Sponsored developer feature: QUByte Interactive on new title Plush Wars
Not as soft and cuddly as you might think
Brazil-based studio QUByte Interactive cut its teeth as a developer back in 2007, creating advergames and Flash titles. Fast forward four years and it’s made great strides as a game developer.
Outsourcing games as part of a partnership in 2008 and 2009, it helped bring titles to the 360, Wii, DS, and PC, before finally deciding to develop its own original IP in 2010.
Wisely maintaining many of the partnerships it had fostered in the past, QUByte has links to game companies in China, South Korea, Germany, France, Canada, and its native Brazil. This means it can make its games appeal to markets all over the world - no mean feat.
Many of its development team has experience in game design going back to before QUByte Interactive was created, resulting in a company that has all the tools it needs to become a growing power in the video game market.
QUByte Interactive CEO Marivaldo Cabral talked to Pocket Gamer about the studio's latest game Plush Wars, genre juggling, and its plans for both portable and home console titles.
Pocket Gamer: What genre of game does Plush Wars fit into? It looks to be a mix of both action and strategy.
Marivaldo Cabral: Plush Wars is an action-tower defence shooter with upgrading possibilities available to you throughout. It’s a bit different from your average shooter though – it’s based around epic mediaeval invasions to castles, with plenty of enemies on screen to blast away at.
What do you think will make Plush Wars stand out in the highly competitive App Store?
The fact that there’s a good dose of humour, the shooting is great fun, the graphics are impressive, and there’s depth aplenty with the series of upgrades available. There’s also a grandiose feel to the whole enterprise, with a damsel in distress a part of the story, as well as growing numbers of foes on the screen in every level.
Do you think the light-hearted tone of the game will end up appealing to a wide audience?
Yes, we think so. It has a cute dark kind of humour. It’s a somewhat violent game in theory, but has a charming inclination because it has stuffed bears, which you can destroy in ways your mom would never allow you to do.
What does the game offer in terms of gameplay modes?
At this moment Plush Wars can only be played in Campaign mode. We think that a multiplayer mode doesn’t really suit the game. In the future we intend to add two new game modes, but they’re top secret for the time being.
Have you any plans to bring the game to other mobile platforms or tablets?
Yes, we do, specifically to Android based devices, but this is still in the planning stage. We don’t want to be limited to just a few portable platforms, because Plush Wars is intended to be a whole saga. Further news will come in the future – look out for it. You won’t get rid of ZomBears that easily!
All of your games are either 3D or have 3D elements to them. Are you a company that will always chooses to make a 3D game over a 2D one?
We believe that all depends on the style of the game itself. Currently, we’ve been working with 3D games because the games developed work well that way and also because our main production tool is Unity3D. We have worked with other engines and languages but we like to say that “Unity3D has democratised game developing throughout the world”, allowing even small start-ups such as QUByte to compete with massive companies in the industry.
Even if we want to make 2D games with this engine (there are specific plug-ins for those) it’s better to opt for developing in 3D. Although we don’t limit ourselves to 3D, we choose Unity3D for cost-benefit purposes mostly. Maybe in the future we can work with other tools or even with a proprietary engine.
The majority of the games you’ve developed have been action orientated, such as HTR High Tech Racing and Rescue Team. Do you think that fast paced games are what the majority of gamers want from an App Store title?
The majority of App Store players are casual gamers, but that doesn’t mean that a game must be of a low quality or too short. On the other hand, we have to work on cost oriented decisions as well to choose the course of the project, how long the game will be, how many characters it will have…
For instance, if a game intended for the App Store would cost over $30,000, we’ll have to reconsider whether this project is worthy or if it’s suitable to make room for the current games updates. That means that we have to work not only to consider if a game is short or long, but also a projection on future scenarios to decide on the characteristics of a specific game.
Each game QUByte Interactive makes is radically different from the last. Are you as a development team always eager to explore new genres?
Yes, you’re right - our games styles differ from one another. I confess that the team tends to choose racing games over any other styles, but we try not to limit ourselves. We believe in producing a wide range of experiences, specifically because we are experimenting with the market and analysing players’ receptiveness to each of our games. Our goal has always been to take our games to the maximum number of platforms possible and find out which genre fits each one.
What do you believe is your proudest achievement as a company?
Our proudest achievement will definitively be the day we reach 1 million sold copies of any of our current or future titles! I’m kidding of course - we do believe that Plush Wars is one of our proudest achievements though. Everyone who beta-tested it for us liked it, and suggested some improvements or new ideas to it – that means they actually care about the game, and that’s very promising indeed.
We can also never forget HTR’s performance. It was our first indie game with a good reception and that allowed us to gain visibility in the industry and even close deals with national and foreign companies.
What do QUByte Interactive’s future plans involve?
We want to make games for as many platforms as possible – and today’s model of digital distribution helps a lot and has some flexibility to help us with this aim. QUByte doesn’t focus on a specific platform, we want to develop games with quality which are fun to play.
We believe that we’ll grow to distribute games for consoles such as Nintendo Wii and PSN, among others, but of course we won’t stop developing for mobile platforms. We have also been working with some publishers to make games for social networks and you may just end up playing some of our future projects in Facebook, Hi5 for example.
Titles by QUByte Interactive:
Plush Wars [itunes link]: Just released, the game is a endearing mix of cute fluffy creatures and all out war based gameplay. Plush Wars HD [itunes link]: The iPad version of the game.
High Tech Racing [itunes link]: A slot car racing game, has realistic physics and a stack of tracks to keep you interested. A free lite version is also available [itunes link]. HTR HD High Tech Racing [itunes link]: The iPad version of the game. A lite version is also available [itunes link].
Rescue Team [itunes link]: Flying around in a helicopter, this rescue games is easy to control and has 10 varied scenarios to work your way through. A free lite version is also available [itunes link].
Rescue Team HD [itunes link]: The iPad version of the game. A free lite version is also available [itunes link].
Plush Wars intro trailer:
