Shoot Em’ Up Games are a staple in the history of video games. Of course when we talk about shoot em’ ups, we’re not talking about games like Call of Duty and Destiny. We’re talking about classics like R-Type, Galaga, Gradius, and Space Invaders. The indie studio Opqam specializes in shoot em’ up games and are coming off the success of Project Root. Now the team are back at it working on the game Dogos. The fact they are using a bold statement by saying that Dogos will “stand up in originality and innovation” did nothing but raise our interests even more. We recently sat down with studio Head Pablo Testa to discuss Dogos…
GC: What were some of your inspirations behind the idea of Dogos?
PT: The idea for dogos is a mix of many games, like xeviuos, r-type, axelay, desert strike. We mix the classic slump with an open world and free camera system.
GC: Coming off the success of Project Root, what kind of experiences are you taking from Project Root to Dogos?
PT: We take notes from the mistakes and success of Project Root. We short the length of the levels, add checkpoints, better balanced difficulty level, full level map, voices, and more. We keep with the Project Root control scheme and add new camera modes for races bosses, etc..
GC: While most Indie studios use Unity or Unreal Engine as a game engine, Dogos will be using a custom-built engine. What made you decide on going that route?
PT: Well I’m old school, and I like use my own code, and take control of everything. Frame rate is a must for Dogos, with our own technology we can be sure of that, our engine is tuned for the game, we can assume many optimization in the render engine and game code.
GC: Since the game is using a custom engine, does that mean there is a possibility of mod support later on down the road?
PT: Yes, is something we are thinking of, our level editor is fine, but Is not user ready, when we have a polished version mod is something we like to do for sure.
GC: How did the idea to make Dogos open world come about?
PT: The idea come from iteration, we start with the ship in the center without rotation, and so on, we have the basic idea, then iterate about it. Some problem we face with the open world is to kill some bosses, the only thing to do is rotate around, is why in Dogos we have the open world camera, and more modes for different situation, like bosses, and other things
GC: What are some of the weapons and specials we will be seeing?
PT: In dogos player can use homing missiles, laser, bomb, emp, as special weapons, also each ship has 4 main weapons and 3 ground weapons. We have a special weapon later in the game, that let the player make holes in the shields, the hole collapse with time, player need pass before it’s to late, is a nice feature to play with.
GC: What kind of bosses will we be fighting?
PT: Many kind, from big enemy ships, to bases, naval ships, robots.
GC: Has there been any discussions about possibly having some sort of crowdfunding?
PT: No, the game is self funded by us.
GC: What kind of emotions do you hope players will have while experiencing Dogos?
PT: Be proud of complete each level, feel that they made it, dogos is a game, what I mean with a game in a game like soccer you need some ability to play and you feel good when you made it, we are making it than when you lost, you know is something you do bad, and need to do better. For people who like just the experience and relax killing aliens, we have the easy mode.
GC: Where can our readers keep up with the development of Dogos?
PT: They can follow is in twitter at @opqam in facebook at facebook.com/opqam and of course our web page www.opqam.com
