RetroStyle Video games is making waves with its newest mission, Codename: Ocean Keeper, an underwater roguelike presently making a splash in Early Entry. On this undersea journey, gamers plunge into the mysterious depths of a sprawling ocean, dealing with off towards alien creatures and scavenging for essential assets. With its procedurally generated environments, customizable submarines, and a bunch of formidable adversaries, the sport guarantees a heart-pounding mix of exploration, survival, and high-stakes fight.

Posed with the chance to inquire concerning the growth of this title, we despatched some inquiries to Lead Recreation Designer Eldar Kalinin, search engine optimization Supervisor Mykola Vyhohradov, and CEO Pavel Konstantinov. Their responses make clear the challenges they’ve confronted, the distinctive options that distinguish Codename: Ocean Keeper, and what lies forward for this undersea escapade.

Codename: Ocean Keeper has just a little little bit of all the things; roguelike, shooter, RPG, exploration. What do you are feeling greatest defines your gameplay identification, and the way have you ever tried to convey that by within the motion itself?

Eldar Kalinin: To reply briefly, the sport itself is a roguelike survival with components of tower protection in underwater settings. Our gameplay is best outlined by a mix of three issues: intense roguelike mechanics (exploration, fight), strategic exploration (transferring throughout the map between waves, discovering artifacts), and useful resource administration. To convey this identification by within the motion, we centered on a number of key features akin to procedural technology, dynamic fight, and useful resource administration.

A major a part of the sport entails gathering and managing assets to improve your mech and enhance your possibilities of survival. I suppose this side provides a layer of strategic depth, as gamers should determine the best way to allocate their assets successfully. Balancing speedy wants with long-term upgrades is essential to success.

Had been there any powerful selections relating to options or content material that needed to be delayed till after Early Entry?

Kalinin: Completely. One of the crucial troublesome selections we confronted was delaying the supply of full story content material and a few superior customization options. We initially had formidable plans to create a wealthy storyline with many branching paths and in depth character backstories. Nonetheless, as growth progressed, it turned clear that sharpening the core mechanics and offering a seamless gameplay expertise needed to come to the forefront. We needed to guarantee that elementary features of the sport akin to fight mechanics, mining, and useful resource administration had been fine-tuned and fascinating for gamers.

Including advanced story components and superior customization choices might have upset this stability if not correctly built-in from the beginning. This resolution wasn’t simple for us as a result of we all know {that a} compelling story and deep customization can considerably improve participant engagement and replayability. Furthermore, some options, akin to multiplayer co-op and extra advanced mech upgrades, had been initially a part of our Early Entry roadmap. So, because of the want for thorough testing and balancing, we determined to introduce these options step by step.

Codename: Ocean Keeper is about solely in an unlimited underwater atmosphere. How does this give attention to an oceanic setting form the sport’s design, and what distinctive alternatives or challenges does it current?

Kalinin: The ocean atmosphere of Codename: Ocean Keeper basically shapes the sport’s design, offering distinctive alternatives and critical challenges. The underwater setting permits us to create a particular ambiance of thriller and hazard that’s a necessary a part of the participant expertise. For instance, we will create deep sea caves, sunken ruins, and vibrant coral reefs, every providing a novel gaming expertise. These environments are stuffed with hidden treasures and assets that encourage exploration and discovery. Procedural technology of those ranges ensures that no two dives are the identical, making gameplay contemporary and thrilling.

On the similar time, designing fight in an underwater atmosphere presents particular challenges. We needed to guarantee that the mechanics of motion and fight had been intuitive in an atmosphere the place physics behaves otherwise. Buoyancy and water resistance have an effect on how each mechs and enemies transfer and work together. This required us to develop distinctive assault patterns and behaviors for sea creatures to make battles each difficult and reasonable.

What are your fundamental targets for releasing the sport in Early Entry, and which particular features are you most wanting to obtain suggestions on?

Myola Vyhohradov: Up to now it seems to be like we want extra details about the stability within the sport (the way it feels to totally different gamers), optimization on totally different units, and participant expertise with totally different sport mechanics. We wish to understand how gamers really feel concerning the fight system, together with the responsiveness of controls, the number of weapons, and the general problem degree.

