Bill Dugan, president of Torpex Games, had a chance to sit down with The Xbox Domain and Gamasutra. Torpex Games will be releasing the first game created using the XNA Game Studio Express, Schizoid, before the end of the year. Dugan covers the basics of the game as well as the experience of developing a game with the XNA software.

Dugan didn’t have much to say about the game itself, but he still managed to make some bold claims.

3-Schizoid. What is it all about?

BD-All I can say right now is that it is the most co-op game ever. And it has a really simple and unique gameplay mechanic. We’ll be able to talk about the game more in the coming weeks.

4-Some people have compared Schizoid to the PS3 downloadable title “flOw”. Does Schizoid share anything in common with “flOw”?

BD-Nope!

19-What does Schizoid bring to the Xbox Live Arcade that other titles don’t?

BD-The core thing is that Schizoid is the best co-op multiplayer game on the platform. Or probably anywhere.

1up.com had a preview of the title about a month ago, which relayed roughly the same information. The gameplay will likely center around each player attacking the opposite color not unlike Ikaruga. When you don’t have a friend to play with, an AI partner will step in. While this should make for a fun title when you have a partner to play with, how well the AI is designed will make or break the single player experience.

Dugan also spent a good bit of time discussing the merits of the XNA software.

10-For someone who has never developed a game. Do you think XNA Game Studio Express would be difficult to learn?

BD-If you’re already a programmer – not necessarily a game programmer – no, not difficult.

If you’re not a programmer, or especially you did a little programming in school a long time ago, then XNA GSE would, I think, be a good place to tinker around and learn. The key to get started would be getting hold of the source code that somebody has already written, and then start tweaking the code and learning how to modify the game. Learning to tweak existing code so when you pull the trigger you launch 100 grenades every shot instead of 1 is more interesting than figuring out how to implement a bubble sort.

Dugan comments that the prototype for the game took one developer 4 days to make. Dugan states that the biggest difficulty they’ve had so far is using the newly implemented support in the XNA software for multiplayer gaming on the 360. There is currently no price set for Schizoid, and Dugan isn’t positive as to whether or not they will release any DLC for the game. Look for Schizoid to show up on the marketplace before the end of the year.

Thanks to nofear360 for submitting this.