Welcome to another SAGE ‘22 Interview! Today I (Rummy) Will be interviewing Sabrina DiDuro from GalaxyTrail, Sabrina is the producer behind Freedom Planet and the founder of GalaxyTrail and I managed to get a hold of her right before the release of the highly anticipated sequel, Freedom Planet 2! So for some quick disclaimers, yes. The first question is just a confirmation of her current position and the screenshots of Freedom Planet 2 are from a review copy of the title. With that out of the way, Let’s get to it!
(Pretty Tittle Screen....)
Sabrina: Thank you for having me! I am the founder and current CEO of GalaxyTrail, and the Producer of the Freedom Planet series.
(I can hear the sounds of petals crashing, i wonder why?)
Sabrina: I started GalaxyTrail in 2011 as a solo dev. Shortly after our first commercial game started production, I recruited additional teammates to help with various things and we've been a fairly steady crew ever since. I think the moment that we truly spread our wings was when we began a crowdfunding campaign for the original Freedom Planet in early 2012 and it exceeded our wildest expectations. I had requested $2,000 to cover development costs, but we earned more than 13 times that amount! I will be forever grateful for the support we received in those critical early days, as it allowed me to pursue game development full time.
(Zao's Shopping Paradise has a lot of style! So does this game. you can buy and play Freedom Planet on most systems right now!)
Sabrina: Thankfully, FP1's sales were steady enough to support the development of the sequel without additional funding, but it was still quite challenging to keep our costs manageable as an indie studio, and after the health scares I experienced at the end of FP1's development due to hardcore crunching, I wanted to maintain a strict anti-crunch environment moving forward. For most of FP2's development, I've kept commissions to our artists and programmers confined to months where we receive higher income such as the summer and holiday sales periods, and once our income dips down again I begin to carry more of the workload until our funding recovers. The tradeoff to this, along with wanting to avoid crunch, is of course a longer dev cycle of seven years compared to FP1's three years, but when you consider that the sequel is about twice as big, it's honestly not too bad. I'm extremely happy with the work we've been able to accomplish.
(Freedom Planet 2 has a photo mode! You can pose the four playable characters with a Varity of expressions!)
Sabrina: Without getting into spoilers, Lilac's struggles against Brevon have played a part in her character growth since the first game, and she's not as quick to rush into danger without thinking like she used to. Carol is still Carol for the most part, but the introduction of her sister Corazon on the side of the villains will quickly challenge her in a way she hasn't been before. Milla's incredible fighting powers are finally addressed, as well, and aside from that, she's actually doing quite well for herself, she has her own treehouse now and has been studying alchemy and chemistry in her spare time.
(Freedom Planet 2 has hub areas, be sure to talk to the NPCs, there's a lot of fun interactions to be had.)
Sabrina: I recall one of our convention experiences at PAX South back in 2017 where we shared an early demo of Freedom Planet 2. Most of the fans we got to interact with were grownups, but there was a little girl who stopped by with her parents and her name was Neera, and her face lit up when she saw that one of our characters was also named Neera. She left with a copy of the first game, although I unfortunately had to let her know that Neera was not playable in it, but she and her parents were still really excited about the sequel. I think about that interaction all the time and it's been one of my biggest motivators to keep pushing through development. Wherever you are, Neera, I hope you're doing okay. Thank you for helping me realize how much our work matters.
Rummy: It was nice learning more about the history and work ethic of your company, the process it took to release Freedom Planet 2 and learning more about characters that reside within Avalice. It's a breath of fresh air. Here’s to the success of the game's release!
Sabrina: Thank you so much!
(Zao Land is a beautiful stage filled with bright lights and serene backdrop.)
No, Thank YOU for sitting down with me and answering these questions. That was Sabrina DiDuro! I hope you go check out Freedom Planet 2, releasing September 13th, 2022 on PC & Linux! I’ll drop a link to her Vtuber account named SpaceyBat (She recently made her soft debut during SAGE ‘22!), GalaxyTrail’s Twitter and a Steam Pages to Freedom Planet 1 & 2!
Links
SpaceyBat's Twitter
GalaxyTrail's Twitter
Freedom Planet
Freedom Planet 2
INTERVIEW BY: RummySM
