LevelUP TO Preview - Auroras - The Co-op Puzzle Game You Need

I was joined via Skype with a wonderful and talented group of students from University of Toronto.  They are working on Auroras, a puzzle game that they will be showcasing at LevelUP this year.  The music in the teaser video is really creepy, which really adds to the setting of the game.  Definitely excited to try this one.

The group consists of: Daniil Kouznetsov, Leoro Rogovein, Christine Murad, and Jasmin Lantos from U of T.  Also part of the group but not in the Skype interview are Linden Li (OCAD student) and Emily Han (U of T student)

Here's our interview with the group, followed by the teaser.  I did have some technical issues in the first minute but I promise after that, it's smooth.  Enjoy!

Auroras is an upcoming student game developed at the University of Toronto. We hope to see you at LevelUp Showcase 2017 where you can try out our game!

LevelUP TO Preview - Interview with Alessandro Profenna

I recently met with Alessandro Profenna, a Ryerson Unversity student pursuing a BSc in Computer Science.  He will be participating in LevelUP TO this year, and we talked a bit about his work and his game, COLHEX, that he will showcase.

TGD: Thank you for meeting with me here.  Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Alessandro Profenna:  I’m a third year student at Ryerson University pursuing a BSc in Computer Science.  I’ve enjoyed math and art since I was a young child, with an initial interest in studying Architecture. After a year in the program, I discovered LevelUP online, which is what made me want to switch to Computer Science.  I love art and design, and some of my favourite game series are Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy.  The gameplay in these titles is flashy and beautiful. For example, the visuals of shooting a spell make it more satisfying to play.

TGD:  Wow, so LevelUP inspired you to switch programs?

A.P:  Yes, it definitely helped with my decision. I knew that a degree in Computer Science would give me the skills necessary to pursue game programming and design. Architecture and game development actually have a lot in common.  They are very similar in the design process, keeping a strong emphasis not only on engineering and functionality, but also on aesthetics.

TGD: You have a few games that you’ve made.  You already have a game available on iOS, Infinity Wheel, and you participated in LevelUP TO last year with SHATTERFALL.

A.P:  Yes, I started making iOS games and learned SpriteKit. Through this I created Infinity Wheel, and released it in November 2015.  In the game, your press and hold the screen to move the wheel faster and guide the ball through the obstacles.

TGD: How was your experience at LevelUP last year?  Where did you get the idea for SHATTERFALL?

A.P: I came up with it in the shower (laughs).  It was inspired by one of the mini games in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.  SHATTERFALL is a multiplayer game where you shoot shockwaves through the floor and try to make your opponents fall.  I worked on it with a friend, Dennis Plotnik.  I learned Unity while making this game.  It was very well received at LevelUP.  The event is great because you get hundreds, if not thousands of people testing your game and giving great feedback.

TGD:  What are you most excited to show about COLHEX?

A.P:  There are real time aspects to this game. You’re not confined to the software of the game; your physical environment is part of it too.  When you’re playing, another player’s hand can get in the way and how your hand is placed will affect your outcome.  Also, I find that that seeing a quick pulse expand on screen from the tip of your finger is extremely satisfying.

TGD:  You’re in third year now at Ryerson University in Computer Science.  Where do you see yourself in the future?

A.P:  It’s a journey finding where you want to put your energy and focus.  Computer Science is a large industry, I thought about app development, about artificial intelligence.  I like making games and making them look good.  I would love to work in the gaming industry.  For now, I plan on focusing on learning more about graphics, Unity, and C++.

TGD: Thanks again for meeting.  Best of luck!

You can check out the trailer for COLHEX below.

COLHEX is an iOS arcade game that can be played on an iPhone or iPad with up to 6 players locally! Each player chooses one of 6 colours to play as. The game field is a matrix of hexagons, where the goal is claim as many hexagons with your colour in 30 seconds!

LevelUP TO Preview - Neon Ascension

I recently spoke to a group of University of Toronto students who will be participating in LevelUP TO next week.  Jeffrey Deng and his team have created Neon Ascension, an endless climber multiplayer game, where players survive by rearranging blocks to help themselves, or affect their opponents.  Here's what the group (Team One) had to say about their game:

TGD: Tell me a little bit about yourselves.  How long have you been gamers?  How long have you been developing games?

