Pathfinder: Wrath of Righteous Kickstarts Spanish Localization

Moscow, Russia, February 25, 2020 — Owlcat Games has announced its plans to add Spanish localization to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the highly anticipated classic isometric CRPG whose successful Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $1.3 million so far. Based on Paizo’s famous tabletop RPG and the adventure path of the same name, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will have players choose from one of eight different Mythic Paths, lead a crusade, and become a hero in a world overrun by demons. Fans have an opportunity to help the campaign achieve its twelfth stretch goal before it ends on March 11. “Currently, our script for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous contains more than 1.2 million words,” says Owlcat Games’ Head of Studio Oleg Shpilchevskiy. “This translation is a complex task that we want done right so Spanish-speaking people are pleased with the final product.” Achieving this stretch goal will also allow Owlcat Games to introduce a new race called Oreads, the stoic and contemplative descendants of outsiders from the Elemental Plane of Earth. In addition to the rewards listed on Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous’ Kickstarter page, backers who support the campaign today will have an opportunity to vote for another non-human race: ratfolk, catfolk or kitsune (“fox folk”). A new race of half-undead mortals called dhampirs will also appear when the game launches in June 2021. 

 

Stretch goals that backers have unlocked so far include two new Mythic Paths (Swarm-That-Walks and Gold Dragon), two new classes (Warpriest and Skald), evolving animal companions, a “thiefling” companion named Woljif Jefto, a select soundtrack performed by a symphony orchestra, one more archetype per class and new features such as mounted combat, dismemberment, and Double Reactivity. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is an epic adventure in which players rise to power as one of eight Mythic character types: the benevolent Angel, the ravaging Demon, the powerful Lich, the cunning Trickster, the lawful Aeon, the rebellious Azata, the ruthless Swarm-That-Walks, and the merciful Gold Dragon. The title will feature an extremely flexible character building system with 24 classes to choose from and six archetypes per class. The game is designed to be played in real-time with pause (RTWP), but will also feature a turn-based mode (TBM), that will allow players to experience a play session almost identical to the tabletop version. Owlcat Games thanks all the backers who have contributed to the campaign so far. Additional details regarding Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous‘ Mythic Paths, new features and crowdfunding goals can be found at the game’s Kickstarter page. The campaign will run until March 11. Follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and our official website. 

 

About Owlcat Games

Owlcat Games was founded in 2016 by a group of developers united by their love of CRPGs. The team is led by veteran game designers behind titles like Heroes of Might and Magic V, Silent Storm, Etherlords, Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul and other games. Team members also took part in the development of popular MMO titles Allods Online and Skyforge. The first project unveiled by Owlcat Games was 2018’s Pathfinder: Kingmaker, an isometric computer RPG based on the highly popular Pathfinder pen-and-paper roleplaying game by Paizo Inc. The success of Kingmaker has allowed them to continue working with Paizo on a new Pathfinder adventure, Wrath of the Righteous.

About Paizo

Paizo Inc. is one of the world’s leading hobby game publishers. Since 2002, millions of players have joined the goblin army by playing the Pathfinder® and Starfinder® roleplaying games across tabletops, at conventions, at their favorite local game store, and digitally on virtual tabletops. Paizo.com is an online retail hobby destination for gamers that carries the latest products from top hobby game publishers. Players also find accessories, like dice and maps, miniatures, T-shirts, goblin plush toys, and the newest releases to quickly replenish those adventuring supplies for the next dungeon run.

Article by: Susan N.

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Jaggy's Corner - February 28th, 2020

Hello everyone and welcome back to Jaggy's Corner where I discuss various video gaming topics during the week. This time around I'm talking about a player who is now banned from all FIFA events.

I'm, of course, talking about Kurt "Kurt0411" Fenech who was found in violation of EA's code of conduct. The professional esports player, Kurt, repeatedly stated his criticisms about FIFA 20 on his YouTube channel and his Twitch streams. He would engage in rants about the game on Twitter as well. Unfortunately, Kurt ended up on the receiving end of old big and nasty EA play. In fact, EA was so offended by his actions that they even went as far to shut down Kurt's FIFA Ultimate Team account - which he had had for over 10 years - they unloaded numerous copyright strikes to his YouTube channel and attempted to shut down his Twitch channel. After following through on their actions to take Kurt down, EA proceeded to post a press release about their decision to ban the player from all tournaments. (What? Isn't that a little extreme?)

Keep in mind that all of this is happening to a player who is the second most popular player/streamer/content creator of FIFA 20, and not to some random player who thinks they're good at the game. One would think that as a major contributor to the community around the game, that EA might have considered other means of dealing with the situation. But, sadly, this is not the case. EA claimed that Kurt was threatening staff, and without citing any sources, took down as much of the player's content as possible. I think that might have been overstepping their bounds...

But, this isn't where the buck stops when it comes to EA. Earlier on in the year, Donovan "Tekkz" Hunt, another professional player of FIFA 20, mentioned at the FUT Champions Cup in Paris that the game was "unrewarding" and that "games were 50/50." (This information can be found here.) And yet, even though Tekkz has also been critical of the game, he has not received any of the same treatment. Yet this particular player made it into the semi-finals and is part of team Fnatic. I have to question why would one pro player receive extremely harsh punishment and not another? Is it because Tekkz is perhaps less aggressive with his criticisms? Though, if Tekkz keeps up with the criticism, EA might still go after him. Right now though, that is mere speculation.

https://twitter.com/EA/status/1232060677507801091

Now, there are a couple of things that I've also read about the situation. The first is that some EA employees Twitter accounts were hacked following Kurt's ban. Tweets were sent out in support of the player through Twitter, leading EA employees to believe that Kurt, or people in his community, are responsible. (Though I should add that even if he or his community was responsible, that having some basic protections against hacking benefits everyone who uses social media. Basically, everyone. There may not be a full-proof way to do this, but reducing the risk is never a bad thing. And, in this case, if EA's employees accounts were hacked into, I have to question EA employees ability to have security...) The other bit of information I stumbled upon is that earlier today, both Apex Legends and FIFA 20 servers went down due to outages. In fact, this is the second time in less than a month this has happened. To me, while that may not be related, it seems like convenient timing.

