Als „Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones” damals für die Wii U veröffentlicht wurde, konnten wir ein Mail-Interview mit Paul von Curve Studios führen. Da wir euch das Gespräch nicht vorenthalten wollen, präsentieren wir es euch nun passend zu der Veröffentlichung der Versionen auf anderen Plattformen. Unsere Review für die PlayStation 4-Fassung findet ihr hier. Wer sich das Interview lieber in deutscher Sprache durchlesen möchte, dem empfehlen wir einen Klick auf diesen Link.

Before we start, could you please introduce yourself to us and our readers and tell us what „Stealth Inc 2” is all about?

My name is Paul, I’m a PR guy at Curve Digital! „Stealth Inc 2” is our new Wii U exclusive, a puzzle platform that takes stealth elements common in lots of different games and attempts to streamline them into a faster and more fluid experience. It’s the sequel to „Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark”, which itself is a HD remake of our original PC game, Stealth Bastard, so it’s got quite a history.

And no, we didn’t change the name because of Nintendo or because of Sony – we changed the name because ‘bastard’ doesn’t always translate very well in different countries!

Stealth Inc. was well received by many reviewers and the game also had a good reputation within the community, so you’re facing quite a challenge making the sequel better than the predecessor. What are the improvements in „Stealth Inc. 2”?

Actually, it can be easier in the sense of having all that feedback available to us. People did really enjoy the original games, but it wasn’t a perfect game, what is? „Stealth” was made pretty quickly even by indie game standards. There were things we didn’t have time to do, and there were negative things that got mentioned even in the most glowing of reviews.

We basically took all of that feedback, mixed it with some stuff we just never had time to do for the original, and went from there. We had another short development period of around 8 months, but we managed to fit in nearly everything we had planned for the game. I think the only thing we eventually had to pull due to time restraints was competitive multiplayer, but we used that time to really polish the co-op mode instead.

What is new and what makes the game outstanding? Were there things that you weren’t quite satisfied with in „Stealth Inc.” and wanted to make better in the sequel?

The overworld is new, and that changes the way you play through the entire game, but actually I think some of the more exciting stuff is in the little things!

Firstly, the story, or at least the way the story is told. In the original, you didn’t really get to see the best bits until towards the end of the game, and it was really an entirely textual experience. In the sequel, much more of the story is paced with the game itself, so you get a better idea of what you are doing and why much earlier on, and we tell the story through animated cut scenes.

Then we have gadgets, which are now a really big part of mixing up the gameplay. Every gadget in the game does something different, and just like in the story, we’ve worked to integrate them better in the main game. They’re no longer a part of the periphery - an optional challenge for completionists - but part of the main campaign and they help massively with variety in the later levels.

The original game „Stealth Bastard” started out as a PC game, later it became available as Stealth Inc. for various other platforms like PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita. What were the reasons to take the sequel „Stealth Inc. 2” and make it a Wii U exclusive game while the first game never hit the platform?

The series has been moving around! It was a free PC game first, then a Steam title, and then a HD version was made for PlayStation with exclusive DLC. With the Wii U version, we had wanted to work with Nintendo for a really long time. They actually contacted us about „Stealth Inc 1” last year, but we had already signed the game with Sony by that point. The great thing about doing an exclusive game is that you can work exactly with one piece of hardware and do stuff you wouldn’t otherwise have the time to do. You also don’t have to spend half your development time optimising and tweaking for different hardware!

Many developers are very skeptical about making games for Wii U because they feel like programming for Nintendo home consoles is much more difficult than for most of the other platforms. As a developer who has been working on different platforms over the past years, how did you and the team experience programming for Wii U?

I wouldn’t say that’s a complaint of indie developers. I mean, the Wii U is obviously slower than the new consoles but it’s significantly faster than consoles like the PlayStation 3. You have a lot more resources to play with. You can see that with games like „The Swapper”, where visually speaking the Wii U version is on par with the PS4, not the PS3. Obviously with bigger triple-A games that need a ton of optimisation, perhaps that isn’t always the case.

I think it’s fair to say Nintendo have offered us a lot of support and we couldn’t be happier working with them on this project.

The Wii U with the GamePad offers a different experience than the other consoles, which are more traditional in many terms. How is „Stealth Inc. 2” going to benefit from the unique features of the Nintendo console?

