In the last two concept blogs we introduced you to artifacts and citadels. This time we go bigger. Today’s blog is about the citadel planets housing the citadels and ultimately the artifacts; we sometimes also refer to them as artifact worlds.
Securing them will be crucial for a constant supply of artifacts and will also attract others who seek to take citadel planets from you by force. We anticipate that these worlds will see quite some warfare and clever stratagems; they are high profile targets and a great strategic resource to have, if you can solidify your hold over them. So in short everybody wants them, they are well worth fighting for, but artifact worlds are few and far between. [full]
Originally we had intentions to make all three types of artifacts available on one planet, but we came to the conclusion that it would be much more exciting to have different worlds you need to conquer and defend, than just one where you get everything you need.
There are three types of citadel planets each sporting a different citadel which in turn yields one kind of artifact (Defense, Speed or Offense). Having one citadel planet will be helpful to your alliance, but having one of each kind will be a real advantage. Bottom line is there is no ‘ultimate’ artifact world, each one is important and you need to consider how well you want to protect them. After all, fleets tasked with protecting your artifact worlds might be sourly missed in offensive fleet actions. This also allows for smaller alliances capturing and holding artifact planets. Overextending your territory or fleet to capture an artifact world is a bold gamble, but it might just pay off.
An early concept art, still featuring all different types of artifacts.
Last time we uncovered that the citadels crashed into the planets after a cataclysmic event, the crash not only affected the citadels but the planets as well and would undoubtedly have an after-effect that changed these worlds forever. The kinetic impact alone would be enormous and we wanted this to be visible. Early concept art featured broken apart planets barely held together by the immense energies of the artifacts. But that would make colonization and exploitation nearly impossible, so we took a more subtle approach. While the impact site is still very obvious, even from space, it is far from a planet shattering event.
This should give you a good idea how a citadel planet will look like.
This second approach also makes the powerful energies radiating from the citadel more prominent. You can clearly see the glowing veins of power, which add to the alien feel and look of a citadel planet and also let the player know what kind of artifacts can be gained on the respective world, depending on the color. Perhaps the overall feeling also hints that the forces at work here are so far beyond Nivelians, Vossks and Terrans, that it begs the question whether these races are just kids playing with a loaded gun when trying to unlock citadel worlds’ secrets.
Last week we’ve posted our first Concept Blog for Galaxy on Fire – Alliances. And those of you who’ve taken the time to read through it will have gotten quite a bit of first-hand information about the ancient artifacts, which you can use in the game to level up your command ships and respective fleets. And that’s where we continue today with the second concept blog for our red-hot mobile strategy MMO. This time, however, we’ll no longer talk about the artifacts themselves, but rather will we introduce you to the so-called citadels, which contain almost infinite amounts of the said artifacts underneath their high-tech shells. Designed by a highly advanced civilization and scattered all over the galaxy by the devastating shockwave of a cataclysmic cosmic event, the citadels could best be described as monumental structures that melted into the surficial areas of their host planets millions of years ago.[full]
A first idea sketch of the artifact mountains (also known as citadels) on the one hand and the mysterious treasures they contain on the other...
With the aid of their integrated auto-repair mechanisms and survival technologies, the citadels had not only been able to keep their key functions intact after crashing onto the concrete surfaces of the orbs in question, but they also managed to stay fully operational through the aeons. Therefore, these age-old retainers of an ancient civilization’s long-forgotten legacy are now being discovered and claimed by contemporary explorers and entrepreneurs, eager to take possession of the mysterious secrets and tremendous powers within their cores.
The final concept artwork which served as guideline for the actual 3D renderings of the citadels in our upcoming mobile multiplayer strategy game Galaxy on Fire - Alliances.
Despite their high-tech composition, the look of the citadels is rather inartifical and natural. We ultimately agreed on a “mountain”-like design, because it illustrates the complete merging of the advanced technology with the planet they crashed onto. Instead of remaining to be foreign objects, the citadels have deeply merged into their surroundings over the centuries – to the point where they’ve become an inseparable part of the planet they’ve once landed on. Consequently, they can also not be moved away from the crater site, but rather do the players have to take the whole planet into their possession, if they want to take hold of a citadel and harvest the valuable artifacts it contains. And considering the nice bonuses you’ll get from equipping your ships with red, blue and yellow artifacts, claiming dominion over as many citadels as possible might not be the worst of options.
Welcome to the very first Concept Blog for our upcoming mobile strategy MMO Galaxy on Fire – Alliances. Like a “light version” of the Developer Diaries, the Concept Blogs will focus on one particular asset or aspect of the game and introduce it to you in more detail. In addition, they’ll also feature some cool artworks, scribbles and graphics that (in most cases) have not been published anywhere else before. The first assets we’re going to talk about in more detail are the so-called artifacts, which are remnants of an ancient civilization that bear enormous powers. In GOF-A, they can be harvested from special planets and used to increase the stats of your command ships and their respective fleets. In total, there are three different kinds of artifacts, all of which have different qualities and grant different bonuses.[full] While the blue ones can be used to improve your ships’ defense, the yellow ones can be used to increase their speed and the red ones can be used to boost their fire power.
The 3D renderings of the ancient artifacts in Galaxy on Fire - Alliances have been designed on the basis of the concept artworks displayed above.
In regard to their visual appearance, the artifacts have been designed as rock fragments nerved by glowing energy fibers. Other attempts, which got discarded in the meantime, include crystal-, alien- and tech-like designs.