So this is what I'm thinking about. I feel like EA's press release was a bad idea for them because they destroyed the reputation of one of their top players without (as far as I can tell) reaching out to him in an attempt to find a resolution. By publishing the press release, not only did EA make Kurt a scapegoat, but they also potentially ruined his life. As such, it feels a lot like a hit piece, which is a published article that aims to smear the name of an individual or company. While to the public the press release seemed like a harsh warning to the community, I see EA's actions as something more - otherwise, why post about it?

But what really perplexes me about the situation is why EA didn't cite proof of Kurt's alleged threats? They nuked any evidence showing the statements / criticisms made by Kurt. If they wanted people on their side, wouldn't they have something to show for it?

Other questions come to mind like why did EA only go after this one player? What does this prove? And don't you guys think that was too much, regardless of how much Kurt may have complained about things that needed to be fixed? We aren't talking about a one-time player here, this is someone who has spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours in that game. He might have SOME useful insight even if he stated his opinions in aggressive ways. And furthermore, if multiple players are experiencing the same issues, wouldn't it have been better to actually listen so that maybe the game could be MORE successful?

I mean, Sports games aren't really my thing, and at the end of the day, this topic isn't something I'm truly passionate about. However, if game companies don't listen to their players, how do they really stand to survive? In this case, I believe that EA is setting an example of what not to do as a billion-dollar company. But that is just my thoughts on the matter.

Until next time peeps!

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Aokana Releasing in North America in the Summer!

PQube (London, UK) – February 25th, 2020 – PQube and NekoNyan are excited to reveal that Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue is coming to the west! The award-winning visual novel about dreams, sports and love will be available this summer for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

With its gorgeous art, lots of quality-of-life features and more, it is no wonder that this game received a popular anime adaptation and was praised by both players and critics.

The story of Aokana plays in a world where science finally did it and invented anti-gravity shoes! With the dreamlike ability to freely fly through the skies, a form of sport called Flying Circus became popular, where athletes soar through the air to score points.

Slip into the role of Masaya, a former competitor, that encounters the new transfer student Asuka who strives to learn how to fly. Get involved in the Flying Circus sports club, support the ambitious girls and eventually end up with your own head in clouds!

Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue is coming to Europe and North-America on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 this summer.

Make sure to check out #Aokana and @NekoNyanSoft on social media!

For more information and the latest news about PQube, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and Instagram or check out our homepage: https://pqube.co.uk/aokana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee3DjoYJvQA

 

About NekoNyan Ltd.

NekoNyan is a new player in the English localization scene - focusing on bringing popular Japanese Visual Novels, Games, and more, to Western audiences with an emphasis on providing high quality translations and other production values.

About sprite

Sprite is a Japanese visual novel development studio that is known for extremely ambitious, high-quality games that are one of a kind.

About PQube

PQube is a leading publisher, distributor and service provider for the interactive entertainment industry with a global reach through UK, Europe, Middle East, Australia and North and South America from its offices in Letchworth (UK), Bristol (UK), Paris (France), Los Angeles (USA) and Hong Kong.

As a licensed publisher with Sony, Microsoft, Valve, Nintendo and Apple, PQube’s software division publishes and distributes video games for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, iOS, Android, PC and has full coverage across all digital download platforms, establishing a track record of success with major franchises including: Gal*Gun, Chaos;Child, Cat Quest, Valkyrie Drive, White Day, Root Letter, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Kotodama, MotoGP, Ride, MXGP, Harvest Moon, Senran Kagura and Steins;Gate.

PQube’s hardware division designs, manufactures and distributes officially licensed consoles and accessories including the brand-new Atari ‘Retro’ range.

We thank all our partners and acknowledge all game names, brands and trademarks as properties of their respective owners. Visit: www.pqube.co.uk/games

Article by: Susan N.

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Vampire’s Fall: Origins - PC Review

Vampire’s Fall: Origins by developer and publisher Early Morning Studio—PC (Steam) review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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Join the city guard they said. It'll be easy they said. Send their strongest warrior or be wiped out by a crazed warlord they said. Get killed you did, but it definitely wasn't enough to keep you down. Waking up starving for blood, you drink the closest corpse next to you as you head out for revenge not for your village, but for being killed and not being happy about it.

Vampire’s Fall: Origins was originally released for mobile platforms back in late 2018 and it has just recently been revamped for the PC. I think it’s important to state this as while the visuals look like that of the PC, most of the menus’ visuals are definitely configured for a touch screen so while using a keyboard works really well as everything has its own keybinding, moving the mouse around can be a bit of a pain. There’s also supposed to be controller support, but as of the time of this writing, I couldn’t get my XB1 nor XB1 Series 2 Elite controllers to work. There was just zero response.

Moving along though, and I was rather impressed by the depth of adventure laid out before me. Treated to a quick tutorial to teach you the ropes, it’s not long after this point that you find yourself raising from the dead and hungry for blood. I would have liked a bit more anything on this front as other than one NPC that asks you to turn him or kill him, the only other time your lineage really comes up is hours down the line when you meet a few people that had been turned by the one you turned, if you did it of course. Otherwise, your vampireness is probably the only reason that you can keep getting your ass kicked if not killed and coming back again and again in order to get your revenge.

Gameplay is actually rather simple. You move around a map, you talk to people, you accept quests if you want to, and you keep moving on until you get into a fight. Color palette wise there’s not a whole lot to look at but it sells the story that you’re basically stuck in a shithole of dark trees, swamps and barren hills. Running along the roads is always safer and generally faster to reach new places, but if you want to explore and find chests with gold and fight enemies for gold and experience to level up? You’ll have to go off the beaten path.

This is probably where things were a bit hit and a miss for me, and I’m not talking about hit probabilities. Combat is either really easy, or really hard. There’s no real middle ground as leveling up only really gets you new skills while attack power and defense are at the mercy of your gear that is generally really expensive. You can equip a sword and shield, two different weapons, chest armor, leg armor, boots, gloves and trinkets. Some of this you can pillage off of enemy corpses but most of the time it’ll be bought with tons of gold making you wonder, which piece do you want first, or which do you need as if you go just a bit too far from where it’s safe, you’ll more often than not be dead in two seconds as the enemies are just way too powerful.

While you’ll be spending half your time running around the map and looking for where to go next or find something or someone for a quest, the other half you’ll be fighting for your life. Combat was actually really fun and depending on how you’ve set yourself up, fighting even tough enemies is possible as long as they don’t cut your focus down. To fight an enemy you have one standard attack and then a series of abilities that require a certain amount of focus to use. These abilities include teleporting behind an enemy and backstabbing that can do up to five attacks, plowing forward and biting them to regain hit points, launching bats to cause damage over time or breaking their defense while also being able to bolster both yours and sharpen your weapon for more damage.

