For a developer, it’s always a frightening thing to create that first game. It’s a slightly different situation when your first game starts out as a college project, grows into a flash game, before eventually obtaining backing from a major game publisher and released on Xbox Live Arcade. We recently had the chance to chat with Matt Korba, Lead Designer and President of The Odd Gentlemen, makers of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, about the new puzzler and about the process of getting this game made. Considering the clever puzzles, light hearted presentation and the fact that Korba describes the concept of the game as “pie, silent film, time travel and buttwits,” it’s safe to say that The Odd Gentlemen had something special on its hands. 

Influenced by films like Back to the Future as well as old silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Pixar shorts, P.B. Winterbottom has a very unique style to it. The gameplay is focused on time travel, where you’re able to record copies of yourself doing basically anything you can think of. “It’s like having a record button on a camcorder,” says Korba. “You can then use these Winterbottom clones to do your evil bidding by stepping on their heads, powering machines, stepping on your past self’s dead body, or smacking your own bottom. This open approach to puzzle solving creates interesting solutions to puzzles.”

With this distinctive gameplay style comes a just as distinguishing setting and art style. P.B. Winterbottom is essentially a thief, stealing pies from wherever he can scrounge them, and it’s up to you to make sure he gets them all. Along with that, the game uses a very Victorian aesthetic, but not necessarily because that’s something hip or new. Rather, when we asked Korba about it, we found that the reason behind this is pretty practical: “I’m not very good at drawing space marines or robots.” But the presentation is not an issue at all; everything comes together rather nicely in a way that keeps you on your toes from start to finish.

As players start, they’ll find that Winterbottom was following the trail of a chronoberry pie, which leads him to a portal that will let him travel through and manipulate time. “He has to visit every mischievous moment from his past from entirely new angles,” explains Korba. “Of course, when winterbottom is granted his time-cloning powers, the first thing he realizes is how many missed salacious treats he can now chomp down on.” The entire presentation of the game uses a simpler style of story telling, but that’s hardly a bad thing. “The story functions a lot like a children’s book,” Korba adds. “You can read through it and get the gist, but if you want all the details, including the origin of P.B. Winterbottom and other easter eggs, you need to look at the illustrations, the details in the backgrounds, and the gameplay to get the whole picture.”

If all that sounds daunting, rest assured that The Odd Gentlemen have made sure the controls are easy as pie. All you need to do is simply hold down the right trigger to set up the record function. Next, simply guide Mr. Winterbottom into whatever activity you want. When you’re finished, release the right trigger and a clone of Winterbottom will do precisely what you did while recording yourself. According to Korba, “this clone does everything Winterbottom does and more.” There are different kinds of clones you’ll encounter through your (mis)adventures, helping, or hurting you along the way. Blue clones are perhaps the most common found in the game – they’ll mimic Winterbottoms actions and can be used to help you solve puzzles. Red clones are evil doppelgangers of our hero and should be avoided at all costs, lest you enjoy failing challenges, of course. There are also timed clones, which only last for a small moment, and a surprise clone to be found at the end of the game.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom revolves around puzzles. There’s a lot of platforming and a lot of playing with clones and the idea of time, but at the core of it, it’s the puzzles that keep you going. Every level has you trying to collect all the pies in the stage, and there are 75 levels found in the game, including bonus levels sprinkled throughout, providing the player with plenty to do. “The opening level sets the stage for the entire game, with each subsequent level visiting a moment in time from that first level,” Korba explains. “You can compete with friends in bonus levels for speed and clone amount on leaderboards. Bonus levels also have medals you can earn by beating challenges which tie into achievements. Each level unlocks a set of bonus levels.” It’s a great concept and allows for a solid and unique experience.

There are a lot of great touches to keep players intrigued, including levels where you visit the background of a previously visited stage, manipulating various elements to give help to your past self. “That was the most challenging thing to design,” says Korba. “Because the player’s actions are unpredictable, designing puzzles around what layers would do in the future was next to impossible. The idea came from a thought about telling a story in layers.” Happily, The Odd Gentlemen pulled it off, and this element works rather well, providing many “oh, cool!” moments throughout the game. Considering that this game and the notion of using clones to solve puzzles stemmed from a late night Red Bull binge and a viewing of Zbigniew Rybczynski's film Tango, it seems inspiration struck The Odd Gentlemen in a very peculiar way. And lucky for us. This mischievous buttwit provides a great deal of fun in a very quirky and charming package.