The hero of Super Lucky’s Tale may be Microsoft’s long-awaited mascot

GamesBeat: So, you could have introduced this at any time? There’s no particular reason it had to be now.

Neumann: That’s true. There are certain types of energy we get when we have a launch. We sort of re-contemplate everything. In this case, we thought, “There haven’t been very many family titles in the Xbox One generation.” I was working on something early on, Zoo Tycoon, that was born out of a similar desire. I looked at the launch portfolio, and there was nothing for kids to play, nothing I could play with my daughter. We made Zoo Tycoon with Frontier, and now, we’re revisiting that with Ubisoft. We have four games that families can play together.

GamesBeat: Would you say this is the opposite of Cuphead as far as difficulty goes?

Kauzlaric: [Laughs] We really worked hard with our feedback, as we were play testing and researching stuff with Playful around this game, to make sure that — yeah, there’s stuff for the hardcore to completist. The hidden stuff in the levels can be very challenging to find. But we wanted to make sure that someone just playing casually, someone who enjoyed the sense of exploration, could still have a good time playing the game.

The main path of the game, you only need to find maybe 70 percent of what’s there to get to the final boss. But hardcore gamers are going to have a good time.

Neumann: I think it strikes the right balance. To me, the litmus test is always if the people in the test department say, “This title rocks,” we know we’re going to get the core gamers and other people. They all like it because it’s challenging enough but never frustrating.

GamesBeat: Do you have selectable difficulty levels?

Kauzlaric: It’s built into the worlds themselves. It’s not like you choose easy or medium. It’s more like, what do you have the appetite to attempt while you’re in the worlds and doing the side events? If you just want to get the clover, those unlock the boss doors. But there are also puzzle levels, sliding block logic puzzles, little marble mazes. If you’d rather do some of those and skip some of the really hardcore platforming, you can do that. I’m a completist jerk, so I try to do everything.

GamesBeat: Is there something you wanted to do that was unique among platformers?

Kauzlaric: It’s funny. Is it unique if I say that just playing something that has a nice, pleasant story, that lets me see these worlds and characters — it’s the stock in trade of a character platformer, but you just don’t see that very much anymore.

Neumann: From my perspective, when the burrowing came in, that was a new dimension. You go underground, and there are some really cool timing puzzles.

Kauzlaric: We talked about that quite a bit. What’s the signature move, what’s the thing about the game that makes it stand out? We all agreed that his burrow move — we jokingly call it “land dolphining” because that’s the thing it has — as far as character platforming mechanics, that’s explored in interesting ways. You can find stuff. You can dig up treasure. You can fight certain types of critters that are underground. I think Playful did a great job making use of that move.

Neumann: Their character design is awesome. Everything feels just right. It’s fun. You start exploring this world, and there are always little details to find, little rabbits chasing you down, little chicks or something. It’s so cute. You don’t see that very often. The craftsmanship is so good. When you walk into their offices, every wall is full of pictures. They’re perfectly named as a company, calling themselves Playful. They just want to have fun. Their mission in life is to make each other laugh. You can feel that in the game and everything they do.

Kauzlaric: As publishing partners, I think we felt like, at every turn, it was about how we could help put their personality in the game. This is the hub area for Veggie Village, with all the little side things unlocked right now. You can go through and do whatever you want. Anywhere in the ground, you can burrow a bit, and you might find a ring of things to explore. We’ve done a little tuning since the build you played in September — the visibility, the core moves, the way you can turn and jump. We tried to sharpen that up a bit. The little kids there talk about side quests. We had so much fun seeing that stuff come to life.

GamesBeat: As far as deciding whether to do this as a third-party title or an exclusive, was there any particular thinking along those lines?

Neumann: I think Paul Bettner really wanted to work with us. The best relationships are always the ones where we can truly collaborate with each other. Paul was looking for a collaboration. When we had our team put together, it was all people who went down there and fell in love. We never fell out of love. It was one of those super harmonious developments. I think we inspired them to push harder. They delighted us all the time. You see it in the end result. We all love this game.

Kauzlaric: The worms are the best. Also the fact that they keep referring to their nub appendages — this is a kind of exploratory level that pays off with a song. You get to see those guys play this sort of bluegrass tune together with nonsense gibberish talking. To me, it’s all these little details in the world, all those bits of life, all those points of interaction that tell you whoever made this loved it.

There are some hidden things way up in the trees to the right, but those are hard jumps. That’s [what is] meant about the skill level. You can just do the main path on this one, and it’s not too bad, but there’s hidden stuff in the treetops and other nooks and crannies, and, of course, one jump means you fall to your death.

The backstory is that the evil inventor of the kitty litter blew out all the breakers, the concert’s been cancelled, and the Soggy Boggy Boys are sad. You’re finding these breakers throughout the level to let them play their music again. They reward you with a toe-tapping tune. There’ll be one of those levers up across the platform to the left of you. Those floating discs there are the ones you want to cross. The switch is right in front of you on the landscaping. You can just jump over that awning, down to the ground, and it’s in the corn patch up above. I’m just trying to be helpful! [Laughs] I’ve played this game every day for more than a year now, and I still love it. And now, you get to hear the dulcet tones of the Soggy Boggy Boys.

Back to your question about what distinguishes this as a platformer, I think bluegrass music is my main answer.

GamesBeat: Is this the sort of thing that might have ongoing content, or do you see it as a one-time release?

Neumann: Nothing’s announced yet. [Laughs] But as I said, we love it.

GamesBeat: Do you think that’s a necessity these days?

Neumann: I don’t think it’s a necessity. I think people will fall in love just like we did. They’ll want to play this as much as we did.

GamesBeat: What do you get with the hardware beyond the draw distance?

Neumann: Well, we have 4K textures. The Atmos mix is fantastic, too. The sound guys tell us it’s the best thing there is. They were very excited.

Kauzlaric: Ah, I just got destroyed. Again, that’s an optional side path.