Gaijin Games co-founders Alex Neuse and Mike Roush

Do you plan on supporting Runner2 with DLC?

AN: We do plan on it down the line, but that’s not a promise. We’ve talked about new levels, new characters, all kinds of crap like that. I think what will determine that is if the demand is there. If players really like the game — and so far people seem to like it a lot — and the demand is there then we might do DLC.

One of the best things we’ve done since the WiiWare versions is that our engine supports continued work on it. The WiiWare versions, we made them so fast and so dirty, in a way, that it was like “that game is done and it’s done. We’re not going back to it.” That’s an exaggeration, it wasn’t that messy, but this engine is way more flexible so we’re going to have that ability.

I noticed that the music is very much more, more. Are you using the same composer as on RUNNER?

AN: Yep, the same guy is doing this music. We felt like he was there for the BIT.TRIP series and this is still in that world so we needed to use him. We get along great with him and he was up for it. We really think that it brings the thing to life, on a whole new level that we could never do. We’re not musicians.

What you have on demo here is one world with 19 stages.

AN: Yeah, so there’s going to be 20 stages in each level, and the 20th is going to be the boss. Our boss is not yet ready to be shown so that’s why there’s only 19.

What’s the game’s size compared to RUNNER 1? Is it much bigger, similar?

AN: This is much bigger than RUNNER 1. What we’ve got is a world map, a level map, it’s standard stuff you’ve seen before in video games. You select your world, and we’re going to have five worlds each with 20 levels. It’s going to be more like a fully featured video game—

As opposed to that demo that you pushed out on to everybody last time.

AN: (laughs) Yeah. (IGF award winner, by the way!) There’s gonna be hidden levels with alternate exits, that kind of stuff. We’re really giving level flow much more thought.

The name is BIT.TRIP Presents Runner2, not BIT.TRIP RUNNER 2. What’s the distinction?

AN: Basically, it’s going to fit within the canon of BIT.TRIP but it’s not really a BIT.TRIP game. It doesn’t look like a retro, 8-bit revival, so it’s not really in that world. Because it’s in this world, we felt that branding it another BIT.TRIP game might be confusing to players, and those that want the BIT.TRIP experience to be what it was can have that. This is more of a sidequest of CommanderVideos. The series as a whole still stands on its own and is strong, and this game is not a necessary addition for players who loved that initial story and that initial series. They can take this game or leave it, so that’s why it’s BIT.TRIP Presents.

There has been some talk in the office of making a smaller rhythm/music game in the BIT.TRIP world that’s not part of that initial story but is firmly in that world. People have wanted a BIT.TRIP RPG for a while, that could be cool.

Could there be additional BIT.TRIP Presents games, like its own brand, or is this more of a one-off?

AN: We might do more Presents stuff but I think we’re all ready to be done with rhythm/music games. We all love CommanderVideo though so he might show up in other games. There has been some talk in the office of making a smaller rhythm/music game in the BIT.TRIP world that’s not part of that initial story but is firmly in that world. People have wanted a BIT.TRIP RPG for a while, that could be cool.

Moving away from the rhythm genre, where would Gaijin like to move towards?

AN: We’ve got so many ideas for what we’re going to do next, and it’s going to be something else. It’s going to be very different from what we’ve become known for and I hope that fans of Gaijin like it. We’re not ready to talk about them yet but one of them is super, super, really ****ing wacky and kinda gross, so we may not do that one. But then, I want to make a survival horror game. I don’t know if we have the chops for it but I think if we can put our minds to it we can do whatever we want.

Thanks to Alex Neuse and Mike Roush for their time.