IGN: How long has Team 17 been working on Worms for Wii and how big is the team?
Gilbert: We've had a team of around 20 people working on Worms: A Space Oddity for the past 7 months or so. We're all incredibly excited about the project and have reveled in the opportunity to take Worms into outer space to wreak havoc and mayhem on a number of extraterrestrial, alien worlds, each with their own distinctive look and feel. It has certainly allowed us to get our creative juices flowing in devising the look of these weird and wonderful worlds and the innovative new ways in which the user can now interact with the game.
IGN: How deep is the single-player campaign? How many stages will you be able to play through, what kinds of environments are available, and how destructible is everything?
Gilbert: The single player aspect of Worms: A Space Oddity is one of the most diverse Worms experiences to date. The player has a brand new set of single-player missions across six separate planets, which encapsulate all previous forms of single-player challenges from past Worms games. This includes a mix of death-matches, puzzles and brand new party games. For the first time in a Worms game, progression through the missions is much more open, with the player having a say in the path they take through the game. The single-player game is also much more plot driven than previous incarnations, with comical cut scenes aiding in the direction of the story.
Not only do each of the planets have a very distinct look and feel, they also have settings and events that set them apart from one another. This gives the player a genuine reason for selecting which planet to battle upon because each planet throws up a different challenge. Each environment is also fully deformable, allowing the user to wreak havoc and destruction as well as indulge in underhanded tactics by burrowing into the landscapes.
IGN: Will any A Space Oddity levels be set in space, and will physics be influenced? If so, can you give us some examples?
Gilbert: All the environments in Worms: A Space Oddity are set in the far reaches of outer space, apart from Earth, which aptly sits at the other side of a worm hole. The six planets are found within a fictional solar system and each has its own distinct physical parameters. From planet to planet, the player will encounter differences in the landscape's friction including differing powers of gravitational pull and differing strengths of wind. Each of these differences result in very diverse gameplay experiences across each planet. For example, on a level with low gravity, the worms will be able to jump further and take longer to fall back to the ground. This will effect the amount of damage worms sustain after a fall. In addition, weapons are also effected by gravity and wind, where they can be thrown higher and further into the air, adding a whole other level of strategy to take into consideration.
IGN: Your release specifies that there will be more customization options than ever before. How so?
Gilbert: The player is presented with endless opportunities with which they can customize the appearance of their worms, from the hats on their heads to the color of their skin. The player is also tooled with the ability to customize their team flags, which can be seen in both online and offline games, choose the gravestones that the dearly departed leave behind, and pick from a number of entirely new speech banks. In addition to customizing the appearance of their worms, the player also has an extremely comprehensive landscape editor to sculpt and carve the perfect landscape on which their worms do battle. With the ability to also use pre-defined stamps and shapes, the player will be spoiled with the scope of customization offered in Worms: A Space Oddity.
IGN: We're delighted to hear that Worms: A Space Oddity will feature a four-player online component. How will this function work? Will gamers need to exchange Wii friend codes with one another to play against each other or will there be a random battles system in place?
Gilbert: We're also very excited about the opportunity to take Worms online with the Wii as it has proven to be very popular as an online multiplayer game. There are several options when it comes to playing an online game. The player is able to choose whether they want to play against specific friends which they have already added to their friends list, or go online to meet new people. If the player then decides that they've had a particularly good game, they can choose to add that player to their friends list to challenge them at a later date.