Despite its pretty cool look, the "alien/organic" design for the artifacts got discarded because the Alliances team felt that it would not fully incorporte the mineral-like nature of these items.
In the end, however, we went with the rock-like look for two reasons. On the one hand, that look shows right from the start that the artifacts are minerals that have to be unearthed from deep underneath the ground. And on the other hand, it also conveys that they contain some kinda mysterious energy within their cores. Therefore, after quite a bit of trial and error, we ultimately settled with a design fairly resembling scorching-hot chunks of volcanic rock…
Just like the "alien/organic" design, the "tech" design is another pretty nice attempt that didn't make it into the game...
The colors of the three different types of artifacts correlate with the special glow in which your command ship will be wrapped as soon as you equip with an artifact. Since a combination of two or three different types of artifacts on one and the same ship is not possible, one has to choose carefully which command ship to boost with which kind of artifact.
By equipping your command ship with red artifacts, you can increase its firepower quite a bit.
With the production of Galaxy on Fire – Alliances still being in full swing, the concepts and 3D renderings displayed above are not 100% final. However, there’s a good chance that the assets that end up in the final version of the game will only differ slightly (if at all) from the ones shown in this blog.
In the past couple of months, it’s become a little quiet here on the blog. But that’s (hopefully) going to change very soon. Why, you might ask. Well, because it’s Dev Diary time again! Yes, that’s right! We’re very happy to present you the first Developer Diary for our upcoming mobile sci-fi strategy MMO Galaxy on Fire – Alliances today and we’re eager to announce that from now on we’ll be posting an exclusive blog about the development and production of the most ambitious project that Fishlabs has ever tackled every single week until launch day! We’ll post a Developer Diary every first Thursday of the month and a so-called Concept Blog on all subsequent Thursdays! While we’re going to tackle a selected variety of bigger and more elemental issues in the Dev Diaries, we’ll introduce you to smaller assets such as structures, planets, characters and space crafts with the aid of the weekly Concept Blogs.[full] Sounds good? Of course, it does. So let’s not waste any more time and cut to the chase right away. Because I’m sure a lot of you would like to find out how the title Galaxy on Fire – Alliances came about.
The star map shows the individual territories of the alliances in GOF-A. Among others, you will also be able to highlight strategically important targets, such as planets containing citadels, for your allies.
The naming of Galaxy on Fire – Alliances was by far not as easy as one might think. The only thing that was clear right from the start was the fact that the iconic “Galaxy on Fire” moniker should be used for our new game we well. After all, we’re very eager to expand the Galaxy on Fire IP and take it beyond the confinements of the sci-fi shooter genre. Consequently, we’ve gone through several meetings and countless discussions before we ultimately agreed on a title that – at least in our opinion – illustrates and underlines what the game is all about, namely a battle-driven multiplayer strategy game in a sci-fi setting. While the word “Galaxy” points out that the game takes place in futuristic scenery, the word “Fire” implies that there’s a whole lotta fighting going on in said outer space environment. And last but not least, the addendum “Alliances” makes it clear that you’ll have to team up with others and display a fine amount of strategic finesse if you want to dominate the servers of GOF-A (as our community has already nicknamed the game). After all, multiplayer gaming is where Galaxy on Fire – Alliances really shines and shows its strengths. Among others, the individual alliance members can not only send each other support troops and coordinate attacks, but they can also communicate directly with each other through the integrated mailing system and mark strategically important targets on the star map. Therefore, it was particularly important for us to highlight the crucial role of GOF-A’s manifold multiplayer features right from the start by incorporating them into the title of the game. All in all, we’ve put several dozen suggestions, such as “Colonies”, “Pioneers”, “Citadels”, “Dominion” or “Reign”, up for discussion. In the end we chose “Alliances”, because we felt that it best represented the nature of our game. And it has got a pretty nice ring to it as well, hasn’t it?
In GOF-A you will be able to observe the epic space battles from the bridge of your command ship. Here's an early concept of the bridge of a Terran battle cruiser.
Okay, guys. That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed our first Developer Diary about the naming of our first multiplayer game. What do you think? Did we nail it with Galaxy on Fire – Alliances or would you have favored another title? And are you already curious about the upcoming Concept Blogs? In the next couple of weeks, we’re gonna give you some additional insight into the powerful artifacts of GOF-A as well as the ancient citadels that contain them. Stay tuned!
Almost the entire Fishlabs team had been eagerly awaiting this moment for weeks and even months. And yesterday it had finally happened. At round about 10 o’clock in the morning we got a call from the transport company, telling us that a pretty big package had just been delivered to the foyer of our office building. Weighing more than hundred kilograms and measuring about two-and-a-half square meters, this giant cardbox monster contained a brand-new and feverishly anticipated addition to the Fishlabs team: our very own foosball table! We already had one in the old office in Hamburg/Winterhude, but according to those daring (or desperate) enough to give it a try, that older table wasn’t exactly a quality product. The new one, however, is a high-class, pro-quality Leonhart table that leaves nothing to be desired. So there’s a good chance that quite a few Fishlabs employees will stay a few hours longer at the office from now on and score a couple of goals after work[full]
Yesterday, we already shared that photo on Facebook and asked our fans what could be in the cardboard box... among others, they guessed a corpse, a space ship or an iPad with a 60-inch-display...
