Your name:
Ilya Rudnev
Twitter Handle/ Other Social Media:
Personal: https://twitter.com/Irufufu Game: https://twitter.com/ShoresUnknown
One interesting and random fact about you that people would not necessarily guess:I picked up most of my spoken/written English by playing online games, Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft to be specific. I also speak conversational Japanese. I picked up most of my Japanese by… playing more games and chatting in Skype to the person who is now my wife.
What country you live/work in:
Japan
The video game company producing the project:Vallynne
The name of the project:
Shores Unknown
Estimated release date:Q1 2020 on Steam and Nintendo Switch
link to website/blog/steam page/Youtube/other:https://store.steampowered.com/app/899460/Shores_Unknown/http://shoresunknown.com/
How did you get into making video games?I started making games in early childhood, initially using pen and paper, then moving on to making maps in editors for games such as Warcraft 2. I was always fascinated by fantasy storytelling and dreamed of, at some point, creating my own videogame world.Eventually (in 2009, to be specific), I got a job in game QA, which was my first step in the professional game industry.
What is your background in?I studied physics of plasma (seriously) for 3 years, then quit that and did another 4 years in business IT.
Blurb about game:Shores Unknown melds tactical JRPG combat and Western RPG storytelling, dropping you and your mercenary company into the midst of a hidden war. On the run and seeking retribution, unravel the mysteries of the Murk – a wall of fog from which no ship has ever returned… Until now.
What inspired this game?Oh, many things. I initially started working on this project while learning UE4 to make a tactical RPG inspired by The Last Remnant’s approach of combat with its multiple player parties (it wasn’t supposed to have plot back then).As the project grew, core mechanics changed, we dropped the multi-party “indirect control”, and also decided to make it a story-based experience, influenced by classic RPG titles such as Planescape: Torment and Baldur’s Gate and literary works of Steven Erikson (Malazan: Book of the Fallen) among other things.
What makes it unique?The game takes place in an original fantasy setting, in which it is implied that the world is heavily shaped by will and belief. That’s one of the main themes we wanted to explore in Shores – “how does a strong will affect the world, and what happens if wills clash?”We also designed our own combat system, which mixes some well known-concepts from other RPGs into an experience not quite seen before. It’s turn-based, split into two phases: order (in which you assign commands to your characters) and action (in which the characters resolve their orders automatically). The characters maneuver around the battlefield automatically, and, unlike most tRPG these days, there’s no grid. There’s a lot of focus on keeping the amount of micromanagement the player has to do minimal, and while the combat is turn-based, it’s still quite fast-paced and dynamic.
What will make it a success?We hope that Shores’ combination of original story, emphasizing player choice and consequences, beautiful music, colorful stylized low-poly graphics and engaging strategic combat will make it popular among the players!
Who do you think it will appeal to?CRPG and JRPG players, people who like a good story, people who enjoy tactical games (but are maybe a bit tired of grid-based tactical games), people who like atmospheric experiences and medieval/fantasy settings.
Number of people working on the project and skillsets:14 including outsourcers at the moment. I do game design/programming, then we have 3 scenario writers and 3 level designers, a composer, and the rest are 2D/3D artists.
How are you handling art?General approach is create a 2D concept based on references that I provide, then transform result into a low-poly 3D mesh. In some cases, we skip the 2D concepting step and jump to modelling right away. In that case, usually we at least make a whitebox mesh to help guide our 3D artists.
What tech/stack do you use?Unreal Engine 4 + Blender.
Are you full-time? If so how did you make the switch to working full-time in game development?I am, though most other members work part-tme. I quit a game company here in Kyoto in July 2018 in order to work on Shores full time, using my own saved money as well as funding provided by our publisher to keep my family afloat.
Is this your first game? If not how many and what other sorts of projects have you worked on?This is my first indie title, but not the first game title I have shipped. Before Shores, I shipped 3 mobile games working in a game designer role: midcore strategy/RPG game in the same vein as Clash of Clans, a CCG based on James Bond license, and geolocation-based casual RPG (think a greatly simplified Ingress). I also worked as a game directior in VR R&D and helped ship a couple more games in something of a consultant role at my last company here in Kyoto.I also did QA on a number of games, including high-profile online (Aion) and single-player (Settlers VII, Supreme Commander 2, Just Cause 2) titles.
What’s been the hardest thing about making this game?Keeping myself and the team motivated without burning out. Shores is a big title for a small team like ours, and it takes hard work to continue moving steadily towards the goal of releasing it while also managing all the feedback. Although I do my best not to force crunch on other members, I’ve had more than a couple of days where I had to pull an all-nighter myself, and that always comes with a price.
Anything else you would like people to know about you or the game?Actually, we released a free public demo build in June 2019 which features the beginning of the first chapter of the game (about 1 hour worth of gameplay with a couple of branching choices). Although it’s a bit rough (the game is in active development and there’s still a lot of polish we need to add to it), we definitely urge people interested in Shores to give the demo a try. You can download it here: https://gamejolt.com/games/ShoresUnknown/308235And of course, if you like what you see, please consider wishlisting the game on Steam as that helps us a lot with visibility on that platform.
We also have a Discord server which we’re planning to use to run some closed beta tests later year, so consider joining that as well: discord.gg/q8VcWeB
The post Interview with the #GameDev Behind Shores Unknown! appeared first on Gilded Octopus.
