Indie
Krater RPG Q&A Session
Krater is an upcoming top down role playing game from Swedish developers Fatshark, scheduled for release sometime in the second quarter of 2012. Although just two screenshots from the game have been released publicly, Krater has already managed to draw a lot of attention, looking like a top post-apocalyptic RPG game that will probably make us think about the original Fallout games.
Fatshark themselves compare Krater with classic old-school RTS such as Syndicate combined with modern RPG-action and top down tactical gameplay. All in all, a mix that sounds extremely interesting.
Below you can check out a complete Q&A session with Krater producer Robert Bäckström who reveals a lot of exciting information about the upcoming game:
Could you tell us a little about the release schedule of the game?
Krater is a title that we plan to keep alive for a long time. All tools, the game world and its content is designed with this in mind. The paid content of the first year of the game is divided into three major campaigns (the main release and two DLC´s) along with a number of smaller content packs with characters and items.
In addition of the paid content the game will see a number of updates to extend multiplayer (coop and PvP) support as well a updates and additions to all ingame content. We will not force people to pay for the extra content in order to play – it should be an option if you like the main story and want to experience more of that or if you like to be the one with the coolest looking gear in multiplayer.
Where did you get the idea having three characters simultaneously and a big roster to choose from? And is it fun to allow the player characters to die?
We have several inspirational sources for this. We initially wanted the players to design their team in the same way as you try to find the best and most optimized combinations of forces when you setup your army in table top games such as Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
We also wanted the characters to evolve in all directions (not only upwards in the skill trees) and come to life through the course of the game.
One thing led to another – if you have consequences such as death you will need to adapt the game mechanics for this. Loosing it all without tools to cope with the loss is not good game design while no risk at all removes the meaning of rewards in a sense.
To lessen the impact of injuries or death of individual characters we want the player to focus on their team. We think that a typical team will consist of 10-20 characters – enough to lessen the impact of losses but not too many to loose personality of the individual characters. The characters itself will act as a log of the team – where injuries and battle scars play an equally important role as awards and achievements.
How will character progression work?
All characters and abilities range from common to, in the initial release, rare which decides how many slots they have available for upgrades and abilities.
Upgrades increase you stats which affect your ability usage, hit points and damage output. Abilities are special skills that you perform with you character in addition to your normal attacks.
New characters are found in the world, received as rewards from quests or purchased as DLC´s.
How does the fact that Krater takes place in a dark future in Sweden affect the art direction and feel of the game?
We initially talked about putting the story somewhere in Europe and never really considered Sweden as a setting. But somewhere early in our design process we got to hear, through the musician Christian Gabel, about a Swedish post-apocalyptic movie set in the small town of Karlstad. He had come across a number of concepts and a manuscript for the film from the early 80’s which was canned before any filming had been done.
One of the concepts depicted a gigantic crater big enough for a society to be built inside it – an iconic setting that immediately got our attention. Shortly thereafter it was decided that we should put the story in Sweden and build the myth about Krater city.
The colorful setting of the world steams from two things. On thing is that vibrant colors in post-apo settings felt like a somewhat different take on the genre art style, which normally settle for a desert with lots of subtle earth colors.. The other thing is the fact that Sweden or at least Stockholm during the winter vey much looks like the classic post-apo world where everything comes in shades of white and grey. We felt the need to create a world that stood out from the dull winter landscape outside our office windows, an odd and amusing place that tickles your imagination.
What can you say about the music, will it be original tracks?
It turned out that Christian Gabel had started to work on how the soundtrack for the canned movie that inspired the game might have sounded like. But since there was no movie to use the soundtrack in we suggested that we should use the music in the game instead which turned out to be a brilliant idea. All tracks are originally created and adapted for the game.
In conjunction with the release of Krater we will work together with a number of contributors and release a pretty lavish soundtrack as homage to the film. That release includes a booklet with the original cancept art and all Gabels tracks.
How long do you think it will take players to finish Krater if they only pursue the main quest? And what can you tell us about the scope of the game?
The main release will contain 200+ quests. Out of these I would say the 25% is main story quests.
It is very difficult to estimate the playthrough time because if can be defined in so many ways. Is it to unveil all corners of the map? Or to play all the quests? Conquer all the duungeons? How many times, some of the dungeons will look totally different every time you visit them. Maximize your characters? Another daunting task since there is a large number of combinations to try out.
