Making the Kinect Sports Theme
Rare’s recording studio is a magical place, not just because Robin Beanland will let you play his drum kit if you ask nicely, but also because so many famous soundtracks have been created there over the years. Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day and the DK Rap (okay, forget we mentioned that one) all came from this repository of jingle-jangles, trumpets and burping hippo noises.
The Kinect Sports theme song is a big departure from Rare’s back catalogue, marking the first time we’ve collaborated with a hip-hop artist. Birmingham-based DJ and record producer Taharka flexed his lyrical muscles on the track “Eyes on the Prize”, working closely with Robin and David Clynick to create an energetic sound worthy of Kinect. Check out our behind the scenes video on the making of the title track below.
Sep 2010
Tokyo Game Show Road Trip 2010
Checking in from TGS 2010, here’s Rare’s Executive Producer of Technology and Communications (phew) Nick Burton.
It’s the final big trade show of 2010 at Makuhari Messe just outside Tokyo. As always Microsoft are there in force, and this year there’s an obvious focus on Kinect and its launch titles.
We need to do much of our work before TGS opens its doors on Thursday, training the local team and making sure everything is set up correctly. The usual scene greets us; the stand is nowhere near complete, everything is still covered in plastic wrap and it seems like chaos! But it’s normal for a trade show, it’ll look great and all come together by 9am tomorrow.
The stand is huge, the local team have done a great job putting it together, I can honestly say it’s one of the best stands at the show. We get the builds up and running in the pods then turn our attention to the stage where the companions will be doing live demos throughout the show. Everything looks good, we run through the builds of Sports and the other first party games and end the day happy even though it must be over 30 degrees in the hall!
Sep 2010
Tokyo Testimonials
So the Tokyo Game Show has been and gone for another year. In addition to the usual diary-keeping antics (coming up soon), Nick brought back a whole load of pictures for you to browse through, featuring everything from Kudo, Shin and show floor volunteers tackling Kinect Sports to atmospheric views of the Japanese capital.
Before that, a quick round-up of Kinect Sports TGS coverage: Akihabara News posted shots and video of the Japanese ladies demoing the game, with the excited comment that “To be honest, the result is far from being bad”. One for the front of the box there. GameSpot grabbed Kudo for a Sports and Joy Ride demo, while IGN bigged up Volleyball in their Kinect change of heart article; Kotaku took a photo tour of the Microsoft booth, while Destructoid were focused on one photographic subject in particular: pants.
And so to our own humble (but not pants) picture tour…
Sep 2010
Party Play and Punches at PAX
There ain’t no party like a Kinect Sports party, as many PAX Prime attendees discovered last weekend. Along with our new Boxing event, we were also in Seattle to demo Party Play – a crazy selection of team-based challenges that show our six main sports in an entirely new light.
If you thought the 100m Sprint looked funny enough before, you’ll like it even more when there’s a sporty carrot racing a robot. Or how about a big blue cyclops failing miserably at the Javelin? These are just some of the things you can see in our PAX highlights reel, along with plenty of new Boxing footage. Whether it was hardcore gamers or just families looking for a fun time, Sports certainly won lots of fans in Seattle.
Sep 2010
Mini-Scribes: September 13, 2010
There’s no UK Xbox 360 developer blog-based spin-off letters column finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Ev’ry time we do Mini-Scribes…
Q: since 2011 will be conkers 10th anniversary will you make a new online war between the SHC and the TEDIZ for the xbox live market place
Not Bartyhead
A: Every year is the anniversary of something, man. We can’t work on those principles, our lives would be an ongoing torrent of stress. For example, 2010 is the 10th anniversary of Mickey’s Speedway USA and the 20th anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street on the NES, but I don’t think we’ve got any Marketplace tie-ins planned. Not even an XBLA Krueger Kart mash-up of the two. Although, come to think of it, that would be pretty excellent.
Q: So why are you calling it Mini-Scribes and not Snippets?
Also, Leigh, you deserve a medal for putting up with our letters for over 12 years.
Bryan Skinner
A: Ha ha ha, over 12 years. As if it could… possibly… *twitch*
It’s not really Snippets because ‘proper’ Scribes letters are thrown in too. Just not the monster twelve-paragraph efforts that some people feel obliged to send – we’ll save those for ‘proper’ Scribes.
Q: Greetings, I’m a really big Conker fan and this question may interest you.
Do you remember Honker the evil counterpart of Conker? I’ve been here wondering: would he have appeared in Twelve Tales or Other Bad Day? Wondering these questions my imagination sprang forward. I came up with crazy ideas on what happened to him: Is he dead? Is he lost? Did he get taken away by the character police? Finally I came up with an even crazier idea: Maybe he is on an epic adventure in a land where forgotten Rareware characters reside. This is just like a small idea but the rest is enough to plan a full game. My question is: What are your thoughts on this? I thought it would be interesting to see what you thought.
Lucas Eve
A: Honker the skunk? A forgotten character? The very idea! He’s much-loved.
Bad Fur Day/Live & Reloaded designer Chris says: “Honker was a creation of someone else, so not official Conker canon.” Oh. Spoke too soon. “There was going to be an evil version of Conker in Other Bad Day, but he had nothing to do with Honker, more like dark Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3 or the Smeagol/Gollum dynamic rather than an actual separate character.” So there you go.
