Exclusive: Infinity Blade FX Interview

Epic Games-owned Chair Entertainment Group has very big plans for its Infinity Blade franchise. In addition to the sequel heading to iOS on December 1 and the original eBook from bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the original game is getting its very own multiplayer arcade machine. Infinity Blade FX will be playable in 57 Dave & Buster's restaurants nationwide starting October 28.

Chair has a playable demo version of the arcade unit at its Salt Lake City studio and the machine will make its public debut this weekend at the GEEX Consumer Expo. Donald Mustard, co-founder and creative director at Chair Entertainment Group talks about the new 46-inch, high definition arcade experience from Adrenaline Amusements and Epic Games in this exclusive interview.

Q: How did Infinity Blade, an iPhone and iPad game, end up at the arcade?

Donald Mustard: What's so cool about this is that Infinity Blade is released for iOS devices and was a huge hit. We've partnered with Adrenaline Amusements to create these really cool 46-inch touch screens that you can play Infinity Blade on. Players can touch the screen and swing their weapon, block, dodge, and do all the same stuff that you'd normally do in Infinity Blade in one of our mobile games. But now it's on this massive, massive TV.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the technology behind this machine, because you're not actually touching the screen when you play.

DM: Yeah. What's cool about it is this isn't actually a touch screen. There are tons of little optical sensors all around the edges of the screen. It's actually using optics to determine spatially where my finger is and because of that it can actually use multi-touch. I've seen demos of it where they're using up to six fingers at a time, doing all sorts of really cool stuff. For me, as a consumer, I cannot wait for this technology to continue to evolve to where we can even have it in our home. Can you imagine having your TV mounted and being able to touch it and do cool stuff with it? Just imagine the possibilities of this technology in a few years when it gets a little more affordable.

Q: What will the arcade set-up be for this game from a multiplayer perspective?

DM: There's a main station and in the final version – this is a demo version – there will be three different screens on this marquee stand. You'll be able to have multiplayer matches where you're on one screen and you're battling someone else on another screen. You can play multiplayer against each other across these screens, which is going to be really cool.

Q: What role has Unreal Engine 3 played in bringing Infinity Blade to the arcade?

DM: One thing that we found was that Unreal Engine 3 is very powerful and very adaptable. By making Infinity Blade so graphically intense on the iOS devices it made it possible for us to bring it to a larger scale experience. We can really play it on a 46" display and show all the graphic fidelity that's really there. We can really crank up the textures and turn all the post processing effects up and make it look incredible on this larger screen.

Q: Dave & Busters is the first home for these machines. What's the rollout plan moving forward?

DM: Eventually we'll have over 10,000 devices installed in airports, movie theaters, amusement parks and just any place where you'd go to play these cool arcade games you're going to play Infinity Blade FX. It's cool that we can bring this kind of touch technology on such a massive screen.

Q: Would sequels be able to be updated at the arcade?

DM: Just like we do with our games on iOS, we have the ability to update these games and also add new games. It all depends on how this does at the arcade.