We’ve posted Part 1 and we have posted Part 2 of our interview with Raw Fury but now the time has come to post the final part of our 3 Part long interview that concerns Kingdom, GoNNER, Nintendo Switch and of course, Gordon Van Dyke. Let’s do this:
*All questions, answers and responses come final fifteen minutes of our hour+ long Skype interview.
GoNNER amiibo and Retail Release are Highly Unlikely:
Miketendo64: Okay so with GoNNEr being your flagship title for your company on the Switch, and it does come off to a big success, Fingers crossed, could we see a GoNNER amiibo on the horizon? And are there any plans for a retail release?
Gordon Van Dyke: We have not even thought of that, we highly doubt retail. When you do retail, it adds more complexity to the development because you then have to get it working on the cartridge. I don’t think it is super difficult from what I understood but it does add a new element to it. It also changes ratings and how you have to get ratings, it changes that complexity. It does add new elements that to us, it would have to be a really cool, unique opportunity. I don’t think GoNNER costs enough to justify putting it onto a physical cartridge because those cartridges can cost quite a bit. So getting a game like GoNNER which will cost $10-15 Dollars on Switch…
Miketendo64: …Could now cost $30-40 physical release.
Gordon Van Dyke: The cost of the cartridges could put it around $60 dollars.
Miketendo64: I have seen the price for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Zelda, Arms and the like and they are $56 dollars for a cartridge that is smaller than the 3DS cart and you think “Err……”
Gordon Van Dyke: You can get like 512 GB on those carts.
Miketendo64: Of course, it does have its upsides.
Gordon Van Dyke: And Micro Sim cards and Micro SD cards there is that perception that nobody is going to pay $60 dollars for GoNNER. I hate to say it and I know we aren’t hyping ourselves up but we are being honest.
Miketendo64: What you mean to say is that it is a great game, an amazing game. It’s going to be good, you know that but it is trying to get hold of the Skeptics out there that might not pay $60 dollars for a game.
Gordon Van Dyke: Right, exactly. Some people would, they would feel okay with it but value perception is constantly changing. There is a point where no one will buy anything on the iOS app Store unless it cost $0.99 cents and that has kind of changed so those things are constantly going up and down but I think a fair price point, taking into account of game content, the longevity of how long an average person would play it, there are always exceptions. I think after adding more content. The price point of $14.99 is probably about where we would land. The lowest would be keeping it at $9.99 which we launched with on PC. If we released it GoNNER on PC at $14.99, we would increase the price for the Switch version because since launch on PC, we have added content on a weekly basis so that’s like two months of new content added to the game that it didn’t have before.
Miketendo64: To be honest, $14.99 is a lot more, healthier alternative to what games there will be coming to the Switch. So if there is anyone who is not up to paying $30 dollars for a game, $14.99 might sound a bit more in their price range and to play something that they have never played yet so you still have that in your favour. Also, when Nintendo have their special offers in the eShop, you have that leeway where you can drop the price for a short while.
Gordon Van Dyke: Exactly.
GoNNER and Kingdom in a Nutshell:
Miketendo64: Moving on to our third to last question, for our readers and our viewers who may or may not have heard of GoNNER or Kingdom. What can you tell us about their story and their game style?
Gordon Van Dyke: Oh Wow! GoNNER is almost like going on an acid trip. We describe it as “Neo Voodoo” as well. It is this incredibly ‘Organic World’ created with these hard-edged pixel graphics. It isn’t as pixel heavy as Kingdom is, the pixels are much smaller but there is no anti-aliasing techniques and transparency techniques in there. It’s just this amazing platform shooter as well. If you enjoyed Megaman and those style of platform shooters, then you are going to Love GoNNER.
The controls are extremely tight and responsive. It really is about your skill in controlling your character and it is really fun. It is procedurally generated levels, daily challenges. It is just an incredible amount of fun. There are leaderboards as well so you can see your ranking. The music is astounding, it was actually nominated for an IGF award this year at GDC which will be a second year attempt for an IGF award because Kingdom was nominated for a Excellence in design award but we lost to Don’t stop talking or everyone explodes. I am honoured to have lost to such an awesome game. So this year GoNNER was nominated for its excellence in audio. There were three guys who worked on GoNNER but Ditto is the primary one, the creator and did the majority of the work. He did all the art and majority coding.
