Microsoft was very up-front about some changes that would be required.  We would need to deliver multiplayer, and we would need to give the graphics a polish to “showcase the capability of the 360” – these didn’t seem to compromise the core game and work commenced.  We had Darwinia up and running on the 360 pretty quickly, but we soon learnt that we had massively underestimated the amount of work that we would need to put in to create a real multiplayer experience.  After trying to bolt some multiplayer onto the side, we eventually decided that we needed to do this job properly, and there was shift of focus as the team finally realised that we were creating a completely new game – Multiwinia was born. Multiwinia became Introversion’s fourth major release and as development continued the team became more and more focused on this part of the project and Darwinia got left behind. It was March 2008 and we had a Multiwinia launch slated for the September, we had the biggest marketing campaign in the history of Introversion planned, and we were desperate to launch Multiwinia on the 360 at the same time to ensure that all the exposure would benefit both platforms. Everyone would be talking about Multiwinia so the best option was to release Multiwinia and add Darwinia as PDLC.  We had made these decisions without talking to Microsoft and the time had come to convince them that Multiwinia was the next big thing and we should relegate Darwinia somewhat to make way for our new game.  Our whole strategy revolved around Microsoft saying yes and I made the call - Microsoft said no.

Once the swearing had died down we found a compromise: call the game Darwinia 360, add a campaign mode (Darwinia) and multiplayer mode (Multiwinia).  We cracked on with this approach got through the first certification milestone and submitted for the second.  Multiwinia PC was on track and although we would lose some customers on the 360 we would be okay.  All we needed to do now was get through certification and get the game out there.

Then I got the toughest e-mail of 2008.  Microsoft didn’t like our approach – they had signed Darwinia and we had delivered something else.  They didn’t like our menus (not next-gen enough).  The controls were inconsistent between the two games and all of the original Darwinia “character” (bootloaders / start up screen had been scrapped).  They gave us three options: 1. Release now at a very low price point, 2. Spend some time improving a few features, 3. Create a whole new design concept involving both games.  This was not the result we had hoped for, however they were very clear on one thing – they loved Multiwinia itself.

We swore a lot and then did the only thing that game developers who care about their games could have done – picked option 3.  Then something incredible happened, Microsoft went into overdrive to help us.  They put the game through the most stringent usability test it had ever received, and highlighted all of the issues with the control system.  They got their user-interface team to create a series of menu mock ups for us, and we came up with the idea of creating a completely different set of menus for each game.  Add a selector screen at start up and really bang the message home that Darwinia+ (as it is now called – we weren’t allowed to use 360 as the suffix) consisted of two games – story-driven Darwinia, and action-driven Multiwinia.  It took us an additional year and we had to hire an industry vet (Bryon Atkinson-Jones) to produce the game for us.  We were in almost weekly communication with the Microsoft project team asking for their advice and feedback on how to make the gameplay better and provide a better experience for the players.  Harmonising the controls across Multiwinia and Darwinia was one of the biggest headaches but we managed it, and when we compare Darwinia+ with the product that we tried to release last year it bears no resemblance.

Throughout the whole experience Microsoft never told us to change any aspect of the game core and in many cases they wanted us to drag more of the character of the PC original into the 360 version.  They pushed us hard, but we rose to challenge and have produced I believe the most beautiful and accessible Introversion game to date – it was very, very hard but it was worth it and most importantly, we didn’t have to compromise on any creative aspect of the game.