The world of gaming is surging forward at a fast pace and the competition is quite fierce. We stand on the verge of an age where virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) could very well be the showrunners in the coming years. The games which are being developed are more polished than ever and the creators