Outpost Kaloki was recently released by NinjaBee "He's yellow, he's black, and he has a Katana." Steve Taylor from the studio was willing to take some time to give us a little more background on this hilariously fun game.

1. First off, can you give us a little background about NinjaBee and the team that worked on Outpost Kaloki?

NinjaBee is the downloadable games side of Wahoo Studios. NinjaBee is relatively new, but Wahoo Studios has been around for about 3 years and done a bunch of things from tools development to full-scale modern console games. We're a small independent group with varying levels of experience - the principals of the company have been in the video game industry for more than 8 years.

The long list of people who contributed to the game can be found in the credits, but the core team members were Brent, Josh, Maisey, Alex, Dave, Adam, Scott, Eric, Lane, and myself.

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2. Outpost Kaloki fits pretty well with the new grouping of 'tycoon-like' games that have started since Roller Coaster Tycoon was so succesful. What made you decide to do a game like this with so many other 'tycoon' games out there?

The truth is that we set out to make a tycoon style console game, of which there are very few. We love tycoon games and console systems, and we wanted to push that direction a bit. As the game progressed, several professional friends of ours strongly suggested it would work well for the downloadable game audience, so we shifted our direction a bit to tailor the gameplay for that market. The result is something that we feel is pretty unique in style, gameplay, and ease of use.

We're still working on console versions of the game.

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3. What aspects of Outpost Kaloki set it apart from other games already available?

We think it's one of the easiest-to-play tycoon games made. It's very accessible, easy for kids and "non-hardcore" gamers to figure out, and light-hearted enough not to scare people off. In addition, it's much more story-focused than other tycoon games, which a lot of people like about it.

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4. The screenshots of the game are very good-looking and the game runs very well even on slower computers despite the game being in an entirely 3D environment. Did you use a commercial engine or program this all from the ground-up?

Thanks. The look of the game is due to some awesome work by Brent, Josh, and Maisey.

This title is built on Wahoo Studios' "Wraith Engine", which is technology that we've been working on internally for about 5 years. We have a mix of high-end and low-end development machines, which helps us keep the game running on low-end systems.

Outpost Kaloki shows off only a small part of the capabilities of the Wraith Engine. Future games will be even cooler.

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5. There is a lot of humor built into Outpost Kaloki and it comes off real well, which is rare in a video game. At what point during development did you decide that there would be so much humor involved in the game and how was it implemented?

Wait, you're saying people think the game is supposed to be FUNNY? Oh noooooo...!

The first step was deciding to make the game story-oriented in the first place, which provided a structure for the humor. We had also decided we wanted the game to be fun for non-hardcore gamers and not take itself too seriously, so a comedy storyline just made sense. I started out doing the writing, but in the end most of it was written by Adam, who writes much funnier dialog than I do. Of course, I fired him for that.

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6. According to your site we would believe that this is the first of several games that will be released by Ninja Bee. Will there be any thematic or game connections between the games that you release? (Will we see the princess and hero again!? Will there be a humor angle in them all?)

First of all, NinjaBee will release some 3rd party games, so there will be some in a completely different style from Outpost Kaloki. However, the NinjaBee focus is on making games that are "more than puzzle games", so we hope our audience comes to see us that way. Two games by other developers are approaching completion, and we hope to have those up on NinjaBee.com soon.

Second, the answer is yes! The next game we're working on internally is set in the Kaloki universe, with a similar art style and humor angle, but it's a different genre. Familiar characters may make cameo appearances. In any case, you should be able to expect the same production quality and fun in any NinjaBee game.

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7. What was been the most ambitious aspect of creating Outpost Kaloki?

When we decided to target the downloadable market, we still wanted to produce a game with the same production values as console games we've developed in the past. This required a lot more effort and time than if we had decided to spit out a silly gem game, but we hope the benefits are apparent.

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8. What aspect of Outpost Kaloki do you think gamers will appreciate the most?

We think they'll appreciate the depth and quality of the product compared to other downloadable games. It's what we hope distinguishes NinjaBee in general from the mountains of game portals out there.

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9. Who is your target audience for Outpost Kaloki?

Any age, any level from non-gamer to hardcore, but generally someone looking for more than just another match-three puzzle game.

So far, we've had a lot of positive feedback from younger players, female players, and people looking for non-violent games.

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Complete this sentence: I will be perfectly happy with the release of Outpost Kaloki if...

... it makes back enough money to cover the development costs... :)

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A big thanks to Steve Taylor for taking time out to answer our questions. Outpost Kaloki is every bit as good as it sounds and was an Editor's Choice pick in our monthly round-up for September. (Editor's Choice is the highest rating given through the monthly round-up, Outpost Kaloki is only the third game this year to achieve it.) If for some reason you still haven't checked it out you can download it from this link.