Who's Who: Cloud Castle

As part of our “Who’s Who” column, we talked with game designer Nikita Filatov about the Cloud Castle team and their first game project – the nonlinear adventure game Die With Glory.

App2Top: Hi! Please tell us about Cloud Castle. As far as I understand, the company used to be engaged in software. What kind of software, what did you do?

Nikita Filatov

Nikita Filatov: Our company is still mainly engaged in custom development. We work mostly with Western clients – USA, Europe. We practically do not work with our markets. The game direction is such an experimental moment, which, in fact, began in December with my arrival.

I am a game designer and the only person in our company who has some experience in game development. Before that, I worked in the industry for about three years.

App2Top: What projects have you worked on, if it’s not a secret?

Nikita Filatov: I haven’t done anything super-famous. Basically I did all sorts of farms, social games, two tower-defense came out.

App2Top: Wow! I’ve managed a lot in three years.

Nikita Filatov: I tried (laughs). In fact, I think that so far I have a modest experience.

Back to our story. So, the company is engaged in outsourcing development, and then they thought about making their own products. I have a lot of friends working in this company. And as soon as the idea to make games appeared, they immediately remembered about me. Last December we started discussing the future project, how we will work. I came in general with the idea of a hardcore slasher role-playing. As a result, everything was transformed into what it was transformed into – now we are doing a non-linear adventure game. I also want to clarify that I had no experience of creating adventure games.

We have very good illustrators. Everyone really praises the graphics of our game, and it’s all thanks to them. At the same time, our developers are quite familiar with C#. Therefore, based on our strengths, we decided to choose a genre in which illustrators could turn around to the fullest, and at the same time there would be a minimum of gameplay logic. We chose the Unity engine because of the low entry threshold. Considering the concept of “maximum visual, minimum gameplay logic”, we decided to make an adventure game. Initially, we planned to manage quickly, in 6-7 months, but after almost a year of development, we realized how naive we were.

App2Top: Is the light at the end of the tunnel already visible?

Nikita Filatov: Yes, it is visible. We plan to merge on most platforms by the end of the year. Let’s go to Steam first, because it’s a little easier with the audience there. When we went to the conference (we were on DevGAMM and on WN), many advised us to go to Steam first. Steam will be released in the fall, mobile platforms are likely closer to the New Year. We will launch on mobile with an update. We will have several content updates, and we will probably move to a new platform with each content update. First the App Store, then Google Play and then, perhaps, the Amazon Appstore and Windows Phone Store. As it goes, in general.

App2Top: Do you want to go out yourself?

Nikita Filatov: This is an open question. We are communicating with Buka Entertainment. After we participated in GamesJam Kanobu, Nekki became interested in us. We also talked a little with tinyBuild GAMES, but there are no specific partners and plans yet, everything is under discussion.

App2Top: You said that you originally planned to release the game in six months. And then this period increased to a year. What difficulties were there that prevented the project from being completed in six months?

Nikita Filatov: Hasty pre-production and insufficiency of inherent risks mainly affected. The quality of the content and its quantity. We expected that the process would go much faster. As a result, we decided not to sacrifice quality and make it “less, but better”. That is, to stretch the deadlines a little, but to do well. This is the first. And secondly, we lost a lot of time because of the code – we were dealing with a new engine, and there were a lot of nuances in which the guys were sitting, and a lot of mistakes. At one time we were very much engaged in optimization, we had a lot of bumps. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really help in terms of code, the guys themselves sat and figured it out. In general, the lack of experience was the biggest drawback.

App2Top: Let’s talk a little about the team before we move on to the product. How many people are working on the project?

Nikita Filatov: There are seven of us. The company employs several dozen people, namely the game dev team is seven people. I am a game designer, two developers who were here initially, with no experience with Unity. Recently, a person with Unity experience was hired to speed up development. In total, it turns out: a game designer, three developers, two artists and one animator.

App2Top: And now let’s go directly to the project. As I understand it, this is such a traditional adventure game. How right am I?

Nikita Filatov: It’s not very traditional, actually. We originally had the idea to combine three points. Firstly, the colorfulness, dialogues, characters from classic adventure games. But at the same time, we wanted the game to have a certain dynamic, there was a liveliness in the management of the character. This is a very controversial decision and we are still arguing about how correct it is, but we abandoned point-n-click, and our character is controlled roughly like in Limbo. It brought us quite a lot of headaches.

Now I will move on to the third point. Actually, why are we not doing a classic adventure game? We decided that at each location we would have some kind of unique game mechanics, which is different from searching for objects, activating objects, and so on. That is, let’s say, at the second location we will have such an insert-runner in the style of Jetpack Joyride.

We deliberately made references to classics like Battletoads – do you remember there was a level with motorcycles that everyone cursed? Or a cave in the old Aladdin platformer, where you had to fly on a carpet? And the people on DevGAMM and WN, where we showed the game, appreciated these references. This is a feedback from one side. And on the other hand, there was feedback about our combination of action and quest game mechanics. The guys who come to play adventure games say that everything is great for you, but these action moments are very difficult and do not bring joy. And the whole action initially turned out to be very hardcore, the player really had to strain to pass them. And the reviews were such that up to this point everything was great, I would have played. But that’s where I’d quit. So we came up with a way to solve this problem. For people who want to play adventure games, we will help them through these difficult moments with the help of a certain mechanism, so that they play and do not sweat. And for those who want a challenge, we will give a full set.

