We got the opportunity to interview some of the guys behind Skara: The Blade Remains, an upcoming Multiplayer Online Versus (MOV) game that features over-the-top combat and a series of brutal finishers. We’re very excited for this game, and hopefully you’ll share our sentiments by the end of this interview. Read on!
Sure, we are the co-founders of Skara, Pablo Rodriguez and Cesar Ortega, Creative Director and Commercial Director respectively. Skara is our first project as an Indie company, but we count on a great team of developers with experience on AAA games such as Ryse, Wanted, DOFUS, Need for Speed or Deadlight.
Think adversarial control set in multiplayer arenas with the depth of an RPG, where you take the role of a warrior from one of the different races available, each with unique skills and combat styles, and fight among others to ascend in rank and become the leader of your own kingdom. Skara allows for a personalized versus combat style that will allow players to control the direction of their attacks and make unique combinations, block and dodge their enemies and counter-attack. We played Archeblade and love it, but Skara’s combat system feels completely different. We could number the many differences, but we prefer players to play both and make comparisons for themselves.
We are putting a lot of attention into this important point and tests have been quite encouraging so far. We had 16 people fights with friends all around the world and found no significant latency with an average internet connection. We will continue monitoring this as we go along.
11! The game is very fast paced and fun and has a sense of reality to it. We’ve been told that time really flies by while playing it. It is important to mention than you re-spawn almost immediately after each death, so we can guarantee a fast paced rhythm and lots of laughs and screams during every battle.
You said it! We implemented a few really brutal fatalities, such as grabbing your enemy’s heart and showing it to them before they die. Our animation team really enjoy these moment when they can become free and create spectacular scenes that will inflict fear in an enemy soul. We are even looking at implementing in-game dismemberments in Skara, although this may have to come later. Fatalities will have the same consequences of any death: The final result of the battle (how many deaths, etc.) will reward the winners and their victories will be reflected on leader boards and with conquests on Skara’s interactive map.
Again, this is something that we’ll be looking at implementing further with time. Initially you’ll only be able to select different equipment and to personalize your fighting style with special combos and fatalities, later on we’ll probably introduce physical differentiations through tattoos, scars or varieties of haircuts but our ultimate plan is to have the ability to paste your face onto your character (if that’s what you would like to do!)
Different ones at different levels, for example we are looking at versus fighting games such as Tekken or Mortal Kombat for the combat system, and at multiplayer shooters such as Call of Duty for the battle structure. We are also looking at more social games such as LOL for the competition between players and the in-game collaboration between members of the same team.
We want to include a certain degree of strategy in Skara and hopefully end up with a game that could be played as an eSport. So we are including group attacks and different roles within fighting groups to increase efficiency, add some strategy in the arenas and promote the most social collaboration. Also, we aspire to encourage players’ personal story in the main Skara world, immortalizing the most successful players and factions as the true protagonists of the history of Skara. They will become Heroes and Kings of their realms, and be feared by their enemies. Our writer Jackson Adams will continue the story of Skara with all these players as the main characters of what’s to come, so they can be remembered for all the ages.
Expect classic games modes such as Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, Dominion or Capture the Flag, but also specific modes for factions, such as Regicide (where members of the same faction have to locate and kill the enemy´s leader while defending their own) or Siege, where factions take turns to assault a fortress. We will also have a special arena named The Lava Coliseum (you can see videos of this suffocating environment) where players can perform quick 1v1 and 2v2 Duels and Tournaments. Tournament winners will unblock special features on the game, such as spectacular fatalities, and will ascend in the rankings, eventually being recognized as the most skilled warriors in Skara.
We are committed to offering a free-to-win experience. All the content in Skara will be cosmetic and freely accessible through virtual currency that could be earned during combat. Fatalities or other ways to personalize your character will be accessible through micro-payments, for example, but those players who don’t want to spend money will be able to purchase them with their in-game money.
We are looking at cross-play but that will not depend entirely on us, but hopefully we can achieve this. We have already looked at smartphones and may start using them as a second screen given their limited networking capabilities. We have not considered pocket consoles yet.
We do think so, we are planning an Early Access on Steam for September actually and nextgen consoles hopefully for Christmas. The release for mobile devices will be 2015 at some point.
Death and glory!
Thank you MMOGames for your time and hope to see you on the battlefield!