Team One:  We are a team made of seven people. Matt Crans and Sam Rasmussen from OCAD are the artists of the team. Grace Zhu, Catherine Wang, Philip Bilodeau, Daniel Son, and Jeffrey Deng from UofT are the developers of the team.

For most of us we were gamers at a young age since we were a generation that had a lot of exposure to computers. Games allowed us to connect and make new friends who shared the same interests and even allowed us to connect with people who were across the world. All of us at some point found ourselves looking for a new games to play and this led to our creativity. Some of us have been making games since high school, and have attended multiple game jams up to this point. We’ve also have team members that have never made a game before, and this would be their first.

TGD:  It is wonderful how games allow people to connect from all over the world.  It's one of the beautiful things about video gaming.  Tell me about your game for LevelUP.

Team One:  Neon Ascension is a competitive endless climber where two players compete for survival on a wall of infinite height. The game is fast-paced, action-packed, and features retro-futuristic design in dazzling neon colors. Players stay alive by rearranging adjacent blocks on the wall, giving them plenty of opportunity to save themselves or sabotage their opponents.

Uploaded by Sam Rasmussen on 2017-03-29.

TGD: Where did you get your inspiration for this game?

Team One:  We were really inspired by a 2011 game called Catherine where a single player manipulated blocks on a wall to climb it, and we decided to take that and make it into a competitive, multiplayer experience.

TGD: What are you most excited to show off about this game at LevelUP?

Team One:  We are most excited to show the crowd at LevelUP the results of our hard work throughout the past 4 months. We feel that from a visual and technical aspect we have created a standout game that we are proud to showcase at LevelUp, and that is exciting to play and watch.

Uploaded by shiftie on 2017-03-24.

A big thank you to Team One for taking time for this interview and providing videos of gameplay.  Don't forget, LevelUP TO will be taking place on April 5, 2017 at the Design Exchange on 234 Bay St.

Let's Play Disc Jam (And Some Zelda Talk)

We're back again! This time instead of talking about Nintendo Switch in general, we talk about Legend of Zelda while playing Disc Jam online. Remember to subscribe!

We're back and we're playing more Disc Jam! This time though, we're talking about Zelda - and how much in love with it I am. Remember to subscribe and leave a comment! Website: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/torontogamedevs Patreon: patreon.com/torontogamedevs Store: designbyhumans.com/shop/TorontoGameDevs

Interview: Aakaash Rao, Composer For Valley Discusses Creating The Soundtrack And More

A few months ago, I was reached out by Aakaash Rao, the composer for Valley from Blue Isle Studios, asking about an interview. I really dug the soundtrack in Valley so I of course said yes! You can check out the interview below, and a lot of Aakaash's work can be found right here.

TorontoGameDevs.com: Thanks for doing the interview! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What your role was in creating Valley?

Aakaash: Thanks for reaching out! I’m a game composer based jointly in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Chicago, and I had the privilege to compose the soundtrack for Blue Isle Studios’ Valley.

TorontoGameDevs.com: How long have you been creating music? What other games or projects have you worked on?

Aakaash: I’ve been composing ever since I learned to play piano as a child, but I only got into games a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve worked on several PC, console, and mobile titles — I particularly enjoy writing story-driven soundtracks for RPGs. One of my larger project, a voxel-based sandbox called Planet Explorers, came out late last year.

Valley just came out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. I'll have the full review in a week or so, but figured I would give my impressions on the first person adventure. Check out the latest at http://www.torontogamedevs.com/

TorontoGameDevs.com: What was the design process like for Valley? Did you have free range to create the music you thought would fit the mood, or was there specific notes from different members of the team?

In general, I had a lot of creative freedom. One thing I really appreciated about working with Blue Isle is that I had a working build of the game almost from day one — which happens a lot less often than you might think. The game itself was a fantastic source of inspiration, and I’d often hit upon ideas while exploring the landscape or leaping around in the L.E.A.F. suit.

That said, the other two members of the audio team (Brenden, the audio and technical director and Selcuk, the SFX designer) definitely gave me plenty of input through the process. I’ve worked with a lot of big audio teams in the past, and I think there’s definitely a “too many cooks spoil the stew” effect when too many people get involved in the music, but Selcuk and Brenden did a great job of balancing their own visions for the game’s soundtrack with my ideas. The live musicians with whom I worked also gave me some very helpful input, particularly in regards to using world instruments with which I was not familiar.

