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!
As most of you might have heard, the Game Developers Conference 2013 is currently taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Since this is one of the major gaming events of the year, some of our best men and women have boarded the plane to Frisco. Besides meeting business partners, sealing deals and finding out what our peers and competitors are up to in 2013, one of the key tasks of our GDC personnel is the showcasing of our upcoming multiplayer strategy game Galaxy on Fire – Alliances to the attending members of the gaming press. After all, GOF-A constitutes the biggest project that Fishlabs has ever tackled and hence we cannot wait to fill the whole world in on the progress we’re making week after week. Right now, it’s still a bit too early to come up with the first developer diary, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot already give you guys a little insight into the latest happenings at the Alliances front.[full] One pretty cool way to get up-to-date about the development of our new title is checking out the following interview with our CEO Michael, courtesy of Pocket Gamer. Against a beautiful San Francisco background, Michael explains, among others, the role that cooperative gameplay will play in Alliances and the graphical treats that we have up our sleeves for our fans. Check it out!
And while you’re at it, be sure not to miss the in-depth video presentation of the Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, that our Marketing Director Kai has given for Touch Arcade earlier this week and that got published just a few hours ago. When I had originally written this blog, said video had not even been available, so I needed to re-arrange my text a little and cramp in another video. After all, this is by far the most comprehensive and revealing introduction of our first multiplayer title that’s been posted on the web so far! We’re particularly proud to finally show you the spectacular, fully animated battle report in action. It’s a truly awesome feature that does not only look really great but also give the whole game a lot more depth. This is mostly because of the fact that the battle shown on the screen will actually be influenced by the battle taking place in the game. That means that, for example, the ships that pass by your commando bridge will actually be the same types of ships that you’ve send out to launch the attack or that have been stationed to protect the planet. And they will also use their respective weaponry. Hence, if you’ve used a lot of heavy bombers to attack the planet in question, you’ll see the detonations of your nukes on the planet’s surface and so on!
And last but not least, we’d also like to recommend you to check out a nice little article about GOF-A courtesy of 148 Apps, which contains, among others, a lot of hi-res screenshots of Alliances. So if you’d like to get hold of some kick-ass images of the Vossk commando bridge or the Nivelian planet structures, you’re gonna find them over there. Enjoy!
Today’s the six-month-anniversary of Supernova, the second add-on to the Galaxy on Fire 2 saga on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch as well as Macintosh computers. And to celebrate that event, we’ve decided to offer the expanion’s soundtrack as a free download on the official GOF2 website. Therefore, we’ve asked you precisely one week ago, to help us name the six tracks of the respective soundtrack. And, as expected from such an awesome bunch of people, you guys came up with a helluva lot of brilliant ideas! All in all, more than 20 fans from all over the world sent in their title suggestions and we really had a hard time picking our favorites among so many thoughtful, creative and enjoyable nominations. But we ultimately came up with a selection of fan-submitted titles that not only sound pretty splendid but also reflect the topics and themes of the respective tunes quite well. In the following, we’d like to take a little time to introduce each of the six titles to you and also let you know what made us choose this particular title to represent the track in question. So here we go…[full]
Without a gamma shield onboard, the hazardous radiation of the Supernova systems will turns your ship into space junk faster than you can activate your Khador Drive...
01.) “Quantum Mysteries” (suggested by NatureXwars via our Blog)
The first track of the sound track is the new theme of the Deep Science foundation. Since this secret and remote consortium of brilliant scientists are constantly racking their brains to unravel all kinds of mysteries and achieve one scientific break-through after the other, we figured that “Quantum Mysteries” would be a fitting title for this spherical sound collage.
02.) “Heartbeat Radiation” (suggested by Trubo XL via our Blog)
As soon as you enter the gamma-poisoned Supernova systems, the radiation starts to inflict severe damage on your ship’s hull. Hence, one could metaphorically say that staying too long in the dangerous Supernova systems will slow down your vessel’s heartbeat… until you either jump out of the danger area in time or find a tragic end amidst the fires of a dying star!
