The mecha genre holds a special place in our hearts here at Gaming Conviction. One of the first shows I ever saw on Cartoon Network as a kid was Gundam Wing and the day I receive the network on our cable provider I got to watch SD Gundam. It’s also nostalgic for our webmaster as one of the first games he ever received for his original Xbox was the first MechAssault game. When I first stumbled across Dual Gear, I was instantly blown away by how amazing it looked. The more I learned about it the more interested I got. The folks over at Orbital Speed Studio took a different approach compared to other indie developers by making a mecha turn based and action game using Unreal Engine 4. The fact that it will not only be released on PC, but also on Xbox One and Playstaion 4 is a huge bonus in my book. We set down with Founder of Orbital Speed Studio and Project Leader Pongpat Pongsakorntorn to discuss the game…
GC: When I first saw the game my first thought was that it had a Front Mission Evolved and Gundam feel to it. Were those influences behind Dual Gear?
PP: We make got inspired from all Japanese Mech Subculture, not only from Front Mission and Gundam. The Mecha turn based genre game is very influential back in our childhood. We love this genre and don’t want it to die out in this era.
GC: The development team has it’s share of experience as both the Art Director and 3D Artist both worked on Aeternoblade, while the Programmer worked on Wicked Monster Blast. How has that experienced helped with development so far?
PP: All experience are very important to build a game. When we make the first game, It is like when we facing the first boss dungeon. When we took him down, we would gain EXP, LV and some little item to help us for the next dungeon. Due to the lack of experience, killing the first boss is the hardest. That made us grow up a little stronger and wiser to fight the next boss. So the experience in the team did certainly help.
GC: What drew you to want to use Unreal Engine 4 as the game’s engine?
PP: Unreal Engine 4 is very powerful and simple to use. We wanted to develop this game as a multi platform. Unreal 4 can provide a pretty solid option on those.
GC: Last year you had the honor of showcasing your game at Tokyo Game Show last year. What was that experience like and what kind of feedback did you receive?
PP: We got the help from the ASEAN-Japan Centre and Thailand Government to bring us to the TGS 2015. That was an awesome experience of our small company. The build we show at the TGS was very buggy but the players that got to play gave us kind and positive feedback. We collected many useful data from the booth visitors. When we got back to our country, we use them to improve and fix the game.
GC: You just launched an IndieGoGo campaign. Can you give us some details about it?
PP: We launched the campaign because we are looking for the budget to help us complete the development and improve the game. If we reach the goal, It will let us have a much more stable development. Various works can be developed at the same time such as the script, BGM, Sound and the Voice. This will save us a lot of time and let us focus on the better development of the gameplay and graphic. More artist and tester could be recruited to work on the project. We hope everyone who love the Mecha or our game will support us. We will do our best!
GC: Can you give us some insight into some of the customization? Are there really going to be over 100 different parts?
PP: There are at least 30 type of the original mechs planned (if we could do more, we probably do more). Each mech is composed of 5 different parts,(the head, arms, body, legs and backpack). Each part can be changed to another in the customize option. This makes the game have at least 30 different type of heads, arms, bodies, legs and backpacks. Each part will have different stats and abilities. We received a lot of comment from the pre-alpha demo about how slow our unit walk. The movement speed depends on the part customized into your Dual gear. The heavier the unit, the slower it became. Some leg will give you the benefit of speed despite being heavy. Some part will grant you a buff on a certain type of weapon. Dual Gear freely let the player custom the mech of their choices.
GC: The game is being advertised as both turn based and action game. Does that mean that it will have levels that will just be turn-based, while the others will be in 3rd person?
PP: We started the project with the keyword Boostable Turn Base Mech Game. The player controls a squad of Dual Gear in battle. However, you only controlled one unit at one time. Once that unit energy is spent, you will switch to your other unit. During the time you control the unit, it plays similar to third person shooter. The third person view gives the player the cinematic feel of being the pilot of the mech. The turn base gameplay pushes the player to think about strategies in the heat of battle. The Boost feather is highly connected to the chain combo attack, which we will release more info soon.
GC: Can you elaborate a little bit on the team management system?
PP: Dua lgear has a Team management system is to relate to the carrier and formation of the team. Every carrier has a different quantity of the mech they can carry and affect the deployment formation of the team that can affect the chain combat system. Also, the carrier will have special skills that can help the squad during the mission.
GC: How will the skill system work?
PP: The skill is from the pilots. When the pilot gains an EXP and LV up, They will get more Dual Point to unlock a skill. Each weapon will have their own skill stack. This will make the pilot develop into the master of the weapon they used frequently.
GC: Where can our readers keep up with the development on Dual Gear?
PP: We are on the Campaign Running and we still need your support. Please visit our website and all our social media below. We’ll update all progression of development until the game finish!