TorontoGameDevs.com: There's a lot going on in Valley. There are open world elements within forested areas, buildings, underground mines, etc. You get to move really fast, and jump extremely far as you traverse this world, but there is a lot of historical pieces from the 40s told to the player while they are playing. How did this contribute to the overall soundtrack for the game?

One of the biggest challenges in tackling projects of this scope is balancing variety with cohesiveness. You don’t want to bore the player by repeating the same motifs over and over, but you also don't want a complete musical disconnect between the themes associated with different areas. For example, I made a conscious choice to write sweeping orchestral music for the outdoor areas and more distorted, electronic music for the darker indoor environments, but I approached the indoor areas with a mindset of muting and warping the outdoor style rather than selecting a whole different musical palette. Amrita, the theme for the final level and one of my favorite pieces from the soundtrack, blends pads and electronic sounds with some warped live flute.

There’s a lot of subtle melodic and textural motifs weaved into the soundtrack, so the idea is that they help weave the disparate elements together. This is probably more of a subconscious phenomenon — I doubt that most people are listening intently to recognize the musical motifs as the play the game — but I think it does contribute to the player’s immersion. This is most important at the end of the game, where the final track states outright a lot of the themes that previous pieces have been hinting at. As I’m sure your readers who have finished the game can attest, the ending of the game is definitely a cathartic experience, so I hope that the final piece reflects and amplifies the feeling of cleaning and completion.

Valley - Available now! Enter the vast and beautiful world of Valley using the power of the L.E.A.F. Suit: a fierce exoskeleton that grants exceptional speed and agility along with the phenomenal ability to manipulate the life and death of all living things.

TorontoGameDevs.com: In your mind, what game excels with its soundtrack?

I’ve always been a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu’s work on the early Final Fantasy. These were some of the first games I played, so there’s an element of nostalgia, but I still think it’s absolutely incredible how much emotion he was able to convey under the console’s technical constraints. Arnie Roth’s Distant Worlds albums include some fantastic orchestrations of Uematsu’s work. More recently, I’ve also really enjoyed Austin Wintory’s Journey and Gareth Coker’s Ori and the Blind Forest.

TorontoGameDevs.com: Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers? What can we look forward to next?

As I mentioned, Planet Explorers came out last year. I’m also currently working on a strategy RPG called Liege, which is a dark, strategy-driven RPG somewhere between Fire Emblem and A Song of Ice and Fire. Now that I’m done with Valley and Planet Explorers, though, I’m keeping my eye out for interesting new projects — I’d love to do a more intimate soundtrack for an RPG or puzzle game.

Thanks so much to Aakaash for taking the time, and remember that Patreon's got access to this interview early. You can check out Valley on Steam, and all of Akaash's work right here.

Exclusive: Allied Games Talks Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames

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. 

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/398670 Allied Games: http://www.alliedgames.co/ Shadow Heroes: http://www.shadowheroes.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedGamesInc.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/alliedgames instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliedgames/

TorontoGameDevs: You guys are currently doing an Early Access on Steam. What made you go that route? Do you recommend that for other game developers? What have you learned from the experience?

 One of the primary goals of early access is to get the community to provide feedback and help shape the game. Going into early access we took this principal to heart. We changed our develop cycle to be hyper agile so that we could quickly act on any feedback we received. We started posting updates every week. Not just development update posts on a website either. Full patches to the game. We take community feedback very seriously. Since we have been working on Shadow Heroes so closely for so long, Things tend to be a bit out of perspective. You know the inner working of the mechanics so learning them is no big deal but to someone who is new to the game it might be completely convoluted. 

Would I recommend early access to other game developers? For sure. While there are worries of people not getting the proper impression of your game because it’s not done, most media outlets won’t really look at early access games. That means you basically just get the early adopters who, usually, understand that the game is not finished yet and there are improvements to be made. Even so, you will get people who don’t like your game and that’s completely alright. Look at their feedback and ask yourself how you can make the game better as a result. If possible engage those users and see if they are willing to work with you to make the game even better. 

We have learned a lot given that this is our first real venture into the PC gaming market. A few of the major misconceptions that I’d love to share would be that simply being on steam didn’t guarantee that you would be seen. There are so many games on steam and since greenlight adds games all the time, you don’t get a lot of time in the spotlight. I also learned that steam is a lot more hands on than I expected. Unlike systems like facebook, Steam is willing to put in change requests for new features and help you make your game a success. It’s not exactly their primary goal and it can take a long time, but at least the option is there. 