03.) “The Ambush” (suggested Yuzuki via our Forum)
As soon as you hear this heroic yet somehow intriguing song, you know that trouble’s on the way! Because that kinda music only occurs in the game when the devious stealth fighters are about to launch another devastating attack. So you’d better ready your weapons and prime your missiles or else there’s no chance you’re gonna survive this ambush!
04.) “Stealth Blades” (suggested by Riki via our Blog)
“Stealth Blades” is a perfect title for the second stealth fighter theme, because it sounds poetic and powerful all at the same time. And it conveys the same underlying feeling of danger and distress that also creeps through your veins as soon as the hazardous ghost fighters appear on your HUD.
05.) “Evil Awakens” (suggested by tankcrusher via our Blog)
No, this is not a brand-new song by Slayer or Venom, but the theme of the main villain in Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova! And since that villain turns out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the title “Evil Awakens” fits pretty well. Now let’s just hope you’ve got enough firepower onboard to lay the evil one to sleep for good!
06.) “Renegade Justice” (suggested by Seth Shepard via Facebook)
Now we’re talkin’! Although “Renegade Justice” sounds like the subtitle of an unreleased sequel to the Death Wish or Dirty Harry movies, it’s actually the title of the final song of the Supernova soundtrack, which blasts through your headphones whenever you engage in a dog fight with one of the galaxy’s most wanted criminals! And since these extremely dangerous terrorists, saboteurs and drug smugglers are without a doubt among the most vile characters of the entire galaxy, it’s about time that someone stands up to these vicious renegades and brings ‘em to justice! And I wouldn’t be surprised, if YOU were that someone… so what are you waiting for? Mount some EMP nukes, load your Dark Matter lasers and go bounty hunting!
After you've finished the storyline of Supernova, you can fly the stealth fighters yourself. However, in order to do so, you either need to finish the game in "Extreme" or collect all gold medals.
Well guys, that’s it! Thanks to everyone who send in their suggestions (no matter whether they got picked or not) and helped us to name the songs properly. We’ve now uploaded them to the media section of GalaxyOnFire.com, where you can stream ‘em via the integrated media player or download ‘em for free in mp3 format. We hope you enjoy the songs and have some fun listening to them!
Hey guys, we need your help! Later on this month – on March 21st, to be precise – the critically acclaimed Supernova add-on for Galaxy on Fire 2 will celebrate its semi-annual anniversary! And we thought that this might be a perfect opportunity to upload the expansion pack’s soundtrack to GalaxyOnFire.com and offer the respective mp3 files to our fans as a free download. But there’s one problem: So far, all six songs do only have working titles, such as “Deep Science”, “Gamma Ray Systems” or “Wanted Board Criminals”. That worked fine for us during the production of the add-on, but it’s no longer enough now that the tracks are about to be released officially. Hence, before we can upload the tunes and share them with thousands of dedicated GOF2 fans through our official website, we need to name the songs properly. And that’s where you guys come into play![full]
GOF2 HD - Supernova does not only feature beautiful 3D graphics in console-quality, but also a fantastic soundtrack -- which you can now download in mp3 format for free from GOF.com!
When we made the soundtrack of the main game available for download, we had already gotten some great help from our community member Alexander, who went through the hassle of extracting the sound files from the game and giving them proper titles even before we put the mp3 files on our website. And since the whole thing worked mighty fine back then, we’ve decided not to think of fitting titles ourselves, but give you guys the chance to contribute to this matter and make your own suggestions. You can stream all six songs from the Supernova soundtrack in the media player below and type in your ideas for the song titles in the comments. We’ll then pick our favorites and upload the whole soundtrack including YOUR titles to the official Galaxy on Fire website by the end of the month.
Okay everyone, that’s it for now. We hope you’re looking forward to upload the Supernova score to your iPod touches and iPhones very soon. We cannot wait to read your title suggestions and we hope that a lot of you will take part in this little community participation event. So c’mon… blow your speakers with some ear-shattering, Mkkt-Bkkt-approved space rock!
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!
