Exclusive Interview: n-Space On Heroes Of Ruin

More details on this Nintendo 3DS adventure game.

NintendoGal.com was lucky enough to be able to ask Tim Schwalk who’s a producer at n-Space a few questions about Heroes of Ruin (Nintendo 3DS) in development by the company.

NintendoGal.com: It seems that this genre (Adventure RPG) is a new genre for n-Space; did this present any interesting challenges while developing Heroes of Ruin?

TS: Prior to Heroes of Ruin, we worked on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Wii and DS, which featured a good blend of combat and RPG elements. It was a good initiation for us to this genre and we’ve been able to take what we learned and build on it when creating Heroes of Ruin.

Even with that experience, we have definitely overcome some interesting challenges, especially considering the combination of features we knew we wanted from the beginning. Just allowing four players of any level and any class to join an online game together makes both balancing and difficulty extremely challenging. Add other features to the mix like random dungeons and encounters, along with a huge number of enemies, elites, mini-bosses, and boss fights and you can see that we didn’t make it easy on ourselves! But we’re extremely pleased with how the game has come together and how the team has overcome the hurdles along the way. We’re all huge fans of action/adventure games and the opportunity to create something original for this genre is a dream come true for us.

NG: In another interview you mentioned that the heroes could travel alone or separately; will we see things like branching storylines, or other changes to the game structure based on what the player chooses?

TS: The structure of the story remains the same, but there are character specific details sprinkled throughout, including unique story scenes at the end of the game.

NG: When you say that SpotPass can provide players with ‘extra gameplay’ what sort of added gameplay did n-Space have in mind? Additional missions, perhaps?

TS: We’re actually adding a ton of extra content, with players able to download additional challenges and quests for an entire year. These unique challenges expire daily (some are weekly) and offer a special type of reward on completion. This is just one feature that we hope will keep players coming back to the world of Veil day after day.

NG: With the skill trees for each character, is there one combination that’s better than others, or are they equally balanced?

TS: There’s no one combination that is significantly better than any other, so it ultimately depends on your personal play style. We’re confident that players will be drawn to different skill combinations, each of which will provide a fun, balanced, and varied experience. We also imagine players will want to replay the game even as the same class, this time focusing on a completely different branch of the skill tree.

NG: How long did it take to develop the art style and were there many other choices involved?

TS: Our art team spent a great deal of time in pre-production exploring several different art styles, trying to hone in on what would best fit our vision of the game and the unique capabilities of the 3DS. During this concept phase, we were also creating a working art and technology demo on the new 3DS hardware which helped us test and prove the visual style very quickly.
For the look of the game, we knew early in production that we wanted to focus on a more painterly feel for the environments. We collected and studied at a lot of classic fantasy artwork from artists like Frank Frazetta to help give our environments a unique look. For characters, we looked at a good deal of comic books and graphic novels to develop our style. It was during this experimentation that we settled on one of our main goals which was to give our characters slightly exaggerated proportions and strong silhouettes so they would read well on the small screen of the 3DS.

The result of all of this research and testing culminated in the creation of an art style guide which served as a constant reminder of our goals for the visuals of the game. Now we can’t wait to for players to jump in and see how it all came together!

NG: Are people playing the game around the office?

TS: Absolutely! The game is at a point where it’s a lot of fun to play solo or with other players here in the office. It’s been a great help to get more and more people playing the game, since it’s always interesting to see the choices they make – like which characters they are drawn to or which powers they choose to purchase and upgrade. Playing around the office is especially fun with drop-in/drop-out multiplayer. I personally love jumping into someone else’s game unexpectedly for testing. We really enjoy developing a multiplayer-focused game because a simple test for a tweak or bug fix can turn into a fun multiplayer session.

NG: Looking at the Diablo franchise versus Heroes of Ruin, many people have drawn comparisons. Did the Diablo franchise influence this game in any way?

TS: Many of us have sacrificed a tremendous number of hours to Diablo over the years, so I can say it is certainly one of our influences, along with other action-oriented titles like Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance.

NG: How does working on an original I.P. factor into game design and development?

TS: We’ve found that working on an original I.P. is actually more challenging than working on a licensed title. With an original game, you may not be limited by the restrictions of the brand, but you also don’t have any guidelines or rules to help establish your initial direction. Developing an entire world full of characters and stories is quite a challenge, but it’s one that we have absolutely loved taking on.

NG: Was this a game originally planned for the Nintendo 3DS?

TS: Completely. Heroes of Ruin has been built from the ground up for the Nintendo 3DS. From StreetPass to SpotPass, we’re utilizing nearly every feature of the hardware, including internet multiplayer with voice chat.

NG: How helpful has Square Enix been during the development process? Does it allow you more/less freedom, more insight, etc?

TS: Square Enix has a long history of making great games, and we are very proud of the partnership we’ve formed with them for Heroes of Ruin. We’re working with a great group in London Studios which has brought a wealth of experience and insight to the title. The opportunity to work with Square Enix on an original title has made this project a very special one for us.

NG: Is this one of the more enjoyable games n-Space has worked on?

TS: Without question! Like I said before, it’s a dream come true to make an action/adventure like this and to create a universe from scratch along the way. With such a huge world to explore and with so much variation between the levels and the classes, it has really been a joy to work on. Add to that the strong emphasis on multiplayer and I can easily say that this game has been a tremendous amount of fun throughout its entire development.

NintendoGal.com would like to thank Tim for taking a moment to answer our questions!