Exclusive B-Boy details revealed

For fear of dislocating something that will not relocate itself without being accompanied by extreme pain, we've taken a break from our breaking. However, to otherwise satisfy our renewed interest in all things b-boy, we tracked down David Osbourne and Jamie Jackson at FreeStyleGames, two men who were clearly sufficiently impressed by the dedication evident from our bruises and torn muscles to kindly agree to answer a few questions about their forthcoming title, B-Boy (catch up on our previous coverage of the game here and here).

David Osbourne: A lot of the team at FreeStyle are heavily into their music, and many are active DJs. This interest in hip-hop took us to the UK B-Boy Championships in Brixton several years ago, which have been sponsored by PlayStation since it started 11 years ago.

It seemed like such an obvious idea for a game, but when we spoke to the organisers, nobody had tried it. With Sony about to launch PSP, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to create a new game brand based the b-boy culture, and offer an accessible and addictive social gaming experience.

Jamie Jackson:We've spent over two and half months on motion capture to accurately represent the moves and routines of each licenced b-boy in game. They're all very unique in style and speciality, and representing this in-game provides a huge amount of depth and variety to the gameplay experience.

One of the most difficult aspects of representing the moves in-game, is we wanted to make sure the routines look authentic – in many cases the moves the b-boys can pull off are almost too incredible to be believed!

Managing the transitions between moves has also proved a big animation challenge, but we've also been able to use this to add a lot of depth to the game. At the beginning of Life mode you start with a basic move set and limited transitions, so not all moves link to other moves. As you progress and win battles (which result in winning more moves) you can develop more complicated routines, and your transitions between moves become more polished and easier to execute.

David Osbourne: A b-boy battle is based on a number of 'throwdowns'. A throwdown is when a b-boy enters the floor and combines a series of moves to create a routine. The next b-boy then competes against that routine, often attempting to show they can execute the same moves, but better.

A battle can last for a fixed amount of time or number of throwdowns. The winner is chosen by the crowd or a group of judges, and is decided based on several factors, including, creativity, dancing to the beat of the record, combination and linking of moves and special blow up moves.

This is replicated in-game by a judging system. Each judge represents a core element of how the b-boy is judged. The judges will mark who they have as the winner throughout the battle based on your routine.

Each player must decide what moves they need to execute during each throwdown to impress each specific judge. The judges also rate how secure a b-boy is by marking the currently winning b-boy as 'bronze', 'silver' or 'gold'. This enables the opponent to pick which judge(s) they want to focus on during their throwdown, and therefore which moves and routine to perform.

The player with the most judges' votes at the end of the battle wins, which adds a huge amount of 'on-the-fly strategy' to the game.

David Osbourne: You can play four-player wi-fi on PSP, so each player is controlling a member of a two-on-two crew battle. When the non-players are watching another player's routine they can perform 'toprock' dance moves, as well as watch their opponent and perform various 'disses' to show-up their competitor if they fail to execute certain moves. Both of these moves build up your 'hype bar', which will allow you to perform special entrance and finishing moves to your own routine.

Jamie Jackson: We're working with all of the major b-boy events worldwide to ensure that the game remains authentic and highlights the current culture throughout the world. Expect to see the likes of Redbull BC One, IBE, UK B-Boy Championships, FreeStyle Sessions and Armory Cup Korea represented in-game.

David Osbourne: Both Crazy Legs and Hooch have been involved in the project from the beginning. Hooch played a big role as far back as prototyping the game, and throughout pre-production. One of the primary objectives for FreeStyleGames was to make sure that the game was respectful, credible and authentic to the current culture. We felt if we could achieve that, we would have a great game and a ready made audience.

Legs and Hooch spend time playing the game, consulting on the look and feel, and they have also ensured we worked with the best b-boys throughout the world and with the major events. We couldn't have delivered this degree of authenticity without their active involvement in the project. It's great to know they like what we've achieved!

Jamie Jackson: Capturing, processing and accurately representing the b-boy moves in-game has been one of the biggest challenges. It's been a huge data processing and animation task, and we've had some of the best animators in the industry working on this at FreeStyleGames. We're very proud of what they've achieved.

Another challenge has been ensuring the control mechanic for the game finds the balance between being pick-up-and-play for a casual/non-b-boy audience, but also remains appealing for people who follow the b-boy culture and art form.

David Osbourne: We're confident we've delivered a compelling combo and skill test system which offers immediate results along with longterm depth after hours of gameplay.

David Osbourne: The fact that we've remained authentic to a great culture is important to us. We're also pleased to have the opportunity to represent the positive side of hip-hop, and create a great gameplay experience which we hope will attract more people to enjoying and understanding B-Boy.