Alien Breed trilogy cost $2.5 million to make

Team 17 studio director Martyn Brown has revealed that the total cost of developing the company's forthcoming Xbox Live Arcade trilogy of Alien Breed titles will hit around USD 2.5 million.

The company, which has enjoyed success in self-publishing with Worms and Worms 2 - both of which are currently sitting in the top ten of the XBLA chart - has employed a team of about 30 people over a period of "around 14-15 months," Brown told a packed Evolve session at this year's Develop Conference.

"It makes it one of the most expensive digital titles to-date," he admitted of the game, which will be released in three parts beginning in around October and feature around 15 hours of gameplay in total.

The title, a re-imagining of the classic Amiga game, was first shown to an audience at GameHorizon in Newcastle last month, and has been generating substantial traction with online audiences since then.

The first of a two-part interview with Martyn Brown, in which he discusses the difficulties facing new teams wanting to publish titles on digital platforms, will be available tomorrow.