Each turn that you attack you’ll gain more focus which is dependent on what kind of skills and boosts that you get from items. In general though, you’ll be getting about ten and backstabbing requires thirty, bats thirty five, and stealing blood for health forty-five. These aren’t abilities that you can just use whenever you want, you have to calculate when’s the best time to use them. As a bonus though, every few turns you get a surge of focus that allows you to chain a few attacks as long as you have the total focus to do so. Adding in some later abilities where you can add the chance for a normal attack after all of the chained ones? Things slowly fall into your favor, just never enough to make things “normal” on the easy to hard scale.

For someone like me, the difficulty spike makes me think of older RPGs like Final Fantasy 1-5, Dragon Quest 1-3 and I was fine with them. My issue with the spike is that the gold allocation to buy new gear doesn’t quite follow that spike so often by the time I’m finally getting this gear and finding the way forward again, the same jump occurs and I sure as hell don’t have the money to buy even newer gear as I literally just did that. So it’s a bit of a balancing act in this department where you’ll honestly need to put some time aside to grind.

Finally, what I probably loved the most, was the dialog with the various town peoples and “evil” spirits. It’s fun, it’s quirky, it gives you a reason to go about doing things for these people even if the quest rewards themselves should probably be more than enough. My best example that just had me laughing was this long winded quest of a town besieged by stupidity. So you go see the spirits to lift the curse. Turns out they aren’t cursed by stupidity, they are cursed to not be able to drink milk… they are just so stupid that it seems like a curse. The spirit got a kick out of it, I got a kick out of it and at least those townspeople could now drink milk. And a lot of quests were like this one making it fun to explore and seek them out since the rest of the world could feel empty while running between towns, villages, cities and your next fights.

Overall, Vampire’s Fall: Origins lead me to having a good time. Sure the balance isn’t quite there as it’s more on the harder side of things, but the overall elements can soften this blow between the dialog and just the ease of everything else. Having had the same enhancements done to the mobile platform, PC, Android or iOS, I would suggest taking this one for a spin as it does offer a couple good hours of RPG goodness.

 

Score: 7.5 / 10

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New Rogue-Lite Launching This Year From NACON

Lesquin, France, February 21, 2020 – NACON is pleased to announce Rogue Lords, a new rogue-like game co-developed by Cyanide and Leikir Studio. Rogue Lords takes place in a gloomy 17th Century New England where mortals and diabolical entities walk side by side.

The game inverses the usual tropes, with the player taking on the role of the Devil who, weakened following a terrible defeat, is seeking to regain his powers. His goal is to once again spread corruption throughout a world left destabilised by his absence. To achieve his dark designs, he directs a team comprised of illustrious Disciples of Evil, such as Bloody Mary, Dracula, the White Lady and Baron Samedi.

In Rogue Lords, the player explores a 3D map and chooses how he will sow chaos during numerous interactions with other characters. He also launches his Disciples of Evil into difficult turn-based combat and uses their skills as best he can to overcome adversaries. If he loses, it’s game over. The player then loses all character progress and has to start a new run. He will have to choose wisely in order to find a balance that will enable him to avoid defeat. As a last resort, the player can call upon the Devil's special powers and cheat via the game interface in order to turn the situation on its head in a brand-new way!

"Rogue Lords is a game we came up with several years ago with Jérémie Monedero, the Game Director", said Camille Lisoir, Artistic Director at Cyanide. "We are delighted to see the project become reality. We have fantastic synergy with the talented team at Leikir Studio and we can't wait to reveal our diabolical world."

The equally macabre and poetic Rogue Lords will be released this Autumn on PC, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

About NACON

NACON is a company of the BIGBEN Group founded in 2019 to optimize its know-how through strong synergies in the video game market. By bringing together its 8 development studios, the publishing of AA video games, the design and distribution of premium gaming devices, NACON focuses 20 years of expertise at the service of players. This new unified business unit strengthens NACON's position in the market, enables it to innovate by creating new unique competitive advantages and achieve its ambition to become one of the world's leading players in gaming. https://www.nacongaming.com/

About Cyanide

Cyanide is a French video game development studio created in 2000 and based in Nanterre. It has two subsidiaries located in Montreal and Bordeaux. The studio is known for its sports games, such as the popular PC series Cycling Manager and its console version, Tour de France. Cyanide is also the author of Blood Bowl (Sport/Fantasy, 2009), the adaptation of the famous Games Workshop board game; Game of Thrones (RPG, 2012); Styx: Master of Shadows and the sequel Styx: Shards of Darkness (Infiltration, 2014/2017); and Call of Cthulhu, a game adapted from the tormented world of HP Lovecraft (investigative RPG, 2018). More information can be found at www.cyanide-studio.com

About Leikir Studio

Leikir Studio is a cross-media company. Its objective is to deploy original worlds on all media platforms. Today, the studio is made up of a web team and a video game development team, creators of the brawler Wondershot and the platformer/bullet hell Isbarah.

Article by: Susan N.

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Azur Lane Crosswave - PC Review

Azur Lane Crosswave by developer Compile Heart and publisher Idea Factory International—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Originally a mobile game, turned anime, turned console title, Azur Lane: Crosswave surfs onto PC to grace you with anime battleship waifus. Come join us as we join Shimikaze and Suruga as they make friends, blow stuff up, and collect detritus.

If you’ve heard of Kantai collection, you basically know what Azur Lane is about. For those of you who are even more confused, essentially Azur Lane as a series is about anthropomorphic ships that fight off the “Sirens”, a group of animal-based enemies that create “mirror seas” and attack humanity. Crosswave specifically deals with Shimikaze and Suruga, two new recruits for the Sakura empire (that would be the Japanese navy, essentially). After encountering a siren fleet while performing a training exercise, a bunch of cubes are dropped in the ocean. In a bid to try and get other nations to help collect them, the Sakura Empire organizes a “Joint Training Exercise” with the other three major nations (Eagle Union, Royal Navy, and Iron Blood), with a guest appearance from the Dragon Empery. Cue some friendly, and not so friendly, combat matches between the Kansen, which are what the ship-girls are referred to as.

