The Galerider team has kindly answered some questions about the new Panzer Dragoon-esque title for iPhone. My thanks to Daniel Choo and the development team at Orion Arts for providing this additional information about the game.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Were there any specific difficulties in completing the game within six months with such a small team?
Daniel Choo: There definitely were challenges, especially in the area of time. Our solution was to manage our scope to include only meaningful features.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Were there any major changes made to the game concept during the development process that you can share?
Daniel Choo: Fortunately there were no major changes, we managed to stay on course with our vision. A quick prototype at the pre-production stage helped us realize that the game play had potential for further development. We just kept moving forward from there.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Many mobile games incorporate micro-transactions. What made your team decide to make the game micro-transaction free?
Daniel Choo: We wanted to create a product that the players can truly own. Having IAPs on top of paying an up front premium did not sit well with us.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: There are many platforms to develop for today. Why did you choose the iPhone?
Daniel Choo: We picked the iPhone for 2 reasons.
- Piracy seems less rampant.
- Limited resources. Given the targeted launch date and learning curve involved, we could only choose to deploy on one platform, at least for now.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Some say there’s no room for rail shooters in today’s marketplace. Was it difficult to secure funding for a game like Galerider compared to other mobile games and apps?
Daniel Choo: Since there aren’t many games similar to Galerider in the app stores, it would make our game unique 😉. But to be really honest, the way the funding came in was nothing short of a divine intervention.
Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Did your team grow up in the 90s playing rail shooters? Was your own nostalgia a primary reason for making this game?
Daniel Choo: Some of us actually grew up playing games since even the 80s!
But my personal reason has always been that I want to ride awesome dragons into battle. The rail shooter format helped us to provide a no frills, high-speed joyride where the player gets to focus on the action: shooting enemies and avoiding danger. Our goal is to capture the essences of arcade-styled game play for the mobile experience.
I posted my impressions about Galerider earlier, and if you haven’t tried it yet, now is as good of a time as any. Since launch, Orion Arts has released several patches for the game featuring graphical improvements and UI adjustments. The team’s next release is expected to see some improvements to the UI on iPhone X, as well as graphical improvements across different levels of the game.