Interview de Charles Galyon

Puissance-Advance : Can you present your company "NeoPong" at our visitors ?

Charles Galyon : NeoPong Software, Inc. is a small video game start-up company. We formed approximately one year ago and began work on World Reborn. The entire team had some previous knowledge and technical understanding, however we lacked industry experience. While developing World Reborn we learned a great deal about the industry and game development in general. In that regard World Reborn was a great experience for us. Our objective at NeoPong Software is to create enjoyable games for the player.

Puissance-Advance : Since how long work on World Reborn ?

Charles Galyon : Work on World Reborn began approximately one year ago. In September of 2003 we completed World Reborn and are awaiting its public release. We anticipate that will be sometime in the first quarter of 2004.

Puissance-Advance : Can you explain to our visitors your techniques of development ?

Charles Galyon : Naturally software development is complex so I won't go into detail. In summary we start out by prototyping based on the design specification. Once we have a functional prototype we begin to refine it into the actual game. In order to improve maintenance and isolate errors we use modular development. This allows us to quickly locate the module with the problem and repair the error. We outsourced our art development and found that worked very well. Our artist was excellent, efficient and understood our mind-set extremely well. During the entire development process we often found ourselves tweaking and improving what we already had. It's very hard to get everything perfect right at the beginning.

Puissance-Advance : Your system of evolution of the pilots and vessels, where as in the RPG the characters and vehicles will increase level, interests us much. Can you speak to us about this innovation ?

Charles Galyon : Charles Galyon : We felt that a shooter would be a good place to start in the industry. Shooters are fairly straightforward and a lot less complex than an RPG. However, when designing World Reborn I felt that it could benefit from some RPG elements. Players like to receive a reward for their accomplishments, therefore it seemed like a good idea to include a leveling system. It also seemed that shooter can sometimes be dry when they feature the same thing in each level, therefore another feature I felt World Reborn could benefit from was the multi-linear path. I was very influenced by the Langrisser games and always impressed by their intricate plots. I wanted to try to capture some of that in World Reborn. And finally I felt that different characters could make for a more interesting story and allows the player more variety.

Puissance-Advance : The dialogues between the pilots will form integral part of World Reborn. Can you introduce the principal characters to us ?

Charles Galyon : We had a lot of fun with the characters in World Reborn. In creating their dialogue we wanted to make it youthful. We managed to get a lot of the archetypes for the characters. Thiel is the hero, he is clumsy, awkward and not exactly the smartest character. However, in spite of that he is a good, kind-hearted kid. Perrin, Thiel's best friend, is extremely intelligent, however, because he is still a kid he likes to have fun too. Richter serves as an older mentor figure to Thiel and Perrin. He helps guide them on their quest. The rest of the characters should be discovered by the player !

Puissance-Advance : You propose 18 missions appear all very varied and increasingly difficult. Approximately in how much hours of play will one be able to finish the play?

Charles Galyon : From our testing we anticipate it will take the player about 1 to 2 hours to complete the game the first time through. However with eight possible endings it could take the player a while to totally complete the game.

Puissance-Advance : Why use a system of Password, whereas the majority of current plays GBA use a save ?

Charles Galyon : We would have liked to have been able to use a save game, however our publisher felt it would be best to use a password system instead. We support this decision and did the best we could to shorten the password.

Puissance-Advance : On your Web site, you specify well that World Reborn does not contain blood and things gores and sexual. You target a young public ?

Charles Galyon : We wanted World Reborn to appeal to a very broad audience. We feel that a game does not need excessive blood, violence or other explicit content to be enjoyable. World Reborn can be played and enjoyed by any age group.

Puissance-Advance : Will your play leave to Europe ? If so, about which quarter approximately ?

Charles Galyon : We are hoping for a European release, especially with the interest we've seen from the European community. We are not sure when to expect a release there yet, but we remain hopeful that it will receive a European release and we are ready to support such a move.

Puissance-Advance : Do you have a last thing to say to our visitors ?

Charles Galyon : One last thing I would like to add: World Reborn could never have been completed without having such a dedicated and movitated team. Throughout the entire development process we worked together and when times were hard everyone stayed through until the end. Creating a successful game requires a devoted team. The game's success now relies on the fans who are, in the end, the most important people.