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Sponsored Feature: The making of Galaxy On Fire 2 - Valkyrie

Expanding into uncharted space

Sponsored Feature: The making of Galaxy On Fire 2 - Valkyrie

The Valkyrie expansion pack for Galaxy on Fire 2 marks uncharted territory for developer Fishlabs. It's the first expansion-based venture the company had embarked upon, and proved to be just as impressive as previous entries in the space shooter series.

Fishlabs completely remade Galaxy on Fire 2 when it brought the game over to iPhone from Java, and the developer wasn't content to simply offer up more of the same in Valkyrie.

Several new additions make this a more interesting proposition than your average expansion. To look through the differences, we’re delving deep into Fishlabs’s developer diaries.

No Dead Space

It goes without saying that there are new ships, missions, and weapons in Valkyrie – many of which are detailed by Fishlabs’s Michael Schade in his interview with Pocket Gamer.

Small but notable additions have been made in the expansion’s presentation, all helping to make your time exploring the Galaxy on Fire galaxy more memorable than ever.

The texture of asteroids has been improved, and now even more fields of them can be seen scattered across the galaxy in the far-off distance, giving the game an impressive sense of scale. The lens flare effects have also been improved, creating impressive backlighting flourishes that beautifully frame the ships, stations, or asteroids whenever you pass one of the many suns of the Galaxy on Fire universe.

But perhaps the simplest change made in the presentation is the most effective – an expanded field of view.

It not only allows you to see more of the vast universe Fishlabs has created, but it also helps you to see more of the battlefield when you're inevitably flung into one of the game's many firefights.

Look at the comparison between the old and new perspectives below to see the marked difference.

Old:

New:

Ships in the night

In terms of the vessels in Valkyrie, the emphasis seems to be on expansion rather than evolution. A new threat has appeared alongside the Void in Valkyrie: the virtually unknown faction "Deep Science". Boasting original stations and powerful new ships with high-tech features like an integrated hyperdrive called "Khador Drive", Deep Science poses a galaxy of fresh problems to your gunner.

Fishlabs’s art director Marc Nagel says that he had to step back and plan out what the new ships had to do to set them apart from Galaxy on Fire 2’s spacecrafts.

“For Valkyrie, it was especially important that the new ships would clearly distinguish themselves from those of other factions. We wanted to deliver something all new,” Nagel explains. That’s why from a design perspective the new ships should be some 20 or 30 years ahead of other ships in the galaxy.”

The Deep Science ships, for example, which are the new enemy in Valkyrie, are described as the “iPods of space travel” by Nagel - their crisp white, black, and grey tones make them resemble NASA-esque research vessels, belying their less than peaceful intentions.

The design process sees each ship begin life as a sketch, before being embellished by 3D artists who have the freedom to apply their own creative flair to the designs. It's this creative élan that's kept the series fresh over the years.

Daily planet

This new fleet of ships wouldn’t look quite as majestic without huge planets for them to glide past, and Fishlabs definitely doesn’t disappoint in this regard.

The man behind all the planets and skyboxes in the game, 3D Artist Marco Unger, has a big job to make each celestial body look as stunning as the ships darting past.

He not only has to finely adjust the light and shade of each planet, but also to apply several layers of texture with an spherical filter to ensure the planets look as realistic as possible.

For inspiration, Unger uses NASA pictures and other sci-fi universes with complex stars and planets, such as the one depicted in Star Wars.

And with Valkyrie being the first Galaxy on Fire title in which the size of planets increases the closer you fly towards them, you can now get a better view of how much effort has gone into their design.

Unger created ‘Quineros,’ pictured below, in under four hours – more complex planets made up of a mix of oceans, continents, and cities took up to a day.

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Cinematic space

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Even the trailers for the expansion pack have undergone improvements. The teaser video above hints at a darker, more mysterious tone, which perfectly reflects the game’s new enemy and hero Keith Maxwell’s torn state of mind.

The full trailer for the game below is more detailed, with all-new music from Fishlabs’s audio director Gero Goerlich giving it a more intense tone than the video for Galaxy on Fire 2.

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This not only helps mark the game out as an action packed continuation of the original, but also depicts the cinematic feel of the expansion – from the improved presentation and deeper plot to the new cast of characters and enemies.

Put simply, if Valkyrie is just a taste of what’s to come next from the Galaxy on Fire series, iOS gamers have a lot to look forward to.

Click on the gallery at the top of this piece to view some more artwork from Valkyrie.

Links:

Galaxy On Fire 2 [iTunes link]

Valkyrie costs £2.99 / $4.99 / €3.99 and is available to download from inside the Galaxy of Fire 2 game now.