Lou “herobyclicking” Adducci talks with Mattieu Bégin with Clever Games about Leap of Fate. They talk about the game’s setting, making games for both tablet and PC and comic books.
Herobyclicking: Let’s talk about the mix of magic and technology in the modern age in Leap of Fate. What is the origin of this game?
Mattieu: We really wanted to create a narrative setting that would be unique from what’s being done. A lot of people compare us with Shadowrun or cyberpunk, but I think that is because there are so few cyberpunk games. I love Shadowrun, but we wanted to root the game in reality. We think there is such a huge amount of real world myth concerning magic and conspiracies. Most games go to great lengths just to invent a fantasy world,but our approach was to say there is are some many cool things that already exist that are myths. They are fun to explore, why not base the game around those myths.
We chose to place the game in present day New York City. All of the magic is rooted in these elements. We have the Buddhist chakras, the challenges of the game are unfolded through a magical tarot deck and many of the spells go back into religion or mysticism in the real world.
Mixing the cyberpunk aspect; right now we are entering a real cyberpunk era. You hear people more and more getting artificial optic nerves and other artificial parts for human beings. It’s not just in an experimental lab, it’s becoming a part of common procedure. I think it’s really starting. Plus with globalization and mega-corporations, you know the whole foundation cyberpunk is right here, right now. It’s an opportunity to play around with it, of course we fantasize it, we make it bigger than it really is.
Herobyclicking: What is the Crucible in Leap of Fate?
Mattieu: It’s not really original, I don’t know if you know the novel series, Dragonlance? If you remember Raistlin he was a super-powerful mage who had to go to the Tower of High Sorcery to pass the test to become a full fledged mage. You have a bit of the same thing in Star Wars when Luke goes to Dagobah and Yoda makes him go to that cave to face his own fears, which take the form of Darth Vader and comes back much more powerful by facing these difficulties.
There are a lot of movies and games that have used that rite of passage. We wanted to make it a game about that. It’s not about a bad guy, it’s about a mage who has to undergo a very deadly and difficult test. If you manage to pass, your future will unfold before you. But of course if you fail, well, too bad. <laughs>
http://i.imgur.com/7tHZQqV....
Herobyclicking: Leap of Fate is a story driven action role playing game with roguelike aspects. How do you manage this?
Mattieu: The narrative aspect is decoupled from the gameplay progression. That is something we did on purpose. The game is first and foremost gameplay first. It’s all about.mastering the skills. We wanted the gameplay progression to be there and varied. Each playthrough can be different.
Each character will have one starting point. For each of the character there are five different endings. It explores who the characters will become and why. They are independent elements.
Herobyclicking: The tablet gameplay was very satisfying, not that PC was not, but there was something about playing Leap of Fate on Tablet that really felt great. Will this be available on iOS and Android as well as Steam?
Mattieu: For now only iOS, but we are planning to port it to Android. When we started the whole project it was always our intention to have a game that plays as well on tablet as it did on PC. That’s very important to us. The first three or four months was purely about prototyping the controls on tablet. On PC it is very easy to make good controls, but to have a hardcore action game on tablet that is very difficult to do for obvious reasons.You don’t have buttons, just a touch screen. We have not been afraid to modify the camera and control to fit with the given platform. PC controls the camera with cursor and tablet has “bullet time” which allows you to use the controls without being penalized. I think we have done a really good job making the game plays very well on each platform.
At PAX East I was surprised, we were offering both platforms, and when someone came in the booth, a lot of people opted for the mobile version. it unanimous, people really liked the controls, everybody said “ I never thought that you could have an action game like that on mobile.” Because usually on mobile something is on rails, whether its the shooting or the movement it’s just done for you. But not Leap of Fate, it is a full fledged action game on mobile.
Herobyclicking: The length of the levels and growth of character power feels really good. Overall, but especially in tablet.
Mattieu: That is something we are proud of as well. One thing that comes out when people play the game is that is a really fast paced experience. You get right to the point and go, go, go. Especially on mobile it is very fitting. It is important to have small pieces of gameplay. I think in current iterations of the game we have made even a bit faster. We have tried to maintain the flow of the game, really fast. That’s why we use that cheesy tagline, “We are the fastest roguelike on PC.”
http://i.imgur.com/dqaVi0E....
Herobyclicking: Pace and quickness in a roguelike is really important. If you play a roguelike and there is no incentive or reason to start over it can be frustrating. Leap of Fate doesn’t necessarily discourage reply. It’s a good formula.
