Conker: Live & Reloaded Tepid Seat

by Paul on Jan 5th, 2006

Answers: Chris (lead programmer), Steve (lead artist), Louise (lead animator), Robin (musician) and Martin (sound FX) – December 2005

Q: Hey, I was wondering if there is going to be a new Conker game and will it be about Conker getting revenge or what? ‘Cause at the end of Live and Reloaded he was p*ssed.
Jaws0519

Chris: Conker will be having a little rest after his latest action-packed outing. The team is moving on to a fantastic new game that will blow you away.

Q: When first announced Live & Reloaded was described as an awesome multiplayer game and as a bonus you’d include the remake of Bad Fur Day, but now when I boot up the game it looks more like a remake of Bad Fur Day with a new multiplayer mode. Did the focus/selling point change?
Jeppe

Steve: OK, we’ve been busted; Conker: Live & Reloaded could have been two separate games, with two types of audience, making double the amount of money, making Conker so rich he could afford a blue rinse. No, we couldn’t do that to our fan base, rip them off and fleece them of their money, so when the word ‘Conker’ was mentioned people would spit and curse at the little furry guy for disenchanting them from their gold (I don’t think that makes any sense, but you carry on, Steve – Ed). So in our wisdom and our boundless pool of giving, we produced a combined package that was too good to be true… a package that was honest… a package that was two games for the price of one… look Jeppe, get a grip and play the ONLY bona fide bargain game you’ll ever own..

Q: Okay. I noticed something a bit… odd, in the new Haybot Wars music. Now, am I absolutely insane, or is the voice part that comes in around 1:20 saying “They, suck, balls,” over and over again? Haha. Any particular story behind this? It’s a brilliant little easter egg.
Tucker Beard

Robin: That would be telling…

Q: Why is it that there is no known way of uncensoring the Single Player mode as far as we know? The N64 version got away with a lot more expletives than the Xbox version. Also, why is it that the rewards for Live & Co. only apply to Live? Many of us have waited for this game for years, and most of us do not have the luxury of broadband.
darkmark8

Chris: If we allowed the swearing to be uncensored, many of the big retailers would not have sold the game. It is as simple as that. We had it all set up and working, but we had to remove the code when the decision came in. As for the rewards, they are an incentive to get and play Live. At least you still have bots!

Q: There’s this forum debate going on gamespot.com about the character Berri in Conker’s Bad Fur Day, is she suppose to be a Rabbit or Chipmunk? (I say Chipmunk.) Thanks in advance! 🙂
Jason Whitton

Louise: Okay. I’m going to ask you a question (very patiently). Do you know what a rabbit looks like? Rabbits? The ones with the big long floppy ears? Big, floppy, EARS? Since Berri is obviously lacking in the big floppy ears department, I’m going to say… she isn’t a rabbit!

Q: Were any of you guys as sad as I was with the Nice/Nasty sign being replaced with a bees/wasps sign? That was my favorite sign in all of video games with its only flaw that you can’t recklessly chop it down to watch it respawn when you leave the area and come back! I think you’ve all done a fantastic job on Conker: Live & Reloaded.
Cammiluna

Steve: Sorry for your heartache, I can hold my hands up for causing this reckless act, guilty as charged. There is some policy about playing to the lowest denominator of game player (picture books, no words needed), or was it about localisation… anyway, don’t they look nice and nasty now?

Q: How come you changed the appearances of the Squirrels and Tediz in the war scenes of Live & Reloaded so drastically since the original version? I would have to admit I preferred the Squirrels before you added the eyebrows etc., same goes for the Tediz.
Becci

Steve: Guilty as charged, again, governor. Why are you all picking on me? Look man, I mean Becci, what’s wrong with eyebrows, what’s wrong with adding a little character, what’s wrong with moving forwards and making things better, nothing! That’s what’s wrong. So come on, let’s do new stuff and move on, learn from the past and make for a better future, open our minds and we will all be happier.

Q: What is a tank breech? The medal for 1000 kills with the Sky Jockey says quicker tank breech and yet many people are still clueless as to what a tank breech truly is. How do I achieve 500 mobile unit kills? On Xbox Live people are having a fit about this medal because they have tried driver kills, actual mobile unit terminals, and many other options but still cannot get this medal.
Matt aka Kaboom aka Jinkys Gang

Chris: The breech time is the time it takes for a shot to be loaded into the breech! For example, if a gun can have five shots in its breech, and it is fully loaded, you can fire off up to three shots quickly. As soon as the breach has less than five shots in it, then it gets filled back up again with shots. The time between each shot being replaced is the breech time. Got it? The mobile unit kill should be the number of vehicles you have killed (giving you the Jade Star).

