Anshar Studios' Mateusz Greloch looks back at Gamedec's launch and looks forward to more fully narrative RPGs
Cyberpunk isometric RPG Gamedec came out on September 16. The game, inspired by the Gamedec book series by Marcin Przybyłek, puts you in the shoes of a game detective, who solves mysteries inside virtual worlds. A year ago, we discussed the Gamedec demo with the development team known as Anshar Studios. Now, days after the title’s release, we caught up with Mateusz Greloch, Community Manager at Anshar Studios, for an update on what has been going on with the team and the game pre- and post-launch.
Mateusz Greloch, Community Manager, Anshar Studios
Matt, the studio originally planned for Gamedec to come out in 2020. Then you decided to move the launch to 2021 to polish things. What have you been up to exactly this past year?
We’ve modified some of the game systems, especially the user interface. We also remodeled the profession system to make it more significant [professions in Gamedec are kind of classes that influence your conversation options — Ed.]. We removed the professions we thought were obsolete and merged the interactions to accommodate the new number of professions. We’ve also made changes to the graphics; the game looks better and runs smoother thanks to some of the optimization processes we’ve implemented.
That’s a lot of ground to cover! The weeks preceding the release must have been intense?
It was normal stuff. The team was working hard to deliver the final build, our QA department was testing the game for bugs, and final touches were made to the localization and, for example, Twitch implementation tool.
How did you survive the launch day?
I can’t speak for the whole team, but our PR room was an intense place at that moment. We had a reddit AMA, live stream with guests and the launch on Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store and Humble Store at the same time. We were well prepared for that day, so we got through this day without any drama 😊
Have you been happy with the reception Gamedec has received so far from the gaming press and players?
We’ve got a lot of positive feedback from both the media and players. They can see that Gamedec is a product of hard work, dedication, but also a lot of passion for the RPG genre. We’re happy with the end-results. Achieving 82% positive reviews on Steam is something we’re proud of.
What is going on at the studio right now?
The team is issuing hotfixes, we’re about to release the patch 1.1 in the upcoming weeks. We will add some new features and fix most of the bugs reported by the community. The release is just a beginning, we’ve got a long roadmap announced and will work hard to get it done.
One last question. What would you say is Gamedec’s place in today’s RPG space?
I believe that with Gamedec and Disco Elysium, we showed that a fully narrative RPG is something that might work out if you put a lot of effort into it. Combat is not something every RPG must have and having no combat doesn’t mean that the game cannot be mature and violent. More games like that will emerge in the next couple of years.
