Hey there — I’m Scott, Design Director at Coronary heart Formed Video games, and I’ve been given the chance to share a bit concerning the distinctive design course of behind our new sci-fi grand technique RPG, We Are The Caretakers. Lots went into creating the sport over its 4+ years in improvement, however I’d prefer to give attention to how our design group found enjoyable and novel new technique gameplay mechanics from a impossible supply: the poaching of endangered animals and real-world animal conservation work.
Inspirations and Ideation
I’ve at all times wished to make a grand technique recreation with a big roster of characters to prepare and improve, just like video games like Xcom, Darkest Dungeon, or my private all-time favourite, the basic Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I had labored on ideas and prototypes within the grand technique style for a few years prior, however lastly discovered the precise time to revisit these designs after our group was approached about making a recreation concerning the monitoring and administration of wildlife poachers.
At first this appeared like an odd subject to construct a recreation round, however after spending time with precise researchers and rangers working within the subject to guard endangered animals, we got here away impressed. Their unbelievable work led us down a path of discovery concerning the realities of human-animal conflicts and animal conservation. Rangers work in small groups, with restricted sources, monitoring animals and poachers that transfer in unpredictable patterns throughout gigantic areas. That distinctive administration problem translated into attention-grabbing gameplay choices, and mapped completely to the squad-building and huge roster administration RPGs we liked. We rapidly realized we had one thing progressive and particular on our palms and started working.
Bending Genres and Creating New Gameplay
Our answer to translating that analysis right into a recreation was to mix quite a lot of recreation genres that every emulated an necessary facet of defending wildlife. We designed a Caretaker headquarters the place you arrange your lots of of recruited characters into squads, cope with detained poachers, and improve your expertise earlier than heading out into the sphere. We created a real-time-with-pause map exploration system, the place you deploy your squads to seek for poacher exercise. And we created a turn-based fight system to resolve conferences between your squads and poacher groups, providing you with diplomatic choices along with conventional JRPG-like skills.
By giving gamers actions to take on the macro and micro ranges over the course of our 30+ mission marketing campaign, they get to expertise what it’s like piecing collectively a corporation and that may combat again.
Constructing a World
Whereas the gameplay design was a protracted discovery course of, we put an equal quantity of effort into creating an thrilling world and magnificence that matched the gameplay. Artwork Director Anthony “robotpencil” Jones discovered inspiration in Afrofuturist works akin to Black Panther for the surroundings and character designs; Composer Jon Parra infused a hanging orchestral rating with inspirations from rap beats; and Narrative designer Xalavier Nelson, Jr. heightened the real-world tales with the addition of alien close-encounters and a post-apocalyptic planetary redemption story.
Classes Discovered
The most important lesson discovered making We Are The Caretakers was that trying exterior of conventional genres and gameplay tropes is the trail to new and unique concepts. By bringing in collaborators from exterior of the video games business and constructing a various improvement group, we ensured we had quite a lot of views that might discover the precise answer and create one thing thrilling and contemporary for our gamers. Working with the group at Coronary heart Formed Video games on We Are The Caretakers has been considered one of my biggest skilled joys, and I hope it exhibits within the remaining recreation you’ll get to play.
We hope you get pleasure from We Are The Caretakers as a lot as we do. It’s obtainable for pre-order right now and launches on Friday, January sixth! Your buy additionally helps the oldsters that impressed the sport, with 10% of web income from the sport being given to Wildlife Conservation Community’s Rhino Restoration Fund.
We Are The Caretakers
Coronary heart Formed Video games LLC
$19.99
$17.99
We Are The Caretakers is an afrofuturist squad administration RPG. Assemble an arcane group of protectors in squad-building programs impressed by Darkest Dungeon, Ogre Battle, and XCOM. Defend the endangered animals your world depends on in strategic turn-based fight. Outline your strategy to a world resistance by balancing your status, funds, analysis, animals and alliances. We Are The Caretakers is a difficult technique RPG fusion that asks you to guard a planet by combating for the individuals, animals and ecosystems that inhabit it.
