Black Forest Games is a 20-men development studio comprised of veteran developers from all over the world, mostly former members of Spellbound Entertainment. As the name indicates, they’re situated in the Black Forest ‘fairytale’ region in the South of Germany. Black Forest Games’ projects are widely multiplatform (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U), with focus on delivering classic arcade fun vibes and top notch visuals. The studio’s debut project Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams was a Kickstarted and Steam Greenlit classic platformer revitalization with a twist. Now BFG team is working hard on their new game DieselStormers, which is currently on Kickstarter, seeking backers. Black Forest Games’ development director Vladimir Ignatov shares the story of shaping their game from the publisher-inappropriate setting to the ultimate co-op run ‘n’ gun gameplay.
Medieval Age Against The Machine “Wouldn’t Sell Well”
We were Spellbound Entertainment back when we first came up with an idea for a setting that is different from traditional fantasy - an ultimate clash between medieval fantasy and diesel machinery. Imagine medieval strongholds all covered in shaky oil rigs, or knight’s armor powered by a combustion engine attached to their back. All the wonders of science and progress that simple folks could get through the discovery of magic petrol called Goop. The medieval society falls to the promise of easy life thanks to the diesel technology, while Goop’s noxious vapors change the minds and bodies of the people. Little by little, the population is mutating into crazy orcs, goblins, witches, and other hostile creatures; the society collapses and only some sane rebels unite to form a resistance. They have a plan to take the city back, the city named… Ravensdale.
As the game concept started its life as an evil incarnation of Zelda, a metroidvania-ARPG, it was turned down by several publishers we talked to. The reason for that was probably that our concept was too big and ambitious in terms of scope and development budget. Given a new IP in the times of collapse of the middle-segment games market, we had hard times finding people willing to put their money into the project, despite the fact that the team already had a multiplatform open-world action RPG behind its belt. On top of that, our fancy medieval machinery sounded a lot like steampunk, and every publisher believed that “steampunk doesn’t sell”.
Knights of Run ‘n’ Gun
By the time we’ve finished Giana Sisters, we also had plenty of art and visual mockups for a next game, and the shape of our dieselpunk world was already figuratively outlined by our artists. Our team was now living and breathing its aura. It was everywhere: from the posters in the hallways to the running gags that “Goblins Can Fly (with enough added force)”.
It was Giana’s self-published success that helped us make the decision to introduce our dieselpunk universe in a tight and fun game that delivers our vision of a medieval oil rig city with crazy, over-the-top machinery.
We decided to stay true to the solid platforming roots and rich visuals that brought us praise with Giana Sisters, to improve what was criticized there, and make a game based on our own engine and a custom framework to build a platforming game. Plus all our expertise in jump ‘n’ run genre: tight controls, keen sense of level design, etc.
Our ambition was to create reckless session-based run ‘n’ gun action, featuring level recombination and tons of loot to unlock. To reach the goal of truly delivering on cooperation and introduce some tactical positioning in the side-scrolling scenario, we focused on strong interaction with the environment and other players where co-op should be supported and encouraged by the gameplay dynamics we create. This meant no forced interactions, and no hosing of single players. We targeted the digital download crowd - people who grew up playing Metal Slug and who, like us, enjoy co-op shooters like Borderlands and arcade games like Castle Crashers.
We wanted to expand the existing small, yet growing BFG-fandom (people who will like our new game generally already like Giana–gameplay and vice versa). Last but not least, the purpose was to provide a modding toolset or a level editor, something we were not able to do in the past due to binding with the linked tools that we used in development.
TeamwORK or Die
We approach co-op from four overlapping angles:
Connection - Make player positioning relevant and dynamic – e.g. a lightning arc between players that kills enemies. Move as you would in single player with the arc following you like a pet, and you’ll get some incidental kills. Coordinate with your buddies, and you’ll tactically zap a lot more enemies. Use slams and explosions to displace enemies – for example, into hazards created by your teammates below.
Autonomy - Design co-op actions that one could just join and benefit from, while respecting single player freedom. Players’ shots can transmute into slow-moving super-projectiles under certain conditions. Catching those with a player character “pops” them, triggering a powerful attack. You don’t need them to defeat your enemies, but they offer a power boost and are easier to spawn and trigger with more players.
Surroundings - Make the levels and enemies reward co-operation. For example, a powerful turret that can be aimed by slamming one trigger and shoots by slamming another. A single player can operate the turret well enough, but two coordinating players can do so much more efficiently. Or an enemy with a heavy shield: alone, you’d have to avoid his charge and shoot him in the back, use a piercing weapon, or brute force your way through the shield’s HP. With two or more players, you can simply sandwich the ork to always hit him in the back.
Efficiency - Allow co-op to be more efficient than single player, provide the option of team squads specializing on specific roles, be it tank, healer or sniper. Each weapon is particularly powerful in certain situations, but more difficult to use in others. A spread shot may be great for clearing the skies, but it gets hampered by walls, ceilings, and platforms, while a rebounding shot thrives on narrow spaces, but can’t really do its thing in the wide open sky. Complementary armament in a team lets you pick your terrain and your targets according to your loadout and squeeze the maximum power out of your attacks. Missions don’t scale with the number of players, but you’ll always get to pick from a range of missions with different difficulty, objectives, and rewards. More players on your team make it possible for you to tackle tougher content, just like better gear and higher skill do.
Infinite Replayability
How do we deal with replayability? We offer something new for each play!
A procedural approach to content allows meaningful level combinations with infinite replayability. Templates and content slots are used to layer relevant content chunks within some new additions, generating incredible diversity and supporting an ever-growing cast of enemies and hazards. Enemies are modular as well. Even the bosses are modular - with different body parts, limbs, and attachment slots for weapons, platforms, and hazards that will be procedurally assembled depending on the mission.
Customization Matters – the game will have to offer tons of loot: weapon parts (frames, engine blocks, and barrels), armor parts (helmets, gauntlets, cuirasses, and greaves), upgrades for the arc between the players, ammunition and crafting materials, plus a range of consumables like overdrive boosters, repair kits, and others like these. Your loot is stored in a stash and can be upgraded, recombined, or salvaged for parts. You will have your own “garage” to play with the knight’s armor, weapons building blocks, and research lab to unlock new upgrades.
Kickstarter: 2nd Attempt, Indie Style
That’s all been theory, and we still had to try it out in practice. Our first Kickstarter (as Project Ravensdale) failed, mostly due to the pledge goal being too high. The target figure was what we estimated we would require in additional funding to make the game a reality from start to finish. Asking for less and getting the money would’ve put us in a position where we cannot actually deliver the product. So we went on with the project in a different manner: little by little, in between work-for-hire, on the weekends, the indie way.
Our production goal was to test out the above-mentioned concepts as early as possible, and prototype everything that is new and therefore risky. By now, we have several prototypes covering a range of mechanics from the modular level assembly system to the basic navigation prototype that was mature enough to be released to the public as a teaser-level.
Now the game is getting closer to the playable state, and we just need a final push to get it out on Early Access. And we are back on Kickstarter under the new name DieselStormers with more bang than ever!
DieselStormers is currently on Kickstarter and in development. It is aiming at an Early Access launch this summer on Windows PC, with Mac, Linux, and console versions currently being considered. Previous Black Forest Games‘ creations, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and Rise of the Owlverlord, are available on Steam and GOG.com.
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