We are here today with Emil Ayoubkhan of The Behemoth  who is currently working on the XBL Action RPG title: Castle Crashers.

Delilah: For our reader's sake, please state your name(s) and active roll on Castle Crashers and/or Alien Hominid?

Emil Ayoubkhan: Well, John, Tom and Dan are the real talent for the company, everyone
else just carries their coats and gets coffee for them. (just kidding)
John Baez co-founded the company and acts as the producer on all of our
projects. Dan Paladin did all of the art for Alien Hominid, Castle
Crashers, and just about everything else we do. Tom Fulp is our gameplay
programmer, co-founder of Behemoth, and if that wasn't enough he also
founded and runs Newgrounds.com (the original birthplace of Alien
Hominid) I'm currently the project manager, but it's important to note
that these titles do not reflect the amount of work that all of us do.
Since we are such a small team, everyone takes care of different tasks
throughout the course of any project we do.

Delilah: I am sure you guys are just soaking in the positive raves and reviews that Alien Hominid has received!

AvidX: After all, it's probably the most successful flash game in gaming history!

Emil Ayoubkhan: It's great to see the latest version of Alien Hominid receiving the
highest reviews from any other version we have released. The original
release of the title for the Playstation 2 and Gamecube, back in 2004,
was receiving great reviews ranging from 7.5 to 8.5, now that Alien
Hominid HD has launched we're getting scores like 8.5 and 9.3. On top of
all of this the prototype that was launched on Newgrounds.com has been
downloaded over 15.5 million times!

Delilah: Was anything cut from the final release?

Emil Ayoubkhan: One of the most amazing things about this latest version is that we went from a 1.4gig version and fit it into a 50mb limit which is a Live
Arcade requirement. While doing all of this we managed to keep all of
the levels, characters, mini-games, and just about everything else that
was in the original version of the game.

Delilah: So, now that Alien Hominid is available on Xbox Live Marketplace. I am sure your focus has switched to Castle Crashers.

Emil Ayoubkhan:  We've always been working on Castle Crashers! As mentioned before we area pretty small team, so when work started for Alien Hominid HD our focus shifted a little to getting that out  to all of the XBLA users. Now we
are switching our focus back to Castle Crashers and trying to get it out
as soon as we possibly can.

AvidX: How long has Castle Crasher been in development?

Emil Ayoubkhan: About a year and a half.

Delilah: In a past interview you stated you wanted to get 40 enemies if not more onto one screen for 360, since then have you reach that goal or topped it?

Emil Ayoubkhan: I'm not sure about the exact number of guys we have on screen right now. I know that in our latest playable demo, which takes place in the
"Thieves Forest" we have pretty much a screen full of enemies on running
around and it's absolute mayhem. I think at this point we are just
trying to fit as many as we can before the thing crashes.

Delilah: Did you decide to go with unlimited lives as being a core factor in the game?

Emil Ayoubkhan: Well we  haven't actually decided on unlimited lives at all yet. The
playable demo that everyone can see at any of the shows that we are at
has been modified with unlimited lives so that fans can enjoy the demo.
As we get closer to the release of the title we will be sure to
elaborate more on how this whole system will finally work.

Delilah: How many levels/stages can we expect in the final version?

Emil Ayoubkhan: It's really a different type of game from anything we've done before. In Alien Hominid you are running through 16 crazy levels trying to reach
the final boss and get your stuff back. In Castle Crashers we are trying
to make the user explore an entire world with more of an RPG feel rather
than a action title.

Delilah: Please elaborate on the RPG elements / elemental powers in the game. How many elemental powers does each knight possess?

Emil Ayoubkhan: As it stands right now each knight has one primary elemental power.

Red Knight = Lightning
Blue Knight = Ice
Green Knight = Poison
Orange Knight = Fire

Characters will be able to gain experience points and add them into
certain characteristics for their respective characters. Of course, that
is just the basic explanation of it all,  I can't elaborate too much
about it because Tom and Dan will kill me if I say too much.

AvidX:What about the unlockable Characters?
That's a good idea!

Delilah: For instance a pink knight for us girls? If so, I would've preferred violet.(You do not have to answer this) We’re talking ideas right? [laugh]

Emil Ayoubkhan: I'll have to check with Tom and Dan and see what their thoughts are about this. Which in short is a good way of saying, "I can't say
anything" or "I don't know"

Delilah: So, has Castle crasher entered / completed certification from Microsoft's XBLA program, (How is that process going?) and what is the possible release date?

Emil Ayoubkhan: We're still in development for the game and we are really trying to
focus on making it an amazing title. (which of course means, I can't
really go into detail about this)

Delilah: One of the biggest elements of the Xbox 360 is achievements? What ideas have you implemented to make them unique and what is the most difficult achievement to obtain?

Emil Ayoubkhan: We have a large amount of ideas that we plan to implement for our
Achievement system for Castle Crashers. However, we don't want to spoil
anything just yet. We are all big fans of a challenging achievement and
it's a good bet we will have some tricky ones coming up.

AvidX: Do you plan on branching out away from 2D animated games?

Emil Ayoubkhan: I think we are just doing things one step at a time right now. Dan does all of our art and we have a system in place where we feature a specific
artist for each of our titles.

AvidX: With your interesting style of art work would you ever consider a cartoon tv series?

Emil Ayoubkhan: We'd love to have a cartoon series. I of course am speaking for myself, but when I was a kid I used to watch the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, ahh
good memories.

AvidX: Do you realizes with your huge cult following and great art style, that your franchises are going to snow ball out of control until you find your self watching alien hominid in 3d in a IMAX theater?

Emil Ayoubkhan: Sign me up for that, where do we get tickets!

Delilah: I understand that you guys just returned from IDF / GDC, How was that experience and what are other tradeshows are you planning for in the future?

Emil Ayoubkhan: GDC/IGF was a great experience. We were very honored to with in both of the categories we were nominated for; Excellence in Visual Arts, Audience Award. One thing to note for is that we are self-publishing Alien Hominid HD and Castle Crashers. It's a new experience for us but it's something we all have a strong passion for.

We always joke around and say that we are on the "Trade Show Circuit"
For 2007 we are planning on attending San Diego's Comic-Con, the
Penny-Arcade Expo and some others. So if you ever want to check out our
playable demos or grab some of our merchandise, we always encourage fans
to stop by and say hello.

Delilah: Well, I am looking forward to it! ;) We are definitely planning to attend!

Congrats on the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers
Conference! Even though you have been very reserved, we look forward to what ever The Behemoth releases. Alien Hominid is amazing and Castle Crashers looks fantastic! We can't wait to get out hands on the game.

AvidX: Thanks for your time!

Emil Ayoubkhan: Thank you so much and also thanks to all of the fans who supported and
voted for us.