We here at the farm, truly appreciate the level of quality we have seen from the Indie development scene. They are offering fun experiences at a fraction of the price, and the best part is that their graphical prowess is sneaking up to big boys. I am a big supporter of the DL titles and I really enjoy talking to the people behind them. When I first saw Pictures of the title Landit Bandit, I immediately had to reach out to Bearded Ladies Consulting, to learn more about their title. They were gracious enough to answer my questions, so please read and enjoy, and check out their developer diaries on our site, they are quite funny.
Hi fried green gamers, David Skarin (Programmer/Designer) here,
1) We here at Southernfriedgamer.com truly appreciate your time.Can you please share a little background on Bearded Ladies Consulting, and the people who make up the group?
The Bearded Ladies consist of two programmers from the automotive industry, one janitor, one liquor store clerk and one expedition leader from Nepal.It came to be because me and haraldur met each other while running our own small companies in the same office building. We became very good friends and the idea of starting a games studio together was more or less there from the start. We discussed it every once in a while and a few years ago we were on a trip to Bergen,Norway together. On the train there we employed our standard travelling technique, we got drunk and played hotseat heroes of might and magic while chatting away. Sometime during that conversation we decided it was time to give our dreams a shot and start that studio we had been talking about. It did take a while before it actually happened because we would need perfect timing and some money stored up to get our first project of the ground.
We started the bearded ladies at the start of 2009, which then consisted of me, haraldur and a script programmer that i had been working with for years. Within 6 months we had found the perfect matches in the artistic department to complete the bearded ladies. During that time we had also been able to show a playable version of landitbandit to Stony and get signed up as 3rd party PS3 developers and we were on our way…
2) Your title Landit Bandit looks quite fun and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Is it your company’s first title and can you explain to the readers, what the game is about?
Yes this is our first commercial title of any kind (of course I have some hobby projects lying around). Landit bandit is a whacky mix of old school lander games (moonlander,ugh! etc), converted to 3D with modern physics, and then smashed together with an array of gameplay mechanics that we were either missing in other games or just felt are really fun (ninjaropes, logistics planning, skijump… well its diverse).
Its all set to the story of Lander, a stranded art thief in possession of Leonardo davincis helicopter sketches. Lander washes up on the shore of a small tropical island where he meets the layed back Marley. Through some incredible island engineering and the use of leonardos drawings, Marley is able to build a very primitive helicopter. From there it is all about getting these guys to the “Big City” to sell their precious loot.
3) From the video’s and screenshots I have seen, your art style and graphics are amazing. How were you able to accomplish so much with a downloadable title?
We have some really talented artists and we are very pleased with what we accomplished. I feel we manage to bring the whole thing together and give it a unique and charming look. However there were quite a few things that we would have liked todo that never made it into the game because of the small team and the fact that we were doing it on a console we had never coded. Next time it will look even better… .much better 
.
4) Landit Bandit has already touched down in Europe. How has the reception for it been so far?
Its been great. I was kind of worried that the game would be TOO different and only a few people would like it, but it looks like we filled some void that people were missing. The reviews have been great with some really nice scores, and browsing around on forums it seems gamers are really enjoying it.
5) I read that Landit Bandit started out as a rehabilitation tool for stroke patients, can you please elaborate on this and explain the change?
In the time between us deciding to start the bearded ladies and the time we actually did it. I was given a fun project from a hardware manufacturer who made advanced joystick devices for training surgeons. They wanted to expand into some related markets with their products and wanted me to make a few small game-like applications to be used to demo how their (very kewl) joysticks would work in stroke rehab. I immidietly realized that these joysticks would be kickass for a helicopter game of some kind, and I was confident the patients would like some splitscreen helicopter action better then stacking boxes. It did turn out pretty well and i actually got to go see patients playing my game which was awesome. Once the initial testing was done however the joystick guys were unable to raise funds to take it to the next level so there was no followup for me. I did however continue some development on the game in my spare time since one of the guys working in my office building had become a huge fan of it and we were playing duels as soon as we had some free time. Once we started the bearded ladies a few months later we knew what our first project would be.
6)I think it would be great if it had a level editor to make you own crazy obstacle courses. Is Landit Bandit going to be supported by any kind of dlc?
We will look into these things (demos, dlc and such) once we have gotten the launch done everywhere and we have gotten some vacation. As for an editor I think this will be to much work for our team since we did not create an editor for the game (we used maya and some preprocessing).
7)With its fun casual look and amazing art style, is there any thought about patching Landit Bandit to support the latest trends, of motion control and 3D?
Once again we will look into these things at a later point. I actually do think that 3D would suit the game very well.. .so maybe.
8)The techies always want to know the stats. What resolution and frame rate does Landit Bandit run at?
The game runs in 60fps at 720p resolution.
9)Last question, since Landit Bandit is already out in Europe and lands in North America on July 13th, what is up next for the Bearded Ladies?
Well, vacation. We have worked really long hours during this year and its time to take a small break (im actually writing this from the coast where I am doing some therapeutic carpenting). Ofcourse we are all really good friends, so vacation might mean some brainstorming at the beach.
We here at Southernfriedgamer.com thank the Bearded Ladies and can’t wait to check this out. It is already available in Europe, and it lands in North America July 13th, so enjoy.
Here is a link to their site Beardedladiesconsulting.com and please remember to support your indie developer.
“fried green gamers” if he only knew! Good interview Will.