Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
|
posted January 23, 2013 05:11 PM |
|
|
CoH IOs release - Q&A to TAG GAMES developers
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes on iOs is getting closer to its release (January 24th) and we wanted to ask the development team about the game. Check out the answers from the TAG GAMES core team.
By the way, to learn more about Clash of Heroes, check out the official site
Hello! First of all, please, tell us more about yourselves. What is your background?
[Tom Kane – Lead Programmer]
I've been working professionally in the games industry for 18 years now, having served time with companies such as DMA Design, Visual Sciences & Denki. I've worked on a variety of hardware platforms but have recently been concentrating on mobile, which I love. The ability to have very deep and beautiful games in a tiny box still amazes me today. To put it into perspective, the first machine I owned was a ZX Spectrum and the very first game I wrote (over 30 years ago) was a text adventure on a school RML 380Z. Go look it up!
[Hugh McLaughlin – Programmer]
I spent 4 years studying in NUI Galway to get my BSc. in IT before deciding to pursue my dream of developing video games by attaining my Post Graduate Diploma and then Masters in Computer Game Programming at the University of Abertay Dundee. Since then I have been working along with the talented folks here at Tag Games to produce exciting mobile games.
[Ian Copland – Programmer]
I studied Computer Game Technology at The University of Abertay Dundee, participating in the Dare to be Digital Competition in my third year. After graduating I had a brief stay at Realtime Worlds working on an unrealised project. After they closed down I joined Tag Games I have now been here for over 2 years. I have worked on several titles during this time, including Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time and Funpark Friends. I have also contributed to Tag's proprietary game engine, moFlow.
[Marc Williamson – Producer]
I used to run my own studio doing DS and Wii games a few years ago. As that part of the industry started to slow down we closed the studio and moved on. The mobile games industry was growing massively and it still is. I joined Tag Games in 2010, the same day as Tom in fact and it’s really exciting the projects that are now coming to mobile devices such as Clash of Heroes. I can only see mobile gaming becoming more and more popular.
[Ross Angus – Artist]
I studied animation at the Glasgow School of Art and since working at Tag I have been able to work on loads of different projects. Clash of Heroes is the latest and it’s been great to work on.
Have you played Might & Magic Clash of Heroes before?
[Tom Kane – Lead Programmer]
Yeah I’ve played the Might and Magic Series for years.
[Hugh McLaughlin – Programmer]
I have played and completed Clash of Heroes on PC before this project, and enjoyed it immensely.
[Ian Copland – Programmer]
I've not yet played it through fully yet. I've been waiting for the mobile version to be released.
[Marc Williamson – Producer]
I played it through on the Nintendo DS. It was with me for a long time, in my console for ages. It’s a brilliant game I loved it. I had not played the HD version on PC or Xbox or PS3. When the project was discussed here at Tag Games I spent a while playing it. It’s a beautiful experience. I’m still pretty bad at it online, get beaten all the time.
[Ross Angus – Artist]
I am unbeatable on the Steam version, seriously though I am! Some of the units have been tweeked in the mobile version so not sure if I can keep that crown.
What is you feeling about the Clash of Heroes on iOs?
[Tom Kane – Lead Programmer]
I love Clash of Heroes. I've followed the Heroes of Might & Magic series from the early PC days and even own the quite rare Game Boy Colour cartridge of the game which I got over a decade ago! It's obvious that a massive amount of love and attention has been lavished on the PC and console versions of the game. Most players won't realise how much work has gone into the original character design for the game. As a developer, I can see how many frames of animation each one has and appreciate the subtle nuances that exist. It is obvious that the original team put a lot of their soul into this game and everyone must have worked very hard pull all of the aspects together to make a great game.
[Hugh McLaughlin – Programmer]
I feel the game manages to maintain what made the original so special while adding mobile features like turn based multiplayer that will allow players to enjoy this game on the go. It is going to be exciting to see what people think about it.
[Ian Copland – Programmer]
I've always been a big fan of RPG games, especially on mobile or handheld consoles, so I've been excited about Clash of Heroes since we started working on it. The unique battle system in particular interests me as I've never played anything like it before. I'm really looking forward to the release of the mobile version.
[Marc Williamson – Producer]
My first real experience of Clash of Heroes was on the DS and I loved it. I relished the opportunity to work on a version for mobile and had to play through the PC game several times too. It’s quite amazing to think we have been able to get all that HD content onto the small device in your hand.
[Ross Angus- Artist]
I’m very excited to see the game come out. The mobile game does look as good as the original.
What was the main challenge for you?
[Tom Kane – Lead Programmer]
As a programmer, the main challenge for this game was really to fit it all in to the confines of a mobile platform. The assets for the original game are all in HD and consequently very large indeed. On a PC with a fast processor and tons of RAM and virtual memory this isn't so much of a problem, but on lower-end iOS and Android devices we don't have this luxury, so we had to get creative in order to make all of this work.
[Hugh McLaughlin – Programmer]
The main challenge of this project was getting a console quality game to run smoothly on a mobile device with only a fraction of the power available to it, while still maintaining the stunning graphical and sound quality of the original.
[Ian Copland – Programmer]
The biggest challenge for myself was dealing with the asset pipeline. The assets used in the Steam version used far more memory than is available on iOS or Android devices and had to be significantly reduced, while maintaining the quality of the original assets. For the most part I think we've done a pretty good job of this, reducing memory to under a third of what it was previously yet the game still looks great.
[Marc Williamson – Producer]
There are always challenges throughout development but the main one was really the size of the game. The specifications needed to run the original PC / Xbox / PS3 version are pretty high compared to what you have available on mobile platforms, we didn’t want to change the experience so we had to be very clever about how we got the game working on all those devices. I think we’ve done a good job to bring that HD version of the game to your phones
[Ross Angus – Artist]
The amount of art in the game is emence, for me the hardest part was editing the files to make them optimal for smaller screens using less memory while keeping the same look and feel.
And to complete this introduction, check out some photos of the Tag team (coming directly from Scotland)!
Stay tuned, we are going to share more information on the game in the coming days!
Source
____________
|
|
