Destructoid interview: Nathan Fouts, nasty alien killer and XNA developer

One of the hottest XNA games coming to the Xbox 360 on November 19 (for a mere 400 Microsoft space bucks) is Weapon of Choice. Its characteristic blend of hectic, 2D side-scrolling Contra-style action has captured the attention of many an enthusiast press member throughout the development process. Aside from catching our eye, the game has also caught attention from Microsoft. This year, at an event called Dream-to-Build, the game placed third among elite XNA titles, earning the developer Nathan Fouts a hefty $10,000 to continue with his work.

Nathan Fouts is a slightly unusual XNA developer. He is an ex-Insomniac employee, who shared in the design process for games like Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Resistance: Fall of Man. He’s obviously very aware of how top-tier development works and privy to what makes a game great on a large scale. He’s also very aware of what works on a small scale, if the acclaim for Weapon of Choice is any indication.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to talk to Fouts about life after Insomniac, XNA development, and ultimately Weapon of Choice. In the end, it’s easy to see that Fouts is dedicated to his work, and enthusiastic about his game -- and you probably should be as well.

One of the first questions I asked Fouts was if he originally planned on continuing to design videogames after leaving Insomniac. His decision to leave the studio wasn’t for any abnormal reasons. He worked in the industry for over a decade and was beginning to feel “burned out.” It’s an understandable sentiment. Initially, he threw around several different ideas.

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“I actually though about a lot of other jobs for a while,” he told me in an email. He thought about “carpentry, teaching, or even just working in a nursery. I definitely enjoyed making games with the big boys, but after a decade of working like that, I was getting a little burned out. In the end, I decided I loved making games so much, I would try it small and if that didn’t work, I’d move on.” Fouts then went on to say that “working small was amazing – I hope we [Mommy’s Best Games, his company] can keeping going.”

One of the big misconceptions about Weapon of Choice is how it was conceived. Popular belief is that his wife found a box of art and videogame ideas related to Weapon of Choice in his parents’ attic, and then convinced him to pursue the game. Not exactly true. According to Fouts the idea for Weapon of Choice was cooking in his mind “for about two and a half years” before he decided to try it out on XNA. The attic situation did happen, but it went down a little differently.

"We visited my folks a little while ago and my wife found a large box of drawings of mine from high school. It was full of old side-scroller game ideas – predating Weapon of Choice ... but in my drawing style nonetheless. She loved that I had been wanting to make my own games for so long and my dream was finally coming true."

And true it has become, but there were a few hurdles to run through initially. Fouts’ motivation for using XNA stemmed from his dislike of writing “low level/engine code.” He found that the service broke several tedium barriers through its growing and generally intuitive nature. The real development of the title started before XNA, which meant a transfer and a bit of frustration was in order.



"I had an old programmer buddy writing a rendering/system engine for me in Direct X. In the meantime, I was busy planning the game out and getting some drawing done. When XNA debuted, it pretty much covered everything he had been working on for a year and more. We had to scrap that version of the game and [move everything to XNA]."

He then went on to say that the move was “quite smooth, and has been fairly painless ever since. It was a hard decision to make since my friend had done so much work for me, but we both knew it was the best way.”

Fouts’ goals for the title were much lower when he initially started designing it. Xbox Live Arcade was still fresh, and we (as players) were suffering through some of the service’s growing pains. But as the service matured, so did Fouts’ game. He noticed that titles were beginning to get more polished, and he felt he had to do the same. He gave me an example of a change he made after noticing the rapid rise of the service:

"Originally, none of the trees or plants in the background [were animated] and now everyone of them sways and moves through a complete skeletal animation system."

The XNA development community was somewhat of a surprise to Fouts. He told me that he is “usually blown away with how knowledgeable and helpful most of the people on the forums can be” and remarked that community is “amazingly robust, mature and professional.” He had his trepidations initially, but now hangs out on the forums and helps other members with their projects.

At present, a mere two days before the big launch of the game, Fouts’ told me the reason you should buy it. I can’t say I can argue with his logic:

"If you enjoy killing giant, nasty, extremely weird aliens, and doing it with aplomb, do yourself a favor and try out the demo. That’ll tell you everything you need to know."

Finally, Weapon of Choice won’t be Fouts’ last stop. He has already started designing a second game and will have something “to show in the first half of next year.” He told me that it “will be fairly different from Weapon of Choice, and will also feature a new, fun blend of gameplay.”

[Destructoid would like to thank Nathan Fouts for his time, and his late night e-mails.]