We loved A Kingdom for Keflings and now we can’t wait to get our mitts onA World of Keflings so the best thing to do meantime is to grab time withNinjaBee president and lead designer and creator of A World of Keflings, Steve Taylor, to chat about the upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade title. To find out more about the new Keflings, musical cannons and story modepull up a chair and read on…
Firstly many thanks for taking the time to speak with us. As we know A World of Keflings is the sequel to A Kingdom for Keflings, what major changes can we expect to see, or will it be more of the same?
Our goal from the start was to make this a whole new game, not just a sequel. We didn’t want anybody to be able to say it was “more of the same”. 🙂 While we’ve kept the same core mechanics (interact with keflings, collect resources to create building pieces to make buildings), we’ve added huge amounts of new stuff, and there isn’t a single element of the game that hasn’t been updated.
A partial list of major new features: Local multiplayer (dynamic split screen). Three worlds each with unique resources, building pieces, and building technology trees. A new story-driven focus with cinematics, quests, and unique characters. New kefling types with new abilities. Collectible/sharable stuff. Kefling upgrades. Cannons. Secret Easter-eggs. And more…
Can you tell us a little bit more information about any new Keflings that may be available?
Well, for starters, there are a bunch of new kefling characters that involve you in their story, including asking for help, giving you cool stuff, etc. There’s a witch character who figures prominently in the story who also mixes potions for you that upgrade your avatar!
What’s your favourite type of Kefling and why?
The builder brothers – a few characters (starting with Bob and Doug, who you meet in the Ice Kingdom) who help you carry building pieces around! I liked the puzzle element of putting together buildings in the original game, but I got tired of lugging building pieces across the map, and the new builder keflings are amazing for eliminating that tedium while still depending on you to figure out new building blueprints.
The main goal of A Kingdom for Keflings was to build a castle, what is the main goal in A World of Keflings?
That’s a big goal in the new game as well, but not only is the castle completely new and awesome, but also the world is full of other stories and quests, and there’s a real ending after the castle… 🙂
Is there anything that you would have loved to include in the game, but couldn’t?
Sure… I could spend many more years putting everything into the game that we would like to get in. But we started this project with a long list of features that we wanted to add and that players had requested, and I’m proud of the fact that we got nearly everything from that list in the game and a lot more along the way.
Reading one of your recent press releases, it looks like the Keflings can be used in two other arcade games. How exactly will they be used and is there any benefit to having all three arcade games?
Each of the three games crosses over into the others in unique ways. A kefling shows up in Raskulls as a playable character, and in ilomilo you can dress ilo and milo up in kefling costumes. You have to see this to really appreciate how cool it is. And in the other direction, Raskulls characters and ilo and milo can come live in your Kefling worlds. Both Raskulls and ilomilo are excellent games, easily worth getting, and I’m very happy with how the crossover turned out.
To a smaller degree we also unlock content from other games as well, but we haven’t talked about this much yet.
Co-op seems to be a massive part of A World of Keflings. What sort of game modes can we expect to see online and off?
Yes, from the start our design was to make A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings entirely cooperative, never competitive. This is supported more than ever in A World of Keflings with the addition of local Multiplayer, as well as a few other new features like banner towers that have player information attached, and a new collectible/sharable piece system. There’s really only one game “mode”, which is to play the game however you want, with friends or without. 🙂
How many players can play at any given time?
A World of Keflings supports two players on one console or up to four players over LIVE. While you can’t have local multiplayer and LIVE multiplayer at the same time, you can seamlessly transition from single player to multiplayer in the same session.
One of our readers was interested to know if it was possible for another LIVE user to join your game, and kick down your buildings like in A Kingdom for Keflings?
Even in A Kingdom for Keflings we released a title update to keep non-friend players from breaking your buildings, and we’ve worked hard to make this less of a problem in A World of Keflings. We’ll never be able to perfectly protect you from jerks hell-bent on making your life difficult, but there are various features in the game (like breaking stuff) that depend on a player being a friend of the host.
One of my favourite parts of A Kingdom for Keflings was that you could kick them should they step out of line. Are you able to kick Keflings in the sequel and I’m even more intrigued to find out if there are other things you can do to the Keflings?
Ha, like we’d ever remove the kicking feature! In the new game, you can pop experienced keflings on the head to upgrade them individually. There are a few other things you can do to the keflings, as well, some of which gets unlocked as you play.
What exactly are musical Kefling cannons?
As you play through the game you collect resources that let you build and customize cannons. You can drop keflings into cannons and they get blasted out. Not only can you customize the details of each cannon (such as how they look and sound), but also you can chain them together to make interesting effects and music!
Is there more emphasis on using your Xbox 360 avatar or does using the pre-determined characters play out exactly the same?
We’ve focused entirely on LIVE Avatars in this game – no pre-determined characters at all. And we’ve added a lot more you can do with your avatar, including new emotes, displaying your props and pets in-game, and the obligatory unlockable avatar items.
Can we expect to see some DLC in the near future?
Absolutely!
Many thanks for your time; we look forward to getting our hands on the game.
My pleasure! Thanks for the questions, and I hope you enjoy the game!
A World of Keflings releases on Wednesday 22 December 2010, just in time for Christmas, and is priced at 800 MS Points. Let us know if you’ll be purchasing the game in the comments below.
