Interview mit Tiki Games zu Galaxy's End

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PlaystationPortable.de: First of all can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Tiki Games who is behind the project and what did you do till now?

Kevin McCann: My name is Kevin McCann, and I’ve been in the game industry for over ten years now. I’ve always worked in lead designer capacity, and also worn the producer hat for half that time. But my real enjoyment comes from designing games.

I started as a lead designer at SCEA way back on an online multiplayer game called Tanarus. It was a good learning experience even though most of the readers are probably asking themselves “Tan-a-what?”

After that I went with Sony Online Entertainment and served as the Creative Director and Lead Designer on a massively multiplayer first-person shooter called PlanetSide. That was certainly an experience, and like most developers, I wanted a lot more for the final game, but things don’t always work out the way you’d like.

I’ve always known my best chance at making my own game was to have my own small studio. Subsequently I formed Tiki Games (self-funded) in late 2005 and spent November and December writing game design documentation and detailing an initial milestone schedule. In January, 2006, I hired my team (folks I had worked with in the past) to begin work on Galaxy’s End – which I hope will be the first high-quality RTS to debut on the PSP.

PlaystationPortable.de: Why did you decide to develop for die PSP?

Kevin McCann: A couple primary reasons:

a) I really like the hardware – it’s easily the most powerful handheld to date – and I wanted to make a fully 3D RTS for a handheld. So the PSP was the only viable choice.
b) It allows a small but talented team to create a very high-quality RTS without incurring a large budget – in other words, you can make a great-looking high-quality game for a lot less than doing a full console version.



PlaystationPortable.de: For everybody who doesn’t know Galaxy’s End, could you give a description what the game is all about?

Kevin McCann: In a nutshell, Galaxy’s End is an original full-featured RTS designed specifically for the PSP – it’s not a port of an existing RTS. We took what we felt are the best elements of existing RTS games on the PC, added a few of our own ideas into the mix, and built everything around the PSP’s controls and screen dimensions.

Galaxy’s End will have an extensive single-player Campaign, Skirmish Mode, and we’re targeting support for four-player multiplayer (free-for-all or team versus team) in both ad hoc and infrastructure modes.

PlaystationPortable.de: You have presented a pretty impressing teaser for the game. Can you tell us more about the story of the game and will there also be in-game videos to support the storyline?

Kevin McCann: Thanks – outside of the ship flying toward the planet, all of that is ingame footage. To cut to the chase, the storyline for Galaxy’s End is that mankind has extended well into space and colonized numerous worlds. Due to the rapid expansion, the government no longer directly colonizes new worlds – it’s become too costly – and instead allows megacorporations to go to planets first, set up operations, and begin prepping the world for annexation – so basically the megacorporations incur the initial colonization costs in exchange for being granted a lot of prime real estate, setting up shop early, earning future tax breaks, and so forth. But for a time it’s just rival megacorporations existing together with no real form of law – kind of Wild West in nature – and sometimes they combat each other for territory. These skirmishes never escalate into full-blown wars, but there’s a heated rivalry on this new world prior to annexation.

Just when things are going bad an alien race known as the Exo’qar invade the world. The Exo’qar are chasing a race that once enslaved them, and along the way the Exo’qar are subjugating any technologically-capable race they encounter. They see the Humans as meeting those criteria, and attempt to enslave them.

All of this is primarily told through the eyes of a human protagonist who is the foreman for one of the megacorporations. During the course of the game the player will get to play as both Humans and Exo’qar, as well as control some of the indigenous tribal members that reside on the planet. That’s a pretty simplicistic summary, but we’re also trying to make a storyline that’s easy for the player to follow. The cinematics will largely be ingame (not prerendered) – although we may have those (used sparingly) between each Act.



PlaystationPortable.de: Can you tell us more about the units and fighting parties of the game. What weapons will be used, how will building construction be managed?

Kevin McCann: The primary units the Humans utilize are a robotic workforce – these are more efficient than humans and also greatly minimize the risk of humans dying on new worlds. The robots use largely conventional weapons (machine guns, missiles, and so forth). The emphasis for the Human forces is ranged combat.

The Exo’qar are small aliens that reside within mechanical exo-suits. The exo-suits are powerful and melee-oriented that utilize a mixture of tool-like weapons (saws, hammers, etc) and energy projectiles.

There are also two indigenous tribes on the planet. During some missions the player will control these units as well, or combat them.

As far as building management is concerned, it’s similar to what you would expect in a RTS. There are three technology levels for the units and structures, and you can basically choose where you want to place a Barracks, Vehicle Bay, turrets, etc. There are proximity restrictions (meaning you can’t place one building a vast distance from another – they need to be somewhat close together), and we’ve streamlined some things that we feel would complicate the controls unnecessarily on the PSP, but the player really does pretty much build the base layout to his or her liking.

PlaystationPortable.de: The aspect of controls on PSP seems to be a hard task if thinking of real time strategy on a portable device. How did you solve the problem of simple usability and in-game overview?

