GoF has been the most successful in-house production from FISHLABS to date. How do you explain the huge popularity of the title?

There was great demand on the old Java devices and the iPhone, because the popular space simulation and space shooter genres, with classic titles like Wing Commander or Privateer, did not exist on mobile devices. There was a bit of a nostalgia bonus, but we also broke new technological ground for mobile games with the Galaxy on Fire series. People just wanted to play something like that again. We moved into a niche while everybody else was focussing primarily on casual games or titles like Mario Kart. Before that, no one had dared this level of complexity.

To what extent were you able to express your vision as Art Director in the Java version of Galaxy on Fire?

The first step was to find out what was even possible on the devices. Of course, it was especially difficult with the Java devices at the time, because they just couldn’t do that much. The games also couldn’t be larger than 512 kB. That’s a joke compared to the PC games of the time.
We had to cut back heavily, unbelievably complex spaceships weren’t possible. But at the same time, the ships had to be interesting enough for players still to want to fly them. In the first conversion for the iPhone, we already had a bit more freedom, but still had to make sure that things still fit in the established universe.

Have those limitations been eliminated in the upcoming version of GoF II for the iPhone and iPad?

Oh, we have limits. With GoF I for the iPhone, we wanted to make everything better, sort of ‘now we don’t have any memory problems anymore.’ Right away, we had crammed in too much content and had to slim down so that the game would still run smoothly. It wasn’t as if there was suddenly a PS3 to work with, and we could do everything we wanted.
We were able to incorporate our experience from the first part in the work on GoF II and have learned to correct the flaws. Our engine section has given us a lot more options, for example, bump and specular mapping, which makes everything seem much more three-dimensional. Naturally, that also opens up a lot more possibilities for the design. I can now give a ship more details: portholes, hatches, tubes, battle scars, and even drive and position lights.

Can we expect a lot of new designs, or are the old models simply being reworked?

In GoF II for Java, we created the ships in modular construction for reasons of space. Technically, it was a good idea, but ended up, in part, with designs that weren’t so good and led to several groups, for example the Midorians and Nivelians, having to share many models. Often, you couldn’t tell visually against whom you were fighting or with whom you were dealing.We wanted to change that in the new version of GoF II for the iPhone.
That is why we decided to completely redesign all the ships in the iPhone port. That means the ships don’t have much in common with the original anymore, as you can see clearly from the Betty, for example. Every race now has their own type of ships, their own design, colour coding, and so on. Every race can now be very clearly distinguished. That was important to us and also contributes to an appropriate atmosphere.

That sounds extensive and reminds me a bit of what HCK told me. Is this a redesign or a completely new title?

In principle, HCK carried over the basic gameplay and the ship stats, such as size or number of weapon slots. The storyline was also kept. However, technology, assets such as 3D models of ships and stations, skybox, galaxies, and planets were completely redone. I like to compare it to gutting a house: in the end, all that’s left are the walls, and you try to rebuild everything with high quality. That was necessary, of course, because the iPhone and iPad are platforms on which significantly more is offered today. The audience is demanding and the expectations for the quality of the graphics and design have grown a lot.
Along with creating new titles, we also have to pump up our classics, so that they are still competitive and don’t vanish into the mass of new releases that go live in the App Store every day. That is another challenge.

What makes GoF competitive in this respect?

As I said, we serve a niche. After taking a closer look at other genre titles in the App Store and on other smartphones, we think there’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of both technology and content. That is also why we wanted to turn things up a notch compared to the predecessor GoF I and set new standards with GoF II.

How have the demands for teamwork on the title changed?

We have to look much more closely at how the ships and stations are implemented, for example. I don’t just draft a design, present it, and say, ‘Do it!’, rather I have to actually go to our 3D artists and see that things are uniform. In the beginning, we had a meeting where we compared all the models from three different graphic artists, and they all looked different! Different construction, different texturing, and so on. I had to make clear to everyone once again, ‘THIS is the style,’ and ‘Please make sure that all the ships look like they come from the same universe.’ It shouldn’t seem as though one thing comes from one game and another from a different game. Everything really has to look very uniform and homogeneous, because otherwise everything will seem artificial, and the illusion of a coherent game world will be ruined for the players.

You brought us screenshots which show the ships and stations of the well-known races in GoF II. I’d like to know more about the different styles of the various factions.

Each faction has its own colour code, its own symbolism, and even its own style of construction. Every faction has its own national emblem, designed so that you can always see from the logo which faction you’re dealing with. Lets look at the Nivelians first; their colour scheme is blue-grey. They have very elegant ships, which work a great deal with wing shapes and are distinguished by a very modern and stylish exterior.
It was important to us that the Mido ships could be clearly differentiated from the ships of their close relatives, the Nivelians. But in principle, they are two sides of the same coin. The idea behind that is that the Mido only have access to obsolete technologies, while their ‘brothers’ the Nivelians have long since moved on to new designs and new generations of ships. The Nivelians and the Mido long ago split into two factions, between which there is a sort of civil war. In this conflict, the Mido have the role of the rebels and have correspondingly fewer resources, which is pointed up by the rust-brown texture and damage on their ships and stations. Their ships, which also include the Betty, also have a slightly different design. They are distinguished by a catamaran-like dual stern, prominent cockpits, and a generally somewhat run-down exterior.

To me, the Betty looks a bit like a bird of prey.

