GalaxyOnFireAlliances
Latest
Galaxy on Fire Alliances takes Fishlabs' setting in a new direction
A little while back, Fishlabs announced that they were working on a new title in the Galaxy on Fire space exploration series of games, and that it would take a bit of a new direction, as a strategy MMO rather than as an action title. Last week at GDC, I got to sit down with the company and see the new game, and I can say it was very impressive indeed. Fans who just wanted to play another version of the same game may be a bit disappointed, but Alliances represents a great new direction for the series, and has provided a good chance for Fishlabs to use this great engine they've built to show off their talent in another genre. I'm not sure quite what this genre is called: I guess "strategy MMO" is closest, but Alliances falls in line with quite a few other games, where players build up buildings (in this case on a rotatable planet) to gather resources like metal, gas and crystals, and then use those resources to build units that can go out and conquer more planets. Evony is probably the biggest of these kinds of games, but I've played quite a bit of Lord of Ultima and TribalWars as well. The one big advantage Fishlabs has here, of course, is their engine, which runs beautiful graphics on the iPad or the iPhone. As you might imagine, this means the planets that you'll be building on are gorgeous, and spin around in full motion, even with various animations and touches for each type of building and resource. Zooming out from your own planet, the galaxy map is also very impressive. You can see other players around you, and once you've assembled some units, you can send them out to spy on other settlements, or send them out into battle. Galaxy on Fire has a big, rich setting already, and while Fishlabs says the two games won't tie together directly (so you won't see Galaxy on Fire's hero as a unit), all of the ships from the action title can be seen in the strategy title, in full graphical closeup fidelity. In addition to browsing through and building your ships, when you send them out into battle, Fishlabs has created a "battle report" that lets you see the action. You can simply see the results of a battle, or you can load up a replay that shows you, from a ship bridge styled after whatever faction you're aligned to, the full battle with all of the ships involved flying back and forth through space. It's very impressive -- you're not directly controlling any of it, but it is cool to watch the battle play out to see what happened. Fishlabs says the Galaxy on Fire series has done very well for them, but at this point the budget for a main series game is "easily in the seven-digit" range, and so putting a new one of those together is a task that can take up to three to five years. Alliances should be done much quicker for them -- they're expecting to see a release sometime later on this year, around September or October. They're hoping it will monetize a little better for them as well: The game will be free to play, with some in-app purchases offering extra resources or units. Alliances will be an iOS exclusive to start, though Fishlabs says it is talking to partners about a PC version eventually. The company has released Galaxy on Fire on the Mac App Store, and says "that was a good deal" for them. But for now, the emphasis with Alliance will be on iOS. Fishlabs is hoping to give Galaxy on Fire fans a new taste of the setting, and hopefully pull in some new players to the series as well.
FishLabs working on Galaxy on Fire strategy MMO
If you've never downloaded Galaxy on Fire 2 for iOS (especially considering that it went free a little while ago), I'm comfortable with calling you nuts at this point. The game, which is a free flying space trading/combat title, is just plain terrific, with some of the best-looking graphics on Apple's portable platform. German developer Fishlabs has loaded the initial release with content, and then added more and more in update after update. Apple's honored Galaxy on Fire 2 with plenty of awards (it's currently being honored as App of the Week), and every one of them is well deserved. And now, Fishlabs has announced its plan for a followup: a Galaxy on Fire MMO. That's right, Fishlab is putting a game together called "Galaxy on Fire: Alliances," which will be a strategy title with real-time elements, pitting lots of players against each other as they build up bases, grow fleets, commandeer new territories and grow the economy together and against each other. The title looks very exciting and quite different from what we've seen of Galaxy on Fire so far. If you haven't grabbed the game yet, definitely do so, considering that it's completely free at the moment. And we'll keep an eye out for Alliances going forward. Fishlabs says the game should be ready for release in the third quarter of this year. Show full PR text Somewhere far beyond: Fishlabs announces Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, a new sci-fi MMO for smartphones and tablets Fishlabs Entertainment is working on a new Massively Multiplayer Online Game with real time strategy elements set in the Galaxy on Fire universe. If all goes as planned, Galaxy on Fire™ - Alliances will be released on the App Store later this year. It will be optimized for all current models of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Hamburg, Germany - February 11th, 2013 – Fishlabs, the Hamburg-based developer and publisher of high-end 3D games for smartphones and tablets, announces its first MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy Game). Galaxy on Fire™ - Alliances will not only mark the first strategy game in the award-winning portfolio of Germany's "Best Studio 2011" but also will it be Fishlabs' biggest and most ambitious project to date. By fully embracing the Free-2-Play business model, the next spin-off of the critically acclaimed GOF series will introduce thousands of new players to the war-torn Galaxy on Fire universe and offer a unique sci-fi gaming experience that is cooperative and competitive in equal shares. Among others, players can look forward to state-of-the-art 3D graphics and captivating story telling as well as top-notch sound design and gripping gameplay mechanics. Galaxy on Fire™ - Alliances is being developed with the aid of Fishlabs' proprietary ABYSS® 3 engine and scheduled to be released for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in Q3 of 2013. Subsequent to its release on iOS, an Android porting of the game is planned as well. "Never before in the eight years of our existence have we worked on a title with a team as big as the Alliances team," says Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs Entertainment. "Free-2-Play is an incredibly exciting and promising market for mobile developers and we're really eager to create a premium-quality F2P title, which includes all the features and characteristics that have made our previous titles so unique and successful. As you can imagine, this is not an easy task, but we've got a team of highly experienced and talented industry specialists assigned to the development of Alliances and the playable alpha version of the game does already look pretty amazing." The events of Alliances™ take place in a remote and hitherto unexplored part of the universe, where valuable resources and ancient artifacts are expected to be found. In order to gain access of these riches, the most powerful factions of the galaxy, namely the Terrans, Vossk and Nivelians, order their best commanders to build an outpost on that out-of-the-way star cluster and claim dominion to that yet-to-be-acquired sphere. In order to succeed against a multitude of ruthless opponents and add more and more planets to their territories, the players will have to display strong tactical and diplomatic skills on the one hand and an extraordinary talent for resource management on the other. Furthermore, they will have establish a flourishing economy and do a lot of research in order to get access to stronger technologies. And last but not least they will also have to forge alliances with other players in order to make new friends and comrades and be able to stand up to seemingly superior enemies in epic space battles. In the weeks and months prior to the launch, Fishlabs will keep their fans in the loop about the latest happenings from the Alliances camp through their blog (www.fishlabs.net/en/blog/), their forum (http://forums.fishlabs.net/en/) and the official Facebook fan page for the Galaxy on Fire saga (www.facebook.com/galaxyonfire). A series of developer diaries, which will enable to the fans to take a look behind the scenes of the production, is going to be published through the afore-mentioned channels as well.