The GamePad is one of those things a bit like the Vita touch screen controls; where there’s a tendency to just use it in the most obvious ways. This normally happens because a developer is creating a game across multiple formats, so you can’t have a really exciting console specific feature without changing the game considerably. Of course, as „Stealth” was made for the Wii U from day one, we’ve been able to do some really cool things with the GamePad.

The main way we use it is during co-op, where the Gamepad player is using a ton of different tools that complement the main player. You can use the GamePad to draw on the main screen at any time to point out areas and secrets; you can use it to identify enemies invisible to the main player and you’ll need it to hack terminals and control gadgets in co-op. Obviously the GamePad is also a great tool for the level editor, too, and makes moving elements around and planning out levels much easier.

The level editor is a major feature, which is going to extend the fun for many, many players. However, level editors are often complicated and therefore are often ignored by some people. How did you keep the level editor in „Stealth Inc. 2” accessible for many players, while still granting enough options to be interesting?

When we redesigned the level editor for console, we made a number of optimisations and improvements to ease players into creating their own levels. For a start we created a simple menu system for the player to navigate. The player only has two menus to go between, the Objects Menu, where you can find all the available objects for you to put in your level, and the Edit Menu, where you can adjust the settings of each object. Both of these menus are accessed by pressing the Y button, so if I’ve got an object selected and press Y, it opens the Options Menu. If I don’t have anything selected and I press Y, the Objects menu comes up.

We also added many useful shortcuts. If you hold down the ZL button, almost every other button (and even the thumbsticks) on the GamePad become a shortcut for something else. If I had a Collision Block selected, I could hold down ZL and use the right thumbstick to quickly resize it. If I press ZL and ZR at the same time, I can run the level.

Even though we streamlined the editing process for users, we still left in most of the content and object properties that we use when we make the game, so the player still has a lot of powerful mechanics to explore and mess with. We also did a video tutorial explaining many of these main features.

DLCs are always a big thing within the gaming community and are also a great way to extend the fun, if done right. Are there any plans for DLC support in the future for „Stealth Inc. 2”? If so, what can we expect?

Not at this stage! We did some DLC for the original game which allowed us to try some fun new things, but we feel with „Stealth Inc 2” we’ve made a really nice, complete experience that already has its own long term playability through the level editor and community levels. The team who made „Stealth” are now working on lots of different projects, but perhaps we’ll return to Stealth in the future.

Curve Digital has different IPs under its belt and created interesting, new ideas within these franchises. What were the reasons for making a sequel for „Stealth Inc.” rather than starting something completely new?

We’re working on a new IP now called „White Space”, and we’re always trying out new ideas. „Stealth Inc” was our most successful game ever though, so it made sense to revisit that. There’s also the fact that after so long working on „Stealth Inc” and DLC, we’ve gotten really good at the level design for those games, so it made sense to use the team again to make a sequel.

Since the indie boom over the past years, companies like Nintendo or Sony stepped up and tried to improve their relationships with indie developers. Did you experience any significant changes within the past couple of years while working with Nintendo or Sony? For example, how did the work with Nintendo differ when working on „Fluidity”/„Hydroventure” in and before 2010 and working on „Stealth Inc. 2” in 2014?

I’d say the main difference is that we’re seeing all the big platform holders’ move away from the XBLA model of splitting up indie and triple-A games, at least on the stores. That’s both good and bad, of course. During „Stealth Inc 2”’s launch, we actually had more space on the eShop than „Bayonetta 2”, which came out a week before. That’s totally awesome, but then it also means we often have to compete for players’ time and attention when they are browsing the store, which is difficult when you’re up against games whose marketing budget is ten times larger than your development one.

The other thing that’s becoming more common is just a general move towards digital. Obviously the stores on all the latest consoles are more fully featured than they were last gen, but also there’s just more online and digital communication happening. Look at Nintendo, who are famously slow to embrace digital, and how they are doing things like Treehouse and digital only press conferences to embrace the online world and you’ll see how quickly that’s changing.

Working as an indie studio has advantages and disadvantages in comparison to working as a studio for a big publisher like Activision or Ubisoft. Did you ever think of teaming up with a major publisher? What are the main benefits as an indie studio for your work on titles like „Stealth Inc. 2”?

We have done! We developed „Fluidity” for Nintendo in a few years ago, and even recently we released „Stealth Inc” in Japan with Square Enix. With the Square relationship, we could have published in Japan by ourselves, but we couldn’t have done the marketing or engaged with the Japanese press in the way an established company like Curve could.

Thanks for taking time answering our questions!