Interview with Matt Doucette About Duality ZF

In military speak, Zone of Fire means “an area into which a designated ground unit or fire support ship delivers — or is prepared to deliver — fire support. Fire may or may not be observed.”

In Duality ZF, a new 2-D shooter from Xona Games, fire is observed like Flag Day in a Midwestern town. With a full range of gameplay options — from flying the noob-friendly skies to straight up Bullet Hell — Duality ZF has something for everyone.

I chatted with Matthew Doucette, one half of the duo behind the soon-to-be-released Xbox LIVE Community Game, about what’s revolutionary, what’s old school, and what’s just damned cool.

Edit: Since this article was first posted, I heard back from Jason Doucette, Duality ZF’s other creator. I’ve slipped his comments in wherever they fit best. 

 

 

DUAL PLAY

What It Means:

Mimicking a style of play perfected by hardcore gamers in Japanese arcades, Duality ZF allows each player to control 2 ships (one with each thumbstick), allowing for up to 8 ships to grace the screen at once.

What Matt Had To Say:

“Dual play is not required, but I cannot imagine anyone not wanting to try it out. Duality ZF is a full gaming experience even without dual play, despite it being our #1 marketing point.

In our solo play vs. dual play betatesting, we had players get further with dual play because of the double firepower and other players get further with solo play because it’s easier to focus on only one fighter.

It will be interesting to see what the elite players accomplish.”

 

 

INFINITELY CUSTOMIZABLE DIFFICULTY

What It Means:

As the old (and severely butchered) mantra goes, 8 ships spewing plasma at a menacing swarm of metallic foes are better than 1.

In Duality ZF, you can adjust the difficulty to match the number of players, guaranteeing plenty of balls-to-the-wall firefights (or total cakewalks) whether you suit up with three friends or opt for a solo takeoff.

And all the top-down shooter junkies out there who thrive on the genre’s obscene challenge should start salivating: There’s no way to truly master Duality ZF’s 8 stages — after you’ve worked your way through them, they come back (over and over again) with a vengeance.

What Matt Had To Say:

“It scales and plays well from one to eight fighters. When you play the game, you feel like you are kicking ass. Our UI makes choosing the proper difficulty mode across various game styles easy, as it reminds you what mode you had your best attempts in.

At first you will be able to play five difficulty modes: TRAINING, EASY, NORMAL, HARD, and EXPERT. However, if someone or some team can beat the game in EXPERT, it will unlock a sixth difficulty mode, ABSURD. Beating ABSURD will unlock a seventh difficulty mode, CRAZY, and so on, forever.”

Jason’s Two Cents:

“Duality ZF is beatable in any given difficulty level, and we wanted to give an award out that other people can see. The game always gives a greater challenge, but only to those who can handle it.”

 

EGALITARIAN SCOREBOARDS

What It Means:

As Guitar Hero and DDR have taught us, playing on the hardest difficulty can net you a score most easily expressed in astronomical units. Scores garnered from less intense modes are best not expressed at all, unless you no longer crave your friends’ respect.

Duality ZF evens the playing field a tad. While different game modes (single-player and multiplayer, for example) have their own scoreboards, you don’t get more points on virtue of difficulty alone. While playing on a high difficulty may net you more points because you’re (presumably) better at the game than most, it doesn’t guarantee it.

So, you and your insanely talented friend can still compete for the blind adoration of millions in any game mode, even if they’ve been out outmaneuvering bullet curtains since before puberty and you’ve just now figured out the Xbox 360 controller is not, in fact, a flashy looking boomerang.

(Granted, they’ll probably still win, what with that whole “way better than you’ll ever hope to be” thing working in their favor.)

What Matt Had To Say:

“Various difficulty modes have the same scoreboards, because the game is fundamentally the same. The only difference from one difficulty mode to another are the enemies, which have increased hitpoints (defensive strength) and firepower (offensive attack).

The scoring system does not ‘know’ or ‘care’ about the difficulty mode. It calculates the strength and attack of the enemy in question, and scores the kill accordingly. Therefore, scores across difficulties can be compared.

Multiplayer has its own team-oriented scoreboards so you are compared only to teams of the same or smaller sizes. Every player receives the team score. There is no need to outdo you friend; beat the game together.

If the next difficulty mode is too hard for you, then you can still better yourself in the same difficulty mode you got your high score in. That was the point, really, to have everyone playing in the difficulty mode that most matched their skill, instead of everyone playing in the same difficulty mode (and having the expert “perfect” a game that is simple to them).

It actually lets experts truly showcase their skill and scoring ability moreso than they could by being in a lower mode doing better than someone else.”

 

MULTIPLE GAME MODES

What It Means:

While Duality ZF heralds back to the days of lightning quick arcade shooters, it’s not trying to scare off casual gamers. Just for the record, a 4-year-old beat the first stage on easy.

Duality ZF features 6 game modes, 4 control modes, and up to 4-person local multiplayer. All in all, there are 96 ways to play the game.

What Matt Had To Say:

“Our beta testers ranged from those who never play games and do not own game systems, to those who — jokingly — claim to be the king of shooters. 

ARCADE mode was specifically created for the elite. It is Duality ZF as it was meant to be, if it were a coin-op arcade machine. As intimidating as it is, we predict most players will eventually prefer it over the default HOME mode.

Think of HOME as the home version of the arcade. Arcades are meant to crunch your quarters and you must be good to beat them. And when an arcade is ported to a home system, it is usually downgraded in difficulty and with good reason. Duality ZF captures both experiences.”

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Duality ZF is aiming for a May launch, but the game may be pushed back until June. Regardless of the release date, the game is going for 400 points ($5) and features a soundtrack by Imphenzia.