Co-Optimus: How many moves can the player use to fend off baddies in Invincible Tiger?
Ollie Clarke: There are a lot of moves there for the player to discover. One of our aims was to make a game that’s easy to pick up and play but still be difficult to master.
To give you an idea, I asked Aron Tomlin (our lead designer) and he said:
“There are eight separate sequences. Each sequence is made up of three attacks, making 24 attacks in total. Then we have another eight combos, so that’s another 24 attacks.
“So there are 48 normal attacks, two reversals, two staff combos (six attacks), and six finishing moves (these are unlocked while playing the game). Then on top of that we have around 12 context attacks, if you include throwing knifes, plates, and shuriken etc. On top of that we have a kick attack from rolls.
“Altogether there are somewhere between 60-70 attacks in the game. There are a lot more context action animations and general movement animations to take into consideration. There’s also the Zen attack where the player enters a super fast unblockable hyper-state.”
One of the things I like about seeing other people play the game is that everybody plays it slightly differently. There’s enough moves in there for the player to develop a style of gameplay and master it.
Co-Optimus: What Kung Fu movies most inspired the game?
Ollie Clarke: Mr Vampire comes straight into my head (look out for our tribute to it on Level 3!), Big Trouble in Little China, Hero, Drunken Master, Samurai Jack, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Chinese Super Ninjas, Kung Fu Hustle…
There’s a huge list of great movies that inspired this game. The producers at Namco are also Kung Fu nuts and provided a lot of ideas for sequences in the game.
Our hope is this game does well enough to warrant a sequel and we can explore this genre a lot more. There are so many great ideas we just didn’t have time to get into the game!
Personally. I’d love to see more Chinese inspired demons, Samurai Warriors, more weapons, more styles of Kung Fu, training inspired mini-games like in the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, homages to the great sequences of Hong Kong cinema…I could go on but I’m sure everyone has their favorite moments. As I say, hopefully the game will do well enough in terms of sales and the players can let us know what sequences they would like to see in the follow up.
Co-Optimus: What's the coolest thing you've seen happen in co-op in this game?
Ollie Clarke: I think my favorite thing is when I see two people sitting down to have a co-op session on the game. I can always hear them laughing as they play. Everyone seems to have a great time playing it. Even the development team that have been working like crazy on this game for so long still enjoy playing co-op as if it’s the first time they’ve played.
And that’s the coolest element of this game for me. We set out to make a Kung Fu action game that’s fun to play and we really have achieved this. We even had QA guys coming over and asking if there’s a new build available (and those guys have to play a game to death!!). I think it’s something we can be proud of.
In fact we even jokingly thought about a developers’ commentary that would be based on a recording two of the team arguing with each other as they fight through the game. Sadly at the time we didn’t have a microphone to hand. Perhaps for the sequel (which should have four player coop of course!!)