Finally, and I get asked this a lot by new developers, is the whole steam greenlight thing. Greenlight is in my opinion incredibly frustrating. I know it sounds strange to hear that but let me explain. When we first went on steam greenlight, we got a ton of votes and everything looked great. Then, out of nowhere, basically nothing. So many people submitted new games in a 24 hour period that we were pushed to page 2 or 3 of the new games on steam greenlight. This was before the new discovery features though so maybe that’s changed. For about 2 weeks we checked on the votes multiple times a day and sat thinking something was wrong. Comparing our game to other titles that went on greenlight the same time as us. Then, again out of nowhere, someone at valve decided to greenlight over 100 games. It was a massive relief but a bit of that triumph had been taken away when we realized just how many games where accepted at the same time as us. It didn’t really leave us knowing if the game was going to be liked by the community or if it was just in the top 100 games on greenlight at the time. With the new discovery systems, I hope that has changed for other developers. I’ll have to see if that’s the case with our next game. 

We're back with episode 60! This time Justin from Allied Games came by to talk about Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames. You can check out the game on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/398670/ Subscribe on iTunes!: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/video-game-podcast-toronto/id1025606427?mt=2

TorontoGameDevs: What is like working at a game developer in Toronto. How has the game developerment scene in Toronto helped you out? Finding talent, etc.

 Working at an indie studio in Toronto is what I imagine it would be like working essentially anywhere. We have most of our communications online and deal with people all around the world. The good thing about being in Toronto is the number of tech savvy people there are and people who have experience you lack. In our early days we went to events like MaRS and GameOn events by interactive Ontario where we were able to learn a lot and make connections. The schools in the area also provide great talent. We worked with George Brown to provide internships for multiple students and still go back to some of our old interns for freelance work because we know they can do it. Taking some of the work out of the hiring process means a lot. 

TorontoGameDevs: What's next for Allied Games, and Shadow Heroes? 

 The next goal is to launch Shadow Heroes and see how it does In the market. We are going to be releasing the game episodically later this month and are working super hard to makes sure everything works and the early game tutorials are up to snuff. Anyone who purchases the game right now will receive all the future episodes as well. After Shadow Heroes, only time will tell.

TorontoGameDevs: Any last things you want to share? 

A big focus of Allied Games is to help the Indie Community. That’s why we are working with schools, stream our development 3 days a week and actively try and answer peoples questions. So, for anyone out there who has a big idea, wants some insight on the industry or is thinking of the game industry as a career, drop us a message and we will try our best to help. Everything is easier if we work together.

Thanks again to Justin for taking the time to chat with us, and make sure to check out Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames on Steam.

13AM Games Interview On Runbow DLC, What Was Cut, And What The Future Holds

Hey everyone! You may remember that before the launch of the Runbow, Tom over at 13AM Games was kind enough to do an interview. Now that the Runbow DLC has been released, we decided to chat again! We talked about the DLC, what didn't make the cut, and what the future holds for Runbow and 13AM Games.

TorontoGameDevs: Congrats on the DLC launch! What was the motivation to do DLC instead of moving onto a new project? Was it something you knew would always be in store for Runbow?

Tom: From the get go we knew we wanted to release some form of additional content for Runbow, whether it be new guest characters, levels, or costumes. One of the main reasons was to create something that fans of Runbow would appreciate and bring people back to the game after some time had passed. It also allowed us, as game makers, to take all the experience and lessons we learned from creating the original game, and use them to create something even better within the same universe.

TorontoGameDevs: The DLC introduces some new concepts, like with portals, anti gravity spots, and floaty sections. Was there anything left on the chopping block?

Tom: To complement the ridiculous size of space, we came up with a ridiculous amount of concepts for new mechanics we could introduce with the DLC. We had to chop this list down to a more manageable size, here are some examples of things that got the axe:

• Jet-packs: a simple pick up that would allow the player to float around at their leisure. It ended up getting the axe because of how our player and world physics work, and because it didn’t really seem to plug into the colour mechanic too well.
• Wall Gravity: Similar to the upside down portions, we wanted the players to be able to walk up and down the walls of our levels as well. We actually got this working rather well but decided the clunkiness of the controls really broke up the flow and didn’t allow us to get the most out of the idea.
• Space Radiation: We wanted a mechanic that would emulate the harshness of outer space and thought that having rays or beams of space radiation would work. It worked well with the colour mechanic but offered too many level design challenges and would require a new health system or at least a tweaking of the current one.

