in giving the game the genuine Buffy action feel?

Striving for authenticity, we worked with Sophia Crawford and Jeff Pruitt, two names that are well-known to Buffy fans as Buffy�s stunt double and the show�s stunt coordinator.

We planned out a lot of stunts and worked with these guys in a motion capture studio to try and get the fighting to feel just like the show.

The game version of Buffy is tremendously flexible in her fighting and has dozens of moves that can be performed in different situations with different weapons. The sheer scope of this was a big challenge but we felt it was the only way to give the combat that Buffy feeling.

Fighting over thinking
  How did you balance the gameplay between the fighting and puzzle elements?

The game focuses primarily on the combat. We did not want to make a game that was too complex and maze-like with lots and lots of puzzles. We wanted people to feel the adrenalin rush of being a slayer and dusting lots of nasties.

Educating the writers
  Did scripters Chris Golden and Tom Sniegoski have a good understanding of what can be achieved in modern games, or was there an education process involved?

Chris and Tom did a great job of dropping right into the middle of an ongoing game and just getting down to business and helping us round out the plot and complete the rather extensive dialogue in the game!

For most of the cut scene stuff they had no problem whatsoever, because it was spec[ified] just like a scene from a show. I think the thing that was new to them was all of the interactive dialogue that pops up during gameplay without necessarily any surrounding context.

We�d have to try and provide that context so we�d throw things at them like: "Give us Giles lines for when he�s being attacked by vampires in the Library," or "Give us a Buffy line for when she throws a vamp into a shaft of sunlight," and things like that. They had to come up with tons of those.

Telling stories
  The game has a very strong narrative - what decided you to take that tack with it and what's your feeling about the place of narrative in games generally?

That came from the show really. The show has great fighting but it also has great storytelling and character moments. We really wanted the game to have those too because it wouldn�t have felt like Buffy without them.

The amount of narrative in a game is dictated by the subject matter and the game genre. Clearly there are some games where you want little or no narrative but there are others where you do want a lot.

One of the trickiest things in game development is to try and create a game that allows the player a lot of freedom of choice but also gives them a strong narrative. You don�t want people feeling as if they are on a rail and yet you do want them, for the most part, to follow a certain path so that you can advance things to tell the story you�re trying to tell.

Nice to see you again
  Can you tell us which other familiar faces will pop up in the game?

Giles, Xander and Willow are there and, because the story is set in season three, Angel and Cordelia haven�t left Sunnydale for LA yet so we get to see them in action in Sunnydale.

Spike is also a major player in the story. All of the cast came in and recorded those parts.

Graphic grapplings
  Some of the violence is quite graphic - what sort of factors went into the decision about how high to set the level and realism of the violence?

We let the show dictate this, really. While there seemed no reason we should be more graphic than the show - you never see them throwing buckets of blood around on the Buffy set - there also seemed no reason we should be less graphic.

There�s some pretty nasty stuff that you see in the episodes so we tried to, again, keep it like it felt like the show. Of course, in the show you never see Buffy get bitten by a vampire or die... erm... okay, you hardly ever see those things, but if you lose in the game, you certainly will be seeing that!

The real Scoobies
  How did you find working with the stars of the show? Was it a big disappointment that Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn't be available to record Buffy's part?

They�re busy people, so organizing it wasn�t the easiest thing in the world, but working with the Buffy cast was a whole lot of fun.

Admittedly, it was a little scary at first and it felt wacky trying to explain the game to them but once they got started it went great. It was so cool to listen to them bust out their character�s lines from the game script. I wish I could see their faces when they see the characters saying the lines that they recorded in the game itself! I�d LOVE to be there for that!

As far as the absence of Ms Gellar goes, I like to look at the positive side of that. And that is that I was thrilled with the work that Giselle Loren did on Buffy�s voice. She was great!

Best moments
  What did you find the most fun about working on the game?

There are little moments throughout the whole process that I look back on fondly.

Those are the things that I will cherish most about the game. Things like how I laughed the first time a vampire knocked Buffy down and picked up the shovel she had dropped and started beating her up with it. Or when Charisma Carpenter came in to record Cordy�s lines, a vision in white linen.

Or when I met Joss and introduced myself as the Producer of the game and he said those words to me that I shall never forget, "Isn�t that supposed to be done already?" Sweet memories!

Buffy's console future.
  Any plans for a sequel? How about an Angel game?

Although nothing�s been decided I think I�d have to say that we�d be madmen if we weren�t looking at creating more fabulous Buffy video game adventures.

I think an Angel game would be great too. I think that there are many things that would be similar to a Buffy game but the interesting thing would be everything that we could do to make it different... the same way they have done with the two shows.

What sort of changes would you make to the gameplay if there were to be a sequel?

Oh no you don�t! You�re going to have to wait and see on that score, my lad!

Will Buffy's videogame home remain on the Xbox?

I think that Buffy has a great many fans who own other gaming consoles as well and it seems like it would be churlish to not allow them to share in the fun too, doesn�t it?