As someone who has played the mobile version of Azur Lane for a while now, I was wondering how Crosswave was going to turn out. Luckily, it turned out better than I was expecting, given the original nature of the game. Gameplay consists of battles with a team of up to six Kansen, three front row fighters that take place in the battle, and three support members that simply provide passive effects for your teammates. Combat consists of a sort of free-roam action style, where you have a square sort of arena, and you are given objectives to complete to move on to the next objective, until you’ve completed them all.

Objectives can range from “shoot down 20 enemy planes” to “defeat the enemy”, although it almost always ends with defeating an actual opponent. Getting into the actual battle, each unit has four basic “attacks” they can perform. There is a main gun, a secondary gun, a lock-on attack, and a skill. Depending on what type of unit you’re using, your main gun can either be a continuous attack, or it could have a reload time. The secondary, lock-on, and skill all also require a reload time, so you can’t just spam fire them. While in combat you have a sort of reticle around the centre of the screen which acts as your lock-on. If the little indicator is red, your shots will home in on the enemies, and the closer you are, the more damage you’ll do, but so will your enemies, so be careful!

All of your available missions will be either from story missions or from the “extreme battles”. Story missions tend to be mostly just talking events, using artwork from the Azur Lane original game itself in a more classic Compile Heart style, with the anime-stylized characters “shifting” on-screen or changing only facial expression as the text scrolls by. After you hit about two-thirds of the way through, the battles do tend to pick up a bit, which was nice because I found it really easy up until Akagi and Kaga challenge you to a match and I almost cried. While it generally isn’t too difficult to complete a battle, even if the enemy is double your level, getting an S rank requires you to complete the battle within 120 seconds and without losing a unit, which gets progressively more difficult. Especially if you fight Suruga. Seriously though, she’s slow and a little clunky, so I wasn’t a fan at first. And then I gave her an actually set of weapons. Nothing feels quite as satisfying as activating a skill to halve the damage you take, slowly waltz up to an enemy, blast them in the face for half their health, and then regain 30% of your own health. It’s dirty but I love it, when not used against me :’(

You can collect or purchase gear as you play through the game, although the best gear requires you to earn blueprints that you get from the bonus battles that are part of the “extreme battles”, all 110 of them, ranging from easy to “why on earth would you ever think that enemy unit combination is anything other than sadistic developer pleasure?!?”. I think that one was battle 99 and took me about 12 minutes to complete. Considering you need to finish within 2 minutes for an S rank? Yeah. But I mean, there are a lot of bonus battles for you to take part in.

I’m really glad to see they went with the original game artwork for Crosswave, and while the 3D models you get in battle aren’t the worst I’ve seen, I’ve also seen better. On the plus side, loading times are virtually a second and a half at longest, and after clearing a stage you can continuously repeat it without going through either dialogue or the “world map” if you’re in story mode. Also, not once did I encounter any lag, which is rather impressive given that there is water physics going on, which I normally find to be a contender for leading lag producer in, well, pretty much everything.

Crosswave also continues in the same vein as the original title, allowing you to perform “cognitive awakening” once a unit has hit level 100 and you’ve earned enough isomers to trade for a chip, bumping the level cap up to 200. You can also “oath” you ships, or marry them, if you’d prefer, by meeting certain conditions. Hint, you need a certain amount of S rank completions in story missions to awaken a ship. All that being said, Crosswave isn’t a particularly long game. I finished all the missions and story mode within 7 hours. Keep in mind I don’t yet have a unit that has hit level 200 though, so if I wanted to keep earning levels and going for cognitive awakenings and oaths I could, although it does get fairly same-y after awhile.

Earning all the units is surprisingly easy at least, as you earn “A points” after battle, and you can exchange those to “purchase” a unit for use permanently, although you can’t use the same unit as the enemy team has, so for example if they have Enterprise on their side, you won’t be able to use her. A little annoying when 4 or 5 of your standard units are now on the other side of the field, but because all unlocked units earn experience from battle whether they participate or not, it just becomes a matter of proper equipment and actually upgrading your gear and skills. No really though, I forgot you could upgrade these because I wasn’t earning the items I needed, and then when I remembered I could, battles went from “urgh” to “HAHA, SUCK IT AKASHI AND YOUR PASSIVE HEAL”.

Despite how much I rather enjoyed Crosswave, it isn’t without its faults. The game seems to not really want you to figure out how to awaken that easily, battles get fairly repetitive rather fast, and the storyline, while interesting as a bit of a veteran player, may confuse the heck out of anyone who’s new to the series. My biggest two gripes, however, are the fact that you can “hit” the edges of the arena and get stuck, essentially opening you up for a murderous bombardment, or the fact you can get stuck on your teammates. Yes, it’s nice to be able to basically switch at will, no, I don’t want to get stuck trying to dodge an artillery bombardment, and yes Suruga, you have a wide rigging, please move. Other than that, I would’ve liked to see some more Iron Blood as playable units, and a lot of the units are relegated to support so they can’t be actually controlled.

Overall, I’d say that Azur Lane Crosswave is a great way to help get the series out there, and while the battles can get a little repetitive, there’s nothing I can really point out as being truly wrong or bad. Although it does feel rather lacking in content, and how much you’ll enjoy this title is rather dependant on how much you like the mobile game, considering that Crosswave basically turned the mobile system into essentially a console type game, I have to say they did rather well, all things considered.

 

Score: 7 / 10

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Giraffe and Annika Now on Steam!

TOKYO – 18 Feb. 2020 – Giraffe and Annika, a musically charged 3D adventure from publisher PLAYISM and developer Atelier Mimina, warms hearts on PCs via Steam today with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions taking a half-rest until later in 2020. 

Annika, a bright-eyed girl with cat ears, works with Giraffe, a cat-boy with an old soul, to recover her memories. Follow a manga-style comic narrative and help the duo collect three shimmering star fragments housed deep in the vivid dungeons of the curious and calm Spica Island. Each glittering gem gives Annika a new power, unlocking previously unreachable areas, opportunities to collect additional outfits, and cat-tastic meow-sterpieces of art to view at the local museum. 

From the lead designer of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Giraffe and Annika features handcrafted rhythm boss battles against operatic opposition, like the colossal crustacean called the Crab King, and Lily, wily witch of the forbidden forest. Defeat these formidable foes to the beat, synchronizing attacks to each boss’ custom track. 