When it comes to the table’s design, we have not only chosen white and blue players in order to represent the Fishlabs CI as closely as possible, but we have also branded all four sides of the table with our iconic anglerfish and the “Blauer Fisch” logo. For those of you who haven’t heard it yet, the “Blauer Fisch” (which is German for “Blue Fish”) is an un-official office party that we’re having on the last Thursday of the month. There, we usually have a couple of beers, play a couple of rounds of FIFA 13 or Soul Calibur V on the Xbox 360 and generally have a good and relaxed time together. And from now on we’ll surely also be playing quite a lot of foosball at the “Blauer Fisch” as well.
Getting the table up to our office on the 5th floor turned out to be quite tricky... luckily we were able to cramb it into the elevator once we took it out of the cardboard package.
All in all, the production and delivery of the customized Fishlabs table took about four weeks and it was more than worth the wait! We’ve already build it up yesterday evening after work and played a couple of matches. It’s helluva good fun and the table plays absolutely smoothly. So here’s to a lot of hard-fought foosball matches in Fishlabs office. Cheers!
There it stands in all its glory and beauty: Our very own Fishlabs foosball table!
BTW: The colours of the players do not only resemble our own Fishlabs colours, but they also match those of my favourite soccer club, the Hamburger Sport Verein. What club do you cheer for and what colours would you have chosen for the players? Let us know in the comments!
If you’ve followed our story over the past couple of months, you will have noticed that we’ve recently added quite a lot of new talent to our team. Consequently, office space has more and more turned into a rare and highly treasured commodity at the Fishlabs headquarters. But that’s no longer the case. Because in late 2012 we’ve signed a rental agreement for an additional open-plan office on the fifth floor of the same building at Roedingsmarkt, whose first floor we’ve been occupying since our relocation to the very center of Hamburg in August 2011. And today the marketing and QA departments have finally moved to their new place of work.[full]
Our open-plan office on the fifth floor is still a bit empty... let's wait and see how long it will stay like that.
There’s still quite a bit of work to be done here – e.g. our kitchen including the indispensible coffee maker won’t be ready before the end of the week – but nevertheless we’ve grown really fond our new work space right away. It’s bright, fresh, spacious and overall very inviting. And in round about a month, we’ll even get our very own Fishlabs foosball table!
Yours truly at his new workplace. Among others, the dev diaries for our next sci-fi game for iPhone and iPad will be written here in the not-too-distant future...
Another big advantage of the addition of another bureau is the fact that we now have quite a lot of space at hand. This means that at least in the foreseeable future we won’t have to worry anymore about where exactly our new employees will sit and work. If you keep in mind, that we still have about a dozen open vacancies posted in our “Jobs” section over at Fishlabs.net, this instance comes in more than just a little handy…
If I lean out of the window, that’s what I see at the moment… thanks God I didn’t drop my iPhone into the ice-cold waters of the Alster.^^
Well, everybody… that’s it for now. We hope you enjoyed this little peak behind the scenes. We’ll surely keep you in the loop about all upcoming news from the Fishlabs headquarters and we’ll also post some more pics of our new bureau on Facebook in the future. So if you’d like to get some exclusive insight into our doings here at Fishlabs, be sure to like www.facebook.com/fishlabs and www.facebook.com/galaxyonfire right away.
P.S. We’re making progress by the hour here, so today (roughly 24 hours after this blog had originally been posted) it already looks a lot more comfortable here than it did yesterday. Here’s another bunch of red-hot pics for your to enoy!
Our Senior Community Manager Sebastian at his new work place. If you're registered to our forums or if you've have ever written us a ticket, there's a good chance you've already made his acquaintance.
Tough question: Does anyone of you recognize the vinyl record that our Lead Web Developer Christian is checking out in the background?
Meet Fishlabs' QA department... if you were a bug, there'd be no hiding from these guys.
Almost four months ago, we posted a dev diary by the name of “Sorted Out” here on our blog. Among others, it contained a pretty kick-ass concept artwork of a heavily armed Terran fighter called the Dark Angel. Judging from the dozens of comments about it, our fans liked that ship quite a bit. I mean, almost everyone who posted about it on our blog or Facebook fan page said that they would have loved to be able to add that spectacular vessel to their personal fleet as well. And, guess what… that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do very soon! Next week, on November 21st, we’re going to launch a free content update for Galaxy on Fire 2, which will include the prototypes of three highly sought-after new vessels. Besides the Dark Angel it will also include a Nivelian fighter known as Ghost and a Vossk bomber known as N’Tirrk! Since both the Fishlabs team and the GOF2 fans really loved these designs, we thought that it would be a shame if they’d just end up in some folder of unused material.[full] And thus we decided to make them a part of the game instead. After all, we’re still very proud of the Supernova add-on and this is our way to say “Thank You!” for the awesome support you’ guys have given us over the years. Cause in the end, nothing says “You guys rock!” as loud and clear as a couple of kick-ass new space ships! And to make sure that all iOS gamers will be able to get hold of them at the same time, we’ve decided that the free content update will be released simultaneously in SD, HD and Full HD. So all iOS and OSX pilots will be able to enjoy the new ships on their devices, no matter whether it’s an iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPod touch 5G, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS or Mac!
With its four primary weapons, the Ghost has quite a lot of fire power. On the screenshot above, it is landing a fatal blow on a moribund freight ship of an enemy faction.
