"Drova" emulates "Gothic": "We missed the classic role-playing games"
"Drova" exudes the charm of classic RPGs like "Gothic". An interview about quest markers, bug-fixing livestreams and players who want to be taken seriously.
2D and in pixel style, but with "Gothic" and "Morrowind" at its heart: the role-playing game "Drova" from Magdeburg-based developer studio Just2D.
(Image: Just2D)
"Gothic in 2D" may not come from Piranha Bytes, but it does come from Germany again: The indie studio Just2D from Magdeburg, founded by computer science students, has created a remarkable debut work with "Drova: Forsaken Kin", which revives the virtues of much-loved RPG classics. Heise online spoke to developer Christian Sandkämper about what makes "Gothic" so fascinating and why the development of "Drova" was shown in a livestream.
In "Drova: Forsaken Kin", you are stranded in a game world that is sealed off from the outside world by a kind of barrier. Fans of "Gothic" will find this starting point very familiar. So you're laying your cards right on the table?
We've never made a secret of what we're inspired by and which role-playing games we liked. We missed the classic role-playing games like "Gothic". So we simply did what we ourselves wanted to do and designed a game that went in that direction. The fact that "Drova" is now being compared to "Gothic" is an honor for us.
"Gothic" was developed almost 25 years ago in the middle of the Ruhr area, but still delights role-playing fans to this day. Why is that?
Game development has developed in a direction that we personally criticize. Nowadays, in role-playing games you simply run after the quest markers from A to B. But you forget the world itself. But you forget about the world itself. You don't perceive the path, only the destination. The exploration falls by the wayside. It's actually about what you experience along the way and that you are taken seriously as a player. What fascinated us so much about "Gothic" back then and what was an important pillar in the development of "Drova" is the attentive exploration of the game world.
That's why there are no quest markers in "Drova".
Players should find out for themselves what there is to discover in the world and what stories can be experienced. Everywhere there is something that has a meaning.
Of course, we want to avoid players getting completely lost. That's why there's a diary where you can read dialogs and get some clues. We've also received some criticism that there's a bit too little information in some quests. But I think overall we've managed to find the right balance.
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Nevertheless, "Drova" demands more from the player than many modern role-playing games. Doesn't that turn off potential buyers?
Certainly. But we have tried to appeal to players in a different way. Yes, the world is dangerous. When an NPC tells you that you should stick to the road, he means it. There are also stronger enemies lurking in every zone. But we told the player beforehand.
There are tips like this all over the world. And when I've bought my first weapon, I immediately have much better chances and can knock down opponents I didn't stand a chance against before. So you don't necessarily need skill to get ahead. You just have to make the right decisions.
You decided to accompany the weeks leading up to the launch in development livestreams on Twitch. How did that come about?
We were perhaps a little naive and said to ourselves: "We'll do what we would want others to do." You've heard the stories of how the weeks leading up to the launch of a video game go for developers. We thought it would be cool if people could see it live. So we were constantly online on Twitch in the two weeks before the release and showed all the emotions: Crying, laughing, despair or just bug fixing.
We wanted people to understand what a launch like this actually means. I often have the feeling that we gamers simply don't have a good idea about it. And we didn't really know beforehand either, "Drova" was our first launch. We had no idea what would happen.
So it was a kind of self-experiment that you continued even after the launch.
The feedback was incredibly positive, considering that there were just a few people sitting in front of screens in the stream. We received a lot of kind words and donations. When we clicked the launch button for Steam, tears were shed and I think it was a huge event for our chat too. We had 100, 200, 300 viewers. It went through the roof.
We then decided to stream the post-release as well. You always hear that that's when things really get going. Plus, we're now practically live tech support when we fix bugs in the stream.
Screenshots aus "Drova" (23 Bilder)
Just2D
)Your Twitch channel is called "Entwickler-WG". How much truth is there in the name?
We started developing "Drova" in the WG. We now have an office that still looks a bit like a shared flat. That's why we've kept it that way. In the beginning, we were four computer science students from Magdeburg who had never developed a game before. But we had this dream of founding a company that would develop video games free from constraints. We can work when we want, we can do what we want, we can make the games we want. We are very passionate about that.
We then hired a few more people. In the meantime, eight people worked on "Drova", today there are six of us. But we want to stay with a small, close-knit team, no matter how much money we make. When you grow, other burdens come your way. We prefer to stay in the indie sector.
"Drova" was also financed with game funding, which has recently come in for some criticism. How was your experience with it?
It was really great. The people who work there are very competent. We have to be honest: without the funding, there's no way we could have done it. A project like "Drova" costs 800,000 euros. You can't do that with your own capital when you've just come out of university.
That's why we put out a small demo back then, which we used to generate wish lists and apply to a publisher. Ultimately, we managed the development with games funding, money from publisher Deck13 and equity. We couldn't have done it without all three sources. Because it was always clear to us: either we work full-time or we don't do it at all. You don't just make a game like "Drova" on the side.
"Drova" has been extremely well received by Steam users, with an incredible 97 percent recommending the game to others. But the case of Mimimi Games has also shown that good reviews do not always guarantee commercial success.
We really didn't expect "Drova" to be so well received. In principle, the most important thing for us was to achieve a certain level of quality. The first project in the indie sector is actually primarily supported by this. Our publisher Deck13 also said: "Hey, sales figures are of course important. But it's much more important that you make an awesome project that you're proud of and that is reasonably well received in its niche." And that was also crucial for us.
For us, it's always a big point of criticism that you always get unfinished things on the games market. We have shown that there is another way. That you can make a damn open world with six people that works well within the limits of the possibilities at launch. People write to us and tell us that they can't put the game down and have been playing until five o'clock at night, even though they had to work the next day. I'm sorry about that, of course! But it's also a great honor.
(dahe)
