For ikke så lang tid siden udgav Claus sine indtryk af den seneste demo af The Eternal Life of Goldman, et håndtegnet platformspil der har været under udvikling i mange år hos Weappy, og som nærmer sig en udgivelse i år med hastige skridt.
For Weappy har vejen imod lanceringen været lang og broget, men nu hvor lyset kan ses for enden af udviklingstunellen, så tog vi en snak med producer Andreas Schmiedecker for at få svar på de sidste tilbageværende spørgsmål, så du er klædt godt på når spillet så langt om længe lander.
Vi snakker AI-værktøjer, spillets gennemsnitlige længde og meget mere, og som altid beholder vi svarene på engelsk. Det gør vi for at sikre at informationen er så spids og konkret som muligt.
Okay, lad os så komme igang!
Først og fremmest; kan du måske uddybe lidt om spillets konkrete størrelse - hvor længe forventer I en gennemsnitlig gennemspilning er, og er der grunde til at spille spillet flere gange?
"There is a bit of a range here, considering different playstyles (looking at notes, finding secrets, reading all dialogues), but a playthrough will probably take between 12 and 16 hours.
The game isn't really designed for many playthroughs, it's a fairly directed experience with a complete, self-contained story. That said, some of the secrets, including optional areas, require a bit of ingenuity and fairly elaborate sequences of actions to unlock. So for those who choose to replay the game and explore it 100%, there will definitely be things to discover."
Det måske mest dragende ved spillet for mange er grafikken. Kan du måske fortælle lidt om inspirationskilderne bag udseendet? Hvordan ankom I til den her specifikke stil, og tog det adskillige "forsøg" at ankomme hertil?
"There is a range of influences from different sources - not just one style.Technically, it's mostly done the way animated movies were made. The artworks are created by hand and mostly digitally. However, and depending on the specific asset, a lot of the artworks go through the "physical sketching" phase before being finalized digitally.
"Aesthetically, the most consistent influence is probably French-Belgian comics, mostly Hergé and the "ligne claire" art style. So we basically stick to very traditional and strict line work. Since the development took something like 9 years (so far), yes, many elements did go through various iterations. What mostly happened is that the quality bar was raised by adding more details, animations and so forth, so other parts of the game had to improve alongside as well!"
Sværhedsgrad og balancering er et vigtigt emne blandt spillere i dag - hvordan håndterer Weappy udfordring? Er der adskillige sværhedsgrader, eller arbejder I med én balanceret mode?
"We're currently aiming at one balanced mode but we're also actively taking in player feedback about the difficulty from the demo and will take a decision for the full game."
Hvis vi zoomer lidt ud til den bredere branche nu, hvordan forholder I jer som studie til AI-værktøjer i spiludvikling? Skaber I distance mellem forskellig slags brug, og er der guidende principper for jer som gruppe?
"Using AI tools for art production in this game would pretty much oppose the whole idea of doing it this way in the first place. Therefore, it wasn't really an option for us. No matter how technology develops right now, there is a place and audience for hand-made art."
Kan du tage os tilbage til den tidligste udviklingsfase? Hvor lang tid tog det at nå hertil, og hvilken slags rejse har det været for studiet?
"Early prototypes started already around 2016, but the game went into full production in 2019. So it did take a long time. When the team decided that the only way to make a game like this was to commit fully, without cutting corners or making too many compromises, it became clear what we signed up for."
Hvilken slags oplevelse håber I The Eternal Life of Goldman bliver for spillerne? Hvad håber I på at få dem til at føle?
"That's a great question, but also a difficult one. We could imagine that the gameplay is somewhat challenging at times, but also quite satisfying. We're making the side-scroller of our dreams, and our approach has been to use the elements that feel right for this specific game from a wide range of directions and subgenres. So we'd hope players who appreciate those genres and elements from classic sidescrollers and metroidvanias will react positively to those elements. Since there's something very pure about sidescroller gameplay, we do hope people enjoy that. At the same time the story can go to some dark places and we understand that this also elicits complex emotions. Bottom line, we're just very excited for players to experience this world."
Hvad var de største udfordringer ved at skabe spillet, og hvad anser I for at være de centrale problematikker studier som jeres står overfor i dag?
"As an independent studio any project of that size is a big risk to take. Trends change quickly these days, so committing for such a long time to a project like this is a huge bet on it working out in the end. "
The Eternal Life of Goldman ankommer forhåbentlig inden længe på PC, PS5, Xbox Series og Nintendo Switch/Switch 2.