PSP World

Mytran Wars Dev: We Pimped Game at Parties

PSP software development is an exciting place to be these days. With a firm committment by Sony to support third-party projects on the handheld, it represents a great opportunity to try our original gameplay ideas on a technically capable system. The folks over at Stormregion have done just that with their new tactical strategy game, Mytran Wars. You can read all about the game in our various previews, but there are still a few things we don't yet know about the title, even as we get close to its release date. We recently got a chance to chat with Gabor Komor, the lead designer on Mytran Wars. He was gracious enough to answer some of our burning questions about this game, which is coming to the PSP later in 2009.

PSP World: Stormregion has a lot of experience with PC strategy games. How challenging was it to translate that expertise to development on the PSP?

Komor: Pretty challenging to be honest. Changing both platform and genre at the same time is quite a big step, even if you switch from RTS to TBS. From a technical point of view, the hardest part was to get used to the strong limitations the PSP-system has - compared to a PC-system (amount of memory, cpu speed, storage capacity, etc). But, these limits force you to be more creative in some ways, which is a good thing. On the other hand, the fixed hardware helped us a lot during the optimization process, so we've learnt the benefits of the console-systems very well eventually.

If we approach this question by looking at the game design... It turned out that the 'usual' RTS tricks and solutions just don't work in a turn-based environment. So we had to find different ways to realise our ideas and intentions within the game. That was the most challenging part I think, and it was a great experience as well.

Mytran Wars is NOT your grandfather's PC strategy game.

PSP World: What things did you enjoy about developing for a handheld platform?

Komor: As for gamers a handheld console means 'playing on the go', for developers it means 'developing on the go'. It was really great to have Mytran Wars always with me. I've been able to test the game on the way home or anywhere I wanted to, I always had the opportunity to show the game to people in my closest environment (even at a garden party, true story :-) ). Watching them play and listening to their feedback helped us a lot, and for this I just had to put the PSP in their hands. This 'freedom' was new, interesting and very helpful for the whole design team.

PSP World: What do you think needs to happen in order for more Western devs to support the PSP?

Komor: A few really successful 'western' titles on PSP would do the trick I think, together with a bigger push from the publishers. Let's just hope Mytran Wars will be one of them ...

PSP World: What are some inspiring strategy games you've played that have influenced Mytran Wars? Some of use are big fans of the strategy genre, having grown up with old turn-based games on the PC.

Komor: I'm also a huge strategy fan, my favorite 'oldtimers' are Panzer General, Archon Ultra, the Heroes of Might and Magic series and Disciples. Personally, I've been inspired a lot by certain Blizzard titles (I'm a huge Blizzard fan for over a decade) and I also should mention the UFO series here as well, so we can say these games all have influenced Mytran Wars in one way or another.

PSP World: What sets your "giant mecha" concept apart from other tabletop games like Warhammer and Battletech? In what ways is the experience similar?

Komor: The experience is partially similar, because you have customizable giant mechs to control and fight with. Everything else should be different compared to Warhammer or Battletech (or any other game), because we had a solid mech design from the very beginning, and it had nothing to do with these games (or any other). We've never really wanted our mechs to be different or similar to the mechs you may have seen before, we just did what we thought is best, and that's it. If you find strong connections somehow between Mytran Wars and these (or any other) games - which can happen, since there are tons of different mech concepts out there -, that's just a coincidence.

The single player campaign features a rich storyline and boss encounters.

PSP World: In the trailer, we've seen a lot of different environments, from tundra to lava. How will these different terrains impact gameplay strategically?

Komor: Terrain-types modify three stats: movement-range, attack-range and sight-range. Each type has its own modifier set that affects the aforementioned stats.These modifiers have three possible values: 0, -1 and -2. For example, standing in a forest means, you are much slower, you can't shoot and see at your usual distance, so you get big maluses to your stats (-2 to all). But, you can hide in vast forests and crystal fields which can be a pretty good thing in certain cases, despite of the huge drawback on your stats.

Maybe it doesn't sound like a big deal at first, but these modifiers really make a difference on the battlefield.

PSP World: Budapest is such an awesome city to live in. How do any of you get any work done?

Komor: The truth is, there is a time-machine in our possession, and we've made every day 48 hours long... this way, we always had enough time for everything! :-)

And with that, Gabor jumped into his giant mecha and stomped off to interrupt some more garden parties. Thanks a lot to Komor and the crew over at Stormregion for telling us about their debut effort on the PSP. We will definitely be covering it here at PSP World, and we will have a full review for fans as soon as the game drops.