RPGWatch - Graywalkers: Purgatory Interview

[Couchpotato]

We had the opportunity to ask Dreamlords Digital Russell Tomas a few questions about their upcoming game Graywalkers: Purgatory. Their original Kickstarter campaign did not make it, but they intend to be back in March with a new campaign.

This is my first interview with hopefully a few more to follow in the next weeks.

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Enjoy my first interview everyone.

I will be covering the games relaunch in March, and will see about doing a follow up depending on whether it's successful, or not.

 

[Feist]

I´m keeping my fingers crossed for this one.

This game looks like it has tons of ambition, talent and a bunch of novel ideas going for it, which is why I was very confused that the first kickstarter could fail, when so many games that seems to offer a lot less have been successfull.

To me this game looks pretty much on the same level as "Pillars of Eternity/Wasteland2/Torment:ToN", and if it hadn´t been for some classic names like "Brian Fargo" & "Chris Avellone" that comes with those games, then I might have even gone so far as to say this looks *more* promising.

 

[mercy]

The X-COM aspect and fantasy elements is energizing me about Graywalkers. Also emergent gameplay could create a lot of replay value. Plus the game is looking awesome so I'm more excited about this than about Wasteland 2.

 

[joxer]

Nice interview.

When the first project was up, I refused to support it stating I'm not interested into phonegames. This should mean I was wrong?

It’s funny that people think it’s a phone port when there was zero mention of any such thing. We specifically mentioned we were porting only to Tablets

Guys, tablet or phone is the same to me. Tablet has only an inch or two bigger display. When sex sux, a few inches more won't help.
Okay, lemme rephrase if as childfriendly as possible. This is a game inspired by Fallout? Sorry but I can't imagine how Fallout on phones/tablets would even be possible/playable and thus I have a huge problem with this project. And I'm not some NMA regular who sees a blasphemy every time Fallout is mentioned outside of that site.

The next thing I had a huge problem with was this (quoted from the first ks project:

If Stretch goals are reached, we will be adding a Multiplayer Mode which is Team based PVP.

And I said "I'll support it if they remove multiplayer plans completely. Or the strech goal for that gets set to 5 millions.".

The third problem I had with was DLC plans. Again I said I'm aware that the society evolved above capitalism, feudalism, socialism, communism, slavery and etc, and we're in the era of worldwide scamism. Endless DLC printing is nothing but a scam. Even if you'll sell it for cheap, consumers still have to buy the base game. You buy a car, you need a road.
It won't be like that? Right… Seems some big players know what am I talking about and why am I feeling conned. Ubisoft dared to make a standalone Blood Dragon DLC and if I've heard right, one of AC4 DLC will also be made as a standalone game.
Oh just like phones, for DLC "there was zero mention of any such thing". In the text, there was not. But in "celestial" ($1000) pledgning category this was stated:

Free Access to 1st DLC

And if there is 1st, there will be 2nd for sure, and then sooner or later we'll be seeing another Sims 3, Train Simulator and Borderlands 2.

Maybe I'm the minority. A loud one.
But I will not support any phonegame (or tabletgame) ported to other platforms, nor will ever support crowdfunding a multiplayer scam-o-rama that is made like EA's latest Sim City. And supporting a game that will probably have dozens of DLC is something I wouldn't want even for my worst enemy.
To make such games, go find a big and evil publisher. Meanwhile I'll support nonphone nonmilking singleplayer gems like Expeditions.

I'll wait for the project relaunch. Maybe, just maybe, if goals of going phone/DLC/multiplayer are moved to a stretch marked as couple of millions instead of putting all of it into only $100K, maybe I still decide to support it. Feist is right when says "it has tons of ambition, talent and a bunch of novel ideas". It'll be too bad if the cow kicks and spills all the milk in the bucket just because it had to have multiplayer and whatnot.

 

[guenthar]

If you can Play Baldur's Gate on a tablet then if they made a port of the Fallout games it probably would be even easier.

 

[Wyldekarde]

First off, let me say thanks Couch Potato and RPGWatch for having us as your first interviewees. We're honored. To Feist and Mercy, your comments are heartwarming because i would never have put our game in the same level as those guys because they are my inspirations for this. To be even remotely compared to them is already a huge compliment.

To Joxer, thanks for explaining your thoughts here. I finally understand where you are coming from.

With regards to your thoughts about mobile, I do agree with you that it's hard to imagine. Maybe you believe that mobile will just ruin the experience and you may be right. I think no one can blame you for thinking that playing on mobile devices suck because many of the games on them do suck. The mobile industry hasn't actually been helpful with this regards. The type of games that have come out really leaves much to be desired, especially with RPG games.

And that's exactly our point, I guess we want to push the envelope and show that it is possible. Yes, it is ambitious, and yes we may fail because it's not going to be easy.…but i believe we have to try. Imagine though if we succeed. Wouldn't it be great to be able to play fallout or some of the best RPG games we love wherever we are. We believe that if we, an untested unknown group of yahoos do this and make it, then others can also try, bringing more undiluted RPGs to tablets. The core idea is we want to bring PC gaming to mobile, not the other way around.

