Atari’s latest mobile game, Lunar Battle, is a combination city-builder/space combat simulator. We spoke with Mark Perloff, producer of Lunar Battle, to get more details on what makes Lunar Battle a distinct part of the Atari legacy.
Lunar Battle always had a strong base-building element, but the team wanted to make Lunar Battle distinct. Their solution? Add space fights. (Always a great solution.)
“The core of the game that is currently in soft launch has been there from the start, but the big addition that we made halfway through the development was adding in the space combat section of the game,” said Perloff. “And they feed into each other, so as you build up your base and create resources, those resources can then be put into upgrading your spaceship, which you use over 50 levels of increasingly difficult space combat… we wanted something that really would set this game apart from a lot of the city builders out there and we felt that that was something that would definitely do it.”
The base-building and combat simulation elements work together to make Lunar Battle a distinct experience. “I think that a lot of care was put into both elements of the game,” Perloff told iDigitalTimes. “I guess I would look at it more as a base builder first with a really cool combat mechanic as opposed to the other way around.”
That being said, Lunar Battle ’s space combat is part of what grants it a place in Atari’s legacy. “With the lineage and pedigree of Atari, and with our history in classic arcade games, it really felt like the right touch,” said Perloff. In fact, Atari’s history of fun, accessible “pew-pew” laser games going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s is part of the theme and feel that suffuses Lunar Battle.
There’s also Atari’s “proud lineage of simulation games,” says Perloff, “especially recently,” citing titles like Roller Coaster Tycoon for mobile (whose developers also worked on Lunar Battle ) and Roller Coaster Tycoon World on PC. Considered with the space combat elements of Lunar Battle , it’s clear that Lunar Battle fits in neatly with Atari’s other games.
In terms of gameplay, Lunar Battle took inspiration from a surprising source: intricate PC simulator titles. “We were really inspired in terms of the base-building aspect of the game, by actually a lot of PC titles, stuff like the Anno series, and games like Banished,” said Perloff. The aim with Lunar Battle was to make a game that was accessible, but with a lot of depth in its inner workings for the dedicated player to uncover: what Perloff describes as a “midcore experience.”
This midcore experience plays out across both the base-building (resource management) and space combat (ship-building) fronts to provide levels of strategy to both. “As you upgrade your ship you’ll have more slots where you can place your different items you have - shield, lasers, blasters, hulls, engines, stuff like that. So you can put them in any slot and you can upgrade each individual item you’re putting on your ship, so you do end up with a lot of customizability,” Perloff told iDigi.
The customizability is important for combat, where you must face off against many different ships loaded out in different ways. “You want to think of it as 2D naval combat. You want to get up on the broad side of their ship and fire on them,” said Perloff. Enemy type doesn’t matter; only loadout does. “So from level to level you might want to switch out your load out depending on who you’re fighting.”
Interestingly, there’s a PvP element to space combat that works differently than you might think. There’s no friends list or messaging, and you’re not actually engaging another person in real time. Instead, you’ll be battling against an AI using another real player’s loadout.
“It’s asynchronous multiplayer,” said Perloff. “At a certain point in the mission progression system, you will unlock a space station which you can then outfit with weapons and shields and hulls the way you would your spaceship. At that point you start engaging in PvP, which will be you piloting your ship versus an AI-controlled enemy ship that is using the stats and loadout and space station of another player and their level. So you’re actually not engaging directly against another person, you’re playing against an AI-controlled version of their ship.”
The narrative element of Lunar Battle takes place on both fronts as well. “So on the surface, in both cases, you’re actually playing out a storyline. You’re a crash-landed colonist on this distant planet and as you continue to build up your base, sort of a small light and funny narrative unfolds,” said Perloff. “And then on top of that, we have fifty levels of space combat… Same with base building, there is actually a plot that unfolds there too. You’ll eventually come up against pirates, and space barbarians, and people from the captain’s past, and then all sorts of different characters will appear as you continue on the campaign.”
The game does eventually end, Perloff points out: you run out of planet to explore. “We definitely plan to add more to it,” said Perloff. “The storyline is very light and fun, and it ends, but there’s certainly way more places that we could go with it. And how that ties into gameplay, it’s not currently in the plans for the soft launch, but we are actively working on late-game structures that you’ll be able to build, like monuments, Great Pyramids and sort of other world wonders, which will require a lot more resources than normal buildings. That will be in addition to all the endgame content we’re working for.”
Finally, there’s monetization, a contentious issue for gamers. “We do think the game is perfectly playable without spending a dime,” said Perloff. There are two key points where you can pay money to advance: to end the cooldown for the use of the robots that fabricate your buildings, and by paying for resource packs, which provide a random assortment of resources depending on the pack’s rarity level.
But resource packs can be found on the planet’s surface and refresh every so often, and while you’re waiting for your robots to cool down, you can head into space combat or manage your factories. “Everything happens in real time, which is really interesting. Every single resource in the game, workers actually are like, leaving their homes, going to that building, taking out that box that has those resources, bringing it to where it needs to be. That happens while the game is on, but regardless of that, even when you’re not playing, resources will still be created. So the factories throughout the game will always be making resources. There’s always something happening,” said Perloff.
Lunar Battle is currently in soft launch in Canada, Israel and the Netherlands right now, so if you’re located in those territories, you can check the game out now on iOS or Android.
Lunar Battle is targeted for a release in late fall of this year. Will you be giving this space combat/base builder a go? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