“Giraffe and Annika has been a passion project with rhythm sections inspired by Elite Beat Agents, which was in turn influenced by my team’s work on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!” Atsushi Saito, sole developer, Atelier Mimina. “Creating the adventures players will have with Annika has really been an adventure in itself. I hope players enjoy how her journey with Giraffe unfolds, punctuated by the rhythm boss fights, which were so much fun to make.” 

Giraffe & Annika will be available on Steam in English, Japanese, and Chinese (simplified and traditional) for $19.99 USD. 

For more information, please visit the Giraffe and Annika official website.

 

About Atelier Mimina

Based out of Tokyo, Japan, Atelier Mimina is a one-man game studio founded by Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan lead designer Atsushi Saito. Atelier Mimina’s first published title is Giraffe and Annika. To learn more, visit the Atelier Mimina official website, and follow @kamipallet on Twitter.

About PLAYISM

Known for bringing popular indie games from Japan including Touhou Luna Nights, La-Mulana 2 and One Way Heroics, Playism was created with the global indie community in mind. The company focuses on helping developers every step of the way, from localization to distribution of their games. To learn more, visit the PLAYISM official website, Facebook page, and follow @PlayismEN on Twitter.

Article by: Susan N.

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Rune Factory 4: Special - Switch Review

Rune Factory 4: Special by developer Marvelous Entertainment Inc. and publisher XSEED Games—Nintendo Switch review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Having once been a bit more niche before the surprise hit of Stardew Valley, we had small town farming simulators like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory to keep us happy on both Nintendo and Sony Platforms. Making its way back to us in both handheld and full console format, Rune Factory 4 Special is a redesign of the 2012 Nintendo 3DS release and in one word? It’s absolutely stellar. Alright so that was two.

The Rune Factory series while having been popular enough at the time was a victim of the dreaded sales and as well received that they were, it wasn’t enough to keep the original developer in the game and they closed their doors with the original release of Rune Factory 4. Being brought back by XSEED, Rune Factory 4 been re-designed instead of simply ported from the 3DS over to the Switch and while this still currently last entry into the series, it’s back and if it’s performance is anything to go off of? I hope that we soon see a Rune Factory 5.

Rune Factory 4 is the story of a “prince” or “princess” that falls off an airship and onto a dragon’s head in a remote, yet small and cozy, town. The quotations are because the prince or princess had been expected and when you dropped in, well, who else would make such an entrance but royalty? Lasting a whole five minutes, the actual Prince shows up and wanting to do their own thing? They grant you their royal powers to run this town and make decisions on their behalf. So what are you to do? Start learning to till the fields behind the Dragon’s Shrine for food and money, take care of villager requests for royalty points to make decisions on development, and head out into the wilds for new materials and some good old fashioned experience points as you level up your Action RPG self.

So what’s a newly found by proxy royal to do? All the above! Enjoy life, do a bit of farming, do a bit of smithing, do a bit of socializing and then head out to beat up some monsters to level up and get some new materials. As far as I’m concerned right now there are no real time limits, at least not that I’ve seen, so if you want to just hang back and get some farming done for a few days and build up your stamina for it instead of heading out of town you can. Likewise, you can also spend a few days outside of town beating the crap of out monsters and improve your combat prowess which will also come in handy as unlike something like StarDew Valley where combat is a literal choice and you never have to, in Rune Factory is a must and the only way to progress through the story.

That said, combat isn’t some Devil May Cry level button mashing extravaganza. Like everything else, from the town socialization and the farming, combat is relaxing enough where foes slowly get stronger and while bosses are a bit tanky with several phases, it’s never “hard”. It’s fun, but it’s not hard. If you do find yourself getting knocked out as it can happen… looking at your giant chickens that were overpowered for that point in the game, then you’ll find yourself in the Doctor’s office where you’ll be healed up to about half health. Being a doctor and having a practice to run however, it’s going to cost you and it’ll only cost you more and more each time you drop in combat so you’ll either way to slowly grind for experience, get better equipment, or bring someone along for the ride!

Starting off with very little people to bring along short of the Dragon Knight who’s a badass in her own right, you’ll need to befriend others to take along with you, or to romance in general, your choice. Sadly the Doctor’s wife told my female protagonist that she was already married otherwise she may have considered it once upon a time. Moving along though, people do have their own lives and even if they come with you, it’s possible that they need to leave you part ways through your dungeon crawl because “duty calls”. Allies that will never leave you, but possibly get grumpy about it, are monsters that you can befriend and house back at the farm in a monster house that you can have built up in the top corner of your farm. Everyone will level up, everyone has abilities, but you’ll want to keep an eye on hit point bars and possibly send an ally home early if they aren’t doing so great.

Once you’re back home for the afternoon, or head home to sleep and wake up in the morning, you get to do it all again. Taking care of requests that hit your inbox is a great way to get plenty of Royalty Points (RP) which can be used to kick off festivals, build new buildings, expand storage or expand on a shop’s inventory. You can slowly accumulate RP while gathering materials and hunting monsters, but you’ll really want to complete these requests that allows you to better understand the people that you are both living with, and now in charge of as Royalty. Even by proxy, it has its benefits!

Included in these benefits are the ability to get licenses which allow you to do more. Tests for licenses can be bought with RP and as long as you can properly answer all of the questions, the license is yours. Why go through the trouble you may be thinking? I sure as hell did until I found out that it gave me access to the airship that allows you to easily travel to the various save points across the lines. Only adding to this are licenses for cooking, smithing, crafting, so that you can do things yourself instead of having to buy it all. If you get good enough at it, you can even start mass producing them and selling them off for extra cash but you’ll have to buy the equipment for it first. What I really loved about this equipment is that you can actually put it anywhere so if you wanted to smith in your bedroom, you can, if you want to smith in the smithy? You can do that as well but then you’re stuck to the actual store’s opening and closing hours.

The one big thing that stood out to me over the hours that I’ve put in is that it never feels like any time has passed at all. Days go by, you till and work your field, you chat with others, you check your royal decrees, you manage your storage, you manage your monsters, and you head out of town to get new materials and you can fish wherever you choose. And it’s so relaxing unlike Harvest Moon where there was a definite stress in getting things done because you could barely get anything done in the beginning. While things may not take off so quick in Rune Factory 4, it smooths you into it as farming isn’t your be all end all, it’s a part of the overall and it’ll never drain your stamina leaving you with nothing for the rest of the day because you’ve done too much which in reality was barely anything with so much left to do. This? This you can have it all if you’re careful enough and if you’re not? There’s always tomorrow!

