The Zoo Games office was an intense battleground when Groovin' Blocks hit the WiiWare™ scene.  Office supremacy was determined by who was the best Groover in the place.  Scrapes and bruises while fighting over Wii Remotes™... a series of chants mocking other co-workers... it was chaos.  Beautiful chaos.

So we couldn’t be more excited to bring Groovin’ Blocks to Wii™ this August and iPhone™ in September.  We had a chance to talk to Francois Bertrand and Matt Shores, the brains behind Empty Clip Studios, and get some insight into the upcoming release. 

Tell us a bit about Empty Clip Studios.  How did you form your studio?

Francois Bertrand: Matt and I met while at another startup and after being in the industry doing larger AAA games for almost 10 years, found that we had similar goals of working on smaller projects and spending more time focusing on gameplay rather than technology.

What makes a great puzzle game?

FB:  I think you have to be constantly compelled to solve or optimize a situation—like aligning blocks in Tetris or filling up the grid in Sudoku—while also getting constantly rewarded.  I think this is what worked so well in Groovin' Blocks.  As you’re solving the puzzle, every note you attempt to hit is an opportunity to be rewarded.

What inspired Groovin’ Blocks?

Matt Shores:  It's funny, Groovin' Blocks started as a "quick tech demo" for our RapidFire Engine, but the more we added to it the more we thought "Wait! This is actually pretty fun!"  So we started exploring the project as a full game and ended up shipping it on WiiWare™.

So you guys originally published Groovin’ Blocks on WiiWare™.  How is the Wii™ boxed version going to be different?

MS:  WiiWare™ is a great opportunity to get a game out there, but the main restriction is on size.  This was a bit of a limiting factor for us because the entire game is based on music tracks which can only compress so much.  We are really happy we can finally get all the content we wanted and provide more variety to players.  We also added some special effects we didn't have the ability to put in the original.

We love the soundtrack for this game.  How did you decide on the music for Groovin’? 

FB:  It was clear we needed tracks with a solid rhythm.  It's really cool to see people tapping their feet as they play the game!  Matt’s background is in music, so he knew a couple of artists we could go to.  Our approach was to provide players at least two distinct styles of music.  We ended up going with an entertaining pop video game style with original songs from Mercer Friendly, and a more electronic sound with licensed tracks from Soliton.  We're really happy with how the soundtrack came out!  We really think it's one of the stronger games musically in this space.

Would you ever consider doing other musical genre versions of Groovin' Blocks?  Maybe hip hop, rock, or funk?

FB:  Yes!  Maybe for the sequel!  The greatest thing about Groovin' Blocks is that you really get into the music as you play, so any music with good rhythm in it works very well.

What’s your favorite power-up in this game?  

MS:  It's sometimes not the most useful, but the "Destruction" power up is always very satisfying. A big bunch of blocks just blows up!

How does multiplayer work?

FB:  For multiplayer, we tried something we hadn't seen before: simultaneous cooperative play on the same board!  It's a bit chaotic but it's always fun and truly requires the players to cooperate together.  We also have head-to-head mode of course.  An interesting thing in head-to-head is that all the bonuses which are usually positive, become negative for your opponent (e.g. the "slowdown" power up actually speeds up your opponent's blocks!).

What’s the interface like for the iPhone™ version?  How does it play?

FB:  For the iPhone™, we created a touch-based control scheme.  You physically drag blocks along with your finger, it's pretty cool.

What did you find most challenging about developing the game?

FB:  Even though we knew we had a good mechanic from the beginning stages, it took a good amount of experimentation to figure out things like how things should be scored, what could we add for combos and multipliers, etc. and then balancing everything so we have a nice learning curve and a good challenge for replayability.  Play testing was key and gave us an insightful look throughout development.

There are a lot of games out there for iPhone™.  What makes Groovin’ Blocks stand out?

MS:  Because of its console heritage, Groovin' Blocks has high production values in graphics, interface and, of course, the music.  Especially on a music-centric platform like the iPhone™, and considering what a lot of games with much smaller scope provide, Groovin' Blocks stands out as bringing a lot of high-quality long-lasting gaming for the buck.

What changes would you like to implement in future versions of the game if given the chance to make a sequel?

MS:  As we mentioned earlier, we would love to expand the game to different music genres and push the visual experience with more effects and variety.  On the gameplay front, we would want to include more bonuses and levels of bonuses for players to accumulate.  Also, online leader boards have been an oft-requested feature and we would want to add network multiplayer as well.

When you guys aren’t making games, what do you groove to?

MS:  I like pretty much any type of music, especially ambient music.

FB:  Pretty much the same but I have to admit to the occasional guilty pleasure of overproduced pop ;)

Thanks a lot to Francois and Matt!  And as a special gift to you, the guys have provided three original tracks from Groovin' Blocks for download through the main game page.  You'll also be able to see the latest game trailer and other game information.