Tell us more about the multiplayer support in Krater.
The initial release will contain customized 2 player coop missions. We aim to expand this to 4 player coop at a later stage. During 2012 we will also see a PvP update with both arena fighting and faction warfare.
Character progression from coop blends seamlessly with the single player game and vice versa. You will be able to bring your single player team to play a coop mission with your buddies and anything you can put your hands on, you are allowed to keep,
How does crafting work?
You can create items for base materials but also upgrade existing items. You can get new items by, buying them, looting them, breakdown equipment, completing quests or by crafting them from other components.
New abilities are created by components you find from loot. These components are crafted into ability containers (where a rare container have more slots available than a common container). Any component can be combined in the container. You can for instance use two stuns and one damage component in a three slot container to create an ability with a minor damage output and a high degree of stun. Or you can use a cool down reducer instead of the damage component to further specialize the ability.
The character class decides how these abilities are delivered (the Bruiser can for instance use his cleave attack to affect several opponents with the effects his cleave attack is made of – in the above case stun and damage). The class also receive bonuses to components that are connected to you class – a medikus utilizes a heal ability better than when the damage dealer uses the same ability.
As I said, it sounds extremely interesting, including the way of handling character classes and the 2 player co-op modes.
The gaming industry is a tough place to be in. It is highly competitive and fast-paced. It is especially difficult for indie games to survive this competition as they are not backed by huge corporations that can pour in billions of dollars for its success. An average indie game on Steam is available for $9 or less and rarely sells many copies. Indie games are taking a back seat somewhere but that does not mean there is no hope for them.
It did take a while for indie games to come to the forefront and become widely successful like Minecraft or Among Us. You can find all sorts of indie games available today but not make it through, few see the light of the day. As the number of indie games has increased so has their quality decreased which is quite upsetting because many have great unexplored potential. Let’s look at the reasons why indie games fail and how the right marketing strategies can bring success to them.
Poor Marketing Strategy
Indie games are video games that are individually developed without a publisher that usually finances the project. This sometimes translates into no proper planning of strategies for marketing the games. In today’s world, however good a product is, marketing it well to the target audience is important. Unless gamers are aware and curious about a game they won’t want to play it.
There are chances that a good game will get lost in the sea of games available today without proper marketing. Marketing will create awareness about good indie games and get more people to play them.
Low budget Advertising
It is quintessential to have a good budget for advertising your indie game. A compromised advertising budget will yield poor results as we all know. Setting some funds especially for advertising and publicity should be a priority as this will help indie games become more popular.
Marketing may seem easy but there is a lot of thought put into it. Take help from advertising agencies if you lack that knowledge.
Even with a small budget, you can run effective campaigns if you have a good team of marketing professionals who understand the demands of the gaming world and the potential of your indie game.
Not interacting with the right audience
For the success of indie games, indie game developers should interact with gamers on their platforms. Take your game to the right audience if they are not coming to you. Developers focused on building a community around their games are going to garner a lot of attention and craze.
So many streaming platforms are available now that are popular amongst gamers which should be tapped into. You can showcase your game on these platforms as well as provide support during the game. TikTok, Youtube, and Discord are popular streaming sites that game developers can partner with.
Lack of Original idea
Some indie games fail because of the sheer lack of an original idea. You cannot sell an old game in a new package. If your game resembles some other popular game there is a slim chance your indie game will succeed. To succeed in this crowded world of indie games, you need to have an original idea and one that stands out apart from other competitors.
Indie game developers should stick to their niche and create a game that caters to gamers in that particular niche. Stick to an original idea and plan well according to it. This will guarantee success and your game won’t be just another game on the block.
Technical problems
It is a known fact that gamers like a smooth gaming experience. They don’t want to play a game that has any technical flaws. A bug in your indie game will deter gamers from coming back to it. Give gamers a chance to promote your game and that will only happen with a bug-free game. Many indie games release without any technical trials and this is one of the reasons they fail.
Test out the games as much as possible before releasing them for a wider audience. Indie game developers should hire professionals to improve the gaming experience and fix any in-gaming problems before the big release.
Conclusion
There is a huge market for indie games today and fixing some of these reasons for failure that are mentioned above can guarantee success. Indie games fail sometimes but that does not mean there is no hope for them. The right amount of planning and marketing can improve the overall quality of games. Don’t fear failure, work on improving the quality of games and you can make history.
