I had a chance to kidnap Strange Flavour’s own Aaron Fothergill for an exclusive first look at the Xbox Live Arcade title, Spyglass Board Games.  Spyglass is set to debut on Wednesday, August 1 for 400 Microsoft Points.

Aaron and Strange Flavour previously gave fans the first (and only) gesture based game for the Xbox 360, Totemball.  They’re at it again alongside Freeverse to provide another first with the video chat feature! 

Not much is known about this upcoming title but that’s about to change.  I had to travel deep in the heart of the UK for this one so sit down, relax and read as I go one on one with Aaron about Spyglass Board Games.  (and no I didn’t really kidnap him; he’s in the UK and I couldn’t cover luggage expenses)

The Players

Aaron Fothergill, MD / Lead Coder, Strange Flavour Ltd.

The Interview

It’s been a while since we heard from Strange Flavour.  Totemball was the first entry into the Xbox Live Arcade for you guys.  Tell us about your new title and how long it’s been in development.

Thanks Deacon,

Spyglass Board Games is a set of four popular board games based around a video chat client. The idea is that you can call a friend or relative up for a chat and play a few games while discussing the weather or how college is going etc.  It’s very much designed around social play, so it’s a good excuse to call up a friend, or teach someone to play.

Spyglass has its ancestry in the Freeverse’s multi award winning Big Bang Board Games but it’s specifically built around video chat on Xbox LIVE Arcade. We effectively took the basic concepts of BBBG (simple play but looks great and is easy to use) and used them to write Spyglass Board Games from scratch for the Xbox 360.

From scratch?  Nice.  The size limit for XBLA titles was recently increased.  Did that allow you to do more with the title than you originally planned?

Actually, yes. We were originally focusing on the video chat and a couple of more “normal” sets of pieces for the games, but with the size increase we let loose the dogs of silly and were able to create a lot more sets of pieces and boards for varying tastes.

You set the stage for gesture based games on the Xbox 360 with Totemball.  You look to do that now by introducing the first video chat enabled game.  Can you talk a bit about that feature of Spyglass?

Yes, the video chat is actually the most important part of Spyglass. The game is designed entirely around it. So for instance, it has large video panels for each player so you’re not squinting at a tiny video window while playing. We think of Spyglass as being more of a video chat with board games.

Part of the design was to mimic a lot of the controls and features of the video chat in the dash, even to the point of the original team that wrote the video chat app lending us the shaders they used for their video effects, which we then added to.

That’s impressive.  What are the other features of Spyglass?

Primarily, lots of visual customization. The Achievements unlock new pieces and boards (each player sees their own choice, so you can’t out psych an opponent with a chess set he hates) and there are some pretty unusual sets that probably won’t be seen in an official world championships anytime soon!  As I mentioned earlier, we’ve expanded the video effects from the original video chat’s 8, including some more “interactive” ones.

On the game side, we’ve targeted more casual and “learner” players for the AI. There will be other games catering for the expert players who want to play solo against a genius chess AI for instance. In Spyglass, the Chess AI is dumbed down so that a first time player can play a game or two over Xbox LIVE with a friend to teach them the rules, then have a go with the solo game to practice and not be frustrated by being clobbered by the AI every time.

The expert Chess or Mancala players of course, know that the best opponents are real ones and even better, they can use their latest psych out techniques (and new video effects to enhance them) over the video chat. I’m sure Kasparov would approve.

The other games of course, are handled in the same way. The main focus is on play over Xbox LIVE with the solo games being primarily for a bit of a practice for new players (or to help develop a healthy superiority complex where computers are concerned)

Color me intrigued.  How many classic games are in Spyglass?

There are four games: Chess, Checkers (we call it draughts over here), Reversi (also known as Othello) and a variant of the traditional game Mancala (we picked a version which uses slightly randomized starting positions to avoid players simply memorizing all the moves)

Will there be different gameplay options or game customization options if players want to play the board games with different rules?

No, the focus was on simplicity. We didn’t want the first 10 minutes of your friendly chat to be an argument over what rules to use!

Can you tell us about the Xbox Live modes and features?

Essentially, you’ve got all the expected ones, Ranked Matches, Player Matches etc. but you also have Practice Matches.

Practice Matches work like Player Matches, but they don’t count for leaderboard ranking at all. That way, you can teach a friend to play without either of you worrying about hurting your ranking.

Another feature of Player Matches in Spyglass is that instead of picking a single game and playing it, you’re actually playing all four games at once! You can swap between all four at will and just play whichever game takes your fancy (there’s even an Achievement linked to this).

If you’re serious about a particular game though, Ranked Matches lock you to a specific game (you can also create Custom Matches with a specific game if you only prefer to play one of the four).

Totemball unfortunately was one of the titles that didn’t receive any additional downloads after it was released.  Are there plans to offer any downloads for Spyglass?

Due to its design around quick, pick up, chat and play simplicity, Spyglass doesn’t have any downloadable content options.

Are there any interesting unlockables for playing?

Basically we’ve got 2 Gamerpics that you can be awarded. One’s exclusive to people who’ve topped the Ranked Chess leaderboard (or someone with a profile on the same HD it appears) and the other is easier to get if you have a tendency to talk on the phone for hours. 

Sneaky!  Has a price point been set for Spyglass?

Yes, 400 Points.

That’s the sweet spot.  What’s going to convince fans out there to download this title when it releases?

Two words: Jelly Chess!

Jelly Chess?  I’m not sure I want to know.  Thanks Aaron for visiting with U360 again and bringing another first to the Xbox Live Arcade!

Don’t forget to check out the Achievement list for Spyglass Board Games.