The creators of Doctor Who Legacy kindly got involved with us and we have been able to do an interview with them, asking questions about the game:
How did the game develop from the drawing board to the app it is now?
Susan - The game that exists is very true to the game we originally set out to make and pitched BBC on in early 2013. We're very proud of that fact. Our development partner, Seed Studio in Taiwan, focused first and foremost on building a data driven back end system for creating and deploying new levels as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our character artist at Seed, Pest Jiang, was responsible for the art style vision which we heavily iterated on with the BBC before beginning the mammoth task of creating the beloved characters of Doctor Who. We were also fortunate to have very talented background artists who continue to amaze us with the work that they do bringing the sets of Doctor Who to life in the game.
What is your working relationship with the BBC, are they helpful?
Lee - The BBC has been amazing. There is no way, at all, that the game could have been made without the constant support of many parts of the BBC, from our amazing producer, the legal team who get us permission to add characters to the game, and the Doctor Who brand team who make sure we're true to this amazing universe of characters which we love so much. We're in contact with the BBC constantly - rarely a day goes past that Susan isn't on the phone to someone there, and our aim for the relationship is complete transparency on our side - from the first day of the project we've talked to the BBC about everything as it's decided on and built.
You say you have to get BBC approval for anything you put in the game, have they ever turned anything down?
Lee - It's very rare we get turned down. We're huge Whovians, we understand the universe and characters very well, and we care about them, and the integrity of Doctor Who as a property, deeply - It's very rare when discussing new ideas for the game internally we ever get near something we believe wouldn't fit in the universe to the extent that the BBC would be concerned. Especially now - we've been working with them daily for over a year, and we have a much better understanding of their visions and goals for the universe, how they view the series as a whole, and we know the sorts of places where we cannot tread, and those where we need to tread very carefully. But ... sometimes we try and push the boundaries in little ways for fans of the game - we asked if we could do a Christmas K9 costume for the advent promotion last year and, looking back, it was absolutely the right decision.
The game has been a huge success, probably the first doctor who game to be anywhere this successful, are you shocked by this?
Lee - From the very start of the design for the game we has a very specific plan: a high quality, accessible to all ages, free mobile game which any fan of the show, almost anywhere in the world, could download and play immediately. What really shocked us was how quickly an absolutely awesome community built up around the game, who help us design it on a daily basis as we try to make it, week on week, become an even more awesome Doctor Who experience.
What part of the game are you most proud of?
Lee - One of the pillars of the original design was that the game would feel more like a dungeon crawler, where you go into an encounter, the enemy poses a question in the form of a challenging situation on the board, and then you answer it with the characters and abilities you decide to bring into the encounter. This back and forth, the choices you have to make (I'm stunned - what do I do now? The gems are locked, how do I react to that?) make the game feel much more reactive, exciting, mature and deep compared to very arcade-y games such as Bejewelled and Candy Crush Saga.
Some of episodes such as The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and The Pandorica Opens have not been put into the game, do you have a process which chooses which stories you base levels on?
Susan - Lee and I have watched most episodes (of the modern seasons anyway) multiple times. We look for the episodes which provide the best opportunities for varied gameplay (i.e. with lots of potential threats to deal with). In the past, we typically avoided 'monster of the week' episodes where the conflict focused on just one enemy. That said, this has evolved as the game has matured and we've found that those episodes can present some of our most engaging and memorable levels -- i.e. Vincent and the Doctor and The Satan Pit.
Are there any stories in the future you are personally desperate to get into the game?
Susan -- There are definitely some favorites of mine from the Tennant years that I'm looking forward to adding including The Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library, and Doomsday!
Just have to say thank you to Lee and Susan from Doctor Who Legacy for answering our questions. Make sure to check out the game, unlock the fan area and keep playing the game. You can also check out the review we did of the game in the reviews section of the site, along with reviews of other episodes.