Interviews// Codemaster's Dance Factory - SPOnG's exclusive interview with game director

SPOnG: So Dance Factory chooses dance routines from your favourite music CDs, but is there anything else it can do? What other features should we know about? What, for example, are the visuals in the game like?

DB: The thing you have to remember is that because you put your own CDs in the drive, the entire game has to be squeezed into the PS2’s main RAM. This basically drove the visual design, which is very colourful & funky with the visuals evolving according to how well you are playing, but that effect had to be achieved without the ability to just stream in endless textures & FMV clips, and we’ve very pleased with the end result.

In terms of modes, I’ve touched on the main game, fitness and recorder modes, but there’s also EyeToy support, and a 16 player tournament.


SPOnG: You touched on the keep fit feature, another popular trend in physical games such as this. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

DB: There is a fitness mode in the game which will show you how many calories you’re burning off, what with all this talk of an obesity crisis maybe we should get the government to make it mandatory in schools? Might not do the game’s street cred much good though.


SPOnG: Can you tell us a little more about the unique Creature mode, which we understand will unleash digital dancing companions into the game. Are these human dancing companions or something else?

DB: The idea is that there’s a Creature living on your CDs, and the game software kind of jolts it out of sleep into dancing with you. It’s unique to each album, so if you want to find them all you have to try lots of different music. Once you find ones you like you can buy accessories for them and dress them up. Some of these accessories have magic powers which you can use in battle modes against a friend who can bring their own Creature into the game via another memory card.


SPOnG: In SPOnG's experience, we love playing dance mat games at parties and at Christmas time with the family. It is genuinely great fun to get your gran and your young, grumpy teenage nephew both off the couch and jumping around the lounge, laughing and playing together. We remember the first moment we introduced DDR at a family party, and now it just seems to have become almost a Christmas tradition. However, they are also the kind of game that goes back in the cupboard under the stairs along with the Christmas decorations on January 6th. How do you plan to get gamers using Dance Factory all year round, instead of only at Christmas and at the odd family party? Can you perhaps tell us a little more about the online and multiplayer features in the game?

DB: Christmas only comes once a year, but new music gets released all the time. There’s a lot of structure to Dance Factory, such as using the cash you earn from doing well to buy new visuals and so on, but the real joy in playing it is that every time you hear a song you want to sing along or dance to, you’ll want to get the game out again, and if it’s a really good dance you’ll want to see how well you do against your friends. It’s a blast in multiplayer - you cannot overstate the difference that playing your own music makes to the experience.


So, there we go, thanks to David for his time. Dance Factory looks like its gonna rock our worlds come Easter next year. Or at least get us off the couch for ten minutes, which can’t be a bad thing. Watch this space for SPOnG's first look/shuffle about with Dance Factory very early in 2006.