But now enough of the introduction and onward to the stuff that really matters: the new ships! In the game, all of them are described as prototypes, which have never gone into mass-production for one reason or another. While the hard-to-get Dark Angel and Ghost are pretty much on par with the Most Wanted Ships in terms of stats and pricing, the cheaper N’Tirrk could rather be seen as a noteworthy alternative to the H’Soc. However, the one thing that all three of the new ships have in common, is the fact that – just like the Blood Star, Blue Fyre & Co – they will only be available for in-game credits and not for real money. After all, we still believe that the players should be able to unlock all content in a premium title like GOF2 simply by playing the game and not by shelling out actual money. If someone wants to progress faster and hence prefers to buy a credit pack rather than grind for an hour or two, that’s of course more than fine for us as well. But reaching into your wallet should definitely be a voluntary option and not a necessity. One way or another, if you’re willing to hand over some of your hard-earned cash to a shady ship dealer operating out of some down-and-out space station’s rusty hangar, you’ll soon be able to add three real beauties to your exquisite collection of space ships.
In its early incarnation, the Dark Angel still sported a dark-blue paintjob. However, we ultimately decided to go with another colour, because the dark-blue coating might mislead players to believe that its not a Terran but a Nivelian ship.
The first ship we’d like to introduce in detail is the Dark Angel – a classic ship which most of you will most likely know from the aforementioned Dev Diary #10. With four primaries, two secondaries and one turret slot, the prototype of this quick ‘n forceful interceptor has more than enough fire power to take on just about any other ship in the galaxy. However, due to a number of unexpected delays and unscheduled development costs, the manufacturer of the ship – Davilon Corporation – ultimately had to cancel the production of the Dark Angel; an instance that almost made the company go bankrupt.
An early lowpoly model of the Dark Angelsporting only light meshes as well as normal and diffuse maps
Design-wise, the Dark Angel’s biggest characteristic is the unorthodox shape of its airfoils, which is a little reminiscent of the wings of an angel – hence the name of the ship. It’s also due to this advanced shaping that the Dark Angel is surprisingly swift and agile despite its heavy armor and massive plating.
The N'Tirrk was originally designed as a Most Wanted Ship for the Supernova, the latest story add-on for Fishlabs sci-fi epic Galaxy on Fire 2.
The second ship you’ll be able to buy when the new “Prototypes” update has gone live is a Vossk gunship called the N’Tirrk. Though its two primary weapons rigs don’t exactly make the N’Tirrk well-suited for dog fights, its four secondary weapons slots cater for a lot of boom anyway. And its experimental segment plating gives it a particularly aggressive and terrifying look.
A very early incarnation of the N'Tirrk. Back then, the Vossk bomber was little more than a lowpoly 3D model and a monitoring grid.
All in all, the N’Tirrk is quite a little weaker than the Dark Angel and the Ghost – with its biggest disadvantage being its humble 8 equipment slots – but on the other hand it is also way cheaper than the other new vessels.Hence it is especially attractive to newbie pilots, who have not yet accumulated an eight-figure sum of credits on their intergalactic bank accounts.
This re-worked concept artwork of the Ghost illustrates the vessel's bellicant look and experimental character quite nicely.
And last but not least, there is also the Ghost. This rare prototype of a Nivelian fighter never went into mass production, because it was supposed to make use of some revolutionary technology, which was still in its very early stages at the time of the vessel’s construction. Hence, the Nivelian Administration decided not to pursue the Ghost project any further. Instead, the Nivelians rather put their time and effort into other fields of research, which were partly based on the findings from the development of the Ghost. Despite the fact that the Ghost is not as advanced as its predecessors, it is still one helluva ship. And its four primaries, two secondaries and 15 (!) equipment slots leave more than enough room for extensive customization and armament.
This lowpoly model features only a normal map. It's particularly well-suited to show the Ghost's characteristic double-hull design and heavy armor plates in the back.
In terms of its outer appearance, the Ghost does not look as stunningly beautiful and stream-lined as other Nivelian vessels such as the Aegir or the Kinzer, for example. This is mostly due to the fact that the Ghost has undergone quite a lot of changes and modifications during the individual steps of its development. Therefore a lot of parts have either been re-arranged or added retroactively. Hence, the ship is characterized by a rather experimental design that does look quite a bit more harsh and brutal than that of the other models of the Nivelian fleet.
With its heavy armor and powerful weaponry, the N'Tirrk poses a serious threat to the squadron of Nivelian fighters in this spectacular GOF2 action shot.
So what do you think, guys? Will you add all of these exquisite vessels to your personal fleet? And if so, which one will you buy first? Keep your comments coming… it’s gotten pretty quiet here after our final dev diary had been posted and it would be awesome if we’d revive the blog a little. For starters, I think a three-figure sum of comments on our “latecomer” behind-the-scenes featurette would be pretty cool! Let’s see if we can pull it off. And, as always, please show a little love for www.Facebook.com/GalaxyOnFire as well and “like” it if you haven’t already done so anyway.
The good thing about totally unexpected happenings is that they occur both ways… sometimes they throw you back a little, but sometimes they also play into your hands. Not even two weeks ago, it looked as if the simultaneous launch of our new open space epic Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova in SD, HD and Full HD had to be postponed for quite a few days due to an unexpected rejection of the Full HD version on the one hand and a number of subsequent iPhone 5 optimizations of the HD version on the other hand. During that time, we still had a glimpse of hope that we could make a September release, but internally we were more expecting the new expansion pack to be launched sometime in October. Since we didn’t know a specific release date ourselves also and didn’t know if and when the re-submitted versions would get an approval from Apple, we purposely kept all information about the release as vague as possible and also didn’t announce the exact dates of new submissions of the Full HD and HD versions publically. After all, there has always still been the chance that we’d get rejected again for one reason or another and if that had happened, people would most likely be even more disappointed than they were after the new add-on’s first delay. [full]
However, as I said earlier, sometimes things turn out quite a bit different than expected and it seems as if not only our developers but also the Apple staff were pretty eager to get everything fixed as soon as possible and hence we got the approval for both the Full HD and HD version of GOF2 – Supernova in less than a week. When I left the office yesterday evening, we had still been waiting for feedback from Apple, but when I got back to work earlier today, I hadn’t even started my computer when our CEO Michi came to my work place and showed me Supernova on the iPhone 5 in all its glory! The game looks and performs absolutely amazing on the new hardware and both the handling and the presentation really benefit from the bigger screen and 1136 by 640 pixel resolution of Apple’s red-hot smartphone. For performance reasons, we’ve not integrated the refraction shaders and bloom shaders right from the start, but we’ve tweaked everything to the new resolution and also added the enhanced motion blur effect that most of you will most likely remember from Wednesday’s behind-the-scenes featurette. Since everything went down that well after all, there’s really just one thing that still needed to be done. And that is to flick the switch and make Supernova available for download!