In late December of last year, we already announced on the official Galaxy on Fire fan page on Facebook that we might have a pretty cool announcement up our sleeves for you in early January. While we had originally planned to let the cat out of the bag right after we’d returned to work from our company holidays, we ended up postponing the announcement a little, because we wanted to wait until the product we were about to introduce had received another round of polishing and thus would look even better on the screenshots that would go along with the introduction. Plus, it took us a little longer than expected to agree on the final and definite title of the game in question and it wouldn’t have made sense to introduce it to the public with an interim title, which might still undergo several changes in the days and weeks after the announcement.[full]
In GOF - Alliances for iOS and Android you will be able to increase your fleet's power and capabilities with the aid of ancient artefacts that bear enormous powers.
But now all these things are settled and we’re happy, proud and excited to introduce you to Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, our very first massively multiplayer online game for smartphones and tablets! Yeah right, we’re finally bringing cooperative and competitive gaming to the GOF universe! This time, however, the general gameplay mechanics and overall gaming experience will be quite a bit different from the previous Galaxy on Fire games. Because in Alliances you’ll not be flying your own space ship from one end of the galaxy to the other and kicking a lot of space pirate ass on your interplanetary journeys, but rather will you be building, managing and expanding your own galactic empire in a remote and hitherto unexplored star cluster on the outer edge of the universe.
Huh, it's pretty hot in here... but I guess that's inevitable if you build your star base on a Lava planet.^^
As you might have guessed by now, Galaxy on Fire – Alliances will not be an action game like the first two installments of the GOF saga. Instead, it will be a massively multiplayer online strategy game with real-time elements that will require you to build up your own star base, gather resources, assemble a fleet, form alliances and, of course, conquer new territories. If it has always been your dream to rise from a mere henchman of the Terran Federation, Vossk Empire or Nivelian Republic to an intergalactic overlord who rules a gigantic empire with an iron fist, you’ve now got the chance to make this dream become reality. And if you’re not that fond of brawls ‘n battles at all and rather prefer a peaceful administration of your delegated star systems, that shouldn’t hold you back either, as conquest and diplomacy play an equal share in Alliances and there’s more than one way to claim the interstellar throne and become the undisputed master of the universe.
That's what the bridge of a Nivelian battle ship looks like... the action-packed battle reports are going to be some of the biggest eyecatchers in GOF - Alliances!
In the weeks and months prior to the title’s launch on the App Store – which is currently scheduled for Q3 of 2013 – we will surely fill you in on all the different aspects, phases and steps of the production and development of Alliances. And believe me, we’ll surely have a lot of cool stuff to talk about, because not only does Alliances mark the biggest and most ambitious project in the history of Fishlabs, but also will it contain tons of spectacular features that you won’t see every day in a multiplayer strategy game for smartphones and tablets. Among others, these features include state-of-the-art 3D graphics and full English voice-overs, just to name a few.
Lo and behold! Many of you will already know the Vossk Battlecruiser from its appearance in Galaxy on Fire 2 - Supernova and we hope that you'll enjoy adding this floating behemoth to your fleet in GOF - Alliances as well!
So let’s hear it from you, guys. Judging from our latest press release and the first couple of screenshots and concept artworks, what’s your first impression of Alliances? Which of the three races are you most likely gonna choose and which of your fellow Fishlabbers and GOF2 players are you looking forward to the most to either form an alliance with or crush into cosmic dust? Post your answers and whatever else you’d like to share about Alliances in the comments. And, if you haven’t already done so, make sure to “like” www.Facebook.com/GalaxyOnFire as well. Because that’s where you’re most likely gonna find exclusive screenshots and other pre-release stuff on a more or less regular basis from now on until the title’s finally released.
If you’ve kept at least a halfway careful eye on the developments and progresses of the digital entertainment industry over the past couple of years, you will surely have noticed that mobile gaming is currently booming like never before. And even though there are already hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets in circulation all over the world, there is still no end in sight for the mobile revolution. No matter what country you visit or what city you roam, you will hardly find a place on Earth anymore where you can pivot 360 degrees without seeing at least a dozen people with a smartphone or a tablet in their hands. And that somewhat-bold-yet-accurate statement is not only valid for established markets such the USA, Canada or Western Europe, but also for up-and-coming growth markets such as China, Russia or South America. Ever since the first iPhone hit the retail shelves in 2007 and changed the mobile landscape from scratch, mobile usage has been skyrocketing beyond our wildest imagination![full]
Needless to say, international top brands have recognized this phenomenon just as clearly as hardware manufacturers, app developers, advertising companies, retail chains, consumers and just about everyone else in the world has. And they’ve sensed a more than profitable business here. When almost everyone uses their smartphone or tablet to play casual, mid- and hardcore titles on the go and at home these days, this means that there is a enormously huge and lively audience out there – just waiting for their favorite brands to engage with them via their new favorite toys! And what better way is there to get hold of that audience then encouraging them to experience the brand and its respective philosophy and products in a non-intrusive, voluntary and – most important – entertaining way?