Yes, that comes from the downward-bent wings. You could say it’s the typical bird of prey design. That suggests itself, because you can hang engines and weapons off of them so nicely. A very functional design. At the same time, the downward-bent wings also naturally suggest aggression. Designs like that recur over and over again in science fiction.

The Terrans have a more military design. It derives primarily from what you see today in fighter jets, helicopters, and transports, that is the jets and transports of the 20th and 21st centuries. The combination of grey paintwork and colourful markings are recognisable from modern fighters and other military vehicles. You can imagine them in the context that, sometime in the future, humanity has united and developed a common stylistic vocabulary, a visual amalgam of the world’s military forces and their colours and markings, so to speak.

The Terran transport ships remind me of things like Alien or Starship Troopers.

I think it’s very interesting to dig up the aesthetic of 80s science fiction films now and again. The ships from that period were often equipped with an incredible amount of detail, and you had the impression that they were simply very functional spaceships. They looked used, they were scratched and had laser scars. We bring over that 80s sci-fi feeling, without forgetting, of course, that this is a modern game. More a kind of homage, without completely emulating the style.
Examples are Battle Star Galactica, Star Wars, and also the less well-known television series from that period, like Buck Rogers. Those are examples for the classic, high quality science fiction of the 70s and 80s, which we revive with GoF II. Of course, we also combine that style with a modern aesthetic, influences from games like Eve Online, for example. In the end, we took our inspiration from a variety of eras, but ultimately distilled our own style. I think we succeeded.

In the concept art for the Type 43, the highly distinctive rear view of the ship and the engines really catch my eye.

Yes, actually you only see the ships in all their glory during cutscenes or in the hangar. In the game, you see the ships from behind 90 % of the time. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the rear of the ship, the drive section of the ship, looks very distinctive and interesting. We achieve that by creating a wide variety of drive forms and arrangements. For example, we tried dual and triple drives or different sizes.
The silhouettes in the concepts were intended for the 3D graphic artists to always know where to put the glows for the engines and so that every single spaceship would look as distinctive as possible. In the first drafts, we always went to great difficulty to make several views of every model. Only later did it occur to us that it was actually enough to make a ¾-view with a diagram in that form.

What can you tell us about the pirate faction?

The pirates are a bit unusual. They have a consistent colour scheme, which is rather militaristic, olive green and brown, but because the pirates are beings from all over the galaxy, rather than a homogeneous race, the pirate ships vary widely and also have very different series. I can demonstrate that best with the concepts.
For example, we have ships that are reminiscent of armed transports. Those are ships which the pirates have adapted to suit their purposes. This is an example which was derived from one of the Terran ships. We considered how the pirates could have converted it to suit their purposes. The ships should give the impression that they were adapted by the pirates to meet their individual needs, like car tuners. Improvements include weapons, shields, additional or new engines, additional weapons platforms, or more cargo space. But it is also possible that the pirates have made modifications just for the look.

Are some of them captured ships?

Either that or they are ships from the black market or used ships that were bought or stolen.
It almost seems as though the pirate ships have influences from all of the races found in GoF II.
You could say that. For example, the pirates take a Terran ship and modify it with parts from a Mido ship or build their own wings onto the hull if the original ship doesn’t offer enough room for rockets or blasters. The outlaws use whatever is available to them. For example, two wrecks could be cannibalised to build a new ship. Weapons and drives are less important than the look of the spaceships, which can no longer be clearly classified. They should give the impression that the pirates have taken some random ship and converted it according to their own ideas.

At the moment, I don’t see designs for the Vossk and the ominous Void. What can we expect there?

The Void were already so convincing in the Java version that we didn’t want to make any fundamental changes. The Void Fighter has a distinctive colour scheme. There are violet glows on the ships, combined with a brilliant blue basic colour.
But we will probably build extra ships, too. Jerry is currently working on a Void Station, for example. In the Java version, drafts like this caused some problems, because they were just too complex.

Because these designs have little that is regular or repeated that you can use in the modular construction?

Right, that was the problem with the whole thing.

Which faction is your personal favourite?

Oh, that’s hard to say, since I put a lot of work into all of them. But if you put a gun to my head, I would probably say the Vossk, just because they come across as so alien. The Vossk are a very aggressive race. Somehow, I have a bit of sympathy for them, because they are the least conformist.

In the sense of ‘least assimilated?

Yes, exactly. Of course, the Void are also interesting, because they are so mysterious. In the game, we even have dialogues from the Void for the first time. At first we only see cryptic writing, no plain text at all. The whole thing serves to emphasise the strangeness of the people even more. There are no translator data, as it were, and all you see on the screen are characters like this.

Are there also changes to the character portraits, or will the comic style be kept?

With well over 100 characters in the game, we decided to keep the style. Nevertheless, we had a not insubstantial production effort bringing the old character portraits up to the iPhone level.

A welcome side effect of that is the continuity with the Java version, which of course is not exactly unknown. Fans who have already played Gof2 on Nokia or Sony Ericsson will see things they recognise.

What are you especially pleased with?

How can I put it? The whole game, really. You really have to view it as a single piece of work. Just the way the sun is displayed. It isn’t just a simple glow hanging in the skybox, instead you see streaks and other special effects, depending on where you are standing.
That produces an extremely natural impression and is reminiscent of science fiction films. Sometimes you really think ‘Wow!’, we’re starting to get close to the visuals of cinematic films or high-quality console games.

To be continued…

Note by the editors: The names of the stations and ships may change before the final release.

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Tags: Galaxy on Fire, game, Games, iPad, iPadgames, iPhone, iPhonegames, nokia