GamerBytes: Please introduce yourselves, and give us a brief background on Capybara Games.

Nathan Vella: I’m Nathan Vella, I’m a co-founder of Capy and up until recently I was the studios' Art Director. Now I’ve moved up to el presidente and run the studio with the help of the other co-founders Matt Repetski, Anthony Chan, Sean Lohrisch and Kris Piotrowski.

Kris Piotrowski: I’m Kris Piotrowski, and I am also a co-founder of Capy. I am Capy’s Creative Director and I develop the concepts for games that we make, including Critter Crunch.

NV: Capy (short for Capybara) is an independent game studio from Toronto, Canada. Our studio actually started out as a thread on our local IGDA chapter forum. From there we moved to weekly meetings in a stuffy bar, then got an office and started working fulltime after getting some contract work to do mobile games. Over the next couple years we feel we did pretty much all we could in the mobile space.

KP: We made some really great mobile games that likely no one reading this has ever heard of, and won Best Game in the 2008 IGF Mobile for Critter Crunch. Over the last 1.5 years Capy has been working on PlayStation®Network, Nintendo DS (which should be announced shortly), iPhone, and Wiiware stuff.

GB: You've just announced that Critter Crunch will be coming to the PlayStation Network. What is Critter Crunch?

KP: Critter Crunch is Capy’s take on the traditional arcade-style puzzle game. It’s fast, it’s frenetic and it’s so cute baby birds and/or butterflies may explode from your eyeballs.

Instead of just a cursor or falling blocks, players control Biggs. Biggs is a chunky forest dweller with an unending hunger for tasty critters. Using his long tongue, Biggs has the ability to set the food chain in motion by launching smaller critters into the waiting mouths of larger ones. It’s definitely not a traditional match-three puzzle game, which is nice.

GB: Where did you draw inspiration from when designing the game mechanics as well as the cute aesthetic?

KP: We didn’t necessarily have any identifiable inspiration for Critter Crunch gameplay-wise, aside from the unending drama of Nature itself.

Really, we wanted to make an arcade-style puzzle game, something that introduced a new puzzle mechanic that was immediately understandable by everyone. Then we wanted to stuff it to the brim with character, personality, cuteness, and barfing.

NV: We were definitely inspired by kawaii art – san-x characters, prefecture mascots, that sorta thing. We also get a lot of inspiration from the art team here – just through jamming on ideas and doing off-beat concepts.

KP: In the beginning of Critter Crunch, Capy’s kawaii artist extraordinaire Vic Nguyen was tasked with creating the original Biggs and critter sprites. Even though the original Biggs was only about 32x32px, it really solidified the type of character we wanted. From there, Capy artist Qiqo (aka Nick Stephan) created the loveable HD characters you see in the game.

NV: Our entire game was created by 2 artists – Qiqo who created and hand-animated all the characters and Sylvain Coutouly who created the amazing backgrounds and trimmings. Those 2 guys deserve all the credit for the games’ visuals.

GB: What have you added or changed in this version when compared to the iPhone version of the game?

KP: The biggest addition is Multiplayer – both local and online over the PlayStation Network. We added a crazy versus mode that pits 2 players against each other in a battle to their horrendously cute death. Creating huge chains and filling your stomach adds rows to your opponent’s board, but they can do the same to you. Classic stuff, but the result is quick and insane matches, and lots of swearing.

The second thing we added is a frantic co-op mode, which is a pretty unique feature in a puzzle game. Two players need to work together to survive and unending onslaught of critters, on a massive screen-wide stage. One player controls Biggs, who can only eat larger critters, and the other controls Smalls (Biggs’ eldest son from a previous marriage) who can only eat smaller critters. Players need to work together to stay alive and fill their communal gut. It’s kind of crazy… lots of things explode… a lot.

NV: Overall we took the single player experience and crammed it full of as much awesome as possible. We doubled the amount of special critters, and more than doubled the amount of powerups (or as we call them, power food). We also added fun stuff like Trophies so people can brag to their friends, Voice chat so people can yell at their friends, and a ton of new puzzle for the more brainy players.