Q: There is a section of the song where the Great Mighty Poo sings, “…take your head and ram it up my butt”. There’s then a back-and-forth between Conker and the Great Mighty Poo. It was at this point where what I was seeing onscreen and what I was hearing failed to sync up. Unbelievable that something you managed with style on the Nintendo 64, fails on Xbox. What happened Rare?
John McMurtrie

Robin: You’re lucky it ended up as good as it did!

Q: Can someone please explain why, like numerous other developers, you didn’t cater the controls for those of us who are left-handed? I – and I’m sure other left handers – can adjust to being forced to use a right-handed setup eventually, however I’ll never be as accurate as with a ‘proper’ left-handed setup and this is to the detriment of my gamesplaying experience both on and offline. It’s like being back in the ‘Ultimate: Play the Game’ days when I was forced to use the ‘QWERTY’ keys!
Dan Logue

Chris: You can swap the sticks around in the joystick setups. Other than that I am not sure what other configuration you would have liked. We asked the testers to come up with different layouts, and those are the ones you see in the game.

Q: Were there any serious problems during the development of the game? Something like “Somebody deleted the whole game content and we had to start at zero” or something like that? Have you had any ideas for the remake that had not found their way into the complete game?
V-King

Chris: The entire team once lost a week’s work when one of our servers went down. We were being backed up once a week, so had to go to the last backup. That was a major pain in the ass. We now use RAID drives to provide a lot better backup protection, courtesy of Microsoft. There were plenty of ideas that didn’t make the cut mostly due to time constraints. They will probably appear in some guise in our next title.

Q: As an avid action figure collector, and Rareware fan, and also with the release of the new Conker plush, I was wondering if we would see more plushes or some action figures? I could just imagine my very own Tediz army.
ff

Steve: Your dreams can come true, that army can be built and put to battle. Plush toys are available, where I don’t know, and when I don’t know… great help I am. (Linkage – Ed.)

Q: Why are there no cheats in the new Conker, but so many in the old one? And why in God’s name can’t you be Conker in the war part of the game, I mean it is HIS game???
Billy Lauko

Chris: No-one used the cheats in the old game much. We wanted people to play the game through. We were not allowed to un-censor the swearing, so there was not a lot left to put a cheat menu in for. We decided to put rewards into the multiplayer for CPs instead. Conker decided he really didn’t want to have his head blown off in a rather messy war.

Q: In the Spooky chapter, I see you’ve added a new enemy character. That freaky little baby thing. Actually this is more like two questions… what the hell is it supposed to be and where’d it come from (as in the idea for it)?
Tony Lucero

Steve: Tony, Tony, Tony, what do we have to do to satisfy our own artistic freedom? Do we have to go to the local arts council and ask for imagination permission or can we just jump in there and do what we like and become creators of our own canvas? That’s right, the latter. I hate to be all uppity but yeah, it’s a freaky baby doll on a freaky horror level with a freaky atmosphere, where you can bash their freaky little heads in, what’s the problem? And they came from Hell.

Q: Hey. I wanted to know if the Conker team is associated with the soundtrack from Sumthing. If so, does the team know if the Sloprano number is going to be uncensored? I can hardly wait to play the soundtrack out loud on my stereo, but the poo sounds during the swearing sound annoying. And if known and/or allowed to tell, do you know what the release date is? Anyway, I’ve asked my question. And thanks for creating the best Xbox game!!!
F.Z

Robin: Well, you’ll probably be able to answer that one yourself by now (More linkage – Ed), and before you start whinging on about it being censored, don’t blame me, blame Geopolitical… I’m as bummed out as you are!

Q: Why oh why did you change Conker’s trusty frying pan with a baseball bat?! I think the frying pan kept with the overall randomness and stupidity of the game itself, and as an N64 player was just a little disappointed to see that one fundamental change.
Alex Vaughan

Chris: It was hardly a fundamental change to the Conker experience. We decided that a baseball bat with rusty nails and razors sticking out of it gave Conker a bit more of an edge in his new revamped world. You can also get a nice combo going with it, by using a carefully timed set of three taps of the button, allowing you to kill enemies with one combo hit.

Q: I remember back when Bad Fur Day was first announced, and some of the first rendered shots were released (back when the Squirrels look terrible). Is there any chance of getting a downloadable skin for how the Tediz looked then? Because, honestly, it reminded me of the French and it was just really funny to look at.
Anthony Cuneo

Steve: No can do, but we can do better than that, in the shops plush dolls will be available (selected retailers only) for you to purchase and create your own army, just like f f (the guy from a few questions ago) or bring one to bed, so you can cuddle up and dream of furry things… good luck.