The Teneta R.E.D. is one of the exclusive special ships in GOF2 - Supernova. Any idea what the acronym R.E.D. could stand for?
And guess what? That’s exactly what we just did! So after more than a year of hard work our biggest title of the year has been released at last and you guys are finally able to take on a new adventure and save the galaxy from an impending catastrophe once again. It might sound like a worn-out phrase at first when I now say that Supernova was definitely worth the wait because it marks by far the most epic and spectacular instalment of the GOF saga to date. However, I’m sure that every single GOF fan out there will agree with me as soon as he’s checked the new expansion out on his iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and dived a little deeper into its gripping storyline and conflagrant universe. If you’ve read our previous dev diaries with care, you’ll most likely have learned quite a lot about the new Supernova expansion and its numerous features by now. But even if you’ve read every blogspot twice, there will still be lots and lots of surprises that we left out on purpose because we didn’t want to spoil all the fun in advance. I’m surely not exaggerating when I say that Supernova’s gonna be really huge and that you guys will be able to spend many hours on end exploring its manifold new star systems and taking on a broad variety of new missions. To get an overview of the most spectacular new features of Supernova, you’re recommended to check out the brand-new feature trailer above! It’s good fun and gives you a good impression of what to expect when you decide to set course for Ginoya system and engage in an adventure unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before!
Earlier today, our lead web desinger Christian gave our new sci-fi epic GOF2 - Supernova a try on the red-hot iPhone 5.
Before I finally shut up and leave you alone for your first couple of Supernova playing sessions, I’d like to take the opportunity and say “Thank you!” to all our graphics artists, programmers, game designers and other colleagues assigned to the Supernova project, who’ve been helluva supportive to me right from the start and provided me with tons of interesting pieces of information and spectacular assets whenever a new developer diary was due. And, of course, I’d also like to say “Thank you!” to all of our fans, who took the time to read these blogspots and posted their feedback in the comments. The very first Supernova dev diary went live not even six months ago and still the Supernova dev diaries alone have already generated more than 65% of all comments ever posted on our blog! Not bad, eh? I really hope to see you guys around in the future as well… and so much is certain: Our next big title’s already in the making and hence it’s only a matter of time until the next bunch of dev diaries is about to be written!
The Na'srrk is the newest addition to the Vossk fleet in GOF2 - Supernova for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac.
Oh, and I almost forgot… just in case there are some guys among you who’ve stumbled upon this blog by happenstance and haven’t even played Galaxy on Fire 2 yet, you can download the game in HD at http://bit.ly/gof2hd (for iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the new iPad), in Full HD at http://bit.ly/gof2hd-mac (for Mac) and in SD at http://bit.ly/gof2sd-EN (for older iOS devices). Enjoy the flight, everybody!
Let’s face it, guys. If it wasn’t for Apple releasing the iPhone back in 2007 and opening the App Store back in 2008, Fishlabs would most likely no longer be around today. And to this day, iOS is by far the most important and successful market for us. We understand that many of you won’t be affected directly by the newly added iPhone 5 optimization of Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova and hence might be quite a bit disappointed by our decision to add a number of new features right away, rather than adding them afterwards in the course of another update. We also understand that those among you, who’ve not yet moved over to the HD version of GOF2, might not be too fond of our decision to stick to our plans of releasing all three versions of the new expansion pack simultaneously, despite the fact that only the Full HD and HD versions had to be re-submitted. Though all of these things don’t seem to be connected to one another, the matter turns out to be more complex than it might appear at first. If all had gone according to plan, we would have launched the add-on prior to the release of the iPhone 5 and then added the additional features with another update that would have gone live at the same day that Apple’s new smartphone hit the market.[full] But as so often in life, things turned out quite a bit different than expected and now we really need to do everything we can to make our title appear as appealing as possible on the new device right from the start. The better it looks and performs on the iPhone 5, the higher is the chance that we‘re going to get a lot of media coverage as well as an international feature upon release – and these things can indeed be crucial factors that decide whether a new title becomes a success or a failure.
The Gator Custom bursts through the Shima system with all guns blazing in Fishlabs' upcoming sci-fi epic GOF2 HD - Supernova.
