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Spiders Interview #3

by Kevin "Couchpotato" Loveless, 2015-02-27

Here is the third part of our new interview with Jehanne Rousseau, CEO and co-founder of Spiders. This time we talk about her studios various released games over the years. 

The other two parts can be found here, and here.

Couchpotato: Now that you have released Bound By Flame, Faery: Legends Of Avalon, Mars War Logs, and Of Orcs and Men, what lessons have you learned from developing all of those games to make future games even better?

Jehanne Rousseau: Creating is never easy. You have to face the comments and criticism of your public. Face it and learn from it (at least I hope so). Of course we can't do everything our players want: sometimes because we don't know how to do it, sometime because it's not possible with current technology, but most of the time because we have a very limited budget. Despite all that, we're really trying to do our best with the budget we have. We're spending a lot of time reading our player's comments and we're really trying to improve each game based on what we read. Some comments really make us sad of course, or furious - we're human beings and some words can hurt. But some of these comments make us think and those are the best.

I can't detail all the things we've learnt - all the player expectations here - but we're listening.

                                    (Faery: Legends of Avalon 2010)

Couchpotato: Faery: Legends of Avalon was a wonderful CRPG for a very young target group. Do you plan to make more games for the young and young at heart? Also, do you have any plans to go back to the JRPG-like game-play mechanics you used in the game?

Jehanne Rousseau:  I really, really loved developing Faery, but alas, the game was not successful enough to earn a sequel. I'm really sorry for the players that were waiting for the end of the story. Maybe I'll write it one day as a short novel, from the scenario that was already written. But it seems that this kind of game designed for a younger audience might find more fans on another platform than the digital console market. Maybe on mobile or Wii, but we're not developing on these platforms now

And concerning the mechanics, I'm not sure it would make sense to develop a JRPG if not for a younger audience. Not that I think that JRPGs are only for kids, but Asian countries are doing this type of game better than us. It was great for Faery, because I found these mechanisms easier to learn and quicker to manage. But in a darker universe? We're better in using action or strategic gameplay.

 

Couchpotato: One of the most interesting ideas in Mars: War Logs was that killing people is bad, regardless if they attacked you or not. There was an idea about the preciousness of life and harsh conditions that force people to be bad to survive. Do you want to use this idea again in the future, or expand it for future games?

Jehanne Rousseau:  As our next game, the Technomancer is set in the same universe as Mars War Logs, we have kept this. I think that in a world where there are so few human survivors, killing people should be important. Not the casual "I'm fighting plenty of guys and killing them all without even thinking about it." I want the player to think about it - even if of course he's the one making the decision.

                                        (Of Orcs and Men 2012)

Couchpotato: Of Orcs and Men was another good RPG game, in my opinion, as it was about the struggle of Orcs in a world that despises them. Given the ending, was there ever a plan to make more games? I know that Cyanide made a spinoff game with the goblin sidekick Styx, and has plans for more.

Jehanne Rousseau: This project was very particular; we developed the whole game but, based on an idea coming from Cyanide, and under their creative direction (and production). So they are the one that possesses the IP, and I don't know what they are planning (apart from the Styx the stealth games of course).

 

Couchpotato:  According to a Facebook post, a new game you are working on is called Mars: Paradise Lost. Can you share any information with us?  Will Roy, the protagonist from the first game, will he again be the main hero? Also, do you plan to release Mars: Paradise Lost on PC?

Jehanne Rousseau:  Well, now you know that this game is finally called The Technomancer. It will be released on PC and consoles, and even if it takes place in the same universe than Mars War Logs, the hero and the story will be completely different. It's a kind of spin off, but bigger, and hopefully better!

                                         (Mars: War Logs 2013)

Couchpotato:  Have you ever considered releasing DRM-free Collector's Editions of your games to convince more non-Steam gamers to buy your games?


Jehanne Rousseau:  The problem is that we're just developers; this decision can't come from us, but depends on the choices made by our publisher.

 

Couchpotato: I always wondered what your studio could make with a bigger budget. So imagine for a while you have the massive budget of a Bioware game. Is there some franchise or other type of game you would love to create?


Jehanne Rousseau:  I suppose I would love to create another universe, but it is more important for us to spend more time developing the game, to be sure that any complaint or comment made on our previous games can be addressed. We would probably do a bigger world (maybe an open world?), with more detailed characters, plenty of quests everywhere, completely different story lines to experience in the same game but as different characters. I could dream like that for hours, but it won't help finish our next game. We have to do the best we can with what we've got!

                                           (Bound by Flame 2014)

Couchpotato: Thank you for your time!  If I may, let me say that I enjoyed playing every one of your games. Do you have anything you would like to add before we finish?

Jehanne Rousseau:  One thing: sometime answering interviews is just boring, because the questions often are the same. Not here, and it was really a pleasure to answer!


Don't forget to check out the developer's website!

Link - http://www.spiders-games.com/

And we also covered every game on our website.

Link - http://www.rpgwatch.com/developers/spiders-335/games.html

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