N-Philes

On the first day of E3, N-Philes got the chance to sit down with Paul Joffe from THQ, the Project Manager of Spongebob Squarepants for the Wii. We discussed Nintendo's new console, Nickelodeon licenses, and the titles scheduled for gamers to play in 2006.

N-Philes: If you could, can you give us an overview of what we can expect from THQ?

Paul: So we've got stuff for GameCube, DS, GBA and for Wii. We're doing Spongebob: Creature from the Krusty Krab which is on Wii and on GameCube and on GBA and DS. We also have Avatar for all the same consoles, Wii, GameCube. My main focus is on the Spongebob stuff. I also oversee Danny Phantom DS/GBA.

N-Philes: So your main job at THQ itself is...?

Paul: I'm a project manager and my primary focus is mostly on Spongebob, though I do kind of help coordinate with all the Nickelodeon licensed stuff that we do, and certainly you know one of the big things that we have gotten involved in is with the Wii stuff, so I've been kind of heading up that and helping with that throughout the company.

N-Philes: So you have been working directly with the Wii?

Paul: Yep - Spongebob is being developed by Blitz Games in the U.K. and we had essentially taken - we took the game that we had -

N-Philes: That's currently what we saw out there for the PS2?

Paul: Yeah for the PS2, and what was great was that because with that game - we actually set out to try to make Bikini Bottom and Spongebob look and play differently than ever before, and ended up [laughter] kind of having a nice transition to Wii. We've created six different themes in the world: hot rod, monster movie look, I'm a pop hero, a comic book look, space look, all this sort of different stuff. We've got different kinds of mechanics - the flying you see, the rampage you see, we have some platforming, we have some driving, some racing, a whole bunch of mini-games. So we had all that set out already, and then when the opportunity with Wii came along, we basically have just taken every mechanic that we had and rethought it. We are really playing in a completely different way.

N-Philes: Okay, so is it more of a port of the title, just with Wii elements or did you start building it from the ground up, just with those elements in mind?

Paul: From a design standpoint, from just kind of a story design and things like flying, rampage, etc., that part is a port. In terms of the way you actually play it is obviously completely different. So for example, right now you just fly with the gamepad, but actually on the Wii, the metaphor is a flight stick.

N-Philes: [Concerning release dates], I have a question for you about that. For example like Avatar the last Airbender, the release I have is for Quarter 3 - how exactly is that going to work with the release of the Wii, because the date we've been told is a little bit before the release?

Paul: You know I think Quarter 3 - it may have gotten mixed up with the THQ financial year. It's THQ financial year Quarter 3, but it's fall.

N-Philes: So were looking for a launch date for both titles?

Paul: Yes. Avatar and Spongebob and Cars are all expected to launch with the Wii in November.

N-Philes: Can we expect the same kind of driving for Cars - Nintendo is showing off Excite Truck, and can we imagine Cars being the same type of control scheme, what they call the classic style – holding it in the classic sense?

Paul: Yes we do, we will be doing that.

N-Philes: So overall what is your opinion about the Wii. How do you feel about the gameplay aspect and maybe the future of what you might be doing with it?

Paul: I mean, it's, from a design standpoint, it's incredibly exciting as it does truly make you think differently and forces you to think differently about the things you have been doing. You know, this year when it first came to me, and I'm like OK, I already have the game designed and I haven't been given the time or ability to design from scratch - I think what we found was when we started to pick up these metaphors like the flight stick, the driving wheel and for the rampage [portions], you know, you actually smashed - and so that really like worked out great.

I think we could, you know, really in a way reinvent the game that we had. With that said we totally want think something from scratch, and you know we certainly have the intent and we certainly will be looking at it. Our ability to do that will depend a lot on its penetration in the market and whether we can support a single console skew, which as you know, especially with licensed kid's stuff, we tend to go cross platform in order to make it work. I think that it makes you interact with your TV in a different way than you ever had before, and it makes you think about how you want to break [things] down in a virtual way, because it's almost like you are playing with a toy.

N-Philes: It goes back to when you were kids, you don't quite understand how to use the controller - I had a four year old that I was trying to show how to play GameCube games and [while he was playing] he was still doing this, and this and this [waving the controller in the air], and it's like wait a year and then you will be able to do that.

Paul: Absolutely, I think it's intuitive you know. I think that Nintendo has obviously always said that, and yesterday [Nintendo's pre-E3 show] was their big thing. . . When you look at this thing - whenever I hold up the controller to people, they just kind of like squint and are like "what's that?" I have had the opportunity to see a lot of people over that last 3 months who have never seen it. And [once they see it in action] they're like [laughter] "So that's it!". But definitely when you get your hands on it - and I haven't had a chance to go back to the booth yet to play all the stuff - but you immediately get a feel of what kind of things you could do.

N-Philes: Just a quick aside on Airbender, I did get a chance to play it out there on the GameCube. Is it here, right now for Wii?

Paul: No.

N-Philes: What kind of control scheme can we expect? I'm assuming nunchuku to move around and move the character around and then just attacking, you're looking at with the wand or...

Paul: Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on it but I know what they are basically trying to do is, you know, they have these kind of bender moves, and what they really are hoping to do is to be able to use the pointer to be able to actually kind of create a system of moves with your hand, that is kind of like, heliographics.

N-Philes: They use a lot of elemental powers.

Paul: Yeah, right.

N-Philes: In that, is this going to be multiplayer, because I know you can switch from character to character, but I believe there are four characters you can use - Is it ever going to be multiplayer?

Paul: It's not the plan as far as I know . . . I haven't actually seen the final version, but the game wasn't set out, you know, to do that, and so I'm not sure if they are going to look at doing that for the Wii. I know it was once talked about but I expect it to be similar to Spongebob, I mean they are going to kind of port the core design in the way it plays.

N-Philes: Getting to Monster House (GC), it's very interesting. I was talking to a rep out there and it's very Resident Evilish. It's very intense. In fact if I was a kid and I played that, I might be scared . . . How much of an influence was Resident Evil on the title? [We understand] it's based on the movie right?

Paul: It really is based on the movie, and, you know, I think it plays at a level that certainly is [for kids]. I think that A2M - they really did a great look . . . Whenever we do kids game we look at games like Resident Evil or whatever, and we try to figure out how we can give that to kids.

N-Philes: I noticed there is an over the shoulder camera but instead of a laser pointer it's more of a lock on technique, so it's a little bit simpler but it still is pretty intense.

Paul: Yeah. Kids . . . have definitely taken to it, they definitely know how to pick up and play it, and I think that the movie is, it's funny but it is scary, and that was one of the things that we came out thinking, well, that was a little more scary than we thought. So I think the audience who want it have to know that if a five year old who's gone to the movie can sit through the movie, then I think that he is going to love the experience of playing it.

N-Philes: Thanks very much for your time.

Paul: Thank you.

Curtis, Adrian, and all the staff at N-Philes would like to thank Mr. Joffe and THQ for their time and efforts that made this interview possible.