Mattieu: It was a conscious decision and depends on what kind of experience you are looking for. Let’s compare it to FTL. I totally love FTL. But for me, with the type of time I have available, it’s too long. Sometimes it takes two to two and half hours to get to the end. If you die after two hours before finishing I get mad. If I had more time I would be fine, but I don’t. <laughs> We are trying to go for people like us who don’t have a lot of time who are looking for that ten or twenty minute session. If you die, it doesn’t matter as much, you can just start again.
Herobyclicking: How did Steam Greenlight and the Squaresoft Collective influence you or get you to where you are?
Mattieu: I will say a boring answer. Not much. In both cases, we did it and it was over really fast and we didn’t get that much out of it. For us what really helped shape the game were playtests and events. Where we showed the game and looked at people playing the game. That fundamentally changed what we have done in the one and half years of development.
With Greenlight we put it on just before PAX and came back it was Greenlit.It’s too bad for us I guess, there are a lot of people on Steam and they definitely could have contributed their opinion but I feel it is a bit difficult. Most of them just were commenting on the video and based comments on that. It’s not the same.
The Collective was similar. We were in that early, not the first batch but shortly after. There were not many tools to take advantage of. We showed the game and people voted favorably. It was over but we did not get access to these people or their emails, we couldn’t really leverage what happened there. Maybe it did help a bit, not as much as I would have liked.
http://i.imgur.com/WNYVbAX....
Herobyclicking: What non-video game influences affected Leap of Fate’s development?
Mattieu: There is a whole team who has influences, but for me there are two things. Obviously, Blade Runner. I am huge fan of that movie. It impresses me that you could have back then a big budget production that was mature in tone, not boobs and guns, but in trying to convey a message about philosophy. The other is a comic book series called The Books of Magic published like 15 to 20 years ago by Vertigo. It’s a story about a kid named Tim Hunter, he is actually a magician but he does know this. He then discovers that there is a whole world of hidden magic around him that nobody knows about. It’s a mature narrative. These two influences together inspired the idea of Leap of Fate.
Herobyclicking: Did I hear you might try to produce a comic book based on Leap of Fate?
Mattieu: It’s a bit of dream, but we have one illustrator that we contract to make some of the cinematics in Leap of Fate. She has her own comic book company. We discussed the idea of doing that. For now it's just an idea, but if people get into the narrative and setting it is definitely something I would love to do. I love comic books, I have grown up with comic books, a lot of people on the team love comic books. I think it would a fun way to expand Leap of Fate.
Herobyclicking: What brought you to Independent game development?
Mattieu: I worked at Ubisoft Montreal for many years.I think it is a great company. In Montreal I think it is the best large company to work for, by far. I have never been the type of person to want to work in a large place. The last project I worked on was The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. This project was really unfortunate. It was thrown around to producer to producer and it didn’t get traction for awhile. It was not fun at all. Too many people were telling us what to do and not allowing us to develop our stuff. It was getting very frustrating.
At the same time I was playing a game you might know, Bastion by Supergiant Games. The game crystallized in my head that it is possible to make great games with a small team. I played Bastion and I was really moved by the story. I thought it was fantastic. I was impressed by the production value and thought, “it must be a good sized team that did that.” I looked at the website and there were seven people, two were voice and music. Five developers. Five people can make a game like that? I kind of opened my mind to the possibilities. Coupled with the frustrations with Ubisoft I decided I need my own company.
http://i.imgur.com/O4JiKC0....
Day 31 | Clever-Plays
This climbing game with penguins frustrates and satisfies at the same time.
A new month means another Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant update. This one has info for a new game writer, consoles, and game monsters.
Huzaifah from eXputer: "With Larian Studios washing their hands of the IP, what is the ultimate fate of the legendary Baldur's Gate series?"
If anybody's gonna mention BioWare, then look at Archetype Entertainment, they're the new BioWare
or else
Obsidian is still a good choice but not independent anymore.
No, WoTC is pivoting to mobile. They can use Larian's work to justify DnD Go and everyone will accept it.
I like how this dev (and his team) get their influences from so many places. To me limiting your influences makes you and your product ignorant.
So far the story sounds great. I wonder why happens when the "test" is finished though.
Looks great
This game sounds really great!
Great interview, I've always loved the cyberpunk setting (one of the reasons the new Deus Ex is a must!) Anyways for a mobile game, this looks good but I'll definitely prefer it on Steam. Everything sounds great so far, hope it turns out awesome. Also that smirk on that mage, lol, yeah that's the guy.