The biggest reason why we thought of including mobile though, was because of the engine we used (Unity 3D), building it once means you can build it for all. Only thing left to do is just tweaks to individual platforms. But again, i understand your apprehension and it's a very valid point.

With regards to the DLC, you are right about that too. I think it was too much for us to say as added rewards, we will give DLCs when we don't even have the game yet. Though our intentions and plans cover this, i guess it really doesn't have value until the game is close to being made. Also, if we make a DLC, we should probably include it as free and if we ever charge for a DLC, the content should be worthy of a real game expansion. Thank you for reminding us of this aspect. Know that for better or for worse, your opinions have already influenced how the game will be made.

With regards to the Multiplayer part, this i think merits a bit more explanation on our part.

Think of the way we built the game as building a chessboard. We built the board, and the rules for both sides. Each side is governed by the same rules and this is put into the game system. So, by default, before we even input the AI into the game to create it into a single player game, the multi-player aspect is already built. It is only after this fact is done, that we now input the AI controls to the manual controls. We didn't really plan to have multi-player, it is there simply because we already built it as part of the process. So the only part we would build for this would be the match making system if ever. Now will we have multiplayer down the line, we're actually letting our audience decide. We'll be asking people if they want it and if more people want it, then i think it would be only right to give what the audience wants, as long as it doesn't affect the single player aspect. This way, you know we put it in not because we want to, but because the majority of our audience wants us to.

Also, thank you that you believe that we do have potential if we did the right things. Coming from you, that's probably as big a compliment as what Feist and Mercy said. Lastly, thank you for challenging our thoughts. Conflict in the right context leads to insight, and that is what I have found here. Understanding our audience is key, and listening to them, even those in the minority, is important.

Anyway, thanks again to everybody here at RPGWatch. It's always a pleasure being here.

 

[bjon045]

Good luck, I really like the screenshots and especially the grid based combat/design. I voted for greenlight and looking forward to see this evolve.

 

[PegasusOrgans]

Thank you for approaching the RPG Watch community and making your plans clear. Sure, multiplayer and DLC and things that are very touchy to most of us as single player does seem to suffer, no matter how much we are told otherwise. I've seen multiplayer elements that work. Some parts of Demon's/Dark Souls are great. Maybe not having people invade your world, but having messages from "other ghostly figures" and being able to select blood stains to see how people died are very interesting and work.

Overall, I think Greywalkersurgatory would best be served focusing solely on getting a solid single player story completed and out in the market, then maybe introducing smart social aspects like those I mentioned. Heck, even the XCOM variety, wherein you build a team and play multiplayer vs. on a map.

Your game offers a very interesting world filled with very colorful characters, and I think we desperatelt need that in a new RPG. I get that everyone likes their boring Lord of the rings/ AD&D type fantasy setting, but the second I heard about this bizarre Planescape-esque world, I was hooked! Can't wait to see the new at you bring when you start your second campaign!

@Joxor, there are plenty of turn based RPGs on tablets and even phones. Turn based gameplay is actually easier because phones/tablets have such fiddle-y controls. Like others have said, if you can get a RTwP like BG working, a Fallout would be no issue. I'm pretty sure there's already a tweaked version that runs on tablets/phones if I'm not mistaken.

Used Goggle, took 2 seconds
http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/how_to_run_fallout_1_2_on_android

 

[joxer]

Pegasus, feel free to play such stuff yourself. I value my nerves too much and honestly do not plan to ever spend a night with a chicken in my bed. Yes, I mean the boobless and buttless animal, not calling another human with names.


Wyldekarde, I hope I didn't sound too evil. The truth is among so much of rubbish, I did found two awsome phonegames out there (Chaos Rings 2 and Sacred Odyssey) and I'd pay a full price again if those were ported on PC. Yes, they're that good. But… They're two games that were ment for phones only and were funded with enormous amount of cash.

I can't say I won't support your game at all and I'll definetly wait for the relaunch. The interview was nice, but more details on the whole thing we won't be getting till the project starts again, right? What I posted up there were only my reasons of refusing to support the first project, doesn't mean I'll have them in the next one.

 

[Wyldekarde]

@bjon045
Thanks for the support!

@Pegasus
Always glad to hear from you. We're definitely committed to focusing on the single player game. As we said, we're not focusing on the Multiplayer at all. It's part of the planning but not a priority. We do hope you will like the new stuff we are currently preparing for the relaunch. We've redesigned some characters based on feedback, we've improved the video by focusing more on gameplay and making it much shorter, you guys will actually get to try a tech demo, see a lot more environment levels and lastly we've partnered up with a top quality music agency bringing our music to professional levels. Thank you as always.

@Joxer
Nope, i didn't think that at all. Like I said, i finally get your point about your concerns and i totally respect you for it. And you admitting that there are exceptions to the rule when it comes to phone games is already a step in the right direction in my opinion. And now you said there might be a chance you could support the game if we do something that might pique your interest, then to me that's good news all around. I'm already thankful even you just considering us, even if you do or don't decide to support us, is more than enough. In the end, we all have our preferences of what we like an don't like. The chance you give us is reason already for us to be thankful to you, as well to everybody here.