After all, a new iOS device is always destined to turn the market upside down and hence it is particularly important for a company like Fishlabs to be ahead of the curve and support such devices from day one. And it’ll also become more and more important for us to pursue our cross-platform strategy and support all relevant models of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch equally. Releasing the SD version of Supernova prior to the HD and Full HD version, as some of our fans suggested, wouldn’t make a lot of sense at all for us, because it would take away a lot of buzz and would make the title appear way smaller than it actually is, if we’d first present our biggest and most important release of the year in a version that’s not at all tailored to the specifications and capabilities of the hottest smartphones and tablets on the market. If we want Supernova to become a success and get the notification it deserves, we’ve gotta kick it off with a bang and show it to the world in all its glory… and that’s simply not gonna happen if we release the slightly dated SD version first and then put out the state-of-the-art HD version later on. This being said, we really hope that you understand our situation and are still looking forward to the release of Supernova, which will hopefully not be that far away anymore.
To ensure a perfect sci-fi gaming experience on the iPhone 5, all elements of the touch screen navigation have been re-adjusted for the 4" Retina Display of Apple's new smartphone bestseller.
Of course, we’re still gonna stick to the release of our bi-weekly developer diaries, despite the fact that we’ve already run through all of the topics we originally wanted to discuss. So today we’ll introduce some of the new iPhone 5 features to you, such as the full support of the native 1136 by 640 pixel resolution of the new Apple smartphone’s 4” Retina Display. As you can see above, the game will look pretty neat on the iPhone 5’s bigger screen and all control elements have been re-adjusted in order to ensure a perfect gaming experience.
The new motion blur effect makes the boost look even cooler than before in GOF2 HD. It will not only be available on the iPhone 5 but also on the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and new iPad.
We’ve also added a new motion blur effect, which will give you a way better feeling of the enormous speed that your ships reaches while its boost is activated. To make sure that this effect can be enjoyed on all devices from the iPhone 4S upwards, we decided to use a so-called radial blur, which is less resource-consuming than a full motion blur effect. In order to create the effect in question, we first have to render the current scenery to a texture and then sample that texture several times around a given centre point in the middle of the image. By making the effect stronger and more prominent towards the image boarders, we’re then able to make it look as if our space craft was passing by asteroids, meteors and cosmic vapours at lightning speed.
The new refraction shaders will make the gamma shield look way cooler in GOF2 HD. Unfortunately, the static screenshots don't really do 'em justice.
Furthermore, we’ve also integrated two additional shaders from the Full HD version of Galaxy on Fire 2 into the HD version, namely refraction shaders and bloom shaders. The former have been created in a similar way as the cloaking device and the gamma shield (see dev diary #8, for example) and can be spotted at several occasions, such as the burning space stations in the Supernova system or absorption animation of the plasma collectors. And the latter are so-called post effect shaders, which are rendered onto the complete scenery on the screen and cause the light areas to shine even stronger than before. Whether or not those two will really end up in the game has not been decided yet, because we won’t be able to test Supernova on an iPhone 5 before its official release on Friday, September 21st. If the game will still perform fine with these additional effects integrated, we’ll keep them in and have them activated right from the start. But if they cause significant frame rate drops, we’ll have to take them out again in order to ensure the best-possible gaming experience. So let’s wait and see if the iPhone 5 will live up to our expectations.
The Groza MK II slams its predecessor in every aspect. However, to get hold of this highly sought-after vessel, you gotta shell out a nice sum of credits.
Here we go, everybody. Thanks for your time and patience. We hope you enjoyed the read and understand our situation a little better now. We’ve got our fingers crossed that this will indeed be the last dev diary before the release of Supernova, but given the recent course of events, we don’t wanna make any false promises or raise false expectations, so please don’t be mad at us if we’ve still got to come up with one more topic two weeks from now.
As many of you will already know, the launch of the upcoming Supernova add-on will be accompanied by the release of a free update, which will contain a number of pretty cool features for all Galaxy on Fire 2 players – no matter whether they’re going to purchase the new expansion pack or not. So despite the fact that the novelties brought forth by the soon-to-be-released update are strictly speaking not part of the Supernova expansion per se, we’ve decided to put them in the centre of the attention of this week’s developer diary anyway. I mean, it still makes sense, doesn’t it? Cause on the one hand they’re rather closely connected to Supernova anyway and on the other hand they also cover a number of issue that you’ve repeatedly asked us about, such as the new actions you can perform at the Kaamo Club, for example. Oh, and just for the record, all three versions of Supernova (SD, HD and Full HD) have been submitted to the App Store in the meantime and are currently waiting to be reviewed by Apple. Fingers crossed it won’t take too long anymore before Supernova goes live and you can finally take on a new adventure on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch![full]
Soon you'll be able to meet all kinds of shady characters and whacky folks in the space longue of the infamous Kaamo Club!
And since the latter seem to be of particular interest for quite a lot of GOF2 fans, who’ve hoped for quite some time that there’d be a little more action in the deserted space lounge of their very own space station, we’re happy to let you know that the establishment in question will indeed be a lot more frequented in the future! Among others you’ll henceforth meet a group of very skilled engineers there, who will pimp your ship by improving its handling, cargo space and armour or even adding an additional equipment slot – if you’re willing to shell out the right amount of credits for such an in-demand service. After all, giving some extra-power to a high-tech space ship requires quite a lot of expertise and the few people, who are able to pull it off, will surely not waste their talents by working on your space craft for a starvation wage.
The Berger CrossXT looks rather pale in comparision to its successor. With four primary weapons and enhanced stats, the Berger Cross Special will soon be one of the most powerful ships in the GOF2 universe.
The same is also valid for the ship dealers, who’ll hide in the dark corners of the Kaamo Club’s space lounge and offer you enhanced versions of some of the most popular vessels in the universe. Since these particularly strong models, such as the Teneta R.E.D. or the Phantom XT, are rare prototypes which haven’t gone into production yet, you can only purchase them from said dealers and nowhere else in the galaxy. Besides new paint jobs and slightly modified bodies, these special ships do also contain better stats as well as more weapon and equipment slots than the customary models they are based on.
