PAX 2010: Kung Fu Live Q&A

Starting off this week of Q&As is one with Job J. Stauffer, where we talk about the upcoming Kung Fu Live.  As usual, this interview starts off with Job introducing himself and Kung Fu Live.

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Answer:  My name is Job J. Stauffer, I’m here representing the Virtual Air Guitar company. Who is releasing their first independent product this year, it’s actually their first game seeing the market on the PlayStation Network, it’s Kung Fu Live.

Question:  Tell me a bit about the development of the game, how much did you guys draw in camp kung Fu movies for this?

Answer:  Ah, pretty much 99%. It’s a mix of everything, it’s old campy kung fu movies, old pulp action comic books, anything fun and awesome that’s kicked ass over the years that anyone one the development team and family has liked. Also, fighting games, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Streets of Rage, anything that we grew up playing and kicking ass with. You play these games, you watch these movies, you read these comics, you’ve wanted to be in them your whole live. Virtual Air Guitar company has created a game where you are a part of the story, you are in the video game itself, you’re using your entire body to kick ass.

Question: Now that you bring it up there’s something distinctly first generation Mortal Kombat about the motion of the game, it kind of reminds me of an jilted white person doing kung fu.

Answer:  Very much inspired by cheesy action flicks, first gen fighting games and just the kind of stuff we all grew up playing and having fun with.

Question: Nice, so talk to me a bit about the game-play itself.

Answer:  It’s going to be using the PlayStation Eye camera, which is actually incorporating patented proprietary free motion technology that the Virtual Air Guitar company owns. What they’re doing is tracking your entire body, head, hands, arms, feet, everything is being tracked in real time and they’re also removing the background. It’s never been done before, it’s the first time it’s happened on a 2D camera. It’s possible to do this game on a 2D or a 3D camera but, right now it’s coming out later this year on the PlayStation Eye.

Question: And you’re not going to talk to me about how it removes the back ground like that?

Answer:  Ah, I would tell you but, I’m not one of the crazy geniuses from Finland that figured that out.

Question: That seems fair.

Answer:  Yeah these guys know what they’re doing. Hailing from Finland, they came out collage doing all sorts of crazy projects. Hitting up the arts scene and Wired Nextfest. They all came together right out of school, programmers and computer visionary enthusiasts, with all sorts of projects that incorporated cameras. They actually created a kung fu game a few years ago and this is the refinement of that project. The idea was to make it into a full on game, the game that they have always wanted to play and bring it to gamers across the world. We will be doing that later this year.

Question: How complex are the levels?

Answer:  The levels get progressively more complex as the game goes on. You’re going to start out in a simple environment; player on one side, enemies on the other, and enemies will get harder as the game goes on, like every good fighting game. After that, once they teach you how to move around, the levels are going to open up more. They will be more like Smash Bros levels, where there’s more platforms and climbing, more items, more stuff to kick around. All that stuff is built into the game and you’re going to get to see it as you get towards the end.

Question: Cool. So the attacks that are done in the game, does the camera interpret your movement and then use one of a number of preset moves?

Answer:  No, not at all! What it’s doing is creating live real time one to one fighting that’s tracking the motion of your entire body.

Question: I could head butt someone?

Answer:  You could head butt somebody, you could do a kart wheel, or you could spin around 360 in front of the camera and kick a dude in the face and knock him off of a catwalk. Anything you can think of you can do. People ask how many moves in the game and I ask them how many moves can you do yourself?

Question: So four.

Answer:  So four, or four hundred, it doesn’t matter. If you’re a weakling like me you can just flail around your arms and try to survive that way and hope for the best. Or you can actually kick ass, you can incorporate your own kung fu, your own Karate, Capoeira, Drunken master, your own back alley brawling, anything you can think of you can do in the game.

Question: Tell me about multi-player.

Answer:  That is one of those moments where they came up with an idea right at the end. They were like “hey, what if we have one guy on camera and let a second player pick up a controller and fight against him”, that was an ah-ha moment.  But then they said “why stop there? There’s four controllers on the PS3, what if we have a five player fighting game with four people sitting on their asses, beating up the one guy on camera who’s doing all the work”.  It’s a ton of fun.

Question: To what extent has this already turned into a drinking game?

Answer:  Ah... To what extent? Look I can neither confirm nor deny the level of alcohol consumption that has been taking place either here in the states or over in Finland in the studio.

Question: Is your facial hair some kind of Nordic solidarity, or is this how you always look?

Answer:  Nordic solidarity for Kung Fu Live my friend.

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Thanks to Job for taking time out of a busy PAX schedule to talk to us about Kung Fu Live.  Kung Fu Live will be coming out this October for PlayStation 3.