To go along with our podcast, and the eventual release of Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames, Justin from Allied Games took some time to talk about his life as a game developer, Allied Games, and Shadow Heroes (which you can get on Steam right here).
TorontoGameDevs: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? What kind of gamer are you?
Well, I’m what indie studios tend to call a unicorn. I’m a programmer who can do art. I went to Seneca college here in Toronto for art. After that I studied programing and game design followed up by some business courses where I focused on project management. In terms of what kind of gamer I am, I’m a big time strategy guy. Real time, turn based you name it. I play Civ for hours on end, love Starcraft and Warcraft, The X series and on a larger scale I play Eve every now and then where you really need a lot of cunning to get ahead. I guess I just like games that require a lot of thinking on your feet.
TorontoGameDevs: Want to just share with us a little history about Allied Games, what other titles have you worked on?
Well, we didn’t start as Allied Games. At first, we were Darkwave Studios but after a number of the partners decided to move on due to other commitments or burning out, we reincorporated as Allied Games. In the past we worked on a number of mobile projects. Including Xetrix, a pattern recognition based puzzle game, Yummy Rainbow, a color matching casual game, and Shadow Heroes: Chibi Fight, a reflex based game where the characters from shadow heroes duel each other.
TorontoGameDevs: Getting to Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames, what can you tell us about the game? How does it compare or differ from other strategy games?
Shadow Heroes is not your typical Strategy Game. We started with a concept for gameplay then built a world around it. Not a small world either. We have created a fractured country with a background and history. Generations have passed and mysteries have been uncovered. Shadow Heroes takes place in this fantasy world and has particular impact on the nation of Three Towers. Within the nation of Three Towers, Magic is considered incredibly dangerous and should controlled or destroyed for the safety of all citizens. History is on the nations side as well. The last time a powerful magical artifact fell into untrained hands it twisted the possessors mind and transformed them into a demonic monster who raged havoc on the entire continent. Over the years, Three towers has become more and more strict when it comes to magic. Even those born with ability to use magic where considered dangerous and immediately confiscated by the state to be controlled and monitored for their entire lives.
Other nations don’t take such a heavy stand on the subject. Some train people with an aptitude to cast defensive spells or spells that would help cultivate the lands. All agree that powerful artifacts are too dangerous and should be locked away. Many such artifacts have been locked away in areas known as monasteries. The collection of magical artifacts in these area permeate the land with magical radiation so only those who have been changed by magic tent to live in these areas and protect the artifacts from looters. People changed by magic in this way are known as Andres.
In the campaign you play as the young Garrison Capitan Armas Vilhelmi who is tasked to protect the southern border town of Faircrown from a freespell rebellion. The freespell believe that all magic should be free to use and all magic users should be left to their own devices. They team up with likeminded combatants in violent rebellion and are trying to gain a foothold in Faircrown. It is quickly evident that there is more to this rebellion than meets the eye. The rebels are too well equipped and too well organized and it’s your job to get to the bottom of it.
In terms of gameplay, there really isn’t a lot out there like Shadow Heroes. We don’t have typical resource gathering, tech trees, research or base building. We focus on the streamlined battles. We like to call Shadow Heroes a Real-time Battle Manager. You don’t control any units directly. You can’t order units to move to a location or attack a specific target. Instead you build an army and provide formations. You choose who has what equipment and if they should use it all the time or in short bursts for greater effect. You never really take part in the battle directly. The result is a massive Tug-of-War battle where both sides are trying to constantly push through the other sides army as reinforcements come in waves. That doesn’t stop your job from being frantic as you have to split your attention between setting up the reinforcing army and monitoring what the enemy is building so that you can best counter it.
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