While it did get funded, ALpixel’s original Kickstarter campaign (thankfully) didn’t hit its final stretch goal, which was to actually summon Cthulhu and annihilate humanity. We can all breathe a sigh of relief as that inevitable messy end to humanity is delayed once more.
Edit: Be sure to read our review of the game here.
Now that the game now is in private Beta, where the developers hope to get feedback from players, we had the opportunity to chat with members of the team during this stretch of the development process.
We sat down with game designer Luis Díaz, artist Rubén Calles, progammer Miguel López-Bachiller, narrative developer Ángel Luis Sucasas, and sound designer Celer Gutiérrez.
Below, we get a ground-level view of the life of an indie games studio working on a unique title that is set to make waves when it finally launches on PC in the unspecified future. We even get a prediction on how Game Of Thrones ends!
Ty Arthur: Are you remote workers or do you go into the office together, and what’s the typical workday like for ALpixel Games while you develop A Place For The Unwilling?
TA: I remember following the project back in the 2016 Kickstarter, then it seemed like things went quiet for a while. How has the project changed since the Kickstarter and where are you guys in terms of overall completion at this point?
As for our work day, it’s probably way less glamorous than what people who aren’t in the industry might think. We get to the office and start working on whatever there is in our task list. When you need to talk to anybody, you just wave your hand so they know they should remove their headset. We do a lunch break, try to talk about anything not related to the game (with the upcoming elections there’s been a lot of discussion about politics), and then go back to our table. Sometimes we’ll spend hours or days doing paperwork or taking care of “the things nobody wants to do.” We do enjoy working on our games and sharing them with the community, but 99% of the time it looks like any other regular job.
Needless to say, once we started showing the game at shows, we kept on making changes to things that weren’t quite working. When you’re not following a fully established template, there’s a lot of trial and error involved. The core principles and aesthetics haven’t changed since the day we started working on the project — we’ve just learned how to refine everything around that.
All the major content is already implemented in the game. We still need to tweak a thousand things, and those small details do make a huge difference. You know what they say, the last 10% of the project feels even bigger than the 90% that you already took care of.
TA: If there’s one thing that really grabs attention with A Place For The Unwilling, it’s the offbeat colored pencil art style. How did you land on that style for the game, and are there any particular challenges to implementing the sort of squiggly/jittery style in a game like this?
TA: One thing that has struck me playing the beta is the importance of the music and sound effects to set the mood. What is your team’s philosophy toward putting music in the game — are you going for “less is more,” and what role do you see the music playing in the overall game experience?
The cartoon style gives that feeling of movement and the engraving provides the perfect historical context. This combination worked great from the very beginning because my color skills were not that strong when we first started the development of the game. The engraving style made a lot of sense; it was the best-looking option for the visuals, and it also gave reminiscences of our main artistic references.
The main challenge was time. Every single asset in the game took a lot of time and patience to make. Each character, building, and little object in our city is composed of five different layers: line, flat colour, painting, and crosshatching. That amount of work multiplies when you realize all the animations in the game are drawn frame-by-frame. But I still think having those chalk (and charcoal) lines all over is a great decision. They almost seem like the footprints of the factory workers coming and going all around the city.
TA: As a small development crew, what hurdles have you had to overcome working on this game?
In order to do so, we don’t have a continuous music layer playing — music comes and goes during your walks through the city and also tries to represent the different characters and places you stumble upon. Sound design is quite similar: it should help players get immersed in the city and support the story so it can shine.
TA: There are quite a few Lovecraftian games that have either just launched (like Call Of Cthulhu) or are about to release (like Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones and The Sinking City). A Place For The Unwilling seems to go a radically different direction with the material than those games. Where do you see A Place For The Unwilling sitting in the overall Cthulhu mythos and how strong a connection to Lovecraft will the final game have?
TA: A Place For The Unwilling is kind of a hard game to peg down into a specific genre. It’s not quite an investigative adventure game or a business tycoon game or a traditional horror game but rather has elements of all three — how would you classify this game to someone unfamiliar with the project?
We’d rather not reveal the details of how our lore is connected to them. I’ll just say that it’s a sequel, a prequel, and a spin-off (all that at the same time) of one of his most relevant stories.
And yes, the game does have eldritch things going on, but you could complete a whole playthrough without scratching the surface of that. As Rubén said earlier, depending on your actions, your playthrough could end up being a sweet walk through the city or a messed up story that will haunt you for a while.
Lately, we just call it an open-world narrative game. The story is always the focus, and you get pretty much complete freedom when it comes to choosing how to spend your time — even if you decide to stay in your room for days.
TA: Playing the beta, I’ve noticed there are very strong themes of rich vs poor, with noticeably different appearances in different portions of the city. Is that the central struggle of the game, and what sort of overall theme do you want a player to take away from the game?
TA: With the beta going on, how has the feedback been from players so far, and what has the team learned about what’s working well and what needs to be changed?
If there’s any central theme in the game I believe that would be the breaking of the hero’s journey. Neither the characters nor the story are marked by players. You take part in the events, and your input produces different outcomes, but you aren’t fully in control of what happens. If you get that feeling when playing the game, then I’ll be happy with the result.
GS: What has been the most difficult bug to squash or problem to overcome so far, and are there any major elements to the game you see changing after the beta feedback?
The world we crafted works well: it’s interesting and deep. We still need to tweak how players are introduced to it. Thanks to player’s feedback, we’re thinking a lot about how you find your way across to the city and how to make it easier to navigate. These are tricky questions and some design solutions that seem natural would clash with other elements of the game, but we are working on it.
The hard part is doing all that in 2D while minding a player’s behavior. It’s easy to get stuck between two non playable characters and those characters can even get trapped on their own turning doors and halls into bottlenecks.
In the end, all we can do is keep polishing the code and test everything until it’s good enough. I think we’re at that point where everything looks solid, but you never know if somebody will find some weird situation that you completely missed.
We’re using player’s feedback to correct some of these odd small interactions, but it’s not like we’re doing huge changes. It’s mostly dozens of tiny things that need to be patched here and there.
TA: What’s next for AlPixel Games after A Place For The Unwilling is finished and launched?
TA: On a more personal note, what upcoming games outside of your own projects are the AlPixel Games team looking forward to playing, and what sort of gameplay mechanics get you excited to try out new titles?
GS: One final question: Who do you think is going to sit on the Iron Throne at the end of the final Game Of Thrones season?
Luis: Just give me Animal Crossing.
Miguel: Does the new Zelda count as upcoming? I mean the next installment, which will probably take a few years. If we’re talking about games that will get released soon, my list would Include Tactical Breach Wizards (huge fan of Tom Francis’ work), Industries of Titan (which looks pretty cool) and, last but not least, Spire of Sorcery (roguelike and wizards with some management elements sounds like my jam).
Want to follow the development of the game or apply to join the Beta? Be sure to wishlist A Place For The Unwilling over on Steam and join the discussion over on Discord here.
