Majesco QA: Zumba Fitness: World Party and the Power of a New Generation
In “Zumba Fitness: World Party,” take your work out to Brazil, Hawaii and beyond in this exotic journey packed with rhythms and culture from around the world. Check out the Xbox Wire exclusive interview below with Majesco Entertainment Executive Producer, Lisa Roth, and Chief Technology Officer/Head of Development, Kevin Ray, and stay tuned for more news and insights from other renowned developers of the hottest and most anticipated games coming to Xbox.
What are you most excited about for developing on new generation hardware?
The Xbox One is an exciting piece of hardware. The new architecture, and Microsoft’s system software, has opened up a lot of possibilities. We are leveraging the new technology to manipulate HD Film in real-time. The basic premise is that you’re interacting with a movie – not by branching, but by causing the scene to come alive through your movement. The Xbox One allows us to synchronize many streams of HD data in parallel, delivering a completely unique experience each time the game is played.
How will a new generation of hardware impact the future of “Zumba Fitness World Party?”
Overall, the visual quality of the games will continue to make huge strides. Our production path looks more and more like feature film production. The Xbox One hardware allows us to deliver multiple layers of HD Film with hundreds of video textured sprites, all with dynamic lighting, shading and particles. The future is akin to a virtual movie set where your actions dictate the movie that is created with HD Film-like quality.
How is the visual experience of “Zumba Fitness World Party” different from other “Zumba” titles?
“Zumba Fitness World Party” utilizes visuals of real backgrounds and real dancers so players actually feel like they are dancing in exotic locations around the world. We’ve departed from the animated look of our past games to create a unique visual identity that feels more like interactive HD film. This approach delivers the best aspects of what video games and fitness DVDs have to offer in a way that more closely connects the player to each in-game instructor. The new graphic presentation has been very well received by consumers, retailers and media alike so that kind of validation makes the resource investment worthwhile.
What kind of process did you go through in choosing the soundtrack for the game? How did you ensure an international feel?
Delivering an international feel was essential and this was a massive team effort. In many cases, we selected music based on the experiences we had abroad with expert choreographers in various genres of dance. For instance, in Puerto Rico we took a class with Daddy Yankee’s choreographer to experience the emerging style of Girly Funk (a sexy, female version of reggaeton). The music he used in our workshop was so hot that we ended up licensing the track and adding the choreography into the game. We had a similar situation with Tabitha and Napoleon Dumo (“So You Think You Can Dance” choreographers).
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