Blast from the Past: March 2, 2004
Q: I have recently rediscovered Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. An absolutely fantastic Jump & Run (one of my all-time favorites)! Since it seems to be abandonware, would it be possible to offer the game on the Rareware website?
There are many very popular (and extremely easy-to-use and mature!) SNES emulators available for multiple platforms.
One of those + a USB-Gamepad bring back those beautiful old memories… It is very sad that many excellent games simply fade into history.
Best regards,
Lars
A: Abandonware? Eh? We retooled DKC for the GBC in 2000 and again for the GBA last year, with a handheld version of the sequel (sequels?) also on the way. Either you didn’t know that, or your definition of ‘abandonware’ is radically different to mine.
When faced with this interesting hypothesis, the designer of the game came up with the idea that “we should tell Lars that his bank account is also abandonware and we are claiming its contents for our drinking fund”.
Got a question for Scribes/Mini-Scribes? Send it over. We reserve the right to answer it here, there, everywhere or nowhere. Improve your publication chances by authoring an incredibly witty and perceptive piece or by splurging some jumbled madness we can laugh at.
Sep 2010
PAX Road Trip 2010: Part 2
Representing Rare at PAX 2010 in Seattle: Kinect Sports Art Director Neill Harrison and Web & Community Carnivore Ben Talbot.
Days 2 & 3 – Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th September
It’s the final day of PAX Prime in Seattle and we’re rushing to get into the lift heading up to the show floor. The doors are closing, but one of the event staff holds it open for us. “No problem!” he says, “this is why we’re good Left 4 Dead players.” I shout, “OH NO! Boomer bile!” and all the passengers chuckle.
Normally, you’d be surprised that everyone gets the joke, but this is PAX Prime – a place where gaming brings together people from all walks of life. It’s not uncommon to overhear complete strangers comparing their favourite games of the show or sharing an in-joke about something. Geeky humour is the best!
In the first two days of the show, we’ve demoed Kinect Sports to nearly a thousand people. We’re hoping to see another five or six hundred today, giving as many people as possible a chance to try Boxing or Party Play. Many people have been surprised by Boxing’s depth – even though you can play by punching as hard and fast as possible, there’s also a really efficient blocking system, complete with super-powerful counter punches. Those who get to grips with using the block are almost always able to daze the other player.
Sep 2010
PAX Road Trip 2010: Part 1
Representing Rare at PAX 2010 in Seattle: Kinect Sports Art Director Neill Harrison and Web & Community Carnivore Ben Talbot.
Day 1 – Friday 3rd September
It’s amazing to think that in the space of five years, PAX Prime has gone from a small independent games show to one of the biggest gaming expos in the US. This year breaks new records for the show, with 75,000 attendees storming the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Neill (Kinect Sports’ lead artist) and myself arrive at the show bright and early on Friday morning. We’re demoing Boxing for the first time, as well as running a few contests in our new Party Play mode. It only takes about half an hour before the lines for Sports are stretching around the booth, but the great thing about PAX is that everyone is really patient and doesn’t mind waiting a bit for their chance to play.
Boxing is pretty amazing to watch – I’d never imagined there would be so many different ways that you could throw a punch. It seems like everyone has a slightly different style, from rope-a-dope to backhanded slaps to cage fighter-style combinations. We even have a few enthusiastic gamers attempting flying kicks at the screen.
Sep 2010
The Twitter Guns of August
Another busy month, with the Rare news and blog sections sloshing over with content like the Comic-Con video diary, Piñata Family Game Night, Kinect Galleries visit, a couple of Edinburgh trips, GDC Europe talk and the full might of Gamescom with its associated blogs, press coverage and video content. Much of the Twitter activity revolved around that lot, but as always there was plenty of tangential stuff going on.
We mentioned a few internal meetings which, despite the Twitter populace’s attempts to kickstart rumours, did not include plans for Battletoads vs. Capcom, Mr. Pants vs. SNK or Killer Instinct vs. ClayFighter. Later there was a slightly too casual fire drill, Allison Scagliotti was put forward for a Perfect Dark movie (sadly not by her agent and a group of wealthy investors), Sega decided we were to blame for breaking Facebook, and then while Ben was sharing his controversial thoughts on Inception and Clash of the Titans, I stumbled across some old-school Rare merchandise and took pictures for posterity. Ah, tacky memories.
Shiny fancy press links included GamesTM magazine’s issue 100 cover gallery with guest turns from GoldenEye and Sabre Wulf, news of Avatars coming to the Windows Phone, Grunty making what looks to be a short-lived stand in GameSpot’s Greatest Game Villain showdown, and Nick’s quest to talk to pretty much everyone on the internets including Xbox.com, Eurogamer, Xbox360Achievements and Rareware Archives.
Finally, after a non-existent competition for reaching 1600 tweets earlier in the month proved much more popular than it really should have, the last week of August saw our biggest Twitter giveaway yet to celebrate the 10,000 followers milestone. A kaleidoscopic array of quality tat was distributed to punters across the globe for joining in the #Rare10KYouKnowsIt retweeting shenanigans. Which reminds me, time we did the newsletter T-shirt draw too…
Sep 2010
