As a seasoned developer with years of experience under my belt, I can truly appreciate the passion and dedication that goes into creating narrative-driven games like As We Descend. The focus on character development and immersive storytelling is commendable, especially in the strategy genre where such elements are often overlooked.
It’s not a secret that I’m really into roguelikes and tabletop gaming, so it’s no wonder I found myself enjoying As We Descend, the first game developed by Box Dragon. This upcoming title, As We Descend, is a roguelike deckbuilding game with strategic elements, making it an exciting blend for gamers like me.
In the game “As We Descend,” you take on the role of a senior city official, orchestrating your city’s forces to repair malfunctioning technology, explore dangerous territories teeming with monsters for resources, and prepare defenses against impending threats. Your actions – whether maneuvering within the city or engaging in turn-based combat – are influenced by the cards you’ve gathered and improved in your collection, introducing an element of strategic unpredictability to each effort to safeguard the city. As the city gradually sinks into the planet, revealing secrets about this post-apocalyptic world, it’s your job to find a way to preserve the city. Each failed attempt forces you to restart in the city centuries later, building upon any remnants of the previous civilization that once inhabited it.
Prior to the unveiling of the demo for As We Descend, I had an opportunity to test-play this roguelike game while simultaneously conducting an interview with its director, Kevin Chang. As I admired the game’s stunning visual style and narrative intrigue, and reveled in the mischievous satisfaction of arranging cards correctly to obliterate menacing demonic hordes attempting to invade the city, our discussion delved into Chang’s experience in designing tabletop games, how As We Descend mirrors the thrilling early stages of a Civilization game, and how the game’s narrative aspects nearly didn’t materialize.
Was your initial intention for this project to create a game inspired by tabletop games and later incorporate roguelike features, or did you aim to develop a roguelike game from the start and integrate tabletop elements as they fit in?
Chang: Essentially, I aimed to create an exceptional roguelike game from the start. Interestingly enough, it originated as a 4X deckbuilder roguelike with a non-violent siege theme. I experimented with numerous unconventional concepts and have an early build of the game saved somewhere. I’ll share it with you sometime. It runs in a command prompt and supports both mouse and keyboard. There’s even a hex grid for play, and it resembles Dwarf Fortress in appearance. Quite amusing!
…It inadvertently moved closer to the tabletop. Initially, we thought it would add strategic depth and increase replayability, but players kept asking for more tension, more intensity, and more excitement. I believe a significant factor behind this was our discovery of Aleks Nikonov, our art director. He previously worked at Riot Games as a senior concept artist for both their environmental design and characters. When we brought him on board, Karl Bergström and I jointly founded the studio together. We had previously collaborated at Stunlock Studios in 2020.
In the summer of 2020, we discovered Aleks, and upon hiring him, our reaction was, “Wow, now we can truly ensure the game will have an outstanding visual appeal.” As a game designer, I, along with Karl (our programmer), could create an enjoyable game, but making it visually stunning was beyond our capabilities. Now, with Alex on board, we feel confident that we can elevate the game’s aesthetics significantly. This shift in our team dynamic is arguably the most significant change we’ve experienced, and it wasn’t so much about the genre of the game but rather the potential of our studio and the collective abilities of our team. We are eager to explore this potential more deeply.
As a dedicated fan, I’m intrigued by the decision to weave a narrative through the cyclical structure of a roguelike game. Why choose this approach, when traditional tabletop campaigns and strategy games rarely delve into cyclical storytelling? Mechanically, these genres can sometimes incorporate loops or repetitions, but narratively, they usually follow a linear path.
The problem [in strategy games like Civilization] is the sort of late game–in Civ I might pass turn 200, 300, maybe even 400 depending on the run. You just have so many units, so many cities, and the decisions you make aren’t that impactful anymore. You have to move a bunch of troops. There’s so much logistics to do–which [does match] the feeling of controlling this massive unwieldy empire, but it’s also a chore. [You spend] a lot of time doing very little, and that’s the part we want you to fix [with As We Descend]. We’re like, ‘Okay, can we capture the magic of that first 45 minutes of [Berlin] game where you’re making good decisions, you’re choosing from a random tech tree where you are finding the best places to settle?’
In our game, “As We Descend,” we’ve focused on creating a dynamic experience where choices matter and change the gameplay constantly. We’ve enjoyed this flexibility since day one, and it’s been a significant part of the design. A concept that has evolved over time is the idea of rewards or bonuses within the game, often referred to as unlockables. Nowadays, players usually anticipate finding such rewards in roguelike games.
I enjoy games that offer a variety of content and ways to engage, which I refer to as challenge-neutral or horizontal progression – features that expand your play experience without making the game easier over time. Unlike titles such as Rogue Legacy where progression leads to an easier gameplay experience, this style maintains its difficulty while providing additional layers and complexities as you advance. Essentially, the more you play, the more customization options become available, but the challenge level may even increase due to the added complexity and decisions that come with unlocking new features.
Among all aspects of As We Descend, I find the narrative components to be my personal favorites as they effectively portray and develop the city. Moreover, the dialogue-based skill checks genuinely delight me, being a fan of tabletop role-playing games.
For approximately eight months now, we’ve predominantly featured character-centric stories that are engaging and well-told.
Wait, what?
Previously, the city was quite impersonal, devoid of any emotional connection. I found myself frequently advocating for the inclusion of lore, character development, and relatable emotions. I emphasized the importance of this mission because without it, [As We Descend] would simply be another strategy game with little to no emotional investment. The characters’ deaths or losses wouldn’t matter much, as there would be no real stakes involved. In contrast, games like Frostpunk or Hades have well-crafted characters and stories that make the experience more meaningful.
1) In what ways do well-developed characters influence the personality of the main character? What are the limits for a player to test the moral compass of the protagonist while defending the city? (paraphrased)
I want [choices] to matter but not in a morality system way, which I think is a bit shallow… I think a good character to talk about is actually Geralt from The Witcher because he always makes Geralt-like decisions no matter what–the game only offers you Geralt-like decisions for all the pathways. They’ll never give you a choice where he does something out of character. So I think it’s going to actually be similar here where your character will never act completely out of character, but you will be able to choose within the framework you’re given.
In the game we’ve created for your character, there are multiple backstories to pick from. Each one places you among the three influential families of the city, allowing you to decide your origin, your initial ally, and potentially more nuanced choices within that. However, unlike many strategy games, the focus isn’t on becoming an all-powerful dictator or a puppet master. Instead, your character is someone who inherently holds power as a warden of the wall. This role doesn’t put you at the very top of the hierarchy, but rather, it positions you as someone subject to greater forces beyond your control. The game isn’t about fulfilling an authoritarian fantasy; instead, it’s about grappling with responsibilities that bind you to something much larger than yourself. This is a game where you’re not given free rein to dictate as you please but rather navigating the complex web of duties and obligations that come with your position.
In this system, you’ll have opportunities to make significant decisions that shape your in-game character. My aspiration is for these choices to deeply resonate with you across various game versions, giving a sense of personalization through the narrative arc without directly defining your character or requiring input for character creation. It’s important to clarify that this isn’t about creating a dating simulator; rather, it’s about allowing your personality to subtly manifest in your character’s choices, with the story adapting and reflecting those traits as much as possible.
This interview was edited for both brevity and readability.
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2024-10-08 18:39