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Interview with Evoga Entertainment:
Creators of Rage of the Dragons

August 21, 2002

The Double Dragon Dojo stops to chat with Evoga, developers of the new Neo Geo fighting game "Rage of the Dragons," to ask a few questions regarding the recent release of the game.

Dojo: When did RotD begin development?

Evoga: The RD project started in November of the year 2000 with the first meeting with Japan team and the development lasted for around one year, this game was the first fighting game for EVOGA and Noise Factory.

Dojo: How many people were involved in the development of the game?

Evoga: For EVOGA team:
11 people
ANGEL SWORD – Director & Planner
MR.VO chara & graphic designer
EDU – planner, chara designer
BEL-MONT – chara designer, testing
DARB – graphic & demo designer
HIKARU SUF – chara designer
OROCHI – testing, demo color
SHIN RYU - testing, demo color
VIC DOM CAS – back up
TOZANI – back up
ERI SAN – back up

For Noise team:
12 people (Programmers, testers, Dot work and more)
For sound team:
2 people
For voice team:
7 people

Dojo: What was the reasoning behind making RotD into a Tournament Fighter Instead of a side-scrolling fighter like the original Double Dragon? I understand RotD was created as a follow-up to the original Double Dragon game for the Neo-Geo released in 1995.

Evoga: We made a deep research among players an for the results we decided to made RotD as a Fighting game instead to a side-scrolling game, also some failures in recent side scrolling games from other developers in the market push us to make this decision.

Dojo: Is it true you attempted to get the rights for the Double Dragon franchise, but couldn't use any of the names. If so, what happened?

Evoga: We develop the game as a sequel to the NEO GEO game, but for different reasons we made some changes in order to make the game more attractive and with a more actual fashion, because of this we did not use any of the characters or designs of the old NEO GEO version.

Dojo: Did you receive support from any former Technos Japan members?

Evoga: No

Dojo: I understand that Noise Factory co-developed some of the game. How much were they involved?

Evoga: Noise Factory was in charge of the programming of the game for the NEO GEO system, develop of the characters at dot level, sound and tuning of the game on game play and planning.

Dojo: Where does Rage of the Dragons fit in with the Double Dragon universe? Does the story fit chronologically with any past Double Dragon games?

Evoga: Since it is a new storyline the RotD does not fit on any DOUBLE DRAGON time line.

Dojo: How much more improved is Rage of the Dragons over the original Neo-Geo game?

Evoga: We believe that we made a substantial change in comparison to the old NEO GEO version, especially in character design, game play, sound and graphics.

Dojo: What makes RotD stand out from similar fighting games?

Evoga: The main difference of the RotD to other games is based on the game system, the tag system was tuned in order to make a difference from other tag games by using special team attacks depending on which team the player use and the first impact also provides some new ways to make combos in a “MATRIX” fashion, the music is improved because the sound creator managed to produce better sound by pushing to the limit the NEO GEO System

Dojo: Are there any plans to port Rage of the Dragons into a mainstream home console like the PlayStation 2, Gamecube and/or X-Box? If so, would it be an international release?

Evoga: There are no plans yet to translate the game to home consoles, mainly because for the moment the NEO GEO games are been translated slowly to those consoles but if the success of the game keeps on it could have a good chance.

Dojo: Do you have any upcoming promotional events or advertisement blitzes for RotD?

Evoga: At this time we are planning an event to show the game and make a tournament for RotD next October in Mexico along with the KOF 2002 show, and event that, as you may know, brings more than 70 000 NEO GEO fans, for other promotions keep checking the web page, soon we will have promotions.

Dojo: What future games do you guys have in store for gamers? Rage of the Dragons 2?

Evoga: We are working hard and for the moment we cannot reveal our future plans, but for the time being RotD is quite successful on the market so you can figure out the future of the title.

Dojo: Capcom's Street Fighter 2 changed the way fighting games were made after its release. Do you feel there is room in today's market for side-scrolling fighters?

Evoga: Now days the game market has been changing a lot, lots of players prefer the home systems for the time they expend on each game, to develop a arcade side scrolling game now days is risky for game developers because the response in not assure like in the past, we are working hard to keep alive the arcade spirit and if we can make a change you can be sure that we will try.

Dojo: And finally, how do you think Technos Japan's recent revival will affect RotD? There is already a rumor of a new Double Dragon game in development by them.

Evoga: For the moment we do not have info about TECHNOS JAPAN or if they are making a DD game, we don’t think that RotD will have problems since the game do not have a relation with DOUBLE DRAGON storyline.

The Double Dragon Dojo would like to send out its THANKS to Evoga for taking the time to answer our questions.

The Evoga Interview is a copyright of the Double Dragon Dojo.  Do not reproduce unless prior approval has been granted from the Double Dragon Dojo.