We recently had the chance to ask the development team Watermelon about their brand-new Sega Genesis game: Pier Solar.  So I took this opportunity to ask what in the world they were thinking, and also attempt to figure out what makes this game tick.

1) So, this is a brand new game for the Sega Genesis? What brought this on?

Tulio: Yes, this is a brand new game – new story, music, graphics and engine, etc. Four years ago, we decided to create something new for the Sega Genesis for the retro game fans like us. Overtime, other members joined the team and the rest is history.

2) How many people are working on the project?

Tulio: There are 8 of us in the core team; and there are 4 more supporting us. So about 12 people.

3) Seems like a small amount of people to be making a game, does the nature of the hardware make it a little easier?

Tulio: Nope, it’s the opposite. Because of the nature of the hardware, we have a lot of limitations that we would not have had with a newer technology. So actually, it’s quite challenging. But I’m glad to say that we have a great team to work on this game.

Tiido: You can never get enough of GFX artists, but the hardware itself is very easy to manage albeit there are quite a few limitations that force you to be creative

4) About how long have you been working on Pier Solar?

Tulio: I’m on the project since the beginning, so that makes about 4½ years. 2 of those were purely background development on which not much has been seen, like the main engine and the supporting tools. Starting in 2007 we finally started to add content, and that’s when the game became more visible.

Tiido: A little bit over a year now, writing tools and other things to create music and sound effects for MD.

Daniel: We have all been joining the team one by one over the last 5 or so years; in my case I have been around for about 2 years.

Zebbe: I’ve been working on Pier Solar for about a year. I got the request to join the team because the tools for making maps where done then, and the other team members needed their precious time for other parts of the game. Fonzie taught me on how to use the tools and we cooperated well to make maps that fit the game.

5) What are some of your influences for Pier Solar?

Tulio: A lot of things, I must say. Everyone in the team are big fans of RPGs, so our work has a lot of inspirations from great RPGs such as Phantasy Star IV, Shining Force II and Chrono Trigger. At the same time, creativity is the core values of our team. So the story, graphics and music are all brand new creations of the team.

Zebbe: 16-bit RPGs, mostly. My favourite game is Phantasy Star IV, and its influence on my early works didn’t suit Fonzie too well because he imagined the Pier Solar world as more chaotic, unstructured and unplanned. Phantasy Star IV had maps that are pretty much the opposite of that. But as work progressed, our cooperation went smoothly and thanks to lots of brainstorming and planning Pier Solar now has very varied, fun and good looking maps inspired by other game genres and movies, even.

6) What kind of things does Pier Solar have that I can’t find in any other RPG?

Tulio: First of all is the fact it was made by the people from the retrogaming community. But technically we tried to bring innovative content and playability, also we’re trying to avoid many of the RPGs clichés and bring new ideas to the battle mechanics.

7) Being that this is a music site, I’m kinda curious about the music. I’ve heard that if you have a Sega CD, it will play the music from the game?

Tulio: Yes, that’s correct. We were able to detect and use the Sega CD hardware if present. That’s why we’re shipping the game with a enhanced soundtrack CD. If you have the Sega CD attached you just have to place this CD in the drive and you’ll have streamed PCM music playing from the Sega CD instead of the traditional FM from Genesis/Mega Drive.

8 ) Was it hard to find a bunch of people interested in creating a full-scale game like this?

Tulio: Yes, it was. It is hard to have a team with the skill sets necessary to complete Pier Solar, especially when they’re all volunteers. I have to be honest – it is quite an extensive game. Although we need a complete team to create Pier Solar, we’ve been trying to recruit people since the beginning but almost nobody had interest on the game since we didn’t have much to show on the first 2 years… But still, people started showing up and joined the team out of passion for RPGs and now we have a really hardworking and talented team for this game.

Daniel: Actually, it was. We have been searching help for ages, but only very few people ever volunteered to help out; but that is okay. After all, it is quite a lot of work, and it would be worse if people offered to help, but did not deliver in the end.

9) Do you plan on selling lots and lots of copies, are you aiming at a particular audience?

Tulio: Well, you can say we are aiming for the RPGs fans and retro gamers, but honestly I have no specific audience targeted. Our goal is to revive the passion for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games and to bring something new for the gamers to play and enjoy. Genny was our platform of choice because the project was born for Sega CD following the steps of Lunar, but our game is here for anyone who wants a new game to play! Who knows some day it will make to a modern console?

Zebbe: The first aim is to give all fans of the Mega Drive, Sega and retro gaming a great new game incomparable to anything since the era its console was supported. But the more copies that are sold, the better, because that will surely inspire more people to follow the way this team has walked and do something similar. That would be wonderful.

10) What kind of modern games do you enjoy?

Tulio: I like games with deep story that get you hooked into. I’ve been playing Naruto for PS3 and XBox lately, and I’ve been playing Zelda Twilight Princess for Wii. I really enjoy Wii a lot, especially Wii Sports. Guitar Hero/Rock Band also provides lots of fun. I enjoyed the remake of

Tiido: Mainly single player first person shooters. Games were better 5…15 years ago

Daniel: I play mainly RPGs; some action or fighting games are welcome too. As opposed to Tiido, I believe that games have constantly been improving since Pong to this very day. So for me, games are generally better than ever. However, the late trend of Wii and Nintendo DS, focusing gameplay more on gimmicks like motion-control, touchscreen and mic is not my kind of thing personally.

Zebbe: None. The PlayStation 2 was the last new console I got, but I didn’t have as much fun with it as the original one or the 2D era consoles, maybe because I don’t enjoy 3D graphics very much. I’m all into retro gaming and development now.

11) What makes this game worth it? There’s a lot of retro gaming going on these days with emulators, and the Wii’s Virtual Console. You can pick up a Sega Genesis for pretty cheap these days, but what makes this game worth owning?

Tulio: First of all it’s because it’s a new game. You can have much fun re-playing your favorite classic RPG but it will not be the same as when you played it for the first time. With Pier Solar that feeling is back, a new RPG which was made inspired on all those classics all of us love so much. I also think that this is the first step to get more people developing and releasing serious commercial grade games for retro platforms. Ten years ago we got people making technical demos now it’s time to have this knowledge put to work. That’s what we’re doing with Pier Solar and we hope that much more will come after we finish this project.

Daniel: I hope it is a game of an overall quality that RPG-players on the Genesis have always been missing; the Genny and Sega CD both had a comparably small and visually unimpressive library of Japanese style RPGs in it´s original lifetime, especially when compared to the best the SNES had to offer; Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean, and quite a few more. Visuals are a big part of that; even the most popular JRPGs on the system like Phantasy Star or the Lunar-games do not make full use of what the hardware can do. We are trying hard to get the most out of the system; five characters in the party at once, fully animated monsters, huge magic effects….and we even have scenes that break the Genesis´ limit of 64 colors at once. The limit is our own skills. And using the Sega CD as optional sound playback enables us to make up for the Genesis inferior sound capabilities. As for gameplay and story….we just hope that having played many RPGs from the 8-bit-generation until today gives us a good idea of what a great RPG should be like. This game is worth owning because it is the Genesis-RPG players have been waiting for since 1988.

12) When do you expect this to be finished? Where can people pick it up at?

Tulio: The project is very near to completion and will be released up to spring of this year. Anyone can check the game at http://www.piersolar.com. There’s a beta for download and pre-ordering is available.

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