The Xbox Domain

I recently had the chance to ask some questions to Shayne Guiliano who is the Studio Director for Autonomous Productions who is working on the original Xbox Live Arcade title “Butterfly Garden”. Above you will see the Butterfly Garden logo and first publicly released screenshot.

1-What is your name and position for Autonomous Productions?

Shayne Guiliano, Studio Director.  I mostly oversee things, do a little programming, and do most of the design and production work.  Chris Davis is the resident programming genius, and is writing the game engine for Butterfly Garden from scratch.  Eric Strand is the lead artist on Butterfly, and comes from a cinematic modeling background.

2-Tell us about Autonomous Productions

We’re a small indie studio that started in 2001 as hobbyist group.  AP started working on PC games, doing a side-scrolling shooter called 2D Clash, which was like multi-player Contra on steriods.  It was a simple game but we did solve cross-continental 2d action multiplayer, which is harder than you would think.  We then tried to do a big 3d game based on Billy the Kid’s life, but hit a wall due to cost.  We wanted to do games full-time and still pay the bills, so we moved into mobile for a couple years doing contract work and developing some original games, though nothing that’s been broadly published.  Then Xbox Live Arcade opened up and we started looking at console development more seriously, and made the move to focus on downloadable games earlier this year once we felt like we had a winning, original concept in Butterfly Garden.

3-Tell us about Butterfly Garden

It’s an experientialistic game that enables the player to control butterflies on Butterfly Island while trying to breed and survive.  The environment is fully procedural and the player can discover new butterfly species through cross-breeding.  It’s like a cross between Animal Crossing and Nintendogs, though more experientialistic than either.  We’re trying to give the game a casual feel.

4-How long has Butterfly Garden been in development?

I originally concepted it last December ‘05 when I was thinking about what to get my girlfriend for Christmas.  We got more serious about development after pitching it to Microsoft and Nintendo at GDC and E3 and getting positive feedback.

5-What games have inspired the creation of Butterfly Garden?

Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Pokemon, Viva Pinata.

6-What type of gamers would be attracted to Butterfly Garden?

Casual gamers, female gamers, mature gamers, serious gamers, social gamers.

7-What does Butterfly Garden bring to Xbox Live Arcade that other titles don’t?

Butterfly will appeal to the non-hardcore crowd, it will give gamers a stronger sense of ownership than most Live Arcade games, it will provide more of a casual and immersive experience than the retro action or even puzzle games, and Butterfly Garden will give players the chance to socialize in a non-competitive environment.

8-Will Butterfly Garden be shipped to PC/other consoles?

Yes

9-What type of achievements can gamers earn in Butterfly Garden?

Successful breeding of butterflies, successful cross-breeding of butterflies (much harder), successful cross-breeding of flowers, discovery of new islands (which you’ll need to develop a migratory butterfly to be able to find), gene-sharing with other users, becoming a “Queen Butterfly”, and of course discovering the ever-elusive “Golden Butterfly”.

10-Is a price set for Butterfly Garden? If not in what price range can we expect?

We’re targeting the middle of the road in terms of price.  We don’t want to alienate the casual gamers.

11-When are you planning Butterfly Garden will be released to Xbox Live Arcade?

Probably not until late 07 or 08.

12-Will Butterfly Garden have Xbox Live features? (multiplayer, leaderboards, etc)

Yes, though you can see that it’s not exactly a “High Score Game.”  But you can imagine scoring in terms of total number of species for butterflies and flowers, total discoveries of “rare genes”, etc.  As for multiplayer, we want people to be able to visit each other’s islands so as to increase the overall genetic variety in the larger community.  It will create a casual, non-competitive environment for people to explore with each other and share each other’s discoveries.

13-How has it been developing for Xbox Live Arcade?

The Xbox 360 is a powerful machine that can do wonderful things, and you can’t ask for better support it terms of ease of development tools.  Obviously, working with DirectX is easier than trying to unravel the mysteries of the PS3, too.

14-Are Butterfly Garden themes or gamerpics being designed for xbox live marketplace?

Yes, although we also want to let people take advantage of the inherent beauty of the game to share pictures of butterflies taken inside the game as gamerpics and themes.

15-After Butterfly Garden is released does autonomous plan to continue developing for Xbox Live Arcade or move on to another gaming platform?

We’re targeting all the downloadable consoles, but it’s always about how the best business opportunity overlaps with the game ideas you believe in at that time.

16-Give gamers reading one good reason why they should atleast give Butterfly Garden a try when its released

It’ll be fun just to fly as a butterfly around the world, and they will feel immediately immersed and invested once they start to interact with other Butterflies and players controlling butterflies and successfully create their own gene lines.  We think Butterfly will be more of a social networking game than the typical XBLA game because of it’s inherent non-competitive nature.  Not to say Butterfly garden will not be a challenging game, but the real reward in Butterfly comes from shaping and interacting with the world around you while living the life of a butterfly.

17-Any final words?

We’re just looking forward to try and bring an innovative and fun game to the masses.

Thanks alot Shayne and to all you readers watch out for Butterfly Garden in 2007/2008 and for more developer interviews, contests, news, stay with us here at

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