TorontoGameDevs: There are also some new mutliplayer maps, costumes, and a new character. How did you go about getting Lilac in the game? Was there anything (like other costumes) that didn't make the cut?

Tom: We met Stevie from GalaxyTrail at Pax Prime and approached him about the idea. He really liked it and after doing the same song and dance we did for the other characters, had Lilac ready to go. As for the other content, we did have some other ideas for costumes and even potential adventure themes, like Old West for example, but they never really made it beyond the concept phase. When it came to the DLC we wanted to be laser focused and adhere to some pretty tight scope constraints.

TorontoGameDevs: What's next for Runbow? Have you looked at porting it to other consoles? Amiibo? Or some new DLC?

Tom: All I can say is that we’re not done with Runbow yet. Keep your eyes and ears peeled, we hope to have some exciting announcements soon.

TorontoGameDevs: What's next for 13AM Games? Anything you can say about the next project, or what you have down the pipeline that's not Runbow related?

Tom: What do you mean not Runbow related? That’s a thing?

(No it's not). Thanks to Tom and 13AM Games for taking the time to do the interview. Remember to check out Runbow on Wii U.

Exclusive: Interview With Joe Woynillowicz Producer At Creoterra

Indie developer Joe Woynillowicz was kind enough to take some time out of working on Darktide to answer a few questions about his history, being a game developer, and finding talent in Ontario. Check it out below!

TorontoGameDevs.com: Thanks for doing the interview Joe! Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Your history as a developer, and history of Creoterra.

Joe: Well to start from the beginning I started writing code around my 12th birthday after I found QBasic, and then moved on to learning C so that I could code BBS door games and customizations. From there I’ve worked as an engineer in a variety of industries such as finance, GIS, and of course games. I had mainly worked in a completely technical capacity as an engineer or technical director, then after work I would spend time learning game design, story telling, and continually learning more tech. Along with working at various game studios I’ve been part of the indie game development community really ever since the launch of Gamedev.net back in 1999. Creoterra was born based on a game idea that I had quite awhile ago and I played with over the years in my spare time. Before starting the company Darktide was actually meant to be a tiny little multiplayer tactics game with minimal art and world design that really was just a hobby project. Over the course of a few years on and off I nailed down the core gameplay and various ideas for the races, although they weren’t fleshed out and were really just ways to group units and abilities. At that point I decided there really was enough there to go into full production on the game, bring more people onboard, and really focus on building out the world and storylines. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: Can you describe Darktide? What made you want to work on a strategy RPG? What are your influences?

Joe: Darktide is a turn-based strategy RPG where we’ve focused heavily on world design and storylines and trying to bring some new ideas to the genre. There are actually two full campaigns, one for each major faction, which allow you to play through the story from either side. Along with that we’ve built our dynamic campaign system and really worked on weaving the storyline based on the choices a player makes and their outcomes in battle. So not only are there two campaigns to play through but you’ll have a different experience each time. This has been a tremendous amount of work as we wanted choices to actually matter and affect the main story, rather than just small decisions that really don’t affect how the story moves along. I guess one way to describe it would be like a choose your own adventure book where you can take various paths and come out with different endings. Now along with that we’ve also built a full range of features for playing multiplayer, so you can take to the battlefield against others and compete in, tournaments, leaderboards, and really fight to see who is truly the most feared in Aeloria. The decision to build a strategy RPG was mainly due to my background in gaming which has always been in strategy and RPGs, as well as one of my main hobbies being boardgaming, and that is where the original idea for building the prototype came from. There have been a variety of influences some in the genre such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Tactics, Pox Nora, XCom, and Disgaea. Mind you there are also many outside of tactical strategy which really pushed us to how we think about world design and story such as Planescape: Torment, Shadowbane, Pillars of Eternity, and countless others. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: What's the story of Darktide? It sounds like characters choices will guide it a bit? How is that going to work?

