Developer Blog: Inspiration and Q&A
Posted on 15th Jul 2010 at 11:14 by Mode 7 with 9 comments
I talked a little bit about our first game, Determinance, on my last blogpost. So, now we’ll advance merrily forwards in time and take a look at the origins of Frozen Synapse.
The key inspiration for Frozen Synapse was Laser Squad Nemesis, a turn-based multiplayer strategy game from some of the team who worked on the old XCOM games. Once, Ian and I dug it out and played a match during the early phases of developing Frozen Synapse.
I’d never really played Laser Squad before, whereas he had been into it for years. We both spent time setting up our units, shuffling them around in early turns and trying to get into positions where we could gain coverage over larger areas of the map. As the turns went by, we slowly advanced on each others’ positions, sending out individual units to scout and then quickly pushing up the rest of our forces to give them support.
Eventually, we spotted each other. I knew Ian was the superior player, so I decided to go for broke. I set up a feint, attacking in the most obvious way possible: as I’m terrible at games, this is something Ian would have expected me to do! At the same time, I sent a small squad around the back and unleashed a flurry of grenades.
The key inspiration for Frozen Synapse was Laser Squad Nemesis, a turn-based multiplayer strategy game from some of the team who worked on the old XCOM games. Once, Ian and I dug it out and played a match during the early phases of developing Frozen Synapse.
I’d never really played Laser Squad before, whereas he had been into it for years. We both spent time setting up our units, shuffling them around in early turns and trying to get into positions where we could gain coverage over larger areas of the map. As the turns went by, we slowly advanced on each others’ positions, sending out individual units to scout and then quickly pushing up the rest of our forces to give them support.
Eventually, we spotted each other. I knew Ian was the superior player, so I decided to go for broke. I set up a feint, attacking in the most obvious way possible: as I’m terrible at games, this is something Ian would have expected me to do! At the same time, I sent a small squad around the back and unleashed a flurry of grenades.
