RIP: Strike Back Developer Q&A by Game Tunnel

We were really floored by how much fun was packed into RIP: Strike Back when we got a chance to check it out and with our mind firmly focused on the game, we went to White Elephant to get some more information about developing the game and what was next...there were a couple of MONUMENTAL answers given by Natalie Lekomtseva, who was nice enough to field our questions.

RIP: Strike Back is far from your first game, but there are probably still some who are unfamiliar with your studio. What is the background of your studio?

The company "White Elephant" has been developing computer games since 2003.The main body of the company consists of 7 people. The company founders-Andrey Pahmutov (project manager) and Peter Efimov (game designer) initially were in the board games business for a long period of time . Then they met Dmitry Kuklin and founded a small PC game developing company. The work was unsuccessful until the Alexey Rybakov and Vladimir Shashkov- a very talented and experienced programmer and artist (respectively) joined the company. I, Natalie Lekomtseva, joined last as our marketer to help get the products to market.

The director and game designer have had the experience of developing board and PC games. Our programmer developed PC games since he was a student. Even his degree work was a 3D arcade game. The artist has dealt with computer graphics for more than 6 years. He was an artist on for GBA games, mobile games, and has also done webdesign.

Our games released so far are: Jungle Heart, Road Rush, Avalon, RIP.

For those of our readers who haven't yet played it, describe what you would call an average game of RIP: Strike Back?

Well, RIP: Strike Back is an arcade shooter with dynamic gameplay, bright graphics, nostalgia for early console games and MUCH fun!

RIP was a pretty good game, but honestly RIP: Strike Back is much better, what made you decide to do the new game?

Initially all the ideas from RIP 2 were already present at development of RIP. But the time frames didn't allow us at that moment to include all our ideas into the project. We realized the lack of some features from the very beginning in RIP, but decided that the version with easier gameplay also has the right to exist :) When RIP was released, it got lots of positive feedbacks from the players, game portals, publishers and magazines. So we decided to divide the development process into 3 parts:
1. A bit simplified version - RIP
2. Creation of RIP: Strike Back - where we'd include all our ideas,
3. Development of RIP: Arcade War which would contain more weapons, more vehicles (e.g., racing cars, flyers, etc.), more game space and MULTIPLAYER!!!

So, creation of RIP: Strike Back is our second stage :)

I have to admit I find that the theme with Death, Halloween and Rock'N'Roll to be a little odd. What let to the creation of that theme?

At present the game market is overfilled with super positive heroes, brave space commanders and so on. As players, we are sick and tired of saving the Earth from alien invaders. Inspired by books of Terri Pratchett, we wanted to see new charismatic characters. That�€™s how Death, Halloween and my favorite Rock�€™n�€™Roll were created.

What feature in RIP: Strike Back do you think is the most innovative?

We tried to create a good arcade shooter which to be enjoyed most shouldn�€™t be taken too seriously. The most innovative feature, to our mind, were bosses which you meet every 10 levels. It took us the most of our RIP: Strike Back development time to create the bosses in their old-school arcade style. Each boss has his own tactics, description, behavior and appearance. This is the main feature, which we didn�€™t see in similar games such as Crimsonland, Alien Shooter and others.

How did being an independent developer help you in the creation of RIP: Strike Back?

Theoretically, we weren�€™t limited by outside factors. That being the case, we were able to put all our creative potential and soul into our work. Being indie gives a �€œflexible�€? approach to game developing. E.g., when developing RIP: Strike Back, we changed the last boss an hour before the release!!! We feel strongly that the game became better due to it. Of course, such a thing by no means wouldn�€™t take place if we weren�€™t independent.

When you envision players playing RIP: Strike Back, what do you think they'll enjoy the most?

We hope, our players will enjoy simple and dynamic gameplay. Our gamers should relax and get much fun from the game.

What was the most difficult or trickiest part of RIP: Strike Back to program?

The most difficult was to program bosses�€™ and enemies�€™ behavior.

Independent studios have much shorter turn-around times, meaning games are often released ever 6 months instead of every 2 years. What do you expect the future holds for White Elephant? Are you planning to get to work on another title or focusing on the success of RIP: Strike Back?

We�€™ll focus on success of RIP: Strike Back for the time being. However, we're also doing our best to develop on the main features, to add unique skills with visual effects, to add more vehicles, equipment, as well as more characters.

In the light of success of RIP: Strike Back, we are looking for business partners, who would help us to increase the quality of the product, and to realize our creative ideas.

Spread The Word:

Del.icio.us |

Digg |

Slashdot |

By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Wednesday April 12, 2006