Are there any plans to bring the game to consoles ?
Yes . We ’ d like to bring the game to PS4 , XB1 and the Switch . We ’ re currently in discussions with all of them about dev kits and time frames and getting the right balls rolling . Ideally we ’ ll like to do a global PC / Console sim-ship with a 1.0 version , but that ’ s all going to depend on time ...
Dead Cells is aesthetically stunning . How long has the game been in development ?
This version about a year and a half . The very initial idea and all of the previous GDs … Maybe since 2014 , but that was on and off and we had to start again anyway … So yeah , a year and a half .
How are you finding the Early Access system ? Why did you go down this route for the game ?
Early Access has been great so far , I mean it ’ s only the beginning , but we ’ re doing well . We basically made sure that we learned from the mistakes of those to go before us and really modeled ourselves on the people that have done it right . So as you can see we didn ’ t push some half baked prototype that looks like an unwiped bum . We really made sure that what we had would stand on it ’ s own as a finished product .
As for why , well it ’ s a rogue-lite , which means that we ’ re going to have a tooooon of balancing to do for starters . Then we want to get ideas from the community for weapons , traps , skills , levels , everything … Next we were pretty sure that we had a solid concept , but we wanted to know 100 %. So Early Access allows us to do all of these things , with minimal risk . We can push what we have and test the interest , then work with the community to make it better , or call it a day and walk away .
Fortunately it ’ s worked well and we ’ ve got a great community interested to see what we ’ ll do next .
Balancing the sense of progression with the random nature of Roguelikes is a tricky business . How do you go about making sure players feel like they ’ re making progress ?
Well we really based ourselves on things that we liked to play . We didn ’ t really like the grindy feel of Rogue Legacy ( although I loved the game ) so we tried to make sure that each run is a real , “ you start with nothing ” situation . So hence why your lose your skills and weapons . However we know that just running through the same levels over and over is boring , so that ’ s why we have the system of branches , you can choose your path a bit more and that ’ s something we ’ ll be reinforcing .
Then there ’ s the loot . We want you to feel like you have more choice with each run , even though you ’ re dead , you know that you can now find that electric whip you unlocked , so how ’ s that going to change your run ? That ’ s the secret , it ’ s the feedback loop between runs , I ’ ve lost everything , but my precious unlocks and actions are still changing my new run .
As a little icing on the cake we randomise the levels . It ’ s quite heavily controlled though . The overall world design stays the same , but the insides of each biome change , but even then we force the inclusion of basic things at interesting moments , caves to explore , speed-run doors , teleporters and secrets . Every time you should have a choice , do I want to race through , or take my time ?
Obviously Dead Cells is your current priority , but do you have plans beyond that ? Ideas for the next Motion Twin game ?
Not really . We ’ ve got Badass Inc . A kind of action point and click set in a furry cyberpunk universe that people were liking , so maybe that . But we really haven ’ t started thinking beyond the end of Dead Cells . Besides , with the structure of the team , we need to find something everyone wants to be involved in .
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