Martin Kvale worked on the sound effects and helped ditto with design and some of those things and Joar Renolen did the music and Ditto took all of those elements and implemented them and orchestrated how he wanted it to happen and the music, he adjusted it and did all these cool things and a lot of that concept came from Ditto and how he wanted the world to react with audio. It is an awesome reward for that team because all of them had a huge equal hand when it came to the audio, they were all equally involved in making the audio as awesome as it was, whereas Design and other elements were pretty much Ditto. They have been nominated for something that they can all equally be proud of. So we get to be there at the IGF awards again this year and sit at the fancy table and feel like a star for a night.
Miketendo64: I don’t blame you. We may not get the BAFTAS or the Oscars but you’ve got to take every achievement when you can. And Kingdom?
Gordon Van Dyke: Kingdom is an interesting side-scrolling game where you control a ruler and it is about managing your resources and building up your kingdom from scratch. It turns into a very strategic game where you really have to think about your defences, where you are building the next wall? How many archers you have against how many builders you have versus how many farmers or Knights you have and then there is the defensive element where you are getting attacked by creatures in the evening and then it turns into a game of flight because then you are building a boat to escape and then there is an element of Tower Defense to it.
Kingdom is this crazy gumbo of different concepts from different games done in a unique way that feels very individual at the same time. On the surface it seems really simple but when you dig down deep into it, the game is incredibly complex. It is much more strategic and in-depth than people realise and it is absolutely stunning pixel art. I wouldn’t describe it as 8-bit or 16-bit or any other way people may describe it, its Pixel art. That’s how I would describe kingdom.
Miketendo64: It does look like very interesting to play and though I haven’t got a Steam account, I will definitely look into kingdom because I did try to make sense of it from the trailer that you have got on your website for the four games you have advertised there; Tormentors X Punishers, Kathy Rain, GoNNER & Kingdom to get a little bit of background before this interview. Kingdom did strike me as a very different game to what we are used to in a way because of the different elements. So basically you start from scratch and you have to build up defences against these monsters, like you’ve said, and then when everything comes tumbling down on you. Do you go right back to the beginning? Do you keep your progress?
Gordon Van Dyke: You start over so it has a kinda roguelike element to it. So when you lose your crown, you have to start over.
Miketendo64: To make yourself worthy of wearing that crown again.
The Raw Fury Name:
Miketen do64: Well thank you very much for your time Gordon, it has been an absolute pleasure to you and about Raw Fury and actually before we finish up, where did you all come up for the name of Raw Fury?
Gordon Van Dyke: It was actually Jonas that came up with that and it was a great story. He registered in the late 90’s, early 00’s and it comes from a scene from Enter The Dragon or one of the iconic Bruce Lee movies. In the scene there was a time where Bruce Lee says something like ‘”… in the Raw…” and “…and fury” and Jonas heard those two words and was forged those two words together and was like “Woah! Raw Fury! I love it.” And we held RawFury.com for quite a while before we ever found a reason to use it. A Funny Story, we were actually going to call it “Glam Rock Games” but somebody already had that in Sweden so we couldn’t use it so we stuck with Raw Fury.
The Final Word (A Message for the Fans):
Miketendo64: And final question, is there anything you would like to say to your every growing fanbase?
Gordon Van Dyke: We truly appreciate all of the support, it is incredibly valuable to us what people share with their friends about our games and that they like it and that is really important to us. We want people to only share our games if they really believe in them and really do like them. We don’t want people to feel compelled to do something for us or say kind things about us that we didn’t deserve so we work really hard to earn that and we will continue to do that, to reflect that quality level so that when people start to recognize our name and go “Oh! Raw Fury’s Publishing that!”
With that, a little bit of extra faith comes with that for that developer and an extra feeling of confidence. But it doesn’t always go like that, we have no Portfolio strategy so we go with random things. I would say that one of the games that we are very close to signing is probably not a game that someone who plays GoNNER would necessarily like in the same way like if we signed another game that was similar to GoNNER, same with Kingdom. We just want to go with what we like, we never want to be defined by pillars that we’ve set that could circumvent us from signing a game that we would have really liked. We just want to hope that people will trust us and continue to believe in us and for those that do, it matters immensely to us. We cherish it and value it heavily.
* * * * *
Gordon, thank you very much for taking the time to provide such lengthy responses. I really hope people will give GoNNER the chance it deserves and play it on Switch this year, as well as Kingdom and Dandara! We look forwards to the next time we get to do this!
