What were your references for Dead in Vinland, for the atmosphere, world and game design?
It wasn't particularly straightforward. We were somewhat inspired by our previous game, Dead in Bermuda. During production we read Vinland Saga a lot, and I know that it was a great source of architecture and Viking gear reference for our AD because the manga series is well-regarded for being historically accurate. I was told after the game released, but for certain characters and the dialog tone I was perhaps subconsciously inspired by the Kaamelott series by Alexandre Astier and by the many Terry Pratchett novels I read when I was young. We were also inspired by Darkest Dungeon for the combat, especially in terms of animation techniques because the mechanics are quite different if you study them.
In terms of game design, what was the most difficult aspect in Dead in Vinland?
We added a lot of layers to the management, and the most complicated aspect is that all the gameplay elements — and even the dialog — have an effect on each other. For example, making the combat easier will mean that the player will have more loot, and that his characters will be less injured, and so they won't necessarily need to be healed, so they can go and find more resources during the day… Basically, changing a single value somewhere can have huge repercussions throughout the game. And to evaluate this, we needed to do several days of test sessions. I remember in the last week before release, I increased the chances of contracting certain diseases by 1%, and it made the game totally unplayable!
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