Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet getting co-op DLC

Fuelcell Games CEO Joe Olson talks about planned DLC for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and responds to critics who claim the game is too short.

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Fuelcell Games is planning some downloadable content for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, which will add a new co-op mode on top of the already-included Lantern mode. Company CEO Joe Olson opened up about the DLC plans, and responded to pervasive criticisms that the game is too short.

"I can't talk too much about it as we're still in the earlier stages," Olson told Eurogamer. "While we're really happy with how Lantern Run turned out, we wanted to bring a co-op experience that's a little more like the core campaign experience. That's kind of our goal with the DLC."

Olson also revealed that the game was once much bigger, but "to make it a focused experience we ended up cutting a lot. Ultimately, cutting some areas out of the game meant cutting some really good gameplay ideas. They either got incorporated elsewhere in the game or just got shelved for use down the line."

This decision may have ultimately hurt ITSP, which has been dinged in reviews for its brevity. "We were only in full production for a year and a half and our budget was fairly small," said Olson, "so we did what we could with it. We wanted to make sure we weren't just giving people hours of gameplay that wasn't tight. We wanted to make sure that however short or long the experience was, it was consistent throughout."

Olson also questioned reviewers who claimed to finish in three or four hours. "I'm wondering how much they actually tinkered with everything, or if they just blazed through it," he said. "The idea of the game is to experiment and explore. A lot of the tools function in different ways depending on how you use them - they can be offensive or defensive." He says its length "depends on how you play it" and says it's a "good value."

As for future Insanely Twisted Shadow Planets, Olson says they're open to make a sequel eventually, and they're in talks with Microsoft to release a PC version. Those plans, though are "to be determined at this point."

ITSP was the third of five Summer of Arcade releases, with Fruit Ninja Kinect and Toy Soldiers: Cold War to follow. Collecting the whole set nets you Crimson Alliance, and those seeking a similar bargain on the PS3 might be interested in the newly-announced PSN Play promotion.

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