Crescent Moon Games details open-world iPhone RPG Ravensword: The Fallen King
CEO Josh Presseisen confirms sub $7 price point, motion controls
Role-playing games are hitting it big on iPhone. More than a year after the launch of the App Store, the genre has arrived in a big way with titles like Dungeon Hunter and Hybrid: Eternal Whisper proving that RPGs have a home on iPhone and iPod touch.
Josh Presseisen has bigger ambitious for Ravensword: The Fallen King.
Crescent Moon Games' CEO has his sights on console classics, hoping to deliver a game that outstrips its iPhone rivals. An eye-popping 3D open-world adventure, Ravensword is arguably the most ambitious role-playing game for iPhone to date.
Bringing exclusive new screenshots to help illustrate his point, Presseisen was keen to tell us what we should expect of this intriguing game, from controls to firmware compatibility to price.
Pocket Gamer: Can you tell us how the adventure kicks off?Josh Presseisen: In Ravensword, you enter a world where people are afraid to leave their houses at night – a mysterious power has overcome the king, and you awake from a coma to find out that you have no belongings, and no identity. You start exploring and building up your character to find out who you are.
There looks to be a wide variety of environments from snowy fields to castles to creepy caves… can you tell us about some of these environments?You start off in a town, the town of Aven (which is also my son's name). There are mountains, forests, rivers, lava, cliffs, caves, dungeons and other areas to explore. You can go everywhere – you aren't limited with barriers when you are in a specific area. It feels like a large world. Everything is physics-based, so there are objects that you can move or knock over.
What role-playing games have inspired you in the development process? Have you taken more from console and PC titles or competitors on iPhone and other handhelds?The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fable, Gothic, The Legend of Zelda would be the biggest influences on this game. I liked some of the RPG elements of Oblivion, but like the puzzles and missions of the Zelda series. We tried to do a little bit of both and I feel as if we've created a miniature version of a classic 3D adventure/RPG game. Some of the mini-games in Ravensword: The Fallen King directly mirror some of the Zelda mini-games, though there will be a few surprises. We didn't look at any other iPhone games in the construction of our game, it was purely influenced by those titles that I mentioned (and our own imagination of course!).
How important is story? Is there more emphasis placed on exploration and combat or does it get equal billing?The story is just as important as exploring. You need to follow the story to access certain areas, but you could continue to level up in the lands surrounding the town and keep playing that way if you wish. To obtain the magical runes in the game, you need to follow at least part of the story. In my opinion the runes are the most fun. They allow you to perform some bits of magic, which will be expanded upon in updates and the expansion pack.
What has been the greatest challenge in bringing an open-world 3D role-playing game to iPhone?Figuring out how to 'break up' the world was a very difficult issue that we struggled with early on. We decided it was best to break the game up into different areas connected by portals. It will truly seem like a massive world when you first explore it. When you go between areas, there will be a loading screen. Loading time depends on [what] your phone is – obviously the older phones will take longer, but it's not bad at all.
That bring us to device compatibility. So we will we be able to play it on first generation iPhone and iPod touch. Will the game launch with firmware 2.2.1 support?This version will support 2.2.1. You can play on the older devices, but it won't be as smooth as when played on an iPhone 3GS or iPod touch. This will also help us in developing Ravensword Online, which we plan for next year.
Will Ravensword integrate Open Feint or any other network platforms for achievements and such?We will be working to integrate Chillingo's Crystal SDK into Ravensword, as we have signed on with Chillingo to publish the game.
Given that iPhone is a mobile device and role-playing games require a significant time investment, how have you tackled the issue of portability? How are games saved?It's a large area to explore, but every time you exit the game, you can continue exactly where you left off. You could play for five minutes, exit out, and not have to worry about it. You can just pick up with what you were doing, check your missions to see if you have any to work on.
How have you approached the issue of control? In other words, what makes the analogue stick and camera controls in Ravensword work, feel natural?The controls were refined over a long period of time, as far as character movement goes. Tilting up and down controls looking up and down in the game. Movement on the control pad controls forward movement and turning, and even someone (such as my wife) who had never played the game before said it was very easy to control.
Is there any interest in pursuing a PSP mini version of DSiWare iteration of Ravensword?We will consider it after the release to the App Store, but right now its not on our list of priorities.
Finally, when do you expect to submit the game to Apple and at what price?It should be submitted October 15th to the App store, pending anything major doesn't come up at the very end. The price will be under $7, but we haven't decided the exact number yet.
Our thanks to Josh Presseisen for his time.