Path from 350 kilobyte mobile game to a large project for different platforms

An exciting adventure, a sea of ​​action, the ability to fly in a spaceship and much more - which is what each of us is lacking in real life for now. But this problem was partially solved by the developers from Fishlabs. At the recently held game show, the game Galaxy on Fire 2 Supernova was announced. Special guests told a lot of interesting things about the development process and the details of their project. In an interview with Michael Schade - with the founder of the company Fishlabs and Mark Himyer - SRT Fishlabs told about the game in more detail. I think many will be interested in what keys to achieve so much success these people used, especially considering that it was Galaxy on Fire, this is the game that won many awards of various kinds. I offer you a free translation of the dialogue. Some moments were missed but mostly the integrity of the picture was preserved. The very video in English can be found here .

Leading:
- Can you tell us a little about your experience as a participant in the Galaxy on Fire project and a member of the Fishlabs company, as well as what the community thinks about playing for this moment?
Michael:
- I am very enthusiastic about Gamescom 2012. This is the first time we have the opportunity to show ourselves to the public. All these big banners are people looking at them and they like them. In general, this whole atmosphere is very enthusiastic, because once it was just a game for phones, and now it is available for PC. This is really one of the greatest achievements for us.

Next, the lead emphasizes that the game is already available for pre-orders and its price is only $ 19.99. After that, the viewers are shown the last trailer of the game.


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Leading:
It's fantastic! The game looks fantastic! I remember the first version of the game. Was it in Java? Can you tell us a little story: how did the project evolve from what we just saw from a small phone game?
Michael:
Exactly. I remember, it was 2005, when we released the first version of Galaxy on Fire for only two phones - Sony Ericson and Nokia. The first version weighed only 350 kilobytes and supported the resolution of 128x128 (today it is the size of the iPhone icon). Over the years, we have made progress by improving graphics, and now we have Full HD graphics. This is what we wanted. But in those years, saying that we would ever have Full HD graphics, it was normal to hear something like: “Have you lost your mind?”

After that, the presenter gives us the opportunity to evaluate the gameplay, as well as introduces the Fishlabs service station, which is Mark Himyer. He will help us get acquainted with the game closer.

Michael:
- Now we are on the space station and here we have one of the best ships. This is a very powerful ship, it is equipped with a turret, which can be seen on the top. Thus, the user can see part of the equipment directly on the ship.

Transfer to station hangar.
- This is a demo version of the game, so we see a lot of ships available for purchase. And as you can see, each is equipped with a unique design, which is logical, since there are different factions in the game.

Asks Mark to show one of his favorite ships - Aegir.

- When buying a new ship, all equipment is transferred from the old ship to the newly acquired one. Now we see the ship's equipment menu, where you can install both main guns and additional ones, like bombs, torpedoes, and so on. This is followed by different equipment: booster - to move faster, shields, scanners and others.

Leading:
Tell me, please, what do you think is the most useful and most of all do you like?



Michael:
- Naturally in the space adventure you will need a power shield. One of my favorites is Sight Suppresor, because it is a masking device and we will show it today in action. Returning to the store below is available quite a large number of guns: lasers, mass drivers and so on. There is also an EMP gun. They are useful if the aim of the pilot is not to destroy the enemy, but only to deprive him of the ability to move, after which you can clear his cargo compartment. A great solution if you want to be a pirate. Then you can see various additional tools in the style of mines, torpedoes, homing missiles. We should also mention the turrets. They are very occasional, when there are detractors on your tail and you need to shoot back. In addition to the automatic mode, the user has the ability to manually control the turret. As you can see, there are so many different things.

Leading:
- It may seem that there are even too many of them. But when you play a game, you realize that every detail plays a role and the user can select the perfect combinations that would suit his style of play.
Michael:
- That was our goal. In addition to the main storyline, we wanted users to be able to explore many different things and the galaxy as a whole. Also in the store you can see a lot of different goods, which should please fans to trade. The game has more than 100 space stations, where you can fly and bargain. And at the very bottom there is a large list of different ores and rocks that the user can mine from asteroids.

Leading:
- How versatile is the game! I started to play it a little earlier and found a lot of different and interesting moments for myself, as well as combinations of all this.
Next is the transition to the page drawings.
- Here you can see the existing drawings. They exist for all types of equipment. If you click on any of them, you can see which parts have already been collected, and which else you need to search. After you collect everything, you can get a really powerful weapon or equipment. There is a drawing of the K'hador engine, which the player will receive in the process of passing the main storyline. This most powerful game engine will allow you to jump between the systems of the entire galaxy without using jump gates.