Many of you will most like already know the Gryphon from the original Galaxy on Fire 3D, which initially got released on the App Store back in 2009.
Another new ship, which the ship dealers don’t have a monopoly on and which you’ll hence be able to purchase all across the galaxy, is the Gryphon. A re-made version of one of the most popular ships of the Vossk Wars, the new Gryphon is a classy vessel with a nice retro charm, which stands out due to its perfect blending of elegant design and respectable fighting power.
Let's see how many kills you'll be able to score in the new "Supernova Challenge". If you've got iOS6 installed, you can even challenge your friends right after you've scored a new record.
The second-to-last update feature which we’d like to discuss in the course of our current dev diary is the so-called Supernova Challenge. Based loosely on the shoot ‘em up version of GOF 2 – Supernova, which we had already shown to our fans earlier this year at GDC and Gamescom 2012 in Cologne, the Supernova Challenge could best be described as an action-packed arcade version of Galaxy on Fire 2. You enter the orbit with a pre-equipped Blue Fyre vessel and have you’ve got two-and-a-half minutes in order to score as many kills as possible. But take care! Since you’re also going to get extra-points and combo-multipliers for attacks that have been carried out particularly well, you’d better display some good combat skills and an effective attack strategy or else you won’t make it into the Game Center highscore lists. If you’ve got iOS 6 installed on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you’ll even be able to challenge your friends right away and dare them to beat your latest record! Let’s see if you guys have what it takes to make it to the top of the global leader boards!
The achievement hunters among you will have to display quite a lot of skill in order to win all of the nine new gold medals.
To round the whole thing off, the upcoming update will also grant you access of new weapons as well as enable you to fulfil an exclusive selection of new achievements. Do you have an idea what you’ll have to do in order to score the “Grave Riser” or “Ore Athlete” medal, for example?
With all modifications (indicated by the crosses behind the altered stats), the Gator Custom is even more powerful than before!
That’s it! We hope you enjoyed this little wrap-up of the most important features of the free GOF2 update. If all goes as planned, this will have been the final dev diary before the long-awaited release of our new sci-fi epic Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova on the App Store! As always, please post your feedback in the comments and tell us what you think about all the stuff you’ll so be able to do at the Kaamo Club! And while you’re at it, feel free to “like” our official Facebook fan page for the GOF saga over at www.Facebook.com/GalaxyOnFire as well.
In the last two concept blogs we introduced you to artifacts and citadels. This time we go bigger. Today’s blog is about the citadel planets housing the citadels and ultimately the artifacts; we sometimes also refer to them as artifact worlds.
Last week we’ve posted our first Concept Blog for Galaxy on Fire – Alliances. And those of you who’ve taken the time to read through it will have gotten quite a bit of first-hand information about the ancient artifacts, which you can use in the game to level up your command ships and respective fleets. And that’s where we continue today with the second concept blog for our red-hot mobile strategy MMO. This time, however, we’ll no longer talk about the artifacts themselves, but rather will we introduce you to the so-called citadels, which contain almost infinite amounts of the said artifacts underneath their high-tech shells. Designed by a highly advanced civilization and scattered all over the galaxy by the devastating shockwave of a cataclysmic cosmic event, the citadels could best be described as monumental structures that melted into the surficial areas of their host planets millions of years ago.[full]
Welcome to the very first Concept Blog for our upcoming mobile strategy MMO Galaxy on Fire – Alliances. Like a “light version” of the Developer Diaries, the Concept Blogs will focus on one particular asset or aspect of the game and introduce it to you in more detail. In addition, they’ll also feature some cool artworks, scribbles and graphics that (in most cases) have not been published anywhere else before. The first assets we’re going to talk about in more detail are the so-called artifacts, which are remnants of an ancient civilization that bear enormous powers. In GOF-A, they can be harvested from special planets and used to increase the stats of your command ships and their respective fleets. In total, there are three different kinds of artifacts, all of which have different qualities and grant different bonuses.[full] While the blue ones can be used to improve your ships’ defense, the yellow ones can be used to increase their speed and the red ones can be used to boost their fire power.
In the past couple of months, it’s become a little quiet here on the blog. But that’s (hopefully) going to change very soon. Why, you might ask. Well, because it’s Dev Diary time again! Yes, that’s right! We’re very happy to present you the first Developer Diary for our upcoming mobile sci-fi strategy MMO Galaxy on Fire – Alliances today and we’re eager to announce that from now on we’ll be posting an exclusive blog about the development and production of the most ambitious project that Fishlabs has ever tackled every single week until launch day! We’ll post a Developer Diary every first Thursday of the month and a so-called Concept Blog on all subsequent Thursdays! While we’re going to tackle a selected variety of bigger and more elemental issues in the Dev Diaries, we’ll introduce you to smaller assets such as structures, planets, characters and space crafts with the aid of the weekly Concept Blogs.[full] Sounds good? Of course, it does. So let’s not waste any more time and cut to the chase right away. Because I’m sure a lot of you would like to find out how the title Galaxy on Fire – Alliances came about.
