Hi everyone,
Today, I'll report here an interview given by... myself (tadaaa! ^^) to the french website nintendo-masters.com
Here's the link to it:
http://www.nintendo-master.com/xtnew..._questions.htm
As a matter of fact, most of you can't read that so here's a translation of it:
(Please spot any translation mistake! XD )
About a month ago, we noticied (see the news) of a project launched by the SOL Team, a talented "bunch of friends" fan of Starfox over the bargain. Named "Shadows of Lylat", their opus which should be soon available for free on PC [and Mac and Linux!
] claims to be a game fairly inspired by the great saga of Nintendo, for the fans, but done by the fans in the first place!
After having discovered this astonishing piece of work, we decided to contact the development team behind this project so get an interview. This is with pleasure that Psygonis, the frenchy of the team and one of its Concept Artist accepted to answer to our questions.
Before giving him the floor, let us look at the last trailer of Shadows of Lylat, published on their official website. For further details about the game, you are to go on their website:
www.shadowsoflylat.net
For the readers which don't already know the SOL Team, could you introduce yourself and the rest of the team?
« Hi, I'm Psygonis, Concept Artist for the SOL Team for almost trhee years. Introducing all the members of the team since its creation would be quite a task! It's been existing for more than six years and lots of us went in and out during that time! The simpliest way to check is to go on the "Team" page of our website. »
How is born your project Shadows of Lylat? Did the absence of a new opus of the saga on Nintendo's next-gen gaming platform was a triggering fact?
« Shadows of Lylat isn't born as it in the first place. It was to be asimple MOD for Freespace 2, started by Killfrenzy meant to have an Arwing flying using the FSO Engine. It took time for the project to spread and gain amplitude and then it really became Shadows of Lylat.
We could say that our project had [and still has] nothing to do with Nintendo's plans. Let's remind that the project started in 2003, right after the release of Starfox Adventures, while rumors about Starfox Assault were already popping out. So we weren't lacking of official Starfox at that time (all considerations on the said games appart...)! »
When some start such an adventure, what's the most difficult thing to handle?
«
Most of the fan-made or indie games don't see the light of a release because the needed effective work isn't done after the cheering phase of the conceptualization of the project.
That haven't been the case for Shadows of Lylat mainly because the first goal of the project, in term of work was to technically push the limits of the FSO Engine. So the cheering part of the project (what kind of game do we do? What do we need to get to do that?...) was done parallely to the initial part of computer code development work, with the help of the FSO community. Finally, the "hard work" always was the goal and motivation stayed unaltered. »
According to your website, the storyline of Shadows of Lylat will take place between Starfox 64, released on Nintendo 64 and the Gamecube episode Starfox Adventures. Could you summarize it?
« I unfortunatly can't get into details yet, but everything begin in the euphoria of Starfox's victory over Andross on Venom. Buisness going good for the team of mercenaries, for Lylat havn't turned into a paradise un a single day. All I can say is that the storyline part won't be underestimated. »
It's a fact that Shadows of Lylat is inspired by the series created by Big N. Still, do you have given to it its own style?
« Of course, that's the very first task of Concept Artists and Modelers! The same way each official title is recognizable with its own specific details, you'll be able to appreciate a SOL Team-styles Starfox universe in Shadows of Lylat. You'll see that mainly in term of character artworking and of gaming experience. Concerning this last point, the fact that we're working with a space-combat simulation engine definitely is decisive! »
By the way, does Nintendo know what you're up to? If yes, how did they react?
« We haven't had any formal contact with Nintendo yet. This said, they (in the home company in Japan or in Nintendo of America) certainly heard about us, more or less directly. What is sure is that when "4 Color Rebellion" interviewed Dylan Cuthbert, from Q-Games Studio (the ones who developped the first Starfox games), they talked about Shadows of Lylat, and him to reply that he considered our work as fan-art as long as it would stay out of money matters (something that is and will stay the case!) and wished us good luck. We were sincerly touched by such positif talk!
Whatever, we're doing our best to prove that we're only a crew of passionnates and not impostors willing to make money over the work of Nintendo and Violition, the studio which developped FreeSpace 2 in the end of the 90' and from where comes the FSO Engine. »
Could you summarize your project with charts? Since you're not working full-time on this, is it difficult to mix work of Shadows of Lylat and your other hobbies?
« It's hard to give statistics. In fact, I don't even think we've got some of that kind, our leitmotiv is "Real Life first!". A member shall never be asked to leave work or family to work for Shadows of Lylat! This said, we're always volunteer when it comes to make our project advance. Of course, it happens (as it happens kinda yet) to have some boring tasks to complete, but we don't give up anyways. After all, each one do what he can. »
As of today, how developped is Shadows of Lylat? Is an official release possible soon?
« We have planned the release of what we call "Release 1" which will feature a first version of our own engine, a prologue for the single-player campain and some multi-players maps. Shadows of Lylat, for it is base on the FSO Engine will be multi-platforms. You'll be able to play on Windows PC, but also on Mac OS X (what I do) and with Linux distributions. I can't set a precise date, but I can assure we're quite far in the development of the game. As I said earlier, technical objectives went first so we naturally generated artistical content in the first place, but not game experience. So we'll focus on ingame interface, sound engineering, voice acting and so on to go from a working engine to a pleasant game... »
Does the SOL Team have new projects planned?
« As its name implies, the SOL Team is meant to develop Shadows of Lylat. Some of us work on other projects, such as the BattleStar Galactica project Diaspora. So it's not excluded that we meet in the future for other games, but we won't be the SOL Team anymore. »
A great thanks to Psygonis as well as for the whole SOL Team for their kindness! We'll impatiently be looking forward this Shadows of Lylat to rush back in the universe of Starfox. Let's hope that kind of initiative will motivate the firm from Kyoto to offer us a new episode of the adventures of Fox McCloud soon enough.
"
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