So overall? Rune Factory 4 Special is basically a must from me and already has a place on my 2020 Games of the Year list. Being made Royalty by proxy has never been this good and while you technically “have” to do the farming and “have” to do exploration, it never feels like you do and the ease of entry just creates a relaxing experience that is fun to play for hours on end as you choose to either befriend or romance the people of the town that you are now in charge of. Don’t want to do either? That’s why there’s exploration and combat for those moments that you just need to get away from it all!

 

Score: 9 / 10

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Element Space Releasing for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

SYDNEY – Feb. 19, 2020 – Element Space, the sci-fi tactical RPG from Sixth Vowel and Blowfish Studios, deploys for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 24, 2020. The console release boasts the addition of voice-over dialogue and a new narrative-friendly gameplay mode.

In 2199, the terrorist group Tempest unleashed a series of coordinated strikes across the solar system, ending an era of uneasy peace for humanity in its newfound home among the stars. Framed for the attack, Captain Christopher Pietham and his elite squad of troopers set out on a journey across the galaxy to clear their names and save humanity from a genocidal conspiracy.

Maneuver soldiers in strategic turn-based combat peppered with intense action sequences across 24 battlefields teeming with destructible cover and environmental hazards. Form a team, recruiting companions with distinct abilities, beliefs, and allegiances. Gear them up with an armory of more than 30 weapons. Then gain favor with a variety of factions to unlock new perks and powerful skills to lead the unit and take the fight to Tempest in a myriad of ways.

Make decisions that carry weight on and off the battlefield. Element Space’s ideological system tracks narrative choices and combat actions, impacting how Pietham is viewed by his allies and the world around them. Certain actions will attract recruitable characters to the cause, while others can trigger events and open entirely new branches of the story to explore.

“Element Space may be set far in the future but its emphasis on making difficult decisions and camaraderie among friends resonates with us here and now,” said Javier Entelman, CEO, Sixth Vowel. “We’re delighted to partner with Blowfish Studios to bring the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and look forward to sharing it with a new audience on March 24.”

Element Space launches March 24 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for $24.99 / €22.49 / £19.99 / $29.99 AUD and supports English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Simplified Chinese language options. Blowfish Studios will showcase the console versions of Element Space and other upcoming titles Feb. 27 – March 1 at PAX East in Boston at booth #29044.

To learn more, please visit the official website (internet archive link) and join the community on Twitter and Facebook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsv-9jjdo8

About Blowfish Studios

Blowfish Studios is an award-winning independent game developer and publisher based in Sydney, Australia. We strive to release original multi-platform games, while also collaborating with developers from around the world. As developers first, we bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to any partnership. Our team provides development services to get the game release ready, porting to all major platforms, platform approval, marketing and promotion to the world.

To learn more about Blowfish Studios, please visit the team’s website.

About Sixth Vowel

Sixth Vowel is a Buenos Aires, Argentina-based game developer, and a subsidiary of Inca Games. The team seeks to make high-quality games and to become one of the largest studios in Latin America in order to better contribute to their game-developing community. Element Space is Sixth Vowel’s debut title, the studio named after the mighty power that leads humanity to the stars and showing their conviction to tell amazing stories through games.

To learn more about Sixth Vowel please visit the developer’s website.

Article by: Susan N.

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The Yakuza Remastered Collection - PS4 Review

The Yakuza Remastered Collection by developer Ryu ga Gotoku Studios and publisher SEGA—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Admittedly, the Yakuza games are not necessarily the first ones I would have thought of for a current generation remaster. That being said, this collection does bring episodes 3, 4 and 5 together rather nicely and serve up a large helping of quality gameplay that is absolutely worth playing – especially if you missed these titles the first time around.

All three of these titles were PlayStation 3 ones, which is why I opened with the statement I did. Generally speaking, I still have a fairly robust PlayStation 3 collection, with many titles such as these games already apart of it. So those looking for a complete remake where a ton of things are changed? Well, you’re not going to find that here. Instead what you will get is a packaging of three games at a really good price, that install separately on your machine and offer a visual update (1080p resolution and a smooth 60 fps), which mostly pays off during the combat which definitely feels better as a result.

Being the oldest game in the series, Yakuza 3 in some ways benefits the most from this remaster while still showing its age the most as well. The improvements are not as notable as the prior Yakuza Kiwami updates, but those titles came from the generation prior, so I would say that is to be expected.

Yakuza 3 follows the exploits of Kazuma Kiryu as he has tried to move on from his prior life and seems content to try and live out his days at the Sunshine Orphanage. However, as is the case with these games, it is only a matter of time until events pull him back into the fray. In many ways, the story of Yakuza 3 is one of my favorites in the series. The combat is a lot less satisfying than some of the later games, and like Yakuza 4 is not quite as expansive of an open-world experience as the last couple of games.

The next game in the series, Yakuza 4, made multiple improvements to the game’s systems. Combat becomes much more robust, and instead of simply following a single protagonist (Kazuma), the story flips between several characters. The concept is neat, but feels a bit rough around the edges at times. It presents different perspectives throughout the narrative, but it also tends to feel somewhat unfocused as a result. The Yakuza series has become rather well-known for its mini-games that provide plenty of ‘things to do’ outside of the central story, and Yakuza 4 certainly did this really well. One item of note for people who were familiar with this release in the series is that the character of Tanimura was recast for a handful of reasons. I found some of the four protagonists more engaging than others, but the story just did not hook me the way that Yakuza 3 did. This was never my favorite in the series, and this remaster did not change my opinion of that.

Yakuza 5 however, is where the series really hit its stride, in my opinion. It learned multiple lessons from Yakuza 4. Again we see the multiple protagonists (some returning, some new) and despite adding one more to the mix (upping the total to five), the story feels far tighter than the prior release. Part of this is due to how much larger this game is, giving each of the playable protagonists a little more time to breathe and develop. Of the three games, Yakuza 5 is the newest in the collection and as such feels the most modern and polished in this remaster. The other games took me a few dozen hours to play through everything that they had to offer, but Yakuza 5 can easily break the one hundred hour mark if you are interested in the numerous side quests. One quality of life improvement in this release is a better map that shows side quests right off of the bat. That makes it far easier to get lost in the extra content, which is where Yakuza 5 really shine.

