First, for the people that haven't seen it yet, would you tell us about Colosseum. What sort of game is it?
Let’s see. Colosseum is a 3D fighting game with very different single player and multiplayer experiences. The single player campaign has a beat ‘em up approach, while the gameplay in multiplayer is more typical of the fighting genre, except that it allows a lot of players to participate simultaneously. If I have to put a label on Colosseum it would be something like “tactical fighting game”. The tactical part comes from the relatively large fighting grounds, which make movement important. Also, some of the multiplayer game modes are objective-based. Personally, I enjoy team-based multiplayer best.
Colosseum allows four players locally, and up to eight players will be possible over Xbox LIVE. You can choose from 12 different characters, which represent four different fighting styles. By completing challenges and objectives you’ll unlock new stuff, which can be used to customize your character. The unlockable stuff consists of swords, shields, and armour parts.
What games influenced and inspired Colosseum?
Oooh, that's a tricky question, you know. We’ve played tons of games (like most game developers), but I would say classical arcade games like Street Fighter and Tekken, and shooters like Call of Duty 4 and Unreal. I’m a huge fan of COD4 by the way – play me! We’ve tried to put crucial fighting game elements into Colosseum, but at the same time we’ve tried to make Colosseum a bit different from the usual gameplay found in fighters. FPS fans will probably be quite comfortable with some of the multiplayer game modes.
How large is your team?
Shortfuse has 11 staff, plus two guys helping us out with sound and music.
How long have you been working together?
Well, all of the dev guys went to the Game Development Program at the University of Skövde at about the same time. So they’ve really spent quite some time together. The original guys began working on Colosseum 2006 from a game concept by designer Fredrik Larsson.
Back then, Colosseum was completely different and was intended to be a MMO fighting game. The art style was also completely different. I wish you could see the early builds, hehe. I might put some screen shots up on our devlog some day.
Anyways, in 2007 some people left the project, others joined it, and now we’re pretty much set. In 2007, artists Niklas Åkerblad and Tobias Sjögren also came up with the cartoonish art style and Colosseum turned into what it is today.
Have you made other games, or is this your first?
Colosseum is our first game with Shortfuse. Our previous experience mostly consisted of game projects in school, and our gaming backgrounds. Some of the guys worked at the studio behind Dreamlords before going full time with Shortfuse.
Why did you want to make Colosseum with XNA Game Studio?
We wanted to develop games for Xbox 360 as soon as possible, and XNA Game Studio proved to be a good platform. Also, the XNA community is very open-minded and helpful, which is cool and helps with development. Another great aspect of XNA Game Studio is the possibility to develop games for the PC as well.
How long has it taken for you to get this far?
About two years. That includes everything; the original Colosseum idea, game engine development, toolkit development, and of course today’s Colosseum. Hopefully the gaming community will enjoy it.
Tell us about your average day – are you all in the same office? Do you all work remotely?
We’re working full flex, so it’s up to each and every person to choose when to work in the day, but usually most of the guys work daytime in our shoebox office. It’s much more fun to have people around. Still, in the end it’s up to everybody to find what they prefer, as we’re going through a lot of work hours.
Are you working on any other games we can look forward to?
Honestly, no. We do have some very early iteration concepts, but that’s it. We’ll be working on them right after the Colosseum content is complete.
Many thanks to Johan for his time and the entire team at Shortfuse Games!
Want to download the game and check it out yourself? You can do that through the Community Games channel on Xbox LIVE or through the Xbox.com Marketplace.
Interested in finding out if you've got the chops to create your dream game? Check out our Getting Started guides.
