BIT.TRIP.IDÉAME

RG: There was a great interview you did with Slate Magazine where you said that from the start you had decided that BEAT would be the first game, and would be like Pong, and that RUNNER would be the fourth one. Everyone seems to agree that both of them are the highlights of the series (although the rest are quite good, too). Do you think that this may have influenced the quality of the rest of the series?

Neuse: Maybe… The thing is, we knew how all our games were going to be excepting FATE. FATE was the one that changed the most, but we knew what BEAT, CORE, VOID and RUNNER were going to be. We had a good idea for FLUX as well, [and the result] is similar but it's not entirely the same.

I think you're right that BEAT and RUNNER are the two cornerstone games everyone recognizes, they also are the best selling games of the series. I think that there is something very specific about BEAT because is Pong, is recognizable and you know instantly what to do; and then, in RUNNER, you also know instantly what to do, it's a plataformer where the character is moving and you have to jump or do whatever. Those two really make sense for the players to gravitate towards, they are so unique in what they do but also so familiar. I think that inspired the rest of the games in the series: we tried to do something new that fitted in between those two [BEAT and RUNNER].

RG: Last year, you began bringing BIT.TRIP games to Steam. Since then, you've been featured by Valve in their Potato Sack and in the Summer Camp. Have you got many more sales from Steam thanks to the sales?

Neuse: Yes, Steam has been very good for us. It has been a wonderful service, and we will definitely be bringing the rest of the series to Steam - although we don't know exactly when, as we're still a small studio and it's hard to fit in a lot of projects, so we'll get around it at some point. But yes: Steam has been very good, the sales are wonderful… What can I say? It's a pleasure working with Valve, they are some of the nicest people out there and they have a really good business model going.

RG: Would you say that it would be better for WiiWare to have sales like Steam, or do you prefer fixed prices?

Neuse: Well, I've never really thought about that… It may be good for them to be able to do sales; but to be honest, WiiWare is pretty much in it's way out right now, the Wii is in it's way out and they may carry WiiWare over the Wii U - I don't know, but I assume that they'll use an eShop sort of thing. At this point I don't think that the difference matters, maybe if they had sales since the beginning it would have been good… But really, who knows?

RG: Now, we're going to talk about lilt line. [Different Cloth's] Gordon said in a blog post in May that the WiiWare version was halfway through the threshold you need to surpass in order to get paid. I don't really want to enter into specifics, but has the threshold been met right now?

Neuse: Oh no, oh God no…

RG: Anywhere?

Neuse: No