indiegraze.com

on August 1, 2017

Under development by the Russia-based Sobaka Studio, Redeemer puts players in the shoes of Vasily, a former elite operative who has escaped to the relative safety of a monastery, only to be forced to punch, hack, and blast through a murky past. I spoke with developer Dmitry Kachkov on the project and its nuances, focusing on the fact that as an action title, having the right game feel becomes paramount.

Erik Meyer: Redeemer incorporates a top-down view of action, giving players melee and ranged weapons as tools. In your view, what makes for satisfying combat experiences, and what combination of elements makes for the right game feel?

Dmitry Kachkov: A combination of melee attacks, shooting, grabs, and finishing kills that naturally сomplement one other. You sprint to an enemy with a gun, take the gun from his hands, shoot against “big dudes”… Then you make some distance and get one of the enemies from the crowd and push him into fire behind you, and then, while crowd is running, you throw some chairs that you find near you and when smush the thinned pack of enemies and pick up the hatchet, chopping and trying to kill as many enemies per attack as possible. That is how you play Redeemer classically.

EM: The game’s trailer juxtaposes violence with monasteries, nonviolent ideals with brutality, and a desire to avoid the past with the need to confront it. As you’ve been developing Redeemer’s storyline, how have these conflicting concepts helped flesh out storylines, and what kinds of plot devices are likely to surprise your audience?

DK: Vasily is a good guy. He is not a maniac; he doesn’t like what he had to do in his past. He was a soldier and had no chance to contest orders. But his commanders pushed him over the edge. They needed a weapon and not a “moralizer”, and on that point, they awaken sleeping Vasily’s internal “voice”.

In the game, Vasily will face his past not only as abstract soldiers, but also as his closest friend, with whom he has a shared history. And this contrast on what his friend chose in his life and what Vasily decided for himself is a central place of a drama in the game.

EM: There’s something cool about old guys kicking ass. We see it in The Witcher and occasionally elsewhere, but most often as comic relief. What would you see as the core elements driving Vasily, and what has been your compass as you’ve plotted his course through the game’s universe?

DK: As a core idea, we like to think that our game is about a soul and strong spirit VS brute force and metal bodies. Game progress is based on that concept, the concept where Vasily (who finds himself and opens internal powers of spirit) destroys a whole cybernetics factory that is producing weapons and killing machines.

EM: Every dev community has its own home-grown ways of doing things, so for the uninitiated, tell us about Sobaka Studio. What was the genesis of Redeemer, and how have you set and met milestones as a group? As you’ve narrowed the scope of the game, who makes the big calls?

DK: As for ourselves, we are highly experienced game developers from Russia. Our team is composed of five persons. And we have very good split on specialties – Head, Engineer, 3D Artist, Game/Level designer and Animator. Plus, we have a lot of industry friends who helped us in other areas, as well. Some of us are friends from childhood, others are professionals who we met during our work time in different companies. We have very different views on life and different preferences for games/movies/entertainment, and all these differences were combined together into the game, combining the natures of all of us in different representations.

EM: Social media, Steam, and other channels exist now that propel indie titles in a way that did not happen 15 years ago. As you’ve been working to get your work out into the world, how do you see the online gaming market changing, and are some key things you’ve learned in the last year?

DK: One key thing I’ve learned is “listen to your heart” (like in a song). There has always been a large number of Publishers, experts and veterans in the industry. But all of them are hostages to experience and knowledge. We see multiple examples of this when somebody presents something bold/brave and experts find it uninteresting, but then that idea explodes (in a good way), changing the world. And this is not unique to game development; it is everywhere, the young and brave (who listen to their hearts and do what they know is the right thing to do) always win against experience and mastery.

EM: The POV in the game changes the experience entirely; were Redeemer first person, the gore would be immediate, in-your-face, and closer to players, emotionally. As we watch from above, it gives us a sense of psychological distance and makes us feel more powerful, like puppet masters. As you’ve made these kinds of game choices (controls, POV, combat speed, etc), what do you see as the ideal way to let people into the game world, and what small touches have you been proudest of, when it comes to player experience?

DK: I believe it is possible to have people dive into the game world from any perspective. Different approaches and different views could generate significantly different feels. It is not like in first person you have a better experience than in third person. It’s just different. And all of them should present the content. All of them have unique forms and abilities that you can use in selected specific forms. For example, movies are almost always NOT from first person. Why? I personally don’t know, but I’m sure an experienced director could read you a lecture about why you feel better in his world through this view and not through another. We’re still always experimenting and searching for better forms in which to tell our stories.

EM: Redeemer’s art style feels nuanced and consistent; what kinds of considerations have gone into the maps, environments, models, and lighting? When did the parts and pieces you were working with begin to feel like a consistent universe?

DK: We are not a big team, so very big parts of the game are controlled by one person. For example, all our animations were made by single animator. And of course, he has full control on the style of animations. As for environment and levels, our game designer makes whiteboxes, leaving some notes where each building is placed and filling the level with logic. After that, the 3D artist uses his own vision to draw with props and objects and light as he feels it should look like. So we have at the same time solid lighting, and in that manner, all levels made by the artist utilize logic that puts locations into chained sequences directed by the level designer.

EM: Gamers are notoriously impatient in wanting updates and releases, so finishing the game has undoubtedly been number one priority, but in the final stretch, what kinds of projects do you see in Sobaka’s future? What worlds, environments, and game mechanics pique your interest?

DK: We are already working on a new game. I can’t give any details right now, but we definitely like mostly single player hardcore games with story, with fighting and a lot of fun. It could be any setting and world, it just should have challenging experiences where players grow to find mastery in gameplay.

In case you missed it, here’s the trailer: