With so much varied content in Legendary Wars, it’s easy to imagine that some ideas had to be left on the cutting room floor. Was the team able to implement all the features you wanted, or did some tough choices and compromises have to be made along the way?
I am very happy with the final result. I think the project was a bit ambitious for a first game so we did leave some things out. I really wanted to be able to do team specials. For instance, have the Knighty ride the Unicorn and attack with a combined special. We also wanted to be able to equip lots of different armor and weapons, but the lack of a skeletal system made this a challenge.
While playing Legendary Wars I got a good chuckle out of humorous nods to modern gaming culture sprinkled throughout, but did any particular videogames from ages past serve as inspiration for you, or provide any guiding principles for your own approach to game design?
Well, I knew the fantasy genre has been done to death on other platforms. I wanted a game that didn’t take itself too seriously. I took inspiration from some of my favorite games: Zelda, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. I really enjoyed the silly humor in Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi. I wanted to make a light hearted adventure that gave a nod to all those classic 16 bit games.
With multiple programmers and artists on board for one project, how were their responsibilities divided? Did individual team members stick to developing specific aspects of the game engine (e.g., graphics display vs. user interface) and certain categories of art resources (e.g., portraits vs. sprites)? Or did everyone sort of jump in and contribute generally on one side or the other?
Yeah, we split the work up, but many times helped each other in all aspects of development. Tom was responsible for the game engine programming, AI and overworld map. Lam and Elik worked on the graphic engine, touch handling and everything else.
As for the artists, we all generally helped each other. Kristin is responsible for all menus, backgrounds and even some characters. Felix is the character artist and is responsible for the whole look of the game. Tom did 95% of the animation, but everyone helped out. I even got a few animations in myself.
What’s on tap for further updates to Legendary Wars? Have you and the team had a chance to discuss future projects?
Right now we are finishing up Retina and working on Game Center integration. After that we’re going to focus on bringing Legendary Wars to iPad and perhaps other platforms. We do have more content updates on the way, and if you beat the game you get a hint about our next project/big update. And as long as Legendary Wars continues to be successful, online has always been something we wanted to incorporate — both player vs. player and co-op.
iFanzine thanks Orian Livnat both for taking the time to chat with us and forwarding along the nice Retina Display photos! Check out our review of Legendary Wars and don’t forget there are still a few days to enter the Legendary Wars giveaway drawing!