Q: I’m taking 3-D animation classes at Thompson Institute and we use Lightwave and yet I every animation I make, I eventually end up with them making poses at the wrong time. Heck, my lip-synch looked like the character I made for it was speaking all of his lines at once. Yet here I see professionals do it and I can’t help but be amazed. Just how long did it take you guys to get this good and what programs did you use?
Ness554

Louise: Unfortunately being this good doesn’t come with time. Yes, all of us animators at Rare were part of the child ‘animation program’. Our parents were injected with a rare animation gene. We were born into the animation program, born with the talent. Destined to work for Rare… living the secret life of animators. So, to answer your questions: We use Maya, and we were all born with it (see above!)

Q: I really liked Conker (on both platforms) but… why? …Why? …WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! …for the love of all things X *= -1.0; …did not you guys not allow flipping of the horizontal camera behavior? Now when I make a left turn on my scooter, I look right, and vice versa. My parole officer thinks I should sue you guys.
MrJimmo

Chris: I have never heard of a game that flipped the stick horizontally. Vertically is fairly standard. It never came up as an issue through playtesting or from anyone I have ever seen or heard of playing it. I guess we stupidly assumed that you would want to go left when you pushed the stick left!

Q: What are all the things the zombies say in the Zombies chapter? So far, I’ve heard “We’re gunna get you”, “Look behind you”, and “We’re watching you”. All the other ones are too hard to make out. I look forward to the adventures Conker MIGHT have in the future.
Dustin Jackson

Martin: Here’s the complete set: “Don’t turn around.” “Behind you.” “You’ll never leave here alive.” “We’re gonna get you.” “Tasty squirrel.” “Squirrel’s going to die.” “Hello little squirrel.” “Don’t look now.” “We’re watching you.” …and a couple of strange laughs.

Q: All I really want to know is if you have planned any size, shape, or form of downloadable content to appear on C:LaR. This means anything. Anything from a patch, to new content in any form. I really love the game, and wish to have more content very badly. I remember an article from the community website that stated DLC content was scratched “unless the demand was high.” Well I demand for downloadable content!
Jeff K.

Steve: Jeff, I’m lovin’ what you’re sayin’, but the truth of the matter is there ain’t anything coming your way. But don’t be disappointed; keep playing the beautiful game because by the time your little thumbs and fingers have cooled down and the blisters have healed and your hands have gone all soft and kitten-like, the Conker team will be pushing something dangerous your way to sort out those limp-wristed little hands. Stay tuned Jeff, it’ll be worth it.

Q: What was the most reoccurring problem in Conker that you had to constantly fix? Can you name a few obstacles you overcame? Now that you have a detailed Conker model, and a tweaked engine for the single player, wouldn’t it be pretty easy to make a new adventure for him on the Xbox? Kinda like what they do on the Jak and Daxter series…
John Iversen

Chris: We constantly had to worry about getting all those gorgeous graphics to fit in memory, and the game to run at speed. Other than that it was just the relentless task of getting the bugs out that caused us to tear out our hair. Unfortunately, having a new model of Conker and a revamped engine is only the smallest of parts towards a new Conker game. It needs new levels, characters, animations, audio and a whole design. There is no such thing as an easy game to make!

Q: With everything said and done, which level are you most proud of?
Matt H.

Steve: In the game I was a character artist, I didn’t do the backgrounds, just all the squirrels and lots of the BFD guys. I haven’t got a favourite because the background guys did such a fab job on all the levels, in creating the best graphics on the Xbox ever, that I can’t pick a winner.

Q: With all of the hassles of meeting the deadline and remaking an N64 game onto the Xbox are you guys happy with the way it turned out in the end? Also with seeing how this game went and the reaction of people to the small changes made in the game, would you have changed anything?
Anton Olsen

Chris: I am really pleased with the final game we produced, especially given the constraints we worked under and the timeline we hit (only 2.5 years from start to finish). I was surprised at how some small changes (such as removing the eel task) really offended some people! What really annoyed me was the number of reviews that went along the lines of ‘Multiplayer: 9, Single Player: 6, Overall: 7’. Surely when you have a game that is worth 9, why should the overall score be dropped by a supposedly poorer extra game? Just don’t play that bit! People marked low because of the fact it was a remake. I honestly think we would have scored a lot better if we had not done the single player port at all, and just released the multiplayer with a few more maps. Go figure!

Q: Why did you bring back Conker, you had plenty to choose from so why did you choose the squirrel above the rest? Good day!
Sam The Man

Louise: We are the Conker team… therefore we chose Conker, because he is good. Thank you, and good day.

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