It is also worth noting that all three games were touched up on the localization front. Some content that was originally cut out of the games has been put back in (not a significant amount, but it’s still a nice touch). Nothing dramatic or altering to the central narrative, but for such large, sprawling titles it is nice to have a little extra context. Obviously I did not get a chance to work through all three of these titles this time around before writing this review – there is just entirely too much content here for that unless I post the review in April. That being said, I spent a decent chunk of time with all three games and did not find anything to indicate they are anything other than a more polished version of what I had already thoroughly played on the PlayStation 3.

The Yakuza Remastered Collection does an excellent job of bringing three games from last generation to the current gaming systems. We are nearing the end of the PlayStation 4, it seems appropriate for this trio of games to arrive now. We are not looking at a complete reworking of the original titles, but a few quality of life improvements and an improved coat of paint on the visuals is certainly appreciated. Fans of the series won’t find much new here, but they will probably enjoy the newfound polish. Newcomers will want to play these versions, as they are the definitive take on these three games. Packing the three titles together at an attractive price is also a win. These are massive games – cancel any plans you might have for the next few weeks as you undertake these titles, but they are certainly worth it.

 

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Jaggy's Corner - February 21st, 2020

Hello everyone and welcome back to another Jaggy's Corner where I write about various video gaming topics. This week, I want to cover a game title that is releasing by DONTNOD Entertainment later this year called, "Tell Me Why."

Before continuing, please keep in mind that this is not an in-depth article. I'm just going to give people some of my surface level thoughts on this release.

Anyways, for those of you that aren't familiar with this title, I will tell you what I know about the game and why I'm excited about its release. (Those of you that are wondering why I didn't talk about this game before, it's because the trailer released right around my birthday and when a lot of real-life issues needed focus. I somehow missed the announcement entirely, and I'm sad about that.)

Tell Me Why is a narrative-based game that focuses on two twins who are untangling the memories of their troubled childhood. The two characters were separated for years, only to find each other later in life. After reconnecting, Alyson (the female protagonist) discovers that her twin is a transgendered male. Players will be able to play either character on their journey of discovery, which offers two different sides of their story based on the player's decisions. While not much else is know (yet), I'm already excited about its release for a few reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g4_hHqo8ak

For one thing, the studio has worked closely with GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to ensure that the character Tyler is realistic and multi-dimensional. By enlisting the help of GLADD, the developer is ensuring that they handle the character with care, while not doing a disservice to the transgendered community - which is fricken amazing in my mind. You see, DONTNOD isn't afraid of pushing boundaries by forcing people to analyze/challenge perspectives and choices, even if those perspectives or choices are difficult. This video game excites me because I am of the belief that our medium can be (and is) impactful to people no matter what walk of life they grew up in. By creating this type of narrative, and knowing that the studio's attention to detail will be inherently part of the development process. Titles like Life is Strange (LiS) and Vampyr have brought several characters to life. And, players that chose not to drain the blood from all the characters in Vampyr would know that all of the characters come from different backgrounds. There is at least one gay couple in the game - in case that fact was missed. And let's not forget the option to romance Chloe as Max in the first LiS. In the case of Tell Me Why, the studio is taking a risk by rustling some feathers - feathers that need rustling, in my opinion. (Because, as we know, there are too many people that see through rose-colored glasses.) DONTNOD is not walking into this project blindly, nor have they ever when it comes to the creation of compelling, multi-dimensional characters.

Secondly, I'm generally excited at the fact that DONTNOD is publishing another story based title. With the exception of LiS 2 (only because I don't have all the episodes for it), I've played most of their titles and loved them (although, while I was excited for Remember Me, it is the one game that left a bit of a black mark on their record. The studio has since made it back into my good graces.) And I say this even though there were moments playing the first Life is Strange that I had to get up from my computer to walk away for a half-hour because the game forced a decision on me that I didn't want to make.

Thirdly, any of the games published by DONTNOD has contained music that spoke to me on many levels. In fact, in LiS, I spent a fair amount of time listening to the music loops that played in the scene where Max wakes up in LiS or when Chloe and Rachel are sitting quietly on the train in Life is Strange: Before the Storm. I felt that the music was poignant enough that I wrote an article published in Onder Magazine (part of The Ed Greenwood Group) about iconic video game music. That article includes one of my top songs composed for LiS which is Mt. Washington. And to this day, I can't listen to that song without feeling specific kinds of emotions that were evoked during my playthrough. Those of you that have played the game will understand how much that song alludes to the story in the game without players realizing its importance the first time around. Honestly, the music is beautiful, tragic, and at times leaves a subtle positive feeling even after some of the most soul-crushing moments. Mt Washington in particular still haunts me in a strange way and it will always be attributed to the story of LiS for me... Anyways, the music is brilliant. That's the take away here.

Those of you that know me will say that great storytelling is designed to cause a reaction - if it's done well. In fact, a couple of years back I had written a piece about the difference in my reaction to the trailers of Detroit Become Human and The Last of Us II. While that piece cannot be found anymore, what I said was that The Last of Us II's trailer was meant for fans of the first game, where Detroit was a whole new IP that would challenge a persons' perspective (because of which character you play). So, to keep in line with this thinking, I maintain an open mind about Tell Me Why. Though, I expect that the gaming community will be divided on their views of the game. I mean, we can all see it now... The keyboard warriors will come out to say, "stop bringing politics into our games" and other similar BS. (I hate to break it to some of you, but that's not called politics. That's called life.) The other half of the community will likely applaud DONTNOD for their risk-taking and efforts in creating an excellent story with characters that are realistic and multi-faceted, regardless of if the game is successful.

But more to the point, I believe that DONTNOD will be able to pull off creating a true to life story that revolves around twins where one twin felt uncomfortable in their own skin to make a drastic change. While this is not a topic I'm all that familiar with, I do understand that it takes a lot of physical and mental energy to undergo the huge changes it takes to physically change genders. And in my mind, if DONTNOD can pull this project off, then they would be ahead of the game. I believe that the studio is more than capable of representing different groups of people properly and sensitively because they have consulted representatives from GLADD and they even went as far as hiring a transgendered actor to be the voice of Tyler.

