At the beginning of October, the Russian-based 1C announced the release of a new mobile game Space Rangers: Heritage. We talked to Denis Maltsev, the company’s Producer, about the new project.
Image Credit: Space Rangers: Heritage
Hello, Denis! Recently the Russian media received a press release that, I am sure, will cause a lot of positive disturbance but, at the same time, induce a range of questions. First and foremost: what would ‘Heritage’ look like? Is it going to be a remake of the first or the second part, a down-sized version for mobile edition or something completely new and unique? Can you share some insights about the game?
Denis Maltsev
Hi! This is a remastered version of Dominators with new graphics, new interface and a vision for further development.
I would suggest going a bit deeper into the subject. What did the team remove from ‘Heritage’ if we compare it with the classic dilogy, and what fundamentally new was added? I am sure that there are quite a few new features but it would be nice if you mention the most fundamental of them.
We removed planetary battles and battles in black holes. We reduced the number of body variations (most of them have never been used by anyone anyway). We added, for instance, the ability to affect the speed of galactic technical development (which affects the level of equipment and arms available to the player). Originally, the technical level of galaxy grew very slowly but now a player would be able to accelerate the construction of special space stations.
Let’s come back to the beginning. Who is engaged in the game development right now? Is it a completely new team, original authors or developers of other Russian mobile titles that we might hear of?
It’s a completely new team within the gaming studio of 1C. All of the developers have experience in mobile and computer games.
Can you tell us a bit about the history of development? Why and how did the work started on the project? Is there some history behind it?
We started working at the end of 2015, because the time has come. There is a cult title and a professional team to deliver it – end of story.
Did you have some things that you wanted to integrate into the project and later decided not to add (or vice versa, you did not plan on something but it appeared anyway)?
The development is going in full accordance with the plan.
BTW, we were surprised that you decided to release only the mobile version. Why, because part 3 is long awaited on PC as well? BTW, if you are not a mobile player, do you still have any chance to see the game?
It’s not clear how a free-to-play game will be accepted by PC players, that’s why we started with mobile platforms. We are not ruling out the release on PC in one form or another.
The first screenshots look awesome. I think, this is the kind of come back the fans waited for. And what engine does the project use – proprietary or sourced solution?
The game is being developed on Unity.
Why have you decided to make a free-to-play game?
Free-to-play model has got a lot of advantages over premium model, for instance, a much larger audience. The original Space Rangers have been released years ago, and now we have a generation of players not familiar with the series, who are used to simplified downloads. And we are targeting such players as well.
And the last question. You announced that ‘Heritage’ would appear this year. So, we don’t have to wait too long. At the same time, it’s not clear why you released the cold-greeted ‘Quest’? What was the idea behind releasing a project of the same franchise with minimal time gap?
I would disagree with your ‘cold-greeted’ assessment of Quest. Just take a look at its score and reviews in the Stores. Quest was developed specifically for the fans of text quests and it really hit its target audience. At the same time, it became clear that by far not all the fans of Space Rangers like text quests.