iPhone Babel Rising 3D - Ubisoft / Mando

Hi All,

I am also posting in this section as the game is iPad optimized (taking namely into account the hardware differences between iPads 1, 2 and 3).

Let me briefly introduce myself : I’m Michel, co-founder of Mando Productions, the studio behind “Babel Rising 3D”. The title will be launched soon by Ubisoft, and we wanted to open this thread to tell how the game was developed, and also answer your questions (and please also forgive me for my English... it's not my mother tongue).

It all started two years ago with the original IOS Babel Rising game, in 2D.The idea was to play God and stop the humans in their attempt in building the Tower of Babel, using divine powers such as tornadoes, tsunamis or earthquakes.




We were lucky as the game did quite well. We had then the wish to go further in terms of gameplay and we started thinking on how we could increase the player’s experience. Through brainstorming sessions came out the idea of having a 3D version of the game, allowing the player to rotate around the tower and thus adding a strategic layer to the “arcade / action” principle.

We started to make some mock-ups of what the players view would be.



This also gave us the idea of different buildings from which the workers would exit, as well as the idea of the harbor where construction stones would arrive.



While working on this view, we realized that the game was giving too much importance to the strategy side and that the basic fun should remain simple as “get rid of these pesky humans and unleash your Mighty Powers on them”. So we adjusted the view and namely decided that humans should be bigger. As a consequence, the style that was already “cartoony” evolved even more in this direction, as the proportions between humans and buildings became more unrealistic.



The design of the “main” tower also evolved and we abandoned the idea of a square basis, to be more close from our initial “Brueghel inspired” idea.



At this stage, the core design was nearly finalized. We decided to develop a 3D playable prototype and… showed it to Ubisoft who said “yes” . Since the decision was taken to move further and develop the game, only adjustments were made. Some major and some minor. Within the main evolutions was namely the decision to add new towers and also specific units such as the Priests or the Siege Towers.



The game’s nearly there now, as the release is planned in two weeks. We keep fingers crossed at Mando, hoping that the game will please.

Update 1 :
There are several different towers within the game. Here are the foundations of the third tower - the Gardens of Babylon...

 

Tower 2

A new screen shot, showing a little more action, this time...



Only 4 days remaining before you can play it and see by yourself... Hope you'll enjoy !

 

The ultimate Power

In Babel Rising 3D, there are four different Ultimate Power, each of them corresponding to a specific Element - Water, Fire, Wind or Earth.

These powerful weapons are not always available... To load them, you have to kill a lot of babylonians using a specific element - i.e. the kills done with the two basic powers of a given Element load the corresponding Ultimate Power.

Then when it's ready, it's up to you to unleash your maximum power... here's a sample of the Ultimate Power of wind : the Sand Storm.

 

Only one day left before launch. Here's the official Teaser, with real game footage from the IOS version.
http://youtu.be/JUwSDCqq1AI

 

As the game is now released, I opened a new thread in the "iPad games" section. Feel free to ask us questions on the development, and we'll do our best to answer them.