Suricate Games: In our game, card mechanics is a shell for a puzzle

Panoptes is a single card collectible game about cyberpunk and demons from St. Petersburg Suricate Games. Dmitry Gavrilov, the producer of the game, told us about the studio and why to make KKI a premium project.

Hi! To begin with, tell us a little about the studio: who are you, how long have you been making games?

Dmitry GavrilovHi !

The studio appeared in 2012. In the beginning we wanted to make some small mobile games. In the process, we realized that we could not keep up with the market, [therefore] we recruited more highly trained specialists and decided to build more interesting and long-term projects. So several teams appeared in the studio, each of which is working on its own project of varying complexity and scale. Now we rarely hire newcomers — almost all of our employees have been working in the industry for a long time.

Panoptes is not the first project of the studio. But, as far as I know, it is the first released (albeit in Early Access). The more hyped Paper Knight and Z for Zombies, which I first saw almost in 2012 at White Nights, are still somewhere in the production stage. What allowed Panoptes to overtake them (and, by the way, when to wait for the rest of the projects)?

Z for Zombies is just one of our “surviving” trial projects. Now he has finished the next stage of the soft launch. Its publication is handled by Playscape, so the full output depends on them. The Paper Knight team did a great job on the project. The release of this game will be very soon.

Panoptes was conceived almost at the same time as them (Paper Knight and Z for Zombies). At first, just as an idea: what if we take and make a game like Elder Sign from FFG, but with long progress, characters and a complex world, with similar mechanics on playing cubes and for mobile platforms?

Then they decided to work out the idea to a full-fledged concept. In the process, the gameplay, setting and selected platforms have changed. After pre-production, we greatly increased the team and took a fast pace of development. Yes, the game was released earlier than other projects on the market. Nevertheless, it is too early to talk about the readiness of the product — this is only a pre-alpha version.

I can’t tell you anything specific about the studio’s other games, but this year we will show several new projects.

How long have you been working on the project and with what team?

The game has been in active development for a year and a half. Plus six months [was spent] on pre-production. At the beginning, about 3-5 specialists worked on the project, now up to 23 are involved at a time. Most of them, of course, are engaged in content: illustrations, effects, design.

Given the success of Hearthstone, I will not ask the question of why they started developing the CCI. The question is different — how is it radically different from other digital CCIs?

Panoptes is more of an adventure card game than a TCG. Unlike other projects, the mechanics of duels are not a self-sufficient part of the game, but only part of the story, the story campaign, along which the characters are advancing. But the main difference is in the combat part: the player fights not with one opponent who performs the same actions against him, but with sets of monster opponents. Each opponent has its own distinctive characteristics and skills, and together they complement each other well. The character fights alone, using cards from a pre-created deck. In fact, each level is a puzzle, and the card mechanics are a shell for the puzzle.

The decision to focus on the single is a very bold one. How, in general, will the single-player campaign be built, what should we expect from it?

We have a big story about aliens, demons and secret organizations — so you should expect a lot of unpleasant surprises.

We have come up with a lot of tools for presenting the plot and immersing the player in the world of the game and are now working on them. In the current version of the game, the story campaign is linear. The player just goes from one quest to another. We have plans to add parallel story arches, complication during repeated passage, additional game modes. Non-linear passage will be present, but, I believe, so far only in a very simplified version.

The game is not only single, it is also premium. This is normal for desktop and real CCIs, but it is an endangered species if we talk about digital CCIs. Why did you take such a step?

Our type of gameplay does not involve direct PvP. And when deciding to focus on a single-player campaign, we abandoned the concept of a game with timers, management and long-term progress. Also, because of the setting and the confusing gameplay, we decided to change the platform – we chose Steam. In order not to injure local players with microtransactions, we decided to give them the opportunity to safely play the full, but paid version. Naturally, we will be releasing both DLC and subsequent episodes.

Are you going to then release Panoptes, which will have PvP and shareware mode?

Yes. We have plans to add asynchronous multiplayer, cooperative mode, and functionality for sharing between players to Panoptes. But these are still distant plans. Everything will depend on the capabilities of the team.

Despite the fact that the game can already be downloaded and purchased, it is still very far from completion. What changes are worth waiting for?

First of all — the appearance of the game. Closer to the exit, the interface will change a lot, effects will be added — everything will become clearer, more logical, neater. Secondly, we will tighten the planned game mechanics: character skills, character development, new types of missions, and so on. Tools for story submission and cut scenes will be introduced. Of course, a lot of missions will be added and content will be supplemented — opponents, maps. Localization into several languages and voice acting will appear. And there will be a lot of work on the balance.

I see. Thanks !