Serpent in the Staglands - Interview @ Cliqist

Cliqist interviews Joe Williams Of Whalenought Studios to discuss his successfully funded Kickstarter Serpent in the Staglands.

Cliqist : How does this game differ from your previous RPG, Isle of Bxnes? technically, artistically, and gameplay wise)

Joe Williams : Isle of Bxnes was an ARPG, it was designed with action in mind for its entirety. Serpent in the Staglands holds many situations that are able to be completely avoidable with an array of skills and conversation options. It’s also more about exploration of your mostly open world, whereas Isle of Bxnes focused on traveling island to island, conquering each challenge within, and just trying to survive. The art has been evolutionary for us, we’ve been able to increase the scope of it since we’re developing for the PC exclusively now. In a similar style to Isle of Bxnes, we’re hand-animating 8-directional isometric sprites.

Cliqist : So you’re not doing a game with ultra high end graphics supporting Oculus Rift. How can you hope to succeed?

Joe Williams : We’re just happy there remains an audience for the traditional CRPG that is interested in Serpent in the Staglands. We could have made the graphics different, but we stuck to our gut and what we thought fit the gameplay and atmosphere best, despite knowing that wouldn’t necessarily attract a mainstream audience. VR/Facebook adoption to be looked into.

Cliqist : Are you surprised by the success of your campaign?

Joe Williams : We were completely taken off guard when we were funded in just 4 days. Our community has been absolutely fantastic and shown a lot of excitement for the game and world. There have been a ton of great questions and discussions on core mechanics and we’re grateful we have such an awesome audience that knows their stuff.