To put it bluntly, bringing such a prevalent topic to the video gaming sphere is sorely needed because, unfortunately, there is still a lack of representation. Frankly, it's appalling that in 2020, people are not treated equally because of their background, race, or orientation. People are still people and they deserve to be treated well. As it stands, I would agree that there isn't enough diversity in video gaming. (Here's to looking at you Escape from Tarkov.) However, with DONTNOD stepping up to the plate, I can only hope that the story is as compelling, if not more than the previous titles published.

Anyways, I am looking forward to playing Tell Me Why when it comes out in the summer. (Also, it'll be the first episodic game where all the installments will release at the same time!) So far, I've really connected with DONTNOD published games, so I'm most likely to enjoy this one as well. But, we'll only know that when the game releases.

Until next time peeps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS_03_JO260

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Interview with Atemly Game's Paige Marincak, lead developer for Gataela, a Victorian Steampunk RPG

Chalgyr's Game Room's manager Pierre-Yves' interview of lead developer Paige Marincak for the Victorian Steampunk RPG Gataela.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Hello everyone!

I recently had the chance to sit back down to another Sunday Bites edition with Gataela, a Victorian Steampunk RPG. For those that haven't been following our coverage, Gataela, a Victorian Steampunk RPG is an Indie RPG being developed out of Canada's National Capital Ottawa.

Want to know more about it? So did I and what better way to find out more about it than from the source? I couldn't think of one so here's what the lead developer of Atemly Games, Paige Marincak, had to say about their title!

Hi Paige, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Getting the ball rolling, want to tell us a bit about your current project?

Gataela is a Victorian Steampunk RPG where saving the Kingdom requires more than just brains and brawn: you also need to talk to people! It features a debate battle system, where you talk, debate, convince and negotiate with NPCs in order to save the country.

So what got you into video game development and onto the path to creating Gataela?

Ever since I was old enough to pick up a controller I’ve always wanted to create games. I bounced around a lot about “what I wanted to do when I grew up” and I always somehow came back to it. While I was in university taking Com Sci, I was working on a Pokemon fan game. (It was very early days, I only had character movement!) My father suggested that maybe I make my own game instead, and - since tablets were popular/emerging at the time - to put it on the Playbook.

You've been working on Gataela for years now, was it always going to be a Victorian Steampunked inspired RPG? Or was there another direction that you originally thought of?

Oddly enough Gataela is still largely the same as when I first envisioned it almost 8 years ago now. It was always going to be Victorian Steampunk, and always going to have the debate battle system in it. I think the biggest changes have been narrative-based and general “feel” of the game, if that makes any sense. I was originally going to have a separate protagonist that was more like a joke character who becomes a protagonist by chance. Like a secret one. But tossed that out pretty early on. Another thing I changed was making the game feel much more “at your own pace” than any sense of immediate forbidding doom.

If I remember correctly from a post on Twitter from a few years back, Gataela is being developed through custom source code? Is there a reason you wanted to go in this direction instead of having part of the load in either a Game or RPG Maker? For the record, it looks great.

Thanks ☺ It’s quite often I hear that Gataela is using a custom engine of sorts. It’s probably because I was originally coding it in C++. I am currently using GameMaker Studio 2 for the engine. In the past – the time period you’re probably referencing – I was using Cocos2dx. It is quite common though to take an engine and build a layer on top for your own purposes and systems. So even with GameMaker I have that going on.

One of the things that I've probably enjoyed the most is that the dialog has feeling with words being visually exagerated on screen in almost an anime like fashion. Other that it obviously looking great, how did you get to that point instead of just the standard flow of words on a screen that most people will default to.

Gataela is a very text heavy game, and I don’t have the luxury of having voice actors, so there becomes the question of how do you express tone through dialogue and other verbal clues. You can put actions like sighing into asterisks (ex. *sigh*) but it just feels… very THERE. You don’t really feel like the character is sighing. I can tell you a character talks really fast, but you can also just see them doing that too. Likewise for talking slow. It’s a blessing of the medium that I have the ability to do that, unlike for printed media. As for the effects themselves, I took a lot of inspiration from Paper Mario TTYD.

Is there anything you've learnt over time that you wish you had known when you started?

Probably the importance of developer workflow & timing yourself. It’s something that I learn more and more about every day that your workflow as a creator is one of the most important things to being productive.

For example, very early on in Gataela I was working on the maps: I would design the maps in Photoshop, then cut them up and remake them in Tiled, which would be imported into the game. I would then have to manually add the objects in code. This whole process took about 8 hours, which doesn’t sound TOO bad when your maps are as large as mine. But then I multiplied that time by the number of large maps in the game: 960 hours. Not including time to rework maps, or more detailed ones or add NPCs and events. It wasn’t scalable. I was only able to figure this out by timing myself. Once I figured this out, I made a few simple changes and then it was taking 2 hours to add a map.

So learning how long it takes you to do something, figuring out if you can remove the tedious bits, and making it so you get faster to gameplay design and content adding than coming up with basic building blocks is very important! I’m glad it’s something I figured out earlier on in development.

Because working all day can get really long, what have you been doing on your downtime to relax?

Well, given I have a day job and come home to work on Gataela each night… working on Gataela is really what I do. But I also have a variety of projects - lots of game prototypes I work on for fun, a novel I’m writing, I play FF14 with my friends when I can, and in the summer I garden. Sometimes I read books, or manga, or watch anime but game development is my hobby right now.

Before getting to our last question, I've got to ask if only because now adays, about half the team is Canadian and live in or around Ottawa. How do you love the Bermuda Triangle of weather that can bring us from -40 Celcius to +2 within days before dumping 15-20cm of snow on our heads!

Any chance of this crazyness making its way into Gataela?

Haha it is quite an experience. I’ve lived in Ottawa for almost all my life and it’s really just something I’m used to now. Although, it would be nice if that fight or flight response while sliding on snow while driving didn’t occur as often as it does. I don’t think any of it will be making its way into Gataela, but who knows ;)

Finally, is there anything else you would want to share with us before we say goodbye? Like... maybe a possible release date? *smily face*

Maybe sometime in the near future! In the meantime, Gataela is available for wishlist on Steam, and we have a 3-5 hour demo available on Steam, Itch.io and Gamejolt!

We want to give a big thank you to Paige for taking the time to chat with us and we'll be back down the road with another look at Atemly Game's Victorian Steampunk RPG Gataela.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Where you can find the game:

Demo on Gamejolt

Demo on Itch.ic

Wishlist and Demo on Steam

Main Website

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