Few people know that carnival games derive roots from the royal courts of the Renaissance period. They started as sporting activities and card tricks. Once the concept of traveling road shows got adopted in the 1800s in the US, they morphed into vaudevillian-like magic shows. Later on, in the early 20th-century, they incorporated mechanical elements, and prize machines got birthed.
Around this time, arcades appeared, which mainly consisted of coin-operated pinball machines. The ones hosting video games, the likes we associate with these venues sprung up in the late 1970s. They quickly got so popular that Dave & Busters and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants began offering them. In the late 1980s and at the start of the 1990s, arcades were the main gathering spots for male teens and a premium entertainment option. That all changed with the rise of home video game consoles.
Today, fair and arcade-like gaming options are making a comeback in the unlikeliest of places, online casinos. In the past decade, gambling sites have begun experimenting with featuring products from these genres. Interactive gaming is currently a fledgling industry with thousands of active platforms floating around in the digital sphere, each advertising that it is home to the best casino bonus. What follows is a quick rundown of four unique betting experiences that can induce fair and arcade gaming nostalgia from an online casino lobby.
Tetris Extreme
Fun bit of trivia. Tetris is an invention of a Russian programmer named Alexey Pjitnov, who worked as a software engineer at Moscow’s Soviet Academy of Sciences. He created this simple game that grew into a global phenomenon when testing the then-novel Electronika 60 computer. Tetris quickly became one of the most addictive puzzle games on the planet with a current vast player base. In 2019, developer Red7 figured out a way to morph it into a seven-reel, ten-row slot with an RTP of 94% in its base gameplay. Tetris Extreme by Red7 has a cluster-wins-mechanism and offers a Mega Drop Jackpot.
Coin Pusher – Ganesh Wealth
Coin pushers are machines featured at arcades, fairs, and even some restaurants. They let players place tokens/coins through a slot hoping that they will knock off a stockpile of them from an edge and win prizes. According to gaming historians, these machines first appeared in 1962 in Europe, with Cromptons Leisure Machines first developing them. Its original product in this category bore the name Wheel-a-Win and was a massive hit. Few coin pusher-like titles exist on gambling sites, with a super trending one being Ganesha Wealth by PlayStar. It got released in June of 2021, boasting a Hindi theme.
Rubik’s Riches
Likely any layperson has seen or tried to solve a Rubik’s Cube at one point in their life. It is a 3D combination puzzle invented by Hungarian sculptor Ernő Rubik in 1974, who licensed it to the Ideal Toy Corporation. The original cube had six faces, covered by nine stickers in six solid colors. In 2013, online gambling juggernaut Playtech attempted to bring the Rubik’s Cube concept into the slot format via Rubik’s Riches. This novel title mixed both genres in a product with an RTP of 94.5%.
Whack-A-Jackpot
Whac-A-Mole machines are popular carnival games that the Japanese TOGO company created in 1975. The following year, this invention was the second highest-grossing electro-mechanical game in the country. It made its US debut in 1977 at pinball parlors before reaching amusement parks and carnivals. Whack-A-Jackpot is a 2014 Microgaming scratch card-like game that mimics the original Whac-A-Mole machines to a T.
Ori and the Blind Forest is an indie game by Moon Studios that has won several awards in artistic achievement, animation, and musical composition.
The Prologue:
You begin the game as a small forest spirit named Ori, who falls from the Spirit Tree during a storm. He is adopted by a creature named Naru but is quickly orphaned when a devastating event sweeps through the forest and wipes out their food resources. Naru gives Ori the remaining food and starves to death. Now, Ori must set out into the forest alone in an attempt to stay alive.
The young spirit eventually loses energy and collapses near the Spirit Tree. A blue orb named Sein revives him. Here, the prologue ends, and the game begins. From here on out, Ori and Sein set off to restore balance to the forest. They recover its main elements: Waters, Winds, and Warmth.
The Main Story:
Two other primary characters are introduced at this point – Gumo and Kuru. Gumo is a spider-like creature who seems evil initially but becomes a friend when Ori helps them out of a sticky situation. Kuru is a large owl. It remains an antagonist for much longer, but its aggressive nature is explained in the game’s latter stages.
