We here at GamersMark are greatly anticipating Vicious Cycle’s Robotech: Invasion, myself in particular, so in an effort to help the game get the attention that it deserves we’ve conducted an interview with Greg Sewart of the game’s developer, Vicious Cycle to bring fans more details on the game, and, of course, a fun read. Enjoy!




Introduce yourself to the readers. What’s your name and what are your responsibilities at Vicious Cycle?

My name is Greg Sewart. I’m a Level Designer here at Vicious Cycle. My main responsibilities have to do with planning and implementing enemy encounters within each game, though we all contribute to game design and story aspects of each product, as well.




Robotech is without a doubt one of the most popular anime franchises of all time, and what comes with this is a fan following that is overly critical about the games based off the series. How did it feel to deliver the first well accepted Robotech videogame with Battlecry in 2002?

While I wasn’t with the company when Battlecry was released, it’s easy to tell that it’s a source of great pride around Vicious Cycle. Robotech fans had been waiting so long for a respectable game based on their favorite series; you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief when Battlecry hit store shelves.

Not to mention Robotech: Battlecry was the studio’s first game, so it was quite a success story.




The New Generation is possibly the most underrated, as well as my personal favorite series in the Robotech Saga. What made you guys choose this series for your second Robotech game instead of another Macross game or one based on Southern Cross?

There were a lot of factors involved. For one thing, even back when Battlecry was in development, a lot of the people at Vicious Cycle were hoping for a chance to build a game based on the Cyclone mecha from New Generation. Also, Southern Cross is usually at the bottom of most fans’ favorite lists, which is why we figured it was smart to go with New Generation instead.




It looks as if the game will capture The New Generation’s post-apocalyptic feel; can you describe it a bit for readers?

Well, The New Generation takes place following two major Robotech wars. In the first, the surface of the Earth was destroyed by the Zentraedi, with only small pockets of humans surviving to try and rebuild the planet.

In the second Robotech war, almost all of the fighting took place on the surface of the Earth, ravaging it. While the humans were successful in driving out the attacking Robotech Masters, it left their defense forces in a sorry state, and thus no match for the subsequent invasion of the Invid.

Now, during our game, the Earth has been ruled by the Invid for a few years. Multiple attempts by Earth forces to take back the planet have ended in failure, further demoralizing the remaining human population. As a result, almost every city has fallen into a state of disrepair; there are downed starships and Robotech fighters littering the landscape. Basically, the place is just a hole. That’s the Earth you’re trying to save in Robotech: Invasion.





Invasion is a complete change in direction compared to Battlecry. No longer is the game mostly played in a 3rd person perspective with flying and transformable Veritech fighters, but instead mainly played in 1st person, putting the game into the FPS genre. What called for this change?

The New Generation animated series made very clear that the way to eliminate your average Invid unit was to shoot it in a particularly weak spot – the eye. We took that idea and tried to expand on it. In Invasion, the player not only gets a damage bonus by firing at the eye of each Invid unit, but can also do things like blow off cannons and limbs, slightly disabling them and allowing a lone soldier to take on an entire group of advancing aliens.

We switched to the first-person viewpoint because it affords the player much more precise aiming than did the play style in Battlecry. We needed to give them that level of control if they were going to take advantage of our location-based damage system.

Plus looking through the eyes of the main characters adds a nice sense of scale to everything, reminding you just how small and insignificant you are next to the Invid horde.

That said, Robotech: Invasion also includes fully playable third-person camera modes for those gamers who don’t dig the FPS stuff.




Why abandon the cel-shaded art style in favor of a more realistic, and in all honesty, much better looking game?

Considering the strong fan reaction to the look of Battlecry, we were completely prepared to use the cel-shading technique again with Invasion. However, the feeling was that cel-shading was being done to death at the time, and we didn’t want Robotech: Invasion to get lost in an avalanche of cel-shaded action games.

The world of Robotech: Invasion is supposed to be a dark, gritty place that has been all but destroyed by decades of war. We feel the more realistic graphics used in the game convey this atmosphere much more effectively than would the look cel-shading brings to most titles.




What types of play modes can we expect from Invasion’s online aspect?

Starting an online game presents you with Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Protocapture play modes. The first three are pretty self-explanatory. The fourth play mode is the one I personally like the most.

A game of Protocapture consists of two teams and three Protoculture Extractors placed at various locations on each map. The goal is to get your team’s Protoculture stockpile to a certain level before the opposing team can do the same. To do this, you have to locate, activate, and protect each Proto Extractor. The more Extractors you control, the faster you stockpile will rise. This is the mode the VC guys have spent the most time playing. It’s absolute insanity when you have eight guys fighting it out for each Extractor.




Did you guys draw inspiration from any particular games while creating Invasion’s action elements?

When creating any game you’re always influenced by past titles that have done something right or done something that you particularly liked. For various reasons we’ve drawn inspiration from games such as Midnight Club II, MotoGP 3, SOCOM, Half Life, Metroid, Halo and a whole slew of others.





How will the Cyclone affect game scenarios?

The most obvious way would be the extra speed the Cyclone Bike mode offers the player. If you need to get from point A to point B quickly – and there are times in Invasion when you will – transforming and putting the pedal to the metal is the only way to do it.

Bike mode can also be used to escape from particularly hairy situations. Smart use of the transformation ability will help players to keep from getting surrounded. The down side, though, is that while in Bike mode you lose your extra layer of shielding. That means if an Invid unit gets off a couple lucky shots, you’ll be pushing up daisies.




Why aren’t there any flight missions in Invasion? I’m sure many fans would love to fly a mech similar to Scott Bernard’s Alpha Fighter.

We set out to capture the thrill of ground-based combat using Cyclones. We also decided to concentrate on one play style and do the best we could with it.




Did Harmony Gold place any limitations on the kind of source materials you could use for the game, or were you guys given the freedom to do what you wanted?

In general Harmony Gold gave us a fair bit of freedom regarding mecha designs, characters, and weapons. Of course, everything we created or modeled had to be approved by Harmony Gold before we could go ahead and put them in the game, as did the script, levels, and so on.




Are there any particular gameplay aspects you guys at VC are proud of?

I think we did a good job balancing the Cyclone modes. We tried hard to keep Bike mode from being simply a quicker way to get from one point to another. Once players learn the strengths and weaknesses of each Cyclone mode, they’ll be transforming like crazy during battle.

We also put a lot of effort into coming up with really varied mission objectives and levels. You’re not simply moving forward, fighting, moving forward some more, etc. I hope gamers dig it as much as I do.




Can we expect any Easter Eggs in the game, like art galleries and clips from the show?

Not the types you have mentioned. The unlockables all have to do with gameplay – invincibility, level selects, multiplayer skins, etc.




We hear that Invasion will tie into the upcoming Robotech: Shadow Force series. Can you elaborate on this?

Well, for any info regarding Shadow Force, you’d have to talk to Harmony Gold.

As for other series ties, we were pretty pumped when we learned that the recent comic book series (also named Robotech: Invasion), chronicling Lancer’s adventures after arriving on Earth, included one of our characters – Dr. Osmund. He also plays a large role in our game.




Any last words you would like to tell our readers?

We devoted ourselves to craft a solid game that would do justice to the great animated series it’s based on, while not going so hardcore that we’d alienate casual gamers. As always, we had a blast working on another Robotech game, especially since so many of us here at Vicious Cycle have been fans of the show since the mid-eighties.

GamersMark expresses their deepest thanks to Greg Sewart for collaborating with us to provide this interview. We cannot wait to get our hands on Robotech: Invasion. For more info on Invasion, click HERE and HERE.