Interview | Still Games on Wii U RPG Animal Gods

Cubed3: Animal Gods looks and sounds brilliant, please explain the setting of game.
 
Still Games: Animal Gods is set in a fictional realm that touches Ancient England, 1500 BC. It's an ancient world in turmoil because of the growth of a new industry: bronze. There are believers in bronze, new metals, and industrial, but there are believers in the old ways; stone, forests and Animal Gods. Your character, Thistle, is a teenage girl who gets wrapped up in the thick of it.  
 
Cubed3: The Bronze Age setting is intriguing; what made you opt for that period in particular?
 
Still Games: From a development perspective, it's a grey area to explore; there are a lot of lingering questions. Archaeologists have learned a lot about things of the time period, but why these things are still unknown is because the Bronze Age took place centuries before Western writing. It leaves us with a lot of creative freedom to answer some of these questions.  
 
Cubed3: How would you describe the gameplay mechanics in Animal Gods?
 
Still Games: There are two primary weapons in the game. The "Bronze Sword" is a close range and high damage weapon, and the "Rift Bow" is a long range and low damage weapon. The play of these mechanics will yield something along the lines of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) crossed with some elements from Secret of Mana (SNES).

 
Cubed3: What elements of classic adventure/RPG games have you woven into Animal Gods?
 
Still Games: Mechanically, we have a great set-up for the structure of the Open World, and weapon upgrades. You can choose temples in any order, finding bow and sword upgrades in any order. So your playthrough will be different from someone else's, depending on where you explore first.
 
Cubed3: The open world approach really brings out the vibrant art direction - what was the inspiration behind the Animal Gods art style?
 
Still Games: The art style was something we found after countless iterations… If there was inspiration, it's lost to us now. The blossoming color in the game is really a by-product of creating a top-down perspective. We needed to use visual tricks to imply depth, i.e. where a platform ends and a bottomless void begin. Objects of colours of different tonal ranges helped us get this across. Technically, the art is gameplay focused as well, so enemies, other hazards and objectives are always the focal points of the shot.
 

Cubed3: The ambient music design really fits the look and feel, how does that side of the project come together?
 
Still Games: Thank you! Peter, the designer actually created the piece of music on a synthesizer, and it was written specifically for this trailer. The lead line you hear, the aching synthetic violin, was written for the sorrow the Animal Gods suffer, and the groovy synthetic machinery matches the construction of the ancient bronze industry.
 

Cubed3: How would you intend on making the most out of the Wii U GamePad controller and hardware?
 
Still Games: The Wii U hardware is quite underestimated and is really quite powerful. The GamePad controller is super speedy, for instance, especially compared to other touch screen devices. When you're in off-screenplay mode you're only dealing with 16ms of input lag, so when you hit a button on the controller, it executes the command right away, and you see the effect right away. That means we don't have to compromise gameplay in anyway when designing Animal Gods on the Nintendo Wii U.  
 
Cubed3: Is there a chance of including a multiplayer element in Animal Gods?
 
Still Games: Not at the moment.
 

Cubed3: Would you consider portable platforms like Nintendo 3DS?
 
Still Games: Absolutely. Given the right budget and the right timeline, we'd love to get the game onto as many platforms as we can, including Nintendo 3DS.
 
Cubed3: What hurdles have you had going at it as part of an independent team?
 
Still Games: Funding. The little money we have goes to paying for meals, rent, and upkeep of our computers. It's tight, but you do it because you're passionate about it. That's the nature of the arts, I think.
 

Cubed3: What are your thoughts on Nintendo's approach to indie developers in recent years?
 
Still Games: They've been great. There have been hardly any roadblocks in their application process, and we anticipate a good launch on the eShop as well; people who own a Wii U check the eShop at a frequent rate. Your game just has a much higher chance of getting seen by the audience.
 
Cubed3: If you could both work on any Nintendo franchise, what would it be any why?
 
Still Games: Mario! It's fun. It's pure. We would love to be part of a development process that produces a game so refined in game design.

 
Cubed3: What are your plans for the future - do you see Animal Gods expanding into a series?
 
Still Games: Absolutely. Thistle will complete her journey in Animal Gods, but we have more adventures planned for her and more ways to expand upon the gameplay mechanics in future games.
 
Cubed3: Any final words you'd like to give to potential backers?
 
Still Games: A big thank you to all who have backed us so far, the support we've heard from this game has been quite warming. We still have some distance to go to fund Animal Gods on Kickstarter, so please considering donating!

 
Animal Gods on Kickstarter »