The Shadow Sun - Interview @ Digitally Downloaded

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Digitally Downloaded interviews Ossian Studios CEO Alan Miranda to talk about the just released iOS RPG The Shadow Sun.

What inspired you to develop a high quality RPG for the mobile platforms?

Prior to Ossian developing TSS for iOS, we made fantasy RPGs for publishers or other developers (BioWare, Atari, CD Projekt). Unfortunately, in each of those cases, something that was completely out of our hands went awry, like delays and cancellations on the publisher side. For any developer, that’s extremely frustrating and potentially devastating financially. That’s why being able to make a game that we could bring directly to a fanbase appealed to us so much.

So back in December 2009, it seemed to us that there was an absence of high-quality Western RPGs on iOS, made by experienced RPG developers. We saw that as an opportunity for us to jump in and start making one instead of trying to make a PC RPG in an already crowded marketplace.

Where did the idea for The Shadow Sun come from?

Having worked on numerous fantasy stories for our previous games, we knew we wanted to create something deeper and more intriguing than a story backdrop of a war or an obvious menace like an undead horde overrunning a kingdom.

So we put our heads together and developed the idea for a shadow that was slowly creeping across the face of the sun. It seemed like a great premise for a world in peril - an epic backdrop for the fantasy stories we wanted to tell. It was mysterious and Lovecraftian in its otherworldliness.

As The Shadow Sun is a Unity-based game, are you considering porting it to consoles as well? Which consoles would you like to see it on the most?

After the iOS version comes out, we’ll be looking at other mobile platforms, such as Android. Past that, it’s hard to say. The game was originally designed with a certain set of iOS criteria in mind, and we would have to evaluate very closely to see how well that could be ported to consoles or the PC/Mac. But the Unity engine does give us that option should we so choose, which is great!
More information.
 
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You know I really like the work this company has done. Mind you the only game I've played was daggerfall (I think that was the name - the nwn-1 mod) which was fantastic. However they have a lot of bad luck; the crap with nwn-2 mod being held up by atari for 3 years and their witcher dlc being cancelled.
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Naturally i won't consider this game (on IOS) becuase I don't run apple products. Maybe on andriod just as a show of support but i generally don't play games on my tablets - well long games - most time waster stuff when i have a few minutes here and there.
 
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Naturally i won't consider this game (on IOS) becuase I don't run apple products. Maybe on andriod just as a show of support but i generally don't play games on my tablets - well long games - most time waster stuff when i have a few minutes here and there.

That's the huge flaw I see in their rationale of "there aren't many high quality RPGs for mobile devices, so now's our chance". The reason there aren't many could be that the audience simply isn't there. Most WRPG fans, I think, tend to prefer playing on PC. And if their RPG is truly quality it could likely do well on PC.

That said, I recently got an Android tablet and I have been looking for a few decent RPGs to play on it. All I've found so far is Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and Tales of Illyria. And SRR, but I already have that on PC... So I will most likely get TSS when it's released for Android, but I'd probably be more excited for this game if it was turn-based.. Not only because I greatly prefer TB, but because touch controls aren't usually as responsive as a controller or mouse / keyboard... I really think they made a big mistake by not making a PC version of this game.
 
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I thought the game was pretty good for the first few hours I played it and then I wrecked my Ipad-- still not fixed. So now I am looking for a good RPG for the Android I have.
But that is the thing-- it just is not the same as the PC-- I just cannot sit in front of the PC for every hour I am home during the week with the family upstairs :) so I need the tablet with an RPG so I can ignore them while I am in the same room with them
 
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I also need good RPGs for tablets when I travel. I don't carry my heavy laptop with 2 hour battery anymore when I travel, my very light/8 hour battery android tablet is what I carry. Playing Clash of Heroes right now (going back home tomorrow), fun little tactical game, but I would have preferred playing a real RPG.
 
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There very much IS the audience - all you have to do is read up from Jeff Vogel who said in one article that his iPad sales of Avadon trumped Mac & PC ... even at half the price!
 
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I'm a big fan of the convenience of the ipad. I really prefer playing on the PC but just don't get the chance to sit in front of one these days, really hope there's more games like this for ipad.
 
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