Almost the entire Fishlabs team had been eagerly awaiting this moment for weeks and even months. And yesterday it had finally happened. At round about 10 o’clock in the morning we got a call from the transport company, telling us that a pretty big package had just been delivered to the foyer of our office building. Weighing more than hundred kilograms and measuring about two-and-a-half square meters, this giant cardbox monster contained a brand-new and feverishly anticipated addition to the Fishlabs team: our very own foosball table! We already had one in the old office in Hamburg/Winterhude, but according to those daring (or desperate) enough to give it a try, that older table wasn’t exactly a quality product. The new one, however, is a high-class, pro-quality Leonhart table that leaves nothing to be desired. So there’s a good chance that quite a few Fishlabs employees will stay a few hours longer at the office from now on and score a couple of goals after work[full]
If you’ve followed our story over the past couple of months, you will have noticed that we’ve recently added quite a lot of new talent to our team. Consequently, office space has more and more turned into a rare and highly treasured commodity at the Fishlabs headquarters. But that’s no longer the case. Because in late 2012 we’ve signed a rental agreement for an additional open-plan office on the fifth floor of the same building at Roedingsmarkt, whose first floor we’ve been occupying since our relocation to the very center of Hamburg in August 2011. And today the marketing and QA departments have finally moved to their new place of work.[full]
Almost four months ago, we posted a dev diary by the name of “Sorted Out” here on our blog. Among others, it contained a pretty kick-ass concept artwork of a heavily armed Terran fighter called the Dark Angel. Judging from the dozens of comments about it, our fans liked that ship quite a bit. I mean, almost everyone who posted about it on our blog or Facebook fan page said that they would have loved to be able to add that spectacular vessel to their personal fleet as well. And, guess what… that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do very soon! Next week, on November 21st, we’re going to launch a free content update for Galaxy on Fire 2, which will include the prototypes of three highly sought-after new vessels. Besides the Dark Angel it will also include a Nivelian fighter known as Ghost and a Vossk bomber known as N’Tirrk! Since both the Fishlabs team and the GOF2 fans really loved these designs, we thought that it would be a shame if they’d just end up in some folder of unused material.[full] And thus we decided to make them a part of the game instead. After all, we’re still very proud of the Supernova add-on and this is our way to say “Thank You!” for the awesome support you’ guys have given us over the years. Cause in the end, nothing says “You guys rock!” as loud and clear as a couple of kick-ass new space ships! And to make sure that all iOS gamers will be able to get hold of them at the same time, we’ve decided that the free content update will be released simultaneously in SD, HD and Full HD. So all iOS and OSX pilots will be able to enjoy the new ships on their devices, no matter whether it’s an iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPod touch 5G, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS or Mac!
The good thing about totally unexpected happenings is that they occur both ways… sometimes they throw you back a little, but sometimes they also play into your hands. Not even two weeks ago, it looked as if the simultaneous launch of our new open space epic Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova in SD, HD and Full HD had to be postponed for quite a few days due to an unexpected rejection of the Full HD version on the one hand and a number of subsequent iPhone 5 optimizations of the HD version on the other hand. During that time, we still had a glimpse of hope that we could make a September release, but internally we were more expecting the new expansion pack to be launched sometime in October. Since we didn’t know a specific release date ourselves also and didn’t know if and when the re-submitted versions would get an approval from Apple, we purposely kept all information about the release as vague as possible and also didn’t announce the exact dates of new submissions of the Full HD and HD versions publically. After all, there has always still been the chance that we’d get rejected again for one reason or another and if that had happened, people would most likely be even more disappointed than they were after the new add-on’s first delay. [full]
Let’s face it, guys. If it wasn’t for Apple releasing the iPhone back in 2007 and opening the App Store back in 2008, Fishlabs would most likely no longer be around today. And to this day, iOS is by far the most important and successful market for us. We understand that many of you won’t be affected directly by the newly added iPhone 5 optimization of Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova and hence might be quite a bit disappointed by our decision to add a number of new features right away, rather than adding them afterwards in the course of another update. We also understand that those among you, who’ve not yet moved over to the HD version of GOF2, might not be too fond of our decision to stick to our plans of releasing all three versions of the new expansion pack simultaneously, despite the fact that only the Full HD and HD versions had to be re-submitted. Though all of these things don’t seem to be connected to one another, the matter turns out to be more complex than it might appear at first. If all had gone according to plan, we would have launched the add-on prior to the release of the iPhone 5 and then added the additional features with another update that would have gone live at the same day that Apple’s new smartphone hit the market.[full] But as so often in life, things turned out quite a bit different than expected and now we really need to do everything we can to make our title appear as appealing as possible on the new device right from the start. The better it looks and performs on the iPhone 5, the higher is the chance that we‘re going to get a lot of media coverage as well as an international feature upon release – and these things can indeed be crucial factors that decide whether a new title becomes a success or a failure.
As many of you will already know, the launch of the upcoming Supernova add-on will be accompanied by the release of a free update, which will contain a number of pretty cool features for all Galaxy on Fire 2 players – no matter whether they’re going to purchase the new expansion pack or not. So despite the fact that the novelties brought forth by the soon-to-be-released update are strictly speaking not part of the Supernova expansion per se, we’ve decided to put them in the centre of the attention of this week’s developer diary anyway. I mean, it still makes sense, doesn’t it? Cause on the one hand they’re rather closely connected to Supernova anyway and on the other hand they also cover a number of issue that you’ve repeatedly asked us about, such as the new actions you can perform at the Kaamo Club, for example. Oh, and just for the record, all three versions of Supernova (SD, HD and Full HD) have been submitted to the App Store in the meantime and are currently waiting to be reviewed by Apple. Fingers crossed it won’t take too long anymore before Supernova goes live and you can finally take on a new adventure on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch![full]