And that’s where Proelios comes into play. Specialized in high-quality brand games for all relevant mobile platforms, the new joint venture between industry veterans Fishlabs Entertainment from Hamburg, Germany and Character Communications from Essex, UK has made it their task to connect brands and consumers in a way stronger and long-lasting way than traditional means of advertising could ever achieve.
While the Fishlabs side of Proelios will put the main focus of their work on the acquisition of clients in Germany, the Character Communications side of the agency will mostly engage in field work in the UK. With dozens of years of experience as well as invaluable expertise and industry insight, the driving forces behind Proelios know the mobile landscape and the brand game market better than the palm of their hands. So no matter what goal you want to achieve or what audience you want to engage, Proelios will surely have the right solution for you at hand. After all, these are the same guys who brought some of the most successful brand games of all time, such as the 28 million downloads hit Waterslide Extreme for Barclay Card or the multi-award-winning racing spectacle Sports Car Challenge for the Volkswagen Group China, to the App Store and Google Play! If you’d like to find out more about the people behind Proelios as well as their services and references, feel free to check out www.proelios.com.
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.
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.
As most of you might have heard, the Game Developers Conference 2013 is currently taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Since this is one of the major gaming events of the year, some of our best men and women have boarded the plane to Frisco. Besides meeting business partners, sealing deals and finding out what our peers and competitors are up to in 2013, one of the key tasks of our GDC personnel is the showcasing of our upcoming multiplayer strategy game Galaxy on Fire – Alliances to the attending members of the gaming press. After all, GOF-A constitutes the biggest project that Fishlabs has ever tackled and hence we cannot wait to fill the whole world in on the progress we’re making week after week. Right now, it’s still a bit too early to come up with the first developer diary, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot already give you guys a little insight into the latest happenings at the Alliances front.[full] One pretty cool way to get up-to-date about the development of our new title is checking out the following interview with our CEO Michael, courtesy of 
Today’s the six-month-anniversary of Supernova, the second add-on to the Galaxy on Fire 2 saga on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch as well as Macintosh computers. And to celebrate that event, we’ve decided to offer the expanion’s soundtrack as a free download on the official GOF2 website. Therefore, we’ve asked you precisely one week ago, to help us name the six tracks of the respective soundtrack. And, as expected from such an awesome bunch of people, you guys came up with a helluva lot of brilliant ideas! All in all, more than 20 fans from all over the world sent in their title suggestions and we really had a hard time picking our favorites among so many thoughtful, creative and enjoyable nominations. But we ultimately came up with a selection of fan-submitted titles that not only sound pretty splendid but also reflect the topics and themes of the respective tunes quite well. In the following, we’d like to take a little time to introduce each of the six titles to you and also let you know what made us choose this particular title to represent the track in question. So here we go…[full]
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]
In late December of last year, we already announced on the official 
If you’ve kept at least a halfway careful eye on the developments and progresses of the digital entertainment industry over the past couple of years, you will surely have noticed that mobile gaming is currently booming like never before. And even though there are already hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets in circulation all over the world, there is still no end in sight for the mobile revolution. No matter what country you visit or what city you roam, you will hardly find a place on Earth anymore where you can pivot 360 degrees without seeing at least a dozen people with a smartphone or a tablet in their hands. And that somewhat-bold-yet-accurate statement is not only valid for established markets such the USA, Canada or Western Europe, but also for up-and-coming growth markets such as China, Russia or South America. Ever since the first iPhone hit the retail shelves in 2007 and changed the mobile landscape from scratch, mobile usage has been skyrocketing beyond our wildest imagination![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]