Go to the waiting room station.

- At each station there is a waiting room where you can meet various other pilots. Some will cheat on you by selling something at an inflated price, while others may join your team to help complete any task. Sometimes pilots who sell blueprints can even come across. Therefore, it will be good if the player talks to everyone - perhaps one of them has something very rare. Also in the menu of transactions you can always ask where it is on the map or ask about the complexity of the task.

Return to the hangar.

- Beautifully designed hangar, as well as a ship.
Leading:
- I now understand why he is one of your favorites.
Michael:
- Returning to the galactic map. Here you can see a fairly large number of systems. Each system has its own planets and by clicking on one of them you can fight to jump there; naturally, with the K'hador engine or if you are in the same system. As you can see here there are also stars the path to which is not marked by characteristic lines. They are not signed in any way and their coordinates can be obtained only from one of the pilots of the galactic stations. Also near each star there are small icons that indicate the belonging of the system to one faction or another. Yellow icons indicate the purpose of the main storyline. A big black hole is something that while we will not disclose to whet the audience interest.

Go to the system review mode.

“The blue circle shows that there is a jump gate, which you can use if you run out of batteries for the K'hador engine.”
They take off from the station and prepare for the hyper-prigku.

Leading:
- I want to mention that the user will be able to control not only using the keyboard and mouse, but also using the wireless pad x box 360. Indeed, the first impression is absolutely fantastic!

Further, Michael says that the main storyline contains voiced dialogues, which makes the game more atmospheric. Game time is from 5 to 10 hours - it all depends on the game style. If you take part in side quests, the game time can be stretched for a longer period. Given that there are many stations in the galaxy, where there are necessarily people offering additional tasks, the player will never face the fact that he has nothing more to do. In addition, you can refuse to perform any tasks at all, to become a pirate and thereby earn any improvements and new ships.

A special weapon is shown which itself follows the target after the player has aimed at the enemy, as well as a camouflage weapon in action. Really beautiful effect of activation and reverse process.
Another very important part of the game is the load time in the transitions between systems. Michael draws attention
on the fact that this process takes no more than a second, which is really important when the player uses a mobile device that is limited in resources. In order to achieve such a record low load time, the company uses unique algorithms for processing effects of the operation of engines, rocket tracks, etc.

Michael:
- I started playing games when I was 14, in 1964. And video games in outer space seemed something unimaginable.
Voski pretty aggressive fraction; they fight with terrans. In the game, you can become a friend of one faction, but at the same time losing your reputation in the opposite. Therefore, if having arrived in the system, a faction that does not like you, be prepared for difficulties. Yellow dots on the radar notify the player about the neutral attitude of the ships towards him. If you want to visit the enemy station you will have to pay a bit of protection. However, at any time a player can start doing tasks for a particular faction or start shooting enemy ships, thereby improving his reputation.
Leading:
- What would be better for the player: to join one, sacrificing relations with the other, or try to have a more or less good reputation in both factions?
Michael:
- It will naturally be much more interesting if the player sets foot on a certain side. Then he will be able to fly, for example, into enemy space and see how other ships of this system will conduct themselves. There will be a good opportunity to try out new guns and equipment.
Leading:
- I especially liked the implementation of the radar. You can easily navigate and find your goal.
Michael:
- Indeed, we worked a lot on this element. The first version of Galaxy on Fire was optimized for a resolution of 248x228 and therefore we really needed to efficiently arrange all interface elements in order for the player to feel as comfortable as possible.

Mark fits in with the asteroid.

- Now we see the process of mining, it is like a separate mini-game. The goal is to keep the drill rig in the center of the circle. The more time a player extracts ore, the more difficult it becomes to keep the drill rig in focus, but the production begins to accelerate. Therefore, here the player can choose for himself whether he will risk for the sake of a larger quantity of cargo, or he will stop the process and fly away with the extracted resources. In case of not keeping the drill in focus, the player loses everything that he has mined. Some asteroids also contain a valuable core. Later, the player can get it, a scanner which will show what exactly is in the middle of an asteroid.

I also want to draw attention to the surrounding schedule. Each element is drawn by hand.



The game uses different audio tracks. So, for example, in the Void space, the music is more alarming due to their hostility, in the Terrans it is more neutral, and in the Nivelians there is light music.

Leading:
“I also see when a ship explodes, the objects dropped out of it automatically rise aboard.”
Michael:
- Yes indeed. This is due to the special capture that opens during the game. In the initial stages, the player will have to be guided manually to the object and only after that he will be taken aboard.

