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Published September 30, 2009 by Oli Wilkinson, posted by Myopic Rhino

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Hu Ling answers our questions about the creation of the game "HurricaneX2 Evolution", which came fourth place in this year's Dream Build Play competition.

How many people in your team and what role did they play in the development of your game?

The core team is consisted of 4 members:

Game Director SHAN, Jun is in charge of almost everything creative for the game
Technical Director HU, Ling is responsible for the engine and tools
Art Director ZHOU, Ming does the concept design and art quality control
Animator ZHOU, Rui takes care of the animation work.

Describe your game to someone who hasn't played it before?

It is a game developed by a Chinese Kung Fu practitioner himself and it is a game for you to experience the way of a talented Kung Fu hero who will face the tough challenges from Kung Fu masters from all works of life in ancient China.

What inspired the idea behind your game?

The inspiration comes from real life. The game director SHAN, Jun is not only an enthusiastic game developer and player who loves western and Japanese action games but also a Kung Fu and Karate practitioner. For years, he has been dreaming of making a genuine and marvellous Chinese Kung Fu action game by himself. Deeply rooted in the Chinese culture, the game is an action game inspired by the traditional Chinese philosophy, for instance, Zen mind of Shaolin Kung Fu, the internal power of Tai chi chuan (Taoism), and the efficiency and relaxation of Wing Chun, as well as Bruce Lee's combat system and philosophy, Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist), and so on. We also got the inspiration from some Kung Fu movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and IP MAN, and etc.

How long have you (and your team) been programming?

It is a long story. The original idea started from 2003 to 2005 by a DOS prototype created by our Game Director Shan, Jun. We created the first version named HurricaneX in 3 months in 2007. Then we continue working on it and created HurricaneX2 in 2008, after that we spent almost another year to create HurricaneX2 Evolution in 2009.

How do you feel about being one of the top games in the Dream Build Play 2009 competition?

Pretty good.

What does Dream Build Play mean to you, personally, as a development team?

It is a good platform for us to show our game to more people around the world.

Have you ever entered Dream Build Play before?

We were one of the top 20 in 2007 and one of the top four in 2008.

Did you do anything differently in your entry this year?

The level design has changed a lot and we have added more new levels and the shop system has been added. You can say it is a complete new game.

What do you feel that participating in Dream Build Play provides for the game development community?

By participating in Dream Build Play, we would love to show the world that DBP is striving to support the independent developers and game hobbyists a fair platform to demonstrate their talent.

Did you design the game up front, or did you let the game idea evolve during development?

As we said in previous questions, the game evolved in many years of development.

What was the most interesting/fun part of the process?

The most fun part is to see players testing our game.

And the least interesting/fun part?

The least fun part is debugging.

Did you have enough time to complete your entry?

You will never get enough time to finish a game, so we have to trade off from time to time.

If you were writing your game again, what would you do differently next time?

We will do a lot of usability tests as what we have done this time.

Have you ever used the XNA Framework before?

Yes, and we have built our own 3d game engine based on XNA.

How did you learn to use the XNA Framework?

We learn it through Self Taught.

When developing your game did you use any third party components?

No, because there was not many good choices when we started using XNA, and it is more convenient for the dev team to use our own technology.

Would you consider making any of your code/libraries available on sites such as CodePlex for other XNA developers to use?

No, for we do not have time to do the documentation to make it friendly enough for other developers.

What did you feel, if anything, XNA Game Studio enabled you to do well when working on your game?

XNA Game Studio enabled us to use C# to develop the game, and that was really cool.

Did you have any challenges to overcome whilst using the XNA Framework?

No.

Did you have any particular challenges to overcome when it came to running your game on the Xbox 360?

No.

Did you take advantage of any of the new features provided by the XNA framework 3.1?

No, we do no t use any new features in 3.1, because we want the project to be compatible with XNA3.0.

If you were to offer some advice to other game developers, what would you say to them?

Never give up your dream!

Will you use XNA Game Studio to make another game?

Yes, of course.

Would you enter another Dream Build Play competition?

Maybe, but we are not sure at the moment.

Now that you've got a completed game, what are you planning to do next?

Actually the game is still under development, and we are planning to finish the game and get it published.

Finally, do you have any other comments you wish to make about your game, your team, the XNA Framework, Dream Build Play or game development

HurricaneX2 Evolution is a very exciting action game, and the team is great too! Thanks to the DBP competition where we could have the opportunity to express our ideas by our game through the XNA Framework.

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