With the upcoming release of Robot Rescue Revolution on the European PlayStation Network, I thought it would be a great time to sit down with Łukasz Bróg (Producer), Artur Mikołajczyk (Lead Programmer) and Łukasz Zegrodnik (Lead 3D Artist/Animator) and talk a little about the development of Robot Rescue Revolution!
1. Tell us a little about Robot Rescue Revolution?
Artur: Robot Rescue is a hardcore logic game that pushes your brain to the limits. In the Revolution edition you are able to design your own customized levels and share it with other players from all around the world. It’s a lot of fun to see how others get by in the puzzles you create.
2. Where did the concept for the Robot Rescue franchise originate?
Łukasz B: The game that inspired us with the underlying concept for Robot Rescue was called “Binary Land” which was a computer game released back in the 80’s that only the oldest computer geeks would probably remember! The games potential was quickly recognized appearing shortly after on the NES console. It’s a straightforward, classic game where players need to bring together a couple of penguins, moving them simultaneously through a labyrinth. The idea of simultaneous movement was adapted into the Robot Rescue games and that is where the similarity between the two games ends.
3. Why bring the robots from the Robot Rescue series to the PlayStation network?
Łukasz B: The Robot Rescue franchise was well received by Nintendo users and so we decided that it would be great to expand its availability to other consoles for other gamers to also have access to and enjoy. The decision lead to its expansion to the PlayStation Network as we felt that in this market players enjoy game originality and will appreciate the challenges that this game possess. In return for exhausting their brain cells players would have fun with the progressively difficult levels.
4. What does each world in Robot Rescue Revolution represent and what was the greatest difficulty you faced when designing maps for each of the worlds?
Łukasz Z: There’s no meaning or back story behind the three worlds in Robot Rescue, we just wanted to have diverse environments, each with a distinctive feel and atmosphere. The greatest difficulty was making it all look good with the technical limitations in mind such as polygon count and texture resolution.
5. What features do you think players will enjoy the most?
Artur: As I mentioned before, the possibility to create your own puzzle and share it with other users is a great new feature but Robot Rescue Revolution also has something else – new two player mode. In this mode players can compete or cooperate with a friend to complete the level. I think that it’s perfect for players wanting to play with friends.
6. What was the reason behind changing the look of the robot from the original DS one?
Łukasz Z: One reason for changing the look of the robot was that the old version would not look good as an animated 3d model. Another reason is that this we wanted to refresh the robot’s look, add a little bit of character to him.
7. Being a game based on strategy and logic, what do you think are the challenges players will face in Robot Rescue Revolution?
Artur: Robot Rescue Revolution is very a challenging game full of difficult puzzles. The most challenging levels are those with many traps and the main element, that players have to control all the robots simultaneously, also adds into the difficulty factor. This means that every move is important and every mistake deadly.
8. What aspects of development did you enjoy the most?
Łukasz Z: The thing that I enjoyed the most was making the 3d model of the robot character and animating him, I especially liked creating the animations for the various ways the robot can get killed by traps. I also enjoyed playing the game, it’s really challenging. Sometimes even frustrating, but I like difficult games.
Artur: The best part about developing Robot Rescue Revolution was seeing the reaction of co-workers when they first saw the game. Comments like “Wow, it’s so cool!” definitely made all the time spent and hard work worth it.
Łukasz B: I have to admit that the development of this game wasn’t easy. This type of game required a lot of refinement of the games mechanics as well as with the development and construction of the levels which for us was like one big puzzle in itself. I think I can speak on behalf of the whole team and say that we had the most fun dealing and solving these issues.
