Slide To Play Q and A: Infinity Blade 2

Today we chatted with Donald Mustard, the founder and creative director of Chair Entertainment, about the upcoming game Infinity Blade 2, which will hit the App Store on December 1. We should warn you that we spoil the ending of the first game, so if you haven't beaten Infinity Blade yet, be aware.

At the iPhone 4S event, Infinity Blade 2 was the only game they chose to highlight when talking about the device's gaming capability. How closely have you worked with Apple while developing Infinity Blade 2?

We love working with Apple. There's a lot of really, really smart people over there, obviously. I mean, look at what they've brought to the world. They're just really incredible. And like all developers, we feel really fortunate to have their help and their input, and they've been great to work with. So, yeah, we love working with those guys, and we love the hardware they're making.

Story-wise, how does Infinity Blade 2 relate to the original? And if you've never played the original, will the sequel be easy to understand?

The story takes place pretty directly after the events of Infinity Blade one. The first game is all about avenging your father, and you're father's father, and your father's father's father. It's really about this bloodline of warriors who have trained their whole lives for the singular purposes of trying to stand up to the God King. And we find ourself in the situation where Siris, the last of this bloodline, actually succeeded. He actually killed the God King, which I don't think he ever thought would ever happen. I think in his mind, he thought if he could scratch the God King, that would be proving that there's still resistance to the tyranny of the God King.

So Infinity Blade 2 picks up after that, where Siris has defeated and killed the God King and now has the Infinity Blade, one of the most sought-after and legendary items in existence. So we pick up with him trying to figure out what to do next, and he's decided that he's going to try and fight the Deathless. If they can be beaten, maybe he can do more. So his goal is to try and find the creator of the Infinity Blade, the Worker of Secrets, this legendary figure who purportedly created the Infinity Blade. Siris thinks if he can find him, he may be able to get him to join him in his quest to destroy the Deathless.

We've had thousands and thousands of people who've fallen in love with the story of Infinity Blade and the world we're creating. And one of the cool things we were able to do is partner with #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. He's finishing the Wheel of Time series, he's the author of the Mistborn trilogy, he's one of the most amazing fantasy writers living today. And he partnered with us to write a book based in the Infinity Blade universe, called Infinity Blade Awakening, that bridges the events from the first game to the second game, and really sets up some of the things we're going to be doing in the sequel. And it's available right now. You can get it on the iBook store, or the Nook or the Kindle, or any of your preferred e-readers. And it's really, really cool, and it sheds a lot of light on the first game and the things we're going to be going into for the second game.

Will the story be longer, and be more of a focus in Infinity Blade 2 than it was in the original?

Absolutely. Infinity Blade 2 is many times larger and longer than Infinity Blade one. We were really happy with Infinity Blade and the cool core gameplay mechanics that we were able to get in there. But now that we've established that, we're going to be telling more story this time, and taking not just the swordplay mechanic, but the idea of the bloodlines and really opening that up. So Infinity Blade 2 is a much deeper, much longer, and much more non-linear experience this time around. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with how full the experience is.

So the environment is bigger, and there are more locations you can go to?

Yes. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's bigger and it's longer and it's more non-linear. There's more to do. For example, if you take the core loop of Infinity Blade one, it's that you make your way to the God King, and you try to beat him. And you most likely die, and you try again, until you can actually defeat the God King, and that's pretty much the game. Whereas in Infinity Blade 2, there's basically half a dozen God Kings, or that level of threat or enemy that you need to defeat in order to make your way through the game. And they're all in this kind of non-linear, branching world that you can tackle in any order that you want to meet your goals. So it is, it's a lot bigger, and there's a lot more to do, and we think people are really going to like it.

It sounds like there might not be as much back-tracking or replaying the same environments that you've already played through.

No, that's still a big component of what makes Infinity Blade the game it is. If anything, we've pushed that further this time, this idea of an evolving world. And again, I don't want to give too much of the story away, but we're taking the idea of the bloodlines, we're evolving that narratively even further. It will make sense if you've played the game, and it will really make sense if you've read the book. There's that repetition, but there's also the evolving of the environment this time. For example, you'll notice a vine growing up the side of the castle. And as you come back in subsequent bloodlines, that vine will continue to grow and mature, and it will eventually wrap up the entire side of the castle in that particular location, and will open up a new path for you to explore and new areas to see. So the castle is evolving over time.

What new features and gameplay mechanics have been added in Infinity Blade 2?

There's some really cool new gameplay elements in Infinity Blade 2. One of the ones I'm most excited about is the ability to have different weapon styles, and have different play styles with your weapon choices. In the first game, you had your sword and shield, and you could block, dodge, and parry. That was kind of the core gameplay. But now we've expanded it out and allowed you to equip different styles of weapons.

There are three different classes of options. You still have your sword and shield as an option to choose, but you can also dual-wield, so you can equip these dual weapons that allow you to strike much faster and do stab moves, and unlock some very huge combo chains that are only available in that class. And because you have these two swords, you don't have a shield, so you can't block. So when you've selected that style of play, instead of a block button, you have a third dodge button now that allows you to duck under attacks. So this is a much quicker, more acrobatic style of play, which has some cool strategic things that you can do, depending on your enemy or your style of play.

