NoE: You’re intergalactic space pirates: of course you’d go after swag bags!

OH: Right! And one of the key features of the game is the free aiming system. As far as I know, there are no other turn-based strategy games that do this. You have to aim really carefully before you fire, but you can also bounce shots off the walls, so that’s a really good way of getting those enemies in cover.

After a few rounds of combat, the alarm will go off and more enemies will spawn, so you have to be really quick, grab as much loot as you can and get back to your own ship. The problem is that the enemies can get onto your ship as well, so you have to reach an undocking console and use that; if you can’t make it in time, you’ll be overrun.

Then, after you’ve finished a mission and earned some money, you can go to the bar – the space bar! (laughs) And you can recruit new teammates there, each with different skills, and you can switch between them in combat as well. We’re working really hard to make the combat interesting in its own right, with explosive barrels, chandeliers you can shoot down and fun stuff like that.

NoE: Real Wild West saloon-type stuff.

OH: Exactly. And we’re developing a special physics engine; you wear a hat, and you’ll be able to shoot your enemies’ hats off. It’s a core feature! It’s not in there yet, but I’ve said right from the beginning, “This is the most important feature in the game! You have to be able to shoot off hats!”

But really we’re very happy with the game so far. When you start to develop a game like this, and you’ve never seen anything like it before, it’s a bit scary until you get to the point where you can really tell that it’s something fun, and then you can really believe in it. But I think we’re at that point now.

BS: One thing to mention as well is that if you’ve played Dig, you know that because you’re steam-driven, water is so important. And you have to find water and coal out in space as well; if you don’t, you’re in trouble. It’s sort of the same with your ship as it was with Rusty in Dig.

NoE: For those people who really get attached to their crew, can you lose your crew members? Obviously you have warriors, but are your researchers safe at least?

BS: No, they’re not. Nobody’s really safe, because even if you’re being very defensive in your game and not attacking, other ships might attack you and you’ll have to defend against them. The important thing is to keep the captain alive; if you can do that, the game keeps going.

OH: On that note, we know already that enemies will be able to board your ship as well as you boarding them. And we’re thinking of making it so that they can destroy things on your ship, so you really have to be careful about balancing attack and defence.

BS: It’s going to be fabulous. And like Olle said before, the thing that we were most worried about when we were done with Dig was the length of the game. We would have loved to have just put more content in there, but we just ran out of money. So we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again. When you’re done with this game, you’re going to be satisfied.

NoE: Thanks to you both for your time!