Joe: In Darktide when you start the campaign you choose which faction you want to experience the story as, and as I mentioned you can play through each as separate campaigns. Each faction includes four races which have formed alliances and pacts, some stronger and some loosely knit, each having their own objectives and enemies. The campaigns are dynamic, in that there are many times where you will have to make a decision on which battle you are going to send your guild to fight in. Are you going to defend the Dvergar auralite mines from the Lithos invaders? Or join forces with the Aduro in pushing the Az’modai back into the desert and away from the borderlands? You’ll be presented with both options but you’ll have to decide which one you’ll take part in, and this will affect your guild’s reputation and the way the story progresses. It’s something that we have spent an insane amount of development time on, as we really wanted to make your decisions and the outcomes of battle actually matter, rather than just have some one-off choices that add a bit of side story but don’t alter the overall course of the story. Some decisions that you make and battles you take part in have major consequences, even causing the deaths of major characters! 

TorontoGameDevs.com: Probably the two biggest Strategy RPG's now-a-days are Fire Emblem, and Disgaea - both Japanese titles. Why do you think it isn't a genre that a lot of North American studios tackle?  

Joe: Well on the console those would likely be the two largest right now, but at the same time we’ve seen a lot of studios stepping up and building games in the genre. Over the last few years we’ve seen XCom and The Banner Saga really hit it out of the park, and there are really numerous games that have released on steam that are quite high quality from the Blackguards series, to King’s Bounty, to newer indie titles like Armello. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: What's it like developing a game in Toronto? How has it been getting things like funding, or talent?

Joe: While we’re based in Toronto our development has really been an international effort. Our art director is based in Sweden, and our sound and music has been worked on by multiple people in the US. We’re looking at ramping up our in-house talent over the course of this year as we continue development on Darktide and look towards supporting the game into the future. We’ve been self-funded right from the get-go as we wanted to really build out the core idea before approaching gamers on Kickstarter. One thing we didn’t want to do was crowdfund the title before we had the core gameplay, world design, and how the campaign systems work and basic stories nailed down, otherwise that would be insanely hard to budget and I like to be really open and honest with the player base. By building out the core we’ve really eliminated any risk aspects and at the point we’re at now we’re extremely confident in what we need to finish things in a very high quality. Regarding location over the past few months we’ve actually been looking at studio space in Waterloo region. For the entirety of development we’ve been in Toronto, but being such a small self-funded studio the costs are quite high in comparison, and KW has an amazing talent pool to tap into as well as a few other game studios. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: What's next for Darktide? Do you have a release date in mind for the game?

Joe: Right now we have the core gameplay built out but there is still a lot of work to do. We just recently finished replacing the entirety of the art as we unified everything and really upped the details and quality. There is still a lot of work to do polishing environments, effects, and character animations, but we’ve got a lot of the core complete. Also we used to have more of a rigid linear storyline before really keying in on the dynamic campaign system during our initial alpha testing. People really liked the system but wanted to see deeper interaction and consequences, and so we went back to the drawing board and have been spending a massive amount of time on the story rewriting components and writing a ton of new pathways the story can take. We’re very close to a point where we’re going to launch a Square Enix Collective campaign to get a lot more eyeballs on the game and let people see what we’ve been building, and then later in the year we’re looking at launching a campaign on Kickstarter. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: Any last things you want to say about the game, or Creoterra in general?

Joe: I really think we’ve been working towards something with a lot of depth that really hasn’t been done in the genre. We have a heavy focus on the world and story, but also the core of our combat with such a variety completely unique units at launch with each having three very distinct abilities, it plays out much different than anything we’ve played in the past. When I’m gaming I’m heavily into multiplayer and so that has been a core focus from the beginning and I really think Darktide will have a really great competitive side to it online.

Thanks to Joe for taking the time to answer these questions. Make sure to follow him on Twitter, as well as Creoterra.  You can check out their site here and follow along the development of Darktide.

Exclusive: Interview With Denis Dyack

I was super fortunate to have Denis Dyack want to do a interview with me.  The famous video game designer had recently started Quantum Entanglement Entertainment, and took some time to answer some questions about his past, Silicon Knights, Quantum Entanglement Entertainment, and their game Shadows of the Eternal.

TorontoGameDevs.com: Thanks again for taking the time to answer some questions Denis. For readers who may not be familiar, can you give us a quick history of your career?

