Development
Developers insisted early on that Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge would not simply be a port of its predecessor Crimson Skies. Although Project Art Director Robert Olson complimented the radio play that frames the campaign of the previous title, he notes that a different presentation was needed for the game's new target audience. The development team decided upon an adventure along the vein of the Indiana Jones franchise, adding elements of "over-the-top, 1930's pulp-fiction style action," such as the game's boss battles. The style chosen by the developers led them to hire Drew Struzan, the artist responsible for the Indiana Jones film posters, to do the box art.
Series creator Jordan Weisman noted that the game had a "difficult development," and went through many different creative directions. Throughout the development process, Weisman worked with the game designers to ensure that "the essence of the IP was coming through." When development of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge was first assumed by FASA Studio, it was conceived that the game be made into an "interactive movie," a concept that would have involved an elaborate storyline and a large number of cutscenes. This process would have needed a linear mission design, potentially restricting gameplay. Programmer Patrick Schreiber later noted about the "playable movie" concept that "It looked great on paper, but was difficult to implement in a way where it felt like the player had some control over what was happening."
Consequently, developers pushed back the game's release date by a year in favor of increased development time. At this point, both playtest feedback and inspiration from games that offered more gameplay options helped shape the game's development. The game's "interactive movie" concept was scrapped, the storyline simplified, and the original linear mission design was reworked to promote more choice-driven gameplay. One example of this is the game's open-ended missions, which allow players to "explore the world of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge at their leisure." Another is the ability to substitute a fighter plane for a stationary weapon or another aircraft, which was added in order to give the player "different ways to accomplish the same goals."
The developers made several graphical improvements during this extended development period, focusing resources on improving the looks of the game's water and aircraft. The team also made the decision at this point to add online support to the game. This was an important decision for the game's developers due to the technical and gameplay obstacles involved, although their association with the team that produced MechAssault (another Xbox Live-enabled title by FASA Studio) managed to considerably reduce the amount time needed to implement Xbox Live in High Road to Revenge.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Stan LePard, conducted by Adam Stern, and performed by the Northwest Sinfonia. The game's music was written to be "period" music true to the 1930s without being too derivative of any one particular style or composer. According to Stan LePard, the soundtrack takes inspiration from various sources, including Errol Flynn swashbucklers and the concert music of Igor Stravinsky and Richard Strauss. In composing the game's music, LePard chose to incorporate complex harmonies into his music so that the various tracks could be linked without having to make sure that the keys of the two pieces complimented each other. This allows the game to randomize the order of the game's battle themes and avoid looping the music in a predictable order. Initially, the game was to exclusively feature big band music. The resulting music was lighter in tone than the game required, so developers considered an orchestra in order to achieve a more cinematic approach. As a result, the audio team hired a full forty-piece orchestra to record the game's music.
Developers decided early in the game's development cycle that they wanted the game to have an interactive environment. When the game was first announced in 2002, features announced for the game included destructible environments which could be used to eliminate enemies, hidden areas containing bonus weapons, and "danger zones" similar in function to those featured in the previous Crimson Skies for the PC. Although many of these features were scrapped from the final version of the game, the game's art team still designed the environments to be more than just a backdrop. Spaces for planes to fly through were integrated into the game world to allow players to use the environment to their advantage.
The Xbox 360 is backward compatible with Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge through a downloadable emulator. The game was also one of the first titles announced for the Xbox Originals service, which as of December 4, 2007 allows Xbox 360 users to download the full retail game from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points.
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