We also now have heavy weapons, like big axes or big maces that you'll hold with two hands, these big heavy weapons that slow you down a bit. So now you can't dodge using that class, so you have to rely on parrying or directional blocking, where you can block to the left or block to the right and really read the attacks that are coming. But, in doing so, it opens up the enemies for these mega-damage swipe chains that you can unleash on them. So these three styles add a lot of depth to the swordplay and the strategic way that you're interfacing with the battles.

In addition to that, we've also added the ability to customize all of your gear. There are these elemental gems dropping all through the world, that you can find in treasure chests, that you can buy in the store, that you get from enemies, that allow you to socket them into different items in the game and imbue them with all different kinds of abilities. Everything from elemental damage and big stat boosts, to unique stuff that will change your scratch hits to drop gold instead of damaging the enemies. All sorts of things like that, that make it a more custom experience.

Your press release mentions an online mode called "Clash Mob." What is that?

Clash Mobs are something we're really excited about. Right now, we're really focused on getting the core single-player experience wrapped up and finished for December 1, but soon after that we'll be launching Clash Mobs. Clash Mobs are these massively social challenges that we're putting together. Every day, or every few days, these challenges will pop up that will allow you to compete together in these massive events where you can unlock some really cool rare and unique items in the game.

So for example, one Clash Mob will have you pitted against one of these massive new 25-foot monsters that are in the game. But this particular monster will only be available or around to fight for 24 hours, and he has 10 million hit points. And you'll get a 30-second chance to do as much damage as you can to him. So let's say in that 30 seconds, you're able to do 10,000 hit points of damage before he eats you and rips your body in half. But the damage you've done is saved persistently. So when the next person comes in to fight that guy, now he'll only have 9,990,000 hit points left, and if collectively enough people can band together and defeat this enemy before it runs away, everyone will receive this really cool and unique reward.

We think that's going to be a really cool feature that people are going to love, and it will allow us to do some really cool stuff. I just think the idea of having a hundred thousand or a million people collectively working on something together to gain a reward will be awesome.

That is cool. I can't think of another iOS game that's done anything like that.

That's one of the things we're always trying to do. We're trying to think, what can we do on these devices that's unique and that's appropriate for the way we play these games. And that's where the idea for the Clash Mobs came from. The way we play games on iOS devices, there's a lot more short sessions than on a traditional console game. It's while you're in line at the store, or while you're doing other stuff. And we thought it would be cool to have these quick challenge modes, where you can jump in for 30 seconds or a minute at a time and get a really cool reward for doing it.

From a gaming standpoint, are there any particular features in iOS 5, or the latest editions of the iPhone or iPad that you're particularly excited about?

Absolutely. I love iOS 5, it's amazing. In fact, Infinity Blade 2 is extremely optimized for iOS 5. I would highly recommend that everyone upgrade their devices to iOS 5 before December 1 if you want to experience Infinity Blade 2 in its optimal environment.

iCloud is awesome. It's going to be a huge thing for not just Infinity Blade 2, but hopefully for many games going forward. Just the fact that we can now have synced save files and progression and character profiles across multiple devices. Literally, last week I saw it for the first time. I was playing Infinity Blade 2 on an iPad 2, and I was working my way through the game, and I got to the point where I purchased the infinity blade, and equipped it. And I set down the iPad 2 and I picked up my iPhone 4S, and there my guy was in the exact same spot where I just put it down, equipped with the infinity blade in hand, and I went on to the next fight.

That's like voodoo, amazing stuff, that I can have that transfer into the gameplay experience. Like, my brain can process it when it remembers where my chapter setting was in my book, but when it remembers where I was in my game, that's amazing. And I think gamers are going to love the benefits of iCloud. In addition, iCloud is one of the ways we're tapping into this Clash Mob stuff and making that all happen. So there's some really cool stuff in iOS 5.

And of course, on these new devices, these A5 chips in the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S, are amazingly powerful, and are going to allow games to look even better and run even faster.

One thing our readers are wondering is which iOS devices the game will run on?

Infinity Blade 2 will run on all the same devices that the first one ran on, so that's the iPhone 3GS and up, the iPad 1 and 2, and the iPod Touch 3 16 gig and up. So that's all the devices the first one ran on, plus the new devices.

I think that covers all of my questions for Infinity Blade 2. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Again, we're super excited for people to get their hands on the game. One of the things we loved about the first game was that we were able to get it out there and listen to all the feedback from the fans and gamers, and were able to update the game with lots of new content and new features. And we're super excited to do that again with Infinity Blade 2. We can't wait for you guys to be playing it and to tell us what you think, so we can improve it together and make it an even better experience. And in the meantime, go read the book, because it's going to set up all the events for the sequel.

Do you have a price point for Infinity Blade 2?

I don't think we've determined that yet, but I think it will be fairly similar to the first one.