GB: Are you self publishing the title or working with a publisher bring the game to the PlayStation Network?

NV: We’re self-publishing Critter Crunch, which we are super happy about. SCEA was really open to us doing it ourselves, and provided really amazing 3rd Party support. I know it sounds like we are just trying to plug SCEA, but honestly they helped us a ton and treated us with a lot of respect.

GB: Has the transfer from Java and iPhone development to the PlayStation 3 system’s development environment been a difficult one?

KP: It’s a bit crazy to go from mobile to the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. We were lucky to be able to use some of the mobile pieces when going to iPhone, but the PlayStation Network version we did entirely from scratch.

NV: Our development was made easier and more focused by using PhyreEngineTM. Not only did it save us boatloads of money in licensing or developing our own graphics engine (a big plus for an indie studio), but it also meant that we could focus on gameplay instead of tech. Notably, we managed to integrate our entire 2D art pipeline, which we have been perfecting over the years, into PhyreEngine in about a week and a half.

KP: As SCEA mentioned in their GDC talk, many more studios are using PhyreEngine… as they should. It’s a great resource, and SCEA support was ridiculously helpful to our studio.

GB: What made you decide to bring the game to the PlayStation Network compared to WiiWare or the Xbox Live Arcade?

NV: After we decided to make and self-publish Critter Crunch, we went looking for platform partners with the mantra that we wanted to work with people that were excited to work with us. When we talked to SCEA, they were very excited about the game and really super keen to work with us. They saw both the game, and its art-style, as something that could excel on PlayStation Network... and honestly, we think the game looks nice in 1080p.

KP: We love what SCEA is doing with PlayStation Network – some of our favorite games from this generation are PlayStation Network games: Flower, Everyday Shooter, all the Pixeljunk stuff, The Last Guy, … and even though Critter Crunch is much more traditional than all these games, we still feel it fits the platform. Also, Jon Mak is a good friend and fellow Torontonian, and he had really positive things to say about working with SCEA, so that meant a lot as well. Basically, it felt right, and as lame as it sounds, that meant a lot to a studio like ours.

GB: Now that you have broken out of the mobile phone market do you think you will continue to develop for those platforms? Do you plan for your next project to be created with several platforms in mind?

NV: Our studio’s current focus has been on PlayStation Network, Nintendo DS, iPhone and Wiiware. Mobile just isn’t the place for a studio that wants to develop its own ideas.

KP: It’s a good thing that the iPhone is sorta changing that for the developers who are currently working in the mobile space, though. We definitely talk a lot about taking our ideas to other platforms, trying to get them into the hands of as many gamers as possible. Critter Crunch makes sense on a lot of different platforms because it’s just one of those games, like Puzzle Bobble; you just want to play that game on everything, and we hope Critter Crunch can join that crowd of puzzle games one day. Our brand-spanking new Wiiware project, which is super early in development right now, might make sense on other platforms, but we are really focused on making it awesome on Wiiware first and foremost. I think you have to look at it on a game-by-game basis, or else you are going to end up shoehorning a game onto a platform it just won’t work on.

GB: When should we see Critter Crunch be released on PlayStation Network? Are their plans for a worldwide release? What price point should we be expecting?

NV: Critter Crunch should be out this summer… saying anything more concrete would risk us looking like tools if we miss it. Both North America and Europe will be getting some Biggs love for sure. As for price point, we’ll announce the exact cost closer to release, but one of our goals is to introduce Biggs and Critter Crunch to as many PLAYSTATION 3 gamers as possible, so it’ll be a chunk cheaper than 10 bucks.

GB: Do you have any advice for other independent developers who are planning to get into PlayStation Network development?

NV: Definitely consider PhyreEngine if you aren’t keen on developing your own graphics engine, and don’t underestimate the amount of time & work networked multiplayer will take.

KP: Make awesome stuff.

NV: And don't do drugs.

KP: Yeah, definitely don’t do drugs.

GB: Thank you for your time.