Under en period var idén om att agera gudomlig övervakare som leder trupper och enheter i krig en populär premiss inom spelvärlden. Vi kan till viss del tacka Peter Molyneux för det efter hans arbete med projekt som Black & White. I dag ser spelmarknaden helt annorlunda ut, och den här typen av titlar är betydligt mer sällsynta, men det finns fortfarande kommande projekt som passar in i subgenren.
Ett sådant exempel är Broken Empires kommande Traces of Gods, ett strategiskt actionspel där vi får ett gudaliknande perspektiv på striderna och ska hjälpa till att leda enheter i offensiva och defensiva scenarion. Projektet är särskilt intressant eftersom det är utformat som ett brädspel - ett designval som vi nyligen pratade med Broken Empires 2D-artist Ana Andres om på BCN Game Fest. Andres sade:
"At first it was a more simplistic game, because the focus was to be able to fit a lot of units inside of the game, and to be able to perform really big battles, and to be able to draw the formations and be really specific about where you place your units.
But then a really good artist, the lead artist, started in the project, and everything changed, because the art became one of the main focuses. And we want to achieve a really stylistic game. In a way it's very simplistic, but it's also really, you could say, cute, because we are based on toys. Hence the name of the last game, which was Toy Tactics. And we wanted to really achieve that look of toy figures being moved in a tabletop game, inside of a scenario, I think."
Andres berättade även om spelets humor och hur det ska skildra en lättsammare version av krig:
"This game and its predecessor are really based on chaos, on being unable to have fun in the middle of a brutal war. So there's blood, but it's pain. But there's brutality, and you can place your hand and smash your enemies, but also they can fly away, and you can do it to your own units if you're not careful. So I think the humor is really important in this game."
Avslutningsvis, när samtalet kom in på Peter Molyneux, frågade vi också hur Traces of Gods kan dra nytta av det nyligen utannonserade spelet Masters of Albion från den berömde utvecklaren:
"I think we can benefit from each other, because the announcement was really big, so now fans are going to look for it again, and they are going to find us. So that is really good, and we are going to mention them, and of course the game is so relatable to Black & White. I think we are going to attract more emotion and more interest in them, and then they are going to send us more fans, because when they do it, they are going to lift us."
Du kan kolla in hela intervjun med Broken Empire nedan.