Also, the game added a lot of different awards and medals that the player will earn.

Mark goes to the information menu.

- Looking at the relationship interface, it can be seen that Terrans and Voski, as completely different species, are on opposite sides of the slider, like Nivelians and Midorians. The difference is that the latter are one species, but the Midorians, like the insurgent faction, are fighting for their rights of independence.

Leading:
- Now we receive questions from users, so I hope you can answer some of them.

Users ask different questions in the style “Where to find such a thing?” After which Michael slightly opens the curtain in front of the game's algorithm.

Michael:
- Many users try to understand how the algorithm for generating items at the station works. In fact, after visiting the 5 stations, a new list of items is generated. Therefore, it is enough to fly around the galaxy, flying to any station and after visiting the fifth will return to the original one.

Question from the viewer:
- What engine did you use when you mentioned the improved drawing algorithms for the engine and in general for the game as a whole?



Mark:
- Since the game came to computers from phones, and at that time there were no engines, we decided that in order to work well on different platforms we need to write our own engine. It has evolved for a long time and at the moment we even have full support for shaders. We paid a lot of attention to the fact that it was not very picky about the gland, using a minimum of RAM. This, as Michael mentioned, as a result gave us a very fast download. We understood that the user would not want to wait a minute or more using his mobile device.

Question from the viewer:
- What can you say about the additions to the game?
Michael:
- At the moment we have 2 add-ons: one is called Valkyrie and the second, which we are almost ready to release, Supernova. The first after the end of the storyline gives the player access to a greater variety of ships, guns and equipment. It also contains its own storyline. Dialogues are fully voiced, which is the norm for PC games, but for mobile devices it is something new. To pass it will take from 2 to 2.5 hours. We worked on the second Supernova add-on for about a year. We paid special attention to the storyline, so no one can say, “Hey! It is not long enough. And all this because it requires at least 10 hours to pass. Thus, the original game plus two add-ons give from 10 to 20 hours of game time and in addition to this, the ability to move freely throughout the galaxy, which the player can do endlessly.

Leading:
I really like this free flight mode. You can do whatever you want.
Michael:
- I can not say that it was a dead genre, but rather undervalued or little popularized. Most first-person shooters were such very fast, dynamic games, and our game was more relaxed. The player himself could decide how to act: calmly surf the cosmos or enter into a breathtaking fight.

Question from the viewer:
- Will the game support saving in the cloud?
Mark:
- At the moment, no, but this is what we are working on and will try to implement in the nearest add-ons.

Question from the viewer:
- As we saw from the trailer, the game is full of action, but how much time will the player devote to combat in comparison with the trade?
Michael:
- Good question. It all depends on the player. If he wants to be a merchant - there are no obstacles in this. We added special enclosures that have large holds, as well as the ability to collect items using drawings. All this will allow the player to decide for himself how he wants to play. However, in order to complete the storyline, the player still have to use their tools.

Question from the viewer:
- What are the differences between PC and iOS versions?
Michael:
- The storylines are identical, as is the gameplay itself. Nevertheless, we have prepared some improvements for the PC version. For example, in the mobile version for each model there is only one texture, whereas in the PC there are two. There is also a whole list of advantages in the field of graphics effects. If this is still relevant, Mark tried to run the game on his computer with Windows XP and everything was fine.

Question from the viewer:
- When you buy a new ship, what is more important to you: its design, firepower or the size of the hold?
Michael:
- It completely depends on your own playing style. For example, I am more worried about the elegant look. I like solid fill ships with blue glow inserts - it really looks amazing.
Speaking of design - each faction has its own unique look. We paid special attention to ensuring that every detail harmoniously fits into the overall picture.

Question from the viewer:
- What should we expect in the near future from Fishlabs?
Michael:
- We received a huge amount of feedback from our users and identified the most popular functions and we will try to bring them to life. One of those is the desire of users to have support for multiplayer. People want to compete with each other, fry someone's ass. But at the moment the core used by us originates from the past years and when I start talking about multiplayer Mark sighs with displeasure. Summing up, we are working on improvements for Galaxy on fire 2, we also have a new engine that has more features and already supports multiplayer.

Leading:
I want to thank Michael Schade for this interview and also remind you that you can pre-order right now and actually I can’t wait to play this wonderful game.

It would also ask your opinion,% habrauser%. Can a game with the same engine and gameplay be quite popular on both mobile platforms and PCs?