Denis Dyack: Sure, I started making games around 1989 while doing my undergraduate in computer science at Brock University. I went to Brock primarily to wrestle, Brock now has one of the best wrestling teams in Canada and has produced many olympians. I had already finished my Phed degree but I wanted to make video games. So I put myself through computer science to make sure I had the tools to do this. In 1992, we officially incorporated Silicon Knights during the time our first game came out (called Cyber Empires) on the Amiga, Atari and later the PC. This first game was basically like Total War but with hotseat play as the internet was not yet developed for video games and it was awarded multiplayer game of the year by Computer Gaming World. We created and developed many successful games at Silicon Knights across multiple formats, notably Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Metal Gear Solid:Twin Snakes and Too Human. Last year, I announced the creation of a new company with my partners Paul Rapovski and Jonathan Soon-Shiong called Quantum Entanglement Entertainment, with the aim of creating content across TV, Film and Games.

TorontoGameDevs.com: About Quantum Entanglment Entertainment, do you want to drop a physics lesson on us and explain how you envision these three mediums being connected and working together?

Denis Dyack: We believe that the entertainment mediums of film, tv and games are merging and the best way to create truly engaging entertainment is to create worlds that span all of these mediums and more. By doing this we believe that fans will get a superior experience if they can play games, watch tv, films around a uniform idea. We also plan on creating metaverses where enthusiasts are even able to contribute to the content.

TorontoGameDevs.com: On the games front, Shadow of the Eternals is currently under development, a spiritual successor to the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. What can you tell us about the game? Does it take place in the same universe? Will we be controlling one character who explores different characters in different time periods or is the narrative a bit different?

Denis Dyack: Shadow of the Eternals takes place in a different universe much of which is created by the community. The player controls many characters over 2500 years of human history and in some cases play different characters from the same timeline to get whole new perspective on what is happening. We are exploring sanity, flawed narratives and quantum mechanics in very fresh ways put an interesting perspective on Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

TorontoGameDevs.com: You mention sanity. Sanity was a big theme in Eternal Darkness, including the Sanity meter which indicated how mentally unstable the character was and also how much you were going to take it out on the player. Thanks for making me thinking my Gamecube was broken by the way. So we're going to see a return of the theme in Shadow of the Eternals?

Denis Dyack: Yes in a big way. In Shadow of the Eternals we plan on developing sanity in ways that were not possible before with Eternal Darkness. In some ways this will be through technology advances and in other ways through content. The community has already contributed and will continue to contribute to this area. We are very excited about it.

TorontoGameDevs.com: What platforms can we expect to see Shadow of the Eternals? Do you have a release date in mind?

Denis Dyack: As many platforms and mediums as possible and no release date is yet announced. Expect more than just a game, we are creating a metaverse.

TorontoGameDevs.com: You recently announced a partnership with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo. Speaking gaming wise, what kind of games do you see coming out of this? Will they be more education base, or something with a deep story that uses theories and ideas from Physics.

Denis Dyack: The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics will be advising us on science for all of our content. So rather than focus on single project, we will be working on everything together, including Shadow of the Eternals. As you probably glean from name of Quantum Entanglement Entertainment, we are fans of Quantum Physics here, and it is beyond my wildest dreams that we can work with the world's leading authorities in Quantum Mechanics. 

TorontoGameDevs.com: This is something I ask all the people I interview, but what's the development scene like for you in St Catharines and Toronto? How is it finding talent?

Denis Dyack: We love it and cannot imagine being anywhere else. Canada, specifically Ontario has one of the biggest talent beds in the world. When I started Silicon Knights in St. Catharines, no one thought it would be possible to be successful in such a small town, never mind be competitive in world market place. Quantum has an even bigger advantage now for talent as many universities and colleges have curriculum specifically targeted for video games, this talent bed did not exist in 1990.

TorontoGameDevs.com: What advice can you give to a young game developer. As you know, the scene has changed drastically in recent years with independent games and digital distribution, how does someone stand out?

Denis Dyack: My first piece of advice is always make something you are passionate about. Don’t create something because you think it will be popular, create it because you love it and the passion will shine through in your work. In entertainment, you never know if you are going to please anyone, but if you make something you love yourself you are then guaranteed of pleasing one person.

TorontoGameDevs.com: Thanks so much again Denis. Anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

As well as some major project announcements in 2016, expect a fun announcement from us early in the New Year.