New Worms interview with The Xbox Domain.net

[Jake RP]

http://thexboxdomain.net/2007/02/16/developer-interview-team-17-worms/

Good Interview!

[Edwin]

7. An upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title Castlevania exceeds the 50 MB limit, why didn’t Worms?

It depends how far you wish to go. I imagine the decision for Castlevania was that it was just a little over and felt it was much a better game for the extra. With Worms, the whole data is perhaps 500Mb+ (Considering all visual themes, audio, music) and that certainly wouldn’t be allowed!

I need to call bull**** to this. SoTN is ~369 MB, far higher than the 50 MB limit.

[SuddleD]

I need to call bull**** to this. SoTN is ~369 MB, far higher than the 50 MB limit.

Cut the Music from Worms then, and we should be fine ;) Thats why I rip Cd's to the xbox now, for games that lack or have bad music already...

[Spadge]

I need to call bull**** to this. SoTN is ~369 MB, far higher than the 50 MB limit.

Yeah, I wasn't aware of the actual size, I'm stunned it's that big really. Still, our additional data will be in marketplace.

[Edwin]

Yeah, I wasn't aware of the actual size, I'm stunned it's that big really. Still, our additional data will be in marketplace.

That changes the whole question then. Knowing what you know now, how would you answer that question?

[Vercetti]

Team17 started working on Worms XBLA when exceeding the 50MB limit was not an option, even if they had permission to change it now, it's too late and would add even more delays for very little benefit. If the game can work at 50MB, I doubt MS will let you exceed it, you'd have to have a really good reason.

Worms XBLA with all the content that the PSP version had would not be 500MB. I don't know where Spadge is getting the size from, the only way it could be that large is if it had uncompressed data but not compressing the data on a game that has to be downloaded, would just be crazy.

[quakerworm]

I don't know where Spadge is getting the size from
gee... where could spadge be getting info on sizes of t17 games from? he must have an insider working for him!

seriously, though, i know what you were trying to say. yes, a lot of data on wow was probably either uncompressed or only compressed so much. i have never looked at the disk image, so i can't say for sure, but that would be my guess. why compress something to 500MB+ if you have 1.6GB+ available? but you need to keep in mind that compression isn't magic. you can only do so much with it. with audio, you can go lossy, and get up to 10x compression, without it sounding bad. you can get the same with lossy image (e.g. jpeg), but for games you generally want lossless, and with lossless you generally can't get a compression factor better than 2 on images.

[Vercetti]

I looked at the data on the UMD and W:OW PSP is 170MB, most files are compressed. Anyone with a homebrew capable PSP and W:OW could confirm that.

[quakerworm]

alright. i'll try to find an image and check for myself.

[Spadge]

I looked at the data on the UMD and W:OW PSP is 170MB, most files are compressed. Anyone with a homebrew capable PSP and W:OW could confirm that.

I'm used to seeing much larger raw files/images kicking around before release. My apologies for that - i tend to shoot from the lip, but with fmv & a ton of audio it's much greater than 170mb, the voice banks alone are sizeable. Suffice to say that its way bigger than the 50mb limit - and the PSP graphics data is very small opposed to high def.

[Vercetti]

The FMV could be huge if it's at HD resolutions. Will the FMV be available in content packs?

[Spadge]

The FMV could be huge if it's at HD resolutions. Will the FMV be available in content packs?

I don't think we'd planned this, yes the files are rather large at full high def... (we did a bunch for Lemmings PS3 which didnt get used in the game due to size as far as I know)

[quakerworm]

we did a bunch for Lemmings PS3 which didnt get used in the game due to size as far as I know
any way for you to release these? or would there be copyright holds?

[Vercetti]

They would need Sony's permission to release anything Lemmings related.

XBOX video market place would be the place for Worms FMV but it's not important, I just want the game, I've seen the FMV enough already.

[Edwin]

I still haven't seen this answered anywhere, any word on whether it will support XBL multiplayer with more than one player per console?

[Spadge]

No, gamertag stuff gets in the way, sorry.

You can "share" worms of course.

[Edwin]

Thanks for the reply Spadge.