When the Wii made its debut to the world, a lot of companies caught themselves in a scramble trying to jump on the bandwagon. While many questioned whether 3rd party companies could make money while competing with Nintendo’s 1st party games, a lot of them flocked to the console and the list seems to be increasing rapidly. Add Austin-based Red Fly Studio to that list, a company founded by artist Dan Borth, and getting their first title Mushroom Men published by Gamecock.

Gamasutra recently sat down with Borth to discuss his upcoming game, the trials and tribulations of being an independent studio, getting the most out of Wii’s processing power, among other things. In his own words, Borth summed up what to expect from Mushroom Men graphically: “Our game’s beautiful. People think it’s a 360 game sometimes. We’re using it [the Wii] to the full extent because we are artists and we’ve invested the time, and we’re not going to make garbage.”

Mushroom Men will be available on both the Wii and DS — gameplay for the Wii version will be in the 3rd person, while gameplay for the DS will be in a 2D side-scrolling vein — and the game is said to be aimed at fans of games like Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime. The storyline revolves around a comet hitting the Earth with severe effects, giving life to three-inch high fungi who then go to attack one another. Sounds a little off the wall, like Day of the Triffids, except they’re trying to kill each other rather than the human race.

Mushroom Men offers depth to the gameplay with a customization system that allows players to utilize various materials to create the weapons they want to play with. The kicker being that the design isn’t totally linear and revolves around the gameplay, in the sense that it’s not so much the damage a weapon can do but how it relates to a given situation.

But coming back to Borth’s statement on some people confusing the game with a 360 title, well, you have eyes.

[See also: Mushroom Men gallery]