One Life co-developers make XCOM in the GTA setting

Recently it became known that the co-developer of the One Life shooter, Freeger studio, is developing its second project – the multiplatform strategy Mad Dogs. The executive producer of the studio Stepan Burlakov told us about what it will be like.

Hello. The other day you shared sketches for a new project – Mad Dogs on your Facebook. The working art looks fantastic. Juicy, full of details and movement. But, most importantly: the gameplay is already guessed in general terms by it. But before we get to it, I would like to know a little about the studio that is behind its development. Please tell us about Freeger.

Stepan BurlakovHi !

Freeger is a production studio that specializes in promotional sites. First they were flash sites, then they were built on html5.

We work with well-known agencies and major international companies, some time ago we worked with Western customers. We have done projects for Hollywood (in our portfolio there are sites of Jim Carrey, George Lopez, Cameran Diaz, the film “Gravity”, Disney projects, in general, a lot of things) and for many Western brands. But then they focused on Russia. And a year ago we decided to try our hand at games.

Mad Dogs is the second project for the studio. The first One-Life shooter developed jointly with Kefir Studio. Here’s the question, what kind of participation does Kefir take in the development of Mad Gogs?

Look, in the case of One Life, Kefir Studio is the main developer and author of the idea. As for Mad Dogs, they have nothing to do with it. Negotiations are underway with potential investors-publishers.

Judging by the first sketch, it seems that Mad Dogs is a simplified XCOM with rides in the spirit of CSR and a managerial part from Crime City. How true is this?

When we were still doing Cyclop (the Freeger project, whose developments were then included in One Life), we really wanted to make a high-quality browser game. So that everything in it is on top: graphics, gameplay, sound, and promo…

Google treacherously (in fact, not so treacherously, the company announced its plans long ago, so it’s our fault) cut Unity Web Player.

We have never considered Flash as a technology [for game development], but given Adobe’s recent statement, it is clear that the era is over.

Today, HTML5 and WebGL remain. However, WebGL is too weak for serious projects today. However, we combined the idea of [submitting the game to] 3D with a popular theme (GTA), implemented within the framework of an understandable and interesting X-COM gameplay, which is very well suited for projects that do not require high FPS from hardware. So we decided to make a game at the junction of the maximum capabilities of WebGL.

But this is not Unity WebGL, since technologically it will not be able to produce acceptable quality at normal performance: it has an obstacle in the form of Emscripten, which by default adds weight and reduces the FPS of any Unity project compared to pure JavaScript engines.

I mean, we do not give up hope of developing serious three-dimensional games on WebGL for the browser (shooters, races, fights), but we need to test the technology. For this reason, we decided to start with such a project. As for the components of the gameplay project, you are generally right.

Could you tell us in detail about the gameplay of the project (how the mechanics interact with each other, how they work themselves)?

The main gameplay is turn-based 3D strategic battles with a system of shelters. In parallel, the player develops influence and businesses to extract money.

I will quote excerpts from our presentation:

• Hire bandits to work. Dozens of thugs to upgrade skills and abilities;
• Capture business points. Pay tribute to legal businesses and open criminal ones and skills;
• Single and Multiplayer. Seize power in the districts and fight with other players;
• Defeat bosses. Tactical 3D battles for authority in the city;
• Bribe the cops. Or arrange a bloody showdown with them;
• Complete tasks. Robberies, contract killings, hijackings, everything as you like;
• Weapons and cars. Buy barrels, accessories. Steal, upgrade and sell cars;
• Deadly racing. Participate in night racing and earn money on betting.

The game is single-player, but there is multiplayer along with clan wars. Moreover, achievements in multiplayer open you all sorts of goodies in the single. You capture areas, fight gangs, complete tasks, go on raids, drive to street racing, everything is logically woven into one world.

What would you call the main unique selling feature of Mad Dogs?

The ability to play on all possible devices (including mobile browsers) with one authorization system via social networks.

Plus, it’s immediately an opportunity to play GTA on any device, and excellent graphics in the browser without plug-ins, and turn-based battles, and clan wars, and battles with friends…

You see, it didn’t work out to be limited to one selling chip.

Yes, I would also like to note that the project is more focused on the web than on mobile. The latter is very logically intertwined here, first of all, because technically we will be able to play from the phone directly in the mobile browser. But for promotion, of course, we will make a wrapper and upload it to mobile stores.

How did you come up with the idea of such a project in general?

It’s very simple, we wrote a list of favorite games. Most of the GTA and XCOM dropped out. So we decided to connect them. We wanted to make more fights (Nekki tensed up here), but changed our mind, we’ll do it later.

And the last question. When you announced the project on your page, you mentioned that the studio is looking for an investor. Could you reveal how much the studio plans to raise for development? And what do you, in general, expect from a venture angel?

We plan to raise up to $ 250-300 thousand dollars. The maximum program is to find an investor and a publisher, and even the game developer himself in one person (here you will get help in mechanics, and in promotion, and in technical aspects, and in many other things). The minimum program is just money. But, in general, we are ready to change our plans, including on the platform. For example, to focus on mobile (on Unity), if the investor advises to shoot there.

Thanks for the interview!