Wantless - Interview @ RPG jeux video

RPG jeux video interviewed developer Theo Maudet about the upcoming tactical RPG Wantless:

INTERVIEW – Drop Rate Studio’s Theo Maudet talks about Wantless

Back in May, we presented Wantless to you, a dystopian turn-based tactical RPG in which you face nightmares in the minds of tortured patients.

And since this production is French and since we like putting the spotlight on our own country’s developers, we tried to know more about this game, the people involved in Drop Rate Studio in charge of it, which seems to be as dark as it comes and which topic is new and innovative in the world of tactical RPGs.

Theo Maudet, studio developer and founder, kindly answered our questions with patience and good will.

RPG JV: Hello Theo Maudet. It’s a pleasure to be able to talk with you. First of all, could you introduce yourself? What is your role in Wantless?
I’m Theo Maudet, game designer and developer for Wantless, and founder of the studio creating it, Drop Rate Studio. I’ve studied videogame production management and have been working in the industry since 2016, principally as a producer.

RPG JV: How did the idea for the game appeared in your mind?
Theo Maudet: The gameplay concept actually came before the universe.

On one hand, I’ve always been fascinated by the characters’ growth potential and customization offered in action-RPGs and MMORPGs. I’m deeply attached to the perspective of forging a character after my preferences and “invent” it, and afterwards invest my time to develop it’s capacities to a point where they’d explode.

In the other, I love the turn-based gamefeel. They might be less spectacular than their real-time alter egos, but I like the experience based on preparation and planification they propose, more than reflexes and instincts. Their gameplay is often just, clear and particularly rewarding.

Even if counter-examples exist, we don’t often see these two aspects merged into one game, and they’re not exploited to their full potential. I think it’s partly because it’s rare to see a turn-based game where you only control one character, and that it’s harder to propose deep customization options and vast gameplay opportunities when you control multiple characters.

As for the universe, it’s objective is to propose things different from our inspirations and what we usually know, and to make you think. I wanted to talk about grief and anxieties coming from a silent world without wars or any other cataclysm, where the battles that remain are led into the people’s minds, where the enemies are our own limits, our own weaknesses.

RPG JV: Why the title ‘Wantless’? Why an English title? 
The game is developed en designed in English before all else, even though a French localization is planned. The game is not aimed at the French market, but more a worldwide one. 

In the game’s universe, your patients use the transposition method to get their desires extracted, which they see as unmet and frustrations. When pushed to extreme levels, the repetition of this process leaves them without any desire, any will, any want: Wantless!

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