Suggestions on enemy conduct and fight dynamics will assist us refine these components to make them enjoyable however not too hardcore for followers of the rogue-lite style. There shall be NO donation in our sport (hi there F2P tasks with skins, lol), so to be sincere the help from the neighborhood will even permit us to develop the mission extra confidently.

What content material and options shall be accessible on the launch of Early Entry? How does this differ from the deliberate full launch?

Pavel Konstantinov: At the beginning of Early Entry, gamers can anticipate a strong expertise that features such foundational roguelike components as a dynamic fight system, two totally different bosses, and a HUB menu with in depth customization choices for mechs, miners, and weapons

What are the important thing objectives you hope to realize by the top of the Early Entry section, and the way do they align along with your long-term imaginative and prescient?

Konstantinov: Our fundamental purpose is to create a well-balanced, content-rich, and replayable roguelike sport that may resonate with gamers. We plan to introduce a wealth of recent content material all through the EA section akin to extra biomes, every with distinctive challenges and assets, in addition to new enemies and executives. For instance, we’re trying ahead to introducing a bug boss that may assault from each the bottom and the air, which provides a brand new degree of problem to the gameplay. These additions will maintain the sport contemporary and provides gamers a brand new expertise, making certain long-term engagement. As a part of our optimization efforts, we attempt to enhance efficiency for each PC and SteamDeck.

Participating with our neighborhood is on the coronary heart of our method to early entry. We plan to actively collect and incorporate participant suggestions to information the event course of. This collaborative method will assist us decide what works effectively and what wants enchancment to make sure that the ultimate product meets the expectations and wishes of our gamers. By the best way, should you like our mission, don’t neglect to hitch our Discord channel to remain updated with all of the occasions across the sport (we’re additionally searching for beta testers for the PC and cell variations of Ocean Keeper.

How do you envision the sport evolving between now and its full launch?

Konstantinov: To start with, we plan to develop Ocean Keeper to iOS and Android platforms. It will permit gamers to take their underwater adventures on the go, battling sea creatures and exploring mysterious depths from their smartphones. We intention for the cell variations to supply the identical wealthy expertise because the PC variations, with optimized controls and efficiency. In response to quite a few requests from our loyal gamers, we’re optimizing Ocean Keeper for macOS. It will permit Mac customers to hitch the thrilling underwater journey, increasing the participant base and making the sport accessible to extra customers.

We’re already engaged on important visible updates to the principle characters, mechs, and diggers. These enhancements will embrace improved textures, dynamic lighting, and extra detailed animations, offering a extra interesting visible expertise. We’ll introduce three new monsters to the sport, every with distinctive skills and challenges to make battles contemporary. These additions would require gamers to adapt their methods and make the most of new ways to defeat these formidable foes.

We’re creating a wealthy storyline that may have interaction gamers in an underwater journey. Because the story progresses, gamers will be taught extra concerning the circumstances of their survival and the upcoming hazard they have to unravel. This storyline shall be augmented by the looks of story bosses that gamers will encounter as they progress by the sport.

How do you intend to make sure that the gameplay stays contemporary and fascinating for each new and returning gamers all through the Early Entry interval?

Konstantinov: We’ll be introducing new content material regularly, together with extra biomes, weapons, and customization choices. You may try Ocean Keeper information on Steam to see that that is an ongoing course of. Increasing the customization choices for mechs and introducing new improve paths will maintain the gameplay dynamic. Gamers will be capable of personalize their expertise extra deeply, tailoring their mechs to their most well-liked playstyle. This consists of including new visible customizations, distinctive skills, and complicated improve methods that supply significant development.

Participating with our participant neighborhood and integrating their suggestions is essential. We plan to actively solicit suggestions by boards, social media, and in-game surveys. This suggestions will information our growth priorities and assist us tackle any points promptly. By making gamers really feel heard and valued, we will construct a loyal neighborhood that’s invested within the sport’s success (no less than I hope so).