Each location will have such a small mechanic. For example, there will be air combat management at one location – such a reference to FTL: Faster Than Light. At the same time, we do not overcomplicate the interfaces. The core mechanics are the same: you run, use objects, control the character. There is nothing super complicated, these are rather such concepts. We hope that everyone will like our unusual approach, because we are not a simple adventure game, but with chips. We understand that it was a risky decision, but we made it consciously.

App2Top: And why did you make such a decision? That is, you are a team without experience that decides to make an experimental project. And takes such a seemingly simple genre – adventure. Draws backdrops, draws a character, makes a system of working with inventory. Everything. Why did you go to complicate the gameplay?

Nikita Filatov: We deliberately did this to add a recognizable “zest” to the game. We wanted to initially, let’s say, create a concept that would constantly surprise the player… That is, to create not just a classic adventure game about a Viking, but an adventure game with specific chips. I really wanted to surprise the player. In fact, this is the main emotion and the main gaming experience. That is, we wanted to surprise the player at each game location. So that he plays on with the thought “what else does the game have in store for me, what awaits next?“.

App2Top: That is, they felt that beautiful backgrounds and plots were not enough to keep the audience?

Nikita Filatov: Maybe that’s enough. We just wanted to add something of our own. Again, we are lucky, and we have a certain creative freedom in this regard. And we decided to do something interesting that we ourselves would like. And so we decided to “wind up”.

App2Top: While you were telling me, I remembered an ancient series from Sierra On-Line – Space Quest.

Nikita Filatov: We even have a small reference to Space Quest. If you remember, there was a moment where you had to enter coordinates in the ship. And you were flying into the unknown. Here we have something a little similar.

App2Top: I was stuck at that moment in the original for a long time …

Nikita Filatov: Well, we simplified it so that it was not as difficult a moment as in Space Quest, but just the reference was clear. We have a lot of references to various phenomena of popular culture in the game itself, in the texts, in the visualization. Including games. I’ve already told you about Aladdin, about Battletoads. There are references to the movie “Dune”, to “Game of Thrones”, to a bunch of everything! That is, we have such a combined hodgepodge.

App2Top: And how big is the game anyway?

Nikita Filatov: The game is not very big. The first release on Steam is likely to be for an hour and a half. With the update, another half hour or an hour will be added. And with the last, second update, another half hour or an hour will be added.

App2Top: Is it if you run “at speed” without wasting time solving riddles?

Nikita Filatov: Well, yes.

App2Top: That is, three or four hours?

Nikita Filatov: Somewhere like that. In fact, the game is small. We deliberately made it small, because we understood that we would not be able to pull a big one in the near future.

App2Top: I understand that since the project is small and unique, it will be paid?

Nikita Filatov: Yes, of course. Paid.

App2Top: Have you already decided on the price?

Nikita Filatov: Actually, we are not planning to charge a lot of money for the game, because it is small. We will decide on the price on Steam after consulting with Valve. On mobile, they planned to make the price $ 2-3. All updates will be free.

App2Top: That is, you don’t want to go along the Monument Valley path?

Nikita Filatov: It will be seen there, in general, initially the updates were supposed to be paid, but we planned that we would have time for more content. That is, as it goes. If we have time for more content, then perhaps some paid updates will be added. While we are planning free ones.

App2Top: Listen, what are the expectations of the studio management about the project in general? Are there any specific ones? For example, if a toy receives so much money, then we continue development.

Nikita Filatov: Yes, there is a specific amount that we need to earn to show that game development as a product direction is promising, that it should be dealt with further in our company. That is, of course, we have creative freedom, but money is money, and business is business. We need to give out certain indicators.

App2Top: Are there any guidelines for the number of sales, at least? For example, there are 10 thousand sales – so we are doing further? Or can’t you tell me yet?

Nikita Filatov: I probably can’t.

App2Top: We actually taxied so smoothly towards the end. I had a block of questions, but you answered almost everything. Let’s talk a little bit about the plans. We realized that there would be a toy, there would be a release on mobile platforms, there would be updates for it. What’s next? Do you have any plans?

Nikita Filatov: Then everything depends on our results. If everything is OK, we will develop further, we will make experimental products. Most likely, we will do paid. But perhaps we will do something shareware, because I have much more experience in free-to-play than in paid. Since I’ve always wanted to do paid, and I’ve had a little experience in paid products, I plan to focus on it. But there are several quite interesting fritupley concepts.

Our main goal is to make unusual interesting products. That is, not clones, but something new and interesting. That is, it is clear that everything has been invented in the world for a long time, and it is difficult to come up with something completely unique. But I would like to approach each project with a soul, so that it has its own “face”.

App2Top: Do I understand correctly that if there is a next project, then it will most likely not be a quest, but another experiment in a new genre?

Nikita Filatov: Actually, of course, after a year of development, we got a little burned on those things in which we have no experience and which we do not know how to do yet. And, most likely, the next project will be based on the experience that we already have. Not in the plan that it will necessarily be an adventure game. We have gained experience in Unity development, more or less lined up processes, teamwork, an understanding of deadlines and risk assessment, a more sober view of our capabilities and the situation in the industry. In any case, I would like to make interesting and memorable products.

App2Top: I see. Thanks for the interview!

Alexander Semenov talked

Deciphered by Irina Smirnova