Interviews

Exclusive: BioWare veteran Tobyn Manthorpe on Cedar Hill Games's iOS action RPG Emissary of War

Leader of the Old Skool

Exclusive: BioWare veteran Tobyn Manthorpe on Cedar Hill Games's iOS action RPG Emissary of War
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iOS
| Emissary of War

Light RPGs and action-based adventures are easy to come by on the iPhone and iPad, but rarely are they given the same high-end Hollywood treatment afforded to those on home consoles.

Cedar Hill Games is hoping to change that with Emissary of War, a new dungeon crawler hitting the App Store in September. A combination of RPG levelling, character-driven storytelling, and classic hack-and-slash fare, Emissary of War definitely has that distinct old skool PC feel.

We had some hands-on with the title and expect it to be a hit among Diablo fans looking for something deeper on iOS.

Cedar Hill Games’s founder Tobyn Manthorpe says the classic feel isn’t by coincidence. A veteran of BioWare, Manthorpe worked on Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and other legendary adventures.

We chatted with Manthorpe about why Emissary of War fills a void, the differences between home and mobile gaming, and how his company got so much done with only a two-man team.

Pocket Gamer: How long have you guys been in development?

Tobyn Manthorpe: Since February or March of last year. Our (simple touch) game Pistols of Dawn came out around that time.

We realised it is difficult to stand out in the iOS market, so we decided to go whole hog. I put my experience from BioWare into it and my programmer created a 3D engine from scratch. It feels really good that we’ve accomplished so much with only two guys.

What was the biggest thing you learned from your decade at BioWare?

I learned about “project scope”: knowing that a big project takes a lot of time and lots of skills. You have to make sure the project scope is right at the very beginning and make sure you’re not planning something too outrageous.

It’s difficult not to plan something too crazy. A game like Neverwinter Nights took a long time, but we were very ambitious.

You’ve had many, many different jobs.

Well, I started as an animator, my first job fresh out of school, and worked on Baldur’s Gate’s intro cinematic. My focus was on character-rendering and animation. I went straight into Neverwinter Nights as a level artist as well as into MDK 2, which got me into level design.

I also did lots of little jobs, like technical artist for Knights of the Old Republic, some work on Jade Empire, and art director for the prototype for Dragon Age. It all led to me being the lead on a new engine that eventually became Dragon Age, and I ended up becoming the lead level artist for it.

What got you interested in mobile enough to found Cedar Hill Games?

I thought there was so much potential for a platform that had a new and brilliant control system. Some (developers) used it correctly, but many more didn’t. To publish on the iPad / iPhone for only a $100 annual fee to Apple is a great privilege.

I had a first-generation iPod touch and I loved it – it was a personal device that did everything it needed to do. I was excited that other people got excited, too, in that Apple way of making things mainstream.

I knew this was the place to start. I don’t see Cedar Hill Games as being iOS exclusive, either. We’re thinking about Android ports and I’d love to grow the company into something else. I don’t want to label us.

How is developing on mobile different from working on home console?

I’m surprised at how similar it is. We just build a 3D engine the best way I know how. Even with the first-generation iPod and iPhone, the game was running quite well. Maybe that’s a tribute to the skills of my programmer, but we have biped skeletons, up to eight or 10 of them at a time, running well on the first-generation systems. The restrictions on it aren’t that bad, and if you’re used to Open GL, it’s quite easy.

In terms of control systems, you do have to think about it. Game devs often get criticised when they design controls for one platform, and they have to make concessions to port them. For Emissary of War, we don’t have a locked camera and made other conscious decisions because of the medium.

The game has an old skool PC feel. What were some of the influences aside from Baldur’s Gate?

Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age - the games I’ve worked on in the past. The fantasy theme lends itself well to player combat, since the strategy of a guy with a sword is different from a guy with a gun.

The top-down view lends itself well to strategy, too. I think it was just familiar to me. It’s not that I don’t think over-the-shoulder or first-person cameras work, but they are more difficult to control on the touchscreen, so we stayed away from that.

Also, familiarity helps: players know exactly what an orge looks like. You can come up with interesting concepts, but familiarity helps when you’re trying to appeal to large groups of people.

What do you think about the RPGs currently on the tablets?

Well, that’s another reason why we made our game. I think that what BioWare is known for is character interaction: making virtual actors and knowing how to make them react properly. We’ve come as close to that as possible with our budget. I was personally missing that on the iPhone and I thought other people might be, too.

RPGs are interesting in that you can explore worlds and kill monsters, and there are good ones on the iPhone, but I thought they were missing the story and little touches. I thought we could do that with our small team.

We’d like to explore it more, too, introducing more characters, additional weapons, and such, but we want to make sure the player stays connected to what’s happening.

Emissary of War will arrive on the iPhone and iPad next month.

In the meantime, check out Pocket Gamer's exclusive Emissary of War video below, which introduces you to Hassock, your loyal alchemist companion.

Thanks to Tobyn for his time.

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Damon Brown
Damon Brown
Damon Brown has been speaking the mobile game gospel since 2003 for Playboy, New York Post, and many other outlets. Damon writes books when he isn't busy gaming or Twittering. His most popular book is Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture.