THE BOOK OF AARU (INTERVIEW)

 

1. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAME THAT YOU PLAYED THAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH GAMING?

As we are a team, I will try to pick a few of our favorite games, that probably shaped our relationship to games: Titan Quest, Dune, Command and Conquer: Red alert 1

2. HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAME DEVELOPMENT?

 X

3. ARE YOU A CURRENT SOLO DEV OR DO YOU HAVE A TEAM PUT TOGETHER? IS SO HOW DID YOUR
TEAM COME TOGETHER?

We are a small team with a core of 3 employees (feature designer, art and vfx creator and developer), one colleague had to leave us, we have to side-help to make music and SFX and lastly our producer/boss. The team was built as a passion project first with our boss and developer only. Our boss was hiring to a different firm and saw a big potential in our current developer, so he decided to hire him for himself. 

4.WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE NAME THE BOOK OF AARU?

X

5. GIVE US THE BACK STORY BEHIND THE SETTING FOR THE BOOK OF AARU? &
6. WHO IS THE PROTAGONIST OF THIS GAME?

 The book of Aaru is occurring in Egypt. Our main protagonist is Emily Sands, real world character, who got lost in 1926. As her body and crew was never found, we take a creative lead and inspiration and built upon this event. As we know Emily Sand was looking for notoriously famous Tomb of Osiris in northern Egypt - we don't know if she has found it in reality - but in our game she did succeeded, but to her surprise, the Tomb become her prison as the whole place is ever shifting labyrinth, with seemingly no way out. On top of this all, she was cursed with the divine power of Bastet. On one hand, she gained a immense powers of gods, but on the other hand, she was turned into an animalistic, monstrosious form. Thus, she is finding a cure for herself and a way out. 

7.TELL US ABOUT THE INSPIRATION BEHIND DECIDING TO MAKE THIS GAME?

X

8.WHAT TYPE OF GAMEPLAY MECHANICS CAN WE EXPECT IN THE GAME?

Our game is a mix of isometric roguelike with soulslike features. Thus, one can expect a movement as he is used to it in most action isometric RPGs, but during a combat, we focus on a few major actions - parry, roll (dodge), and attacks - heavy and light, ranged and melee. Our attacks are quite unique, as certain orders of attacks chained up can lead to different outcomes (finishers). Players must find which finishing attacks and combos are best used in certain situations.

9. WHAT TYPE OF LEVELS ARE IN THE GAME AND TELL US ABOUT THE RPG SIDE OF THIS GAME.?

Our levels are semi automated/procedurally generated - each scene: arenas and corridors are carefully hand crafted with intention to bring the player a fluid gameplay, but at the same time with an intention to a feeling of the dungeon where the player occurs being real. We like to think in a way of "what would be here and why, if someone would really build this place? Would this object be obstructing the main path? If yes, it must be there, even if the player will have to make a walkaround." This way, our terrain organically creates obstacles and further immerses the player, as he is sometimes interrupted from the flow and comfort to realise he is in a dangerous, real, living place. 

10. WHAT ENGINE ARE YOU USING FOR THIS GAME AND WHY?

We are using Unity as it seemed as a best bet for a starting, small team with home equipment with mid-high standard goals. 

11. ARE THERE PLANS FOR DLC FOR THIS GAME IN THE FUTURE?

We don't exactly plan a dlc, but we plan upcoming chapters if everything goes well. As our first public step is going to be offering a cheaper version of our game in early access, we plan to add additional content until the game is a full release. Price tag of the early access may slowly rise with growing content, but probably not much. Once we reach a full release, the price will be stable even if we decide to work some more on the additional content. 

12. WHY SHOULD THE GAMERS WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME DAY 1?

 First of all - we offer quite a unique setting - our game is a package of dark Egyptian fantasy with gothic and sci-fi elements. This gently and carefully put together delivers a very nice, unique feeling to the audience, prolly not seen before. Secondly, challenge. We like to give our players a feeling of self growth during the experience. We like to let him know that not his character but him only is the one, who is getting better and succeeding. So the first time a player wins, it's his own credit. That's quite a nice thing to go through. 

13. WHEN WILL THIS GAME RELEASE AND WHAT PLATFORMS WILL IT BE ON?

Currently, we are making our game only PC friendly (win+mac), but again, if everything goes well, we would like to extend to consoles and if everything goes super great, we might even considering conversion to android and ios. We plan to release into early access at summer 2023.

14. WHERE CAN THEY FIND YOU ON SOCIA MEDIA?

 Here are all of our important links, including steam page: https://linktr.ee/thebookofaarubyamenti