Talking Stoked with Bongfish’s Michael Putz

We sat down with Michael Putz from Bongfish to get his thoughts on Stoked, development and what the future holds for the great little snowboarding game.

Stoked has received a lot of great feedback from its fans, what has it been like to work on this game?

In Short: Development has been a blast.  We’ve learned quite a lot from our previous games and have always listened to feedback from the players. This has improved the formula piece by piece. All the accumulated experience finally came together like a gigantic puzzle and turned into Stoked for Xbox 360.

Was the first game always meant to be this big of an open world game?

Our first step into open-world-style game play  happened back in 1999 for the game Flow. Although it was more of endless world which was generated using mathematical formulas. It still gave us a good foundation to build from.

Later on we included real-world terrain data and therefore managed to shape mountains resembling the real life counterparts. So play the game. It is DEEP! You have to explore the mountains to get a sense of how huge they are. There is so much to do it is kinda ridiculous.

It is a massive game play experience, what was a typical day like working on it?

A typical day usually starts with coffee while booting the machine and checking the bug-database for the latest updates from QA, followed by some quick calls with Tony (our external producer at the game’s publisher Destineer).

Later I attend meetings with the game-designers to find out what crazy ideas they want to see implemented, followed by a meeting with the engineering-team and hear what new feature they want to build in the engine. Imagine a bunch of guys constantly pushing new features, only curbed by the producers who need to make sure the game is delivered on time. Stoked is only the beginning of an evolution of snowboarding games that push the envelope of realism and culture.

We end the day usually compiling a new build of the game, which is instantly uploaded to Destineer for Quality Assurance. While they are testing we finally get some sleep until the next morning. A good routine.

What did you guys learn from the experience of working on the first game? Dynamic weather, open world mountains, it seems like a lot to put in a game. Have you learned a lot and was it a smooth run?

We already had some experience with open-world, so dynamic weather was the technical innovation. Since nobody has ever featured snow-accumulation in a game, we are pretty excited on being first to own that feature. It’s the very first time snowfall is not just an effect but actually makes an effect in the game’s world by opening up new slopes which previously had been covered by rocks.

Some fans had some fair complaints about Stoked. Are you guys planning to make any adjustments in future releases?

Absolutely, following the release of Stoked this February, we’ve instantly went back to the drawing board, listening to fans and thought hard how to gradually improve the experience. Look out for something exciting to be announced this fall.

So when is the game coming out in Europe? And don’t Lie!

September 24. Pre-Order Now!

Are there any other people that fans might not know of who are supporting this game?

Stoked features gear and equipment from more than 30 of the leading snowboarding brands. While working on realistic snowboarding games, we’ve managed to build some strong relationships to the snowboarding industry. We’ve always treated ‘their’ sport with respect and put great effort in representing snowboarding in a no-bullshit way.

We built some trust among those people from industry brands and athletes. This years ISPO (world largest winter-sport trading show) was a good example of the support we have received. Stoked was on display at various booths from different brands. Normally those brands are competitors, but they still decided to support Stoked, which tells us we are on the right track.

We also have great respect for Brusti from Absinthe Films, his dedication on helping with athletes & brands for Stoked is invaluable. The game wouldn’t be the same without him.

One last question, what does the future hold for Stoked?

Stay Tuned! We are not done yet!

Last Words?

We’ve worked hard to deliver the perfect virtual snowboarding experience – thanks to all fans out there who supported the product and bought the game.