Nimbly Games’ Altitude is a thoroughly enjoyable arcade multiplayer title that deserves a lot of attention. It is undoubtedly one of the favourites at 4X.Scope for its sheer drop-in fun-factor.
One half of Nimbly Games, Erik Measure, has kindly allowed the interview crosshairs to be levelled as he talks candidly about
the beginning, middle and future of Altitude. From its roots as a reinvention of an Intellivision game to being a popular game around the globe and around the clock, Erik gives a peak into the Altitude arena and all that it entails – from balance to design to what’s next.
4X.Scope: Where did the inspiration to create a 2D aerial multiplayer game stem from?
Erik: A friend, Shawn Frison, suggested that he’d always wanted to play an online multiplayer version of Intellivision Biplanes. I’d never played a 2D aerial combat game before so Shawn talked me through the basics. A quick and ugly rehashing of some old code later and Altitude was born — a week or so in we had a playable version. It was a totally new game experience for me and the flight dynamic had me hooked.
4X.Scope: Were the original concepts close to what the finished product ended up being?
Erik: Yes – the design evolved and expanded but the core mechanic never changed. We started with something simple and fun, played the game constantly, listened carefully to testers, and worked hard to address problems and incorporate fun new stuff. Good ideas were refined, bad ideas were cut, and so the evolution of Altitude continues!
4X.Scope: What was the creative atmosphere like at the Nimbly Games studio during production?
Erik: Two guys in a small apartment, sitting back to back, hammering away at our keyboards. Every now and then one of us will call over our shoulder for help with a design decision — or in particularly serious cases, swivel our chairs around to discuss things over a notepad — but mostly it’s just *click* *click* *click* here at Nimbly Games.
4X.Scope: Were there many hurdles and pitfalls to traverse during Altitude’s development?
Erik: We jumped through a lot of hoops to get Altitude running smoothly on every major OS (Win/Mac/Linux), and I’m happy to say it was worthwhile. One of our best map designers is a Mac user, and there’s nothing like a half-page bug report from a Linux user who’s correctly identified, discovered workarounds, and proposed solutions for an obscure bug. Otherwise most hurdles have been auxiliary features (automatic updates, a tightly integrated friend system, map editing and server hosting tools, etc) that aren’t much fun to implement but provide lots of value to players.
4X.Scope: For both yourself and Karl Sabo, what is paramount in creating or defining a good multiplayer title?
Erik: Fun, replayability, and depth. Accessibility helps when it’s time to convert your friends, but otherwise it’s hard to say. Our favorite games include Starcraft, Counter-Strike, DotA, and Altitude — the only thing I’m sure they all have in common is thousands of hours of play testing and lots of careful adjustments to optimize the multiplayer experience.
4X.Scope: What further content can Altitude fans look forward to in the future?
Erik: New game modes and lots of new maps. Very soon we’ll be adding an asymmetric objective game mode targeted at the hardcore competitive crowd, and then we’ll be adding a cooperative horde mode where you combine forces with friends to take on huge waves of computer-controlled enemies. The community has already started to crank out great maps; I’m sure we’ll see lots of awesome new maps as the player base grows and new game modes are introduced.
Thanks very much to Erik Measure from Nimbly Games for this interview and 4X.Scope wishes the Altitude team all the very best for the future.
4X.Scope reviewed Altitude this month, which can be found here.
Altitude can be found here.
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