N-Philes

Heavy Iron Studios has been making a name for itself in recent years by developing TV-licensed titles that are actually good. They tackled the SpongeBob Squarepants license last year with Battle for Bikini Bottom and came out with what I can proudly call the best Nickelodeon game I've ever played. And their previous effort, Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights is fantastic and every bit deserving of being part of the PS2's Greatest Hits line. This year, Heavy Iron is handling quite possibly the two most marketable movie licenses this holiday season in The Incredibles and The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, which are scheduled to hit on October 25th and 27th, respectively. N-Philes got a chance to sit down with Joel Goodsell, lead designer of The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, and chat about Heavy Iron's upcoming projects.

N-PHILES: Could you tell us a little about yourself and your involvement with The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie?
JOEL GOODSELL: I've been designing platform games since Gargoyles in the 16-bit days. I worked at Disney for many years, including as lead designer for Toy Story 2. At THQ I have been the lead designer on SpongeBob Battle For Bikini Bottom, and now I'm lead designer on SpongeBob The Movie.

NP: When did you start working on The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie?

JG: We started working on SpongeBob The Movie the week we shipped SpongeBob Battle For Bikini Bottom. We knew we had to get it out in a year, and that we were going to have a smaller team, and we had a lot of improvements we wanted to make, so we didn't want to waste any time.

NP: How important is it that a game's release date coincides with the movie's?

JG: It's absolutely critical to be on the shelf several weeks before the release of the film. We are very careful to schedule conservatively and design the game around that schedule that will guarantee that we ship on time. However, it's also very important for us to make a quality game that we can all be proud of, so we're not afraid to make the decisions that need to be made in order to meet both goals.

NP: How would you best describe the gameplay of SpongeBob?

JG: SpongeBob The Movie is a platformer game, but we've added quite a few additional features to mix it up: the player can earn new moves and upgrade those moves over the course of the game; there are a number of mini-games: SpongeBall Challenges, Floating Block Challenges, Bungee Challenges, Combat Arena Challenges; there are whole levels now built around the slide; and you get to drive a sandwich.

NP: At E3, I found SpongeBob to be challenging, yet quite enjoyable. Will it still be mostly kid-friendly or still be challenging enough for older gamers?

JG: We're very conscious that the SpongeBob audience and the platform game audience include both include the younger audience and a very significant older gamer component. To that end, we design the main path of the game to be playable by the younger audience, but with side paths, mini-games and additional challenges along the way that will be challenging to older gamers. We want the younger audience to be able to play the game and enjoy themselves, but we want to make sure that the older gamers are being challenged as well.

NP: Is there any chance of there being a connection between the Game Boy Advance and Gamecube versions of the SpongeBob Squarepants Movie?

JG: We discussed having a connection between the GBA and NGC versions of SpongeBob The Movie, but the timelines for development of the two SKU's didn't allow for that. This is still a feature of great interest for us to explore on future products, however.

NP: Having developed the game for all three consoles, are there any hurdles that had to be overcome when porting to the Cube?

JG: We don't actually 'port' the game. We develop simultaneously on all 3 console systems and have designers, artists and programmers all working on the different machines all through production to ensure that there's as little difference between the systems as possible. Other than a few visual effects, SpongeBob The Movie should be identical on all three consoles.

NP: Will there be any GameCube specific features or enhancements?

JG: You'll have to look for yourself :)

NP: Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights and SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom seemed to follow original storylines designed for the videogame. Heavy Iron's current projects follow movies with set plotlines. What sort of creative liberties are you allowed to take with the source material?

JG: For SpongeBob The Movie, most of our levels take from a single plot point of the film and expand upon it to fill out an entire level. Other levels are expansions on ideas or locations from the film, but don't precisely follow the plot points of the film. We've worked closely with Nickelodeon to make sure that everything you will see is appropriate to the world of the film or the TV show.

NP: I thought Battle for Bikini Bottom perfectly captured the tongue-in-cheek humor of the television show. Did you guys write the script, or did the writing staff from the show handle that?

JG: The Heavy Iron team wrote the initial script, and then we utilized a writer from the TV show to give it a once-over and make sure that it was appropriately SpongeBob-ized.

NP: How do you handle the voice acting? Are you provided with clips from the movie, or do the actors come into your studio and record specifically for the game?

JG: Every single voice in the game is recorded specifically for that game, and by most of the actual voice actors from the TV show and film.

NP: What are some of Heavy Iron's next projects following The Incredibles and SpongeBob? Any new franchises in the works?

JG: I really wish I could discuss our next set of games, but I can't. Nuts.

NP: Thank you very much for your time.