Kevin McCann: A big part of making a RTS for a handheld (or console for that matter) is not feeling you have to cram every element of a PC RTS into a handheld RTS. Take what people like most, streamline and/or remove things that aren’t necessarily enjoyable, and try to make the majority of gameplay fit into a few buttons (so to speak). Most of our game can be played with the analog and two buttons – every button does something, of course, but 90% of the game is focused around a few primary controls. I don’t want to get too specific about controls right now other than to say we (and the publishers that have seen our game) have been impressed with how easy it is to pick up and play. It’s not dumbed down – player-skill still determines the outcome – but it’s not “Hmm, and how do I select a squad again?”

I’m a firm believer in mapping out the control system before tackling the overall game design. You can come up with ideas all day long for a game, but you have a limited amount of controls. So start with the controls, and always keep the platform (in this case the PSP) in mind when designing the game. Don’t overcomplicate the controls.



PlaystationPortable.de: Which existing strategy games did you use for inspiration during the development?

Kevin McCann: There was no particular strategy game I used for inspiration. I’ve been playing real-time strategy games since Dune 2, C&C, Warcraft, and so forth – I’ve always been partial to Blizzard’s games. But I didn’t sit back and say “Guys, we’re gonna make Starcraft for the PSP, but with different art!” Being a sci-fi RTS will inevitably get us compared to Starcraft, but we’re our own game, just as they are their own game. They just have – umm – a much larger audience than we do. :)

PlaystationPortable.de: How long will an average player need to beat the final game?

Kevin McCann: The current design has a fairly lengthy Campaign, but we’re also designing each mission so it can be completed faster than a PC RTS mission. I’m shooting for at least ten hours for the casual player in the Campaign. There are also bonus objectives that can add length to each mission.

Beyond that there will also be a Skirmish Mode (instant play against the computer).

PlaystationPortable.de: Can you tell us more about planned multiplayer features. Will there also be online content like downloadable maps or even and online multiplayer modes?

Kevin McCann: Provided we have time I’d like to have Skirmish Mode so that you can have up to two players and two computer opponents.

For pure multiplayer, we’re aiming to support both ad hoc and infrastructure, and are targeting up to 4 players (both in free-for-all and team versus team). We’ll naturally have maps that vary in size (smaller maps for 1 vs 1, and larger maps for 2 vs 2).

PlaystationPortable.de: How far is the stage of development and when could be expect the game to be released if everything goes right?



Kevin McCann: In 2006 we largely worked on our tools and technology and began working on the playable prototype in the latter half of the year. Presently we’re looking at being finished at the end of the year or first quarter 2008. Most of the work that remains is content at this point as well as ramping up the artificial intelligence and implementing the multiplayer modes.

PlaystationPortable.de: You are still looking for a publisher at the moment, what would you like to tell them?

Kevin McCann: If you’re interested in potentially publishing a RTS game for the PSP we have a proof-of-concept playable demo that demonstrates our core control scheme and minimum visual quality. Feel free to contact me at inquiry@tikigames.net for more information.

PlaystationPortable.de: Since you are one of the few developers to create an original game just for the PSP, what is your opinion about the various PS2 and other remakes for the system?

Kevin McCann: Well, this is where it’s really my opinion, and it’ll certainly seem biased, but I feel the PSP needs more original intellectual properties. I’m not saying “I’m creating a brand new game type!” No, I’m creating a RTS, and my goal is to make sure that RTS gamers that play my game say “Yeah, it’s definitely an RTS, and it plays and looks great!” But the reason I chose the RTS genre is because I wanted to be the first to fill a genre that I feel can do really, really well on the PSP.

Likewise I feel games that are ported/remade from the PS2 to the PSP don’t really help. There are successes in this area, of course, but for the most part I feel gamers want new experiences – not playing something they’ve already played on the PS2. I can appreciate doing a new version of a game (like Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, S.O.C.O.M., or Daxter) that originated on the PS2, but even these I feel have a preconception from gamers such as “Well, I pretty much already played that game on the PS2, and I prefer having dual analog control for it.” Personally, I’d rather play a platformer or shooter that is brand new – both in content and as an intellectual property – than play something from an existing license from the PS2 – even if the basic control layout is the same. But again, I do appreciate when a new game is made for the PSP from an existing license – I don’t really appreciate ports or remakes, though.



PlaystationPortable.de: Do you have any future projects?

Kevin McCann: Yes, we have two other games we’d like to do (different genres), but it’s all pending Galaxy’s End getting a publisher and doing well first.

PlaystationPortable.de: What are your favorite handheld games?

Kevin McCann: I don’t really have particular favorites, but one of them was definitely the first Advance Wars for the GBA. Likewise I enjoy a good RPG. And even with my answer to the “original games” question, I’m probably looking forward to checking out Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters the most out of future PSP titles presently.

I’m also looking forward to playing more of Galaxy’s End as we continue to add content. I like strategy games (obviously), and I’m hoping to be the only RTS on the PSP for a time.

PlaystationPortable.de: Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?

Kevin McCann: Thanks for the reading the interview, and thanks to Kevin Jensen for giving us the opportunity to provide a bit more detail regarding Galaxy’s End. We genuinely appreciate the interest in our game, and are working hard to create a great new RTS for the PSP. Hopefully we’ll have good news on the publisher front in the coming weeks.

The interview was held by Kevin Jensen for PlaystationPortable.de

Thanks to Kevin McCann for his support.