The Ending:
Gumo uses stored light from the Spirit Tree to help Naru. They team up to protect Sein and Ori, working together to restore warmth in the forest. Gumo sees the dangers that lie ahead, and in the game’s final act, Kuru catches Ori and Sein, but Naru protects them. Kuru changes his heart and takes Sein back to the Spirit Tree’s top to end the spread of fire throughout the forest. A giant light emits, wiping out the fire but ultimately wiping Kuru out in the process.
What You Need to Do:
Your task as the hero is to bring Ori back to his home and save the forest from dying. As you go through the game, you will gain more abilities. Eventually, you will be able to spend experience points on three different skill trees.
Core Skills:
- Spirit Flame
This is the first skill that Ori learns, which can be used to attack enemies. To upgrade this skill, you need to put ability points into the Offensive Skill Tree. - Wall Jump
By jumping repeatedly, Ori can climb walls. This skill allows you to gain access to areas that are usually inaccessible with a single jump. - Double Jump
This is another essential skill that grants you access to new areas. You need to jump into the air while performing a double jump. Leru’s Ancestral Tree in Gumo’s Hideout gives you this ability. - Charge Jump
To enable this skill, you need to hold a directional key to charge the Charge Jump and then let go to propel Ori in your desired direction. You can choose to charge straight up, hang on to a wall, or charge left or right. This skill is found in the Sorrow Pass. - Charge Flame
This is an offensive skill that can be used to break specific barriers and damage units within a certain radius. It is found in Hollow Grove, and it is given by the spirit Ano’s Ancestral Tree. - Stomp
Ori learned this skill in the Thornfelt Swamp. Using this skill, you can smash the ground and break barriers underneath you, thus damaging nearby enemies. - Bash
Found in the Ginso Tree, the Bash ability is what allows Ori to fly through the air. It uses the momentum of a nearby lantern, projectile, or creature, and it can stop time for a while, giving you the time to choose a direction. The object you bash against is then flung in the opposite direction. - Climb
This skill allows Ori to shimmy up and down a wall or hang onto them without doing a wall jump. To hold onto a wall, press the ‘Shift’ key or ‘RT.’ - Dash
This skill allows Ori to move quickly in one direction for half a second. It is found in the Black Root Burrows and can be upgraded in the skill tree. - Light Burst
Also found in the Black Root Burrows, this skill allows you to cast spheres of light into the air to light lanterns. - Kuro’s Feather
With this feather, you can glide to the ground. You can also use it to be lifted up if you are in a wind tunnel. To pick up one of these feathers, you must distract Kuro on the way to the Misty Woods.
Ability Tree
The ability tree is a collection of various knacks that Ori can purchase with Ability points and enhance their performance. The available abilities can cost either 1,2 or 3 points at a time. If you fail to produce the proper payment, Ori will be prevented from receiving that ability until they have accumulated enough points.
Abilities may also be unattainable because Ori doesn’t have the skill that it enhances or has not bought the ability to come before it. If either of these options is true, the text below the description of the ability will be bright red. This will indicate that Ori does not have the necessary requirements to have that particular ability.
The tree has three branches, each with abilities that share a common theme. They are:
- Utility Abilities
This branch is cyan, with abilities that help Ori with survival and defense. It is at the top of the tree. Some of the branch’s abilities include Rekindle, Charge Dash, Water Breath, and Air Dash. - Efficiency Abilities
In the middle of the tree, this purple branch can help make exploration and pickups more efficient. Some of the abilities that come with this branch include Spirit Efficiency, Spirit Magnet, and Map Markers. - Combat Abilities
These abilities enhance Ori’s offensive capabilities. This branch is at the bottom of the tree; it is red. Some of the skills on this branch include Quick Flame, Split Flame, and Ultra Stomp.
You may be wondering what the best skill point build is, but ultimately, the answer to this question depends entirely on your gameplay. Investing ability points in the survival brand can make the game a lot easier, especially when you get to the Triple Jump. Offensive capabilities are convenient but not necessary. Most deaths in the game are caused by environmental damage. To find secret areas and extra pickups, you can search the exploration line or even the internet for additional information.
Ori and the Blind Forest is an adventure game with beautifully designed visuals and an outstanding score. Developed by Moon Studios, it was released on March 1th for Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Reviewers have highly praised the storyline, graphics, level design, and gameplay.
If you loved Ori and the Blind Forest, make sure you check out its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps!
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