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With the release of Deimos Rising, IMG brings you an interview with David Wareing, the creator of Ambrosia Software's vertical-scrolling arcade shooter.

Before Deimos Rising, Wareing brought us such games as its prequel, Mars Rising, and earlier still, Swoop:

IMG: Swoop is a very polished effort, but it's interesting how similar in style its graphics and overall presentation are to those of Maelstrom. Did Ambrosia games in the mid-90s have to follow a particular 'house-style'?

DW: The only visual requirement was showing the Ambrosia logo at the start. All our games have been stylistically independent and there's no overall publishing theme that runs through them like, say, games from Freeverse. However, the games of the time, such as Maelstrom and Solarian II or even Lunatic Fringe, do share a similar style, being waved-based and having bonus multipliers and score countdowns and the like. Maelstrom was definitely an influence on Swoop insofar as it raised the bar for sprite-based games, especially in terms of visual presentation. With Swoop, I wanted large sprite-based bonuses and text, as the use of small standard fonts had annoyed me in earlier games.

Deimos Rising does have a bit of Maelstrom memorabilia in it, but you will have to find it yourself (and hope that you don't)!

IMG: Mars Rising was a much more ambitious game than Swoop, but Deimos Rising is very clearly a sequel to Mars Rising. What are the big changes, and in what ways do you consider it better?

DW: I think the overall gameplay is much better. The difficulty curve is kinder, the graphics are certainly a few steps up, and there is much more variety in enemies and landscapes and all manner of objects. It's still a shooter with a simple idea at its core, but there's more depth in there. We've spent much more of our time tending to the variety and difficulty this time around. Mars Rising players will recognize it instantly and be able to play it, but they'll also notice quite a few changes in the style of the game, hopefully for the better.

IMG Interview: Ambrosia's David Wareing

IMG Preview: Deimos Rising

IMG News: Deimos Rising Out as Promised

MGF: Deimos Rising 1.0 (34 MB)

Ambrosia Software

Deimos Rising

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