Before we begin, since we’re going to be delving into Norse mythology while discussing Jotun , and may inevitably mention the names Thor or Loki at some point, I’m going to give the ladies- and a few select men – the opportunity to scream and fangirl/fanboy out to their Tom Hiddleston shrines.
, and may inevitably mention the names Thor or Loki at some point, I’m going to give the ladies- and a few select men – the opportunity to scream and fangirl/fanboy out to their Tom Hiddleston shrines. Okay. Are we all good? Anybody need an ice pack? I’m sure you’ll find one along the way during our trek through Purgatory. Anyway, Jotun is a game currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. It’s a unique idea with a beautiful backdrop based in Norse mythology. I had the opportunity to chat with Will Dubé, creator, designer, and business manager on the Jotun project. We discussed the gameplay, rich lore, and the challenges of developing a game featuring boss battles against massive giants in a 2D space. I think you’ll enjoy it. If not, at least you got to think about Tom Hiddleston beforehand.
Indie Game Magazine: Quitting your job developing other games to focus on an indie passion project is sort of the classic story for many devs. What made you finally decide to take the plunge?
Will Dubé : It was just a really natural transition for me to go from mobile to indie. I knew it was kind of a big risk, and that it was something that would bring a lot of challenges, and that it would be very, very different, but I’m really glad I took the plunge.
IGM: Getting straight into Jotun , why choose the Norse mythology backdrop?
Will : I’ve always loved really old stories and mythologies, and in high school I studied a bit of Greek mythology. I’ve always loved Beowulf , The Divine Comedy , other stories like that. I think there’s really something kind of special in the fact that these stories are older than, like, our cities, and it‘s really very cool. To me, you might know a little bit about Norse mythology, but the more I delved into it, the more I saw how crazy the stories are; how such an awesome foundation for a game world it could make. That’s how I just gravitated towards it, and we’re going to respect the mythology as much as possible, but we’re also building on top of it to create our own game world in it.
IGM: You’ve mentioned that boss fights will be on a similar scale as the likes of Shadow of the Colossus . How are players going to navigate those sections from a top-down 2D perspective, without losing a sense of literal depth?
Will : Right, it’s definitely a challenge going from something like that in scale from 3D to 2D, it’s definitely different. It’s definitely not the same thing at all. We’re using several tricks to create the scale of boss fights, and one of them is that the camera actually zooms out quite a bit when you’re in the boss fights. So you go from, when you’re exploring the world, you’re in a perspective that’s quite similar to something like Diablo, where your character is in the center of the screen about that size [gestures about one-third the length of the screen], not too small. But when you zoom out, when you go against the Jotun, you zoom out quite a bit, and you end up being a tiny little speck on the screen. And that’s how we’re really driving that feeling, that sense of scale.
IGM: Will Thora be able to physically climb on the Jotuns to attack different spots?
Will : No, we’re looking at more of a classic action-type game. We’re not looking at platforming in the sense of Shadow of the Colossus , more maybe like a Dark Souls or the classic Zelda games with boss fights like that. More of a “find the bosses pattern, avoid his attacks because they’ll hurt you a lot, and try to get in a few hits when you can.”
IGM: Can you tell me more about the roles of Runes, and the Shrines of the Gods, in Jotun ? How do they factor in?
Will : Yeah, so the whole – the boss fights are half the game – the whole other half of the game is the exploration side of things. So, in order to summon the Jotun, in order to fight against them, you have to find their rune. And then once you find their rune, you can go to their battleground, fight them, and prove yourself. The world is what we’re calling “environmental puzzles,” so not puzzles in the sense of smaller puzzles where you have to move three blocks around and stuff like that; more puzzles that build into the exploration aspect of it.
So for example, we’re looking at one where one landscape would be a giant frozen lake, and you have to traverse it because there are things on the other side, a shrine to the gods, a rune, things like that. And as you traverse it, you’re attacked by the Midgard Serpent, which is a giant sea serpent from Norse mythology. So you’d have to avoid it to get through. It’s sorta-puzzly, sorta-explorationy, during these moments where the serpent comes out from under the ice and deals damage and things like that. The whole exploration side is not about combat, it’s not about fighting against other monsters, but we’re definitely looking to make it as interesting as possible, and to dive into the mythology as much as possible.
IGM: What made you decide to stick with just a single weapon – the two-handed axe – instead of an assortment of melee tools?
Will : We’re looking at a few different things, nothing that I can really promise right now, but we really thought that the two-handed axe was a strong character design too. [The axe] has a whole lot to do with it, and also, because it’s a melee weapon, it makes the combat different too. Because if you were just doing a ranged attack, it kind of becomes more of a shoot ‘em up game, where you’re controlling your little ship and dodging the obstacles and stuff. But what we found through prototyping was that fighting the Jotun, because you’re a melee character, is very different from if you were shooting a gun or something. It really creates a different gameplay experience.
IGM: What sort of customization and upgrade options will players have access to? Will Thora’s skills improve after bringing down a Jotun?
Will : We’re definitely staying away- it’s not an RPG. We’re not going into skill trees and stats or things like that. Our progression system is really based on the Norse gods. Throughout the world, we’re going to scatter some shrines of the gods, for example – we haven’t completely decided which gods are going into the game yet – but if Thor was in the game, you’d have a statue of Thor, and then when you went to that statue you could summon Thor’s power. And that could be more attack power, or maybe it gives your attack a little stun, or a little electricity, something to do with that god within the mythology.
As you go through the world, you can collect these powers and buffs from the Norse gods that will make you stronger and make you better during combat and exploration as well. That’s how our progression system works.
There's been one sticking point for the Vlambeer team, which Ismail has tried to talk Microsoft out of -- Microsoft's "launch parity" clause: If a game is being developed for Xbox One and PS4, Microsoft requires the Xbox One version to launch at the same time as the PS4 version, as not to give competitors a window of exclusivity. (Microsoft does not require exclusivity.)
This may seem like a problem with the service, as newer games that deserve to be on Steam most likely won't be able to quickly build up the votes needed simply through Greenlight. Yet this is most likely exactly what Valve was aiming for. At the end of the day, even if you have the most incredible game around, if you don't already have a fanbase of people who are going to buy it, why would Valve want to stock it? This isn't charity - it's a business.
There are issues with the system itself too. Game creators are able to delete comments left under their game on its Greenlight page, meaning they can simply remove all the negative comments and leave the positive ones. This was clearly not the intention that Valve meant it for, but it is an area which needs clearing up pronto.