*With the exception of the first question, the questions are in no certain order, as the order is then decided once all the answers are in, so as to properly pace the interview.
Question: In typical interview fashion, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your involvement with Decay of Logos?
Greetings, my name is Ricardo Teixeira and I’m one of the producers on Decay of Logos and a technical artist of sorts. I’m also here with André Constantino, designer and lead developer.
André has a background in game development(Trapped Dead: Lockdown, Ildefonse) and works exclusively on the game team while I double as Developer Relations on the tech side of Amplify Creations. This is our first game as a team but we all have previous experience in game development. We focus mainly on Unity development tools such as our award-winning shader editor used by many other studios, Amplify Shader Editor.
Question: For our readers who have yet to hear of Decay of Logos, what is the game about, what is the main story, and how does it play?
Decay of Logos is a story driven, third-person action/adventure RPG with emphasis on player exploration with minimal hand-holding and challenging combat. You’ll immerse yourself in the high-fantasy world of Decay of Logos through the eyes of a young adventurer named Ada, accompanied by a mystical Elk. Both are fatefully brought together the day her Village is burned down by Crimson Knights bearing the Royal Crest. Motivated by revenge, she sets out on a journey to unveil the truth behind the attack.
There are no quest markers, you’re left to explore the world of DoL at your own pace. It invites exploration and rewards curiosity, but you must beware of danger as every encounter could be your last.
DoL offers high-risk reward combat in which you can lock-on to enemies for a more tactical approach; parry, dodge and counter-attack; all while keeping your stamina in check as you deliver deadly blows and combos.
It’s not all combat, you’ll also have to solve environmental puzzles with the elk companion, or alone in some situations as you’ll be occasionally separated. You must prepare your battles ahead by taking advantage of your companion secondary inventory to store a variety of short and long range weapons, defense gear, and potions.
Question: What made you decide to bring Decay of Logos to the Nintendo Switch?
As players ourselves we love the Switch, there’s always something nostalgic about Nintendo that keeps us coming back to its systems. Not to mention the exclusives you can’t play anywhere else!
As developers, we love a good challenge. The Switch has a mobile grade GPU which could constrain certain aspects of a game made for another platform. For us, this is actually part of the fun, problem solving is at the core of what we do at Amplify Creations. We’re happy to say that optimization was a key concern of ours since the beginning of the project, as a result, you’ll get the same exact experience and assets used on other systems.
Question: Decay of Logos looks blend some elements of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild series into a fantasy world like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Where did the idea for Decay of Logos come from?
André would say the earliest gameplay inspiration possibly came from the games he was playing at the time, or from the need to break away from what he was working on professionally. Although DoL is not necessarily like Dark Souls, it definitely boasts some similarities when it comes to its minimal hand holding approach and combat type; albeit, not as unforgiving.
Before DoL became what you see today, André developed early prototypes where he tested game mechanics and experimented with the companion system. It’s then that the actually idea for the world and its backstory started to flow somewhat naturally. We wouldn’t say that there was a specific game that influenced DoL but, as artists, we are inspired by many games such as the Souls series, Shadow of the Colossus or even the Dragon’s Dogma.
Question: Is Decay of Logos only a single player game or are there elements of the game that have yet to be shown?
Decay of Logos is a single-player game where you play as Ada, our young protagonist.
Question: What were some of the highlights of designing and building Decay of Logos to date?
The world itself was a very important aspect as it influences the gameplay type we want to provide. It’s an interconnected semi-open world that invites exploration, both on foot and aided by your companion in larger locations, instead of leading players with quest markers; when you see a landmark at a distance, there’s a good chance you can actually get there. In fact, we use visual queues to best direct player attention with very little hand holding other than what you learn from NPC’s or echo shells.
At the core of DoL is the companion system. More than a mount, we want you to feel that there’s a sense of companionship without actually spelling it out. Not only will you use your companion as a secondary inventory, you’ll also have to gain its trust by feeding it barriers in order to calm it, and work to solve environmental puzzles together.
One of the hardest tasks, and our main focus, was maintaining a balanced sense of pace and fun until the very end with rich lore, puzzles, and visual storytelling
Question: Are there any Switch specific features that you have been able to incorporate into the game? (HD Rumble, Vertical orientation, Local Wifi, Switch Online, etc?)
Yes, we support HD Rumble.
Question: Are there any Switch specific aspects of the game not present in the Steam, Xbox, PS versions of the game? (Levels and areas, secrets, etc?)
It’s the same experience across all platforms, even using the same assets. We’ve actually added our own set of achievement that you can unlock; it uses a system unique to the Switch version.
Question: Are there any limitations or advancements that the Switch version possesses that the Steam, Xbox, PS releases do not?
Given that you have the same experience and assets across all platforms there aren’t a lot of differences. Unlike the Steam version, the framerate will be limited to 30fps.
Question: Are there aspects of the game that had to be changed or refined for the Switch version?
Not at all, apart from reducing a few textures it’s pretty much on par with the other systems.
Question: As a developer and a gamer, what do you think about the Nintendo Switch?
As players, we love its portability. As developers, it’s a fun technical challenge and system to work with.
Question: Was the Switch version always planned when working on the game, or was it something that was decided after the success of Nintendo Switch presented itself?
Probably not from the very start, before DoL was even what we see today as a general concept, but as soon as we had a chance to use it and learn out more about its hardware capabilities.
Question: Are there any plans for DLC or additional customizations to your characters in Decay of Logos?
Yes, we have plans for an entirely new area different from what’s in the game, and accompanying additional content. Availability will depend on player response, we look forward to start working on it as we’re now at a point where we have a fully functional pipeline that would allow us to quickly create and add new content to the game.
Question: Where did the ideas for creatures and bosses come from in Decay of Logos and how many can we expect to see in the game?
It’s a bit of a mix actually, we took a lot of inspiration from European folklore and architecture, while always leaning towards a high-fantasy Tolkien inspired world. One of our concerns was to really give it our own take so you will see a few twists on common tropes.
Question: Do you have other Switch projects in the works that you can discuss?
Not yet, but there’s definitely a lot we would love to try!
Final Question: Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the Miketendo64 fanbase and readers about the Decay of Logos?
It’s crazy seeing how far we’ve come with a small team so we really hope that you like playing DoL as much as we enjoyed making it. We’ve gone gold on the Switch and we’re going to reveal the launch date soon. We invite you all to follow us on Twitter, to check our Dev Blog, or to Wishlist us on steam.
Decay of Logos will be available this year for the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.
If you get a chance to attend Gamescom or PAX West come by our booth for a hands on experience!
Contact
Twitter – https://twitter.com/decayoflogos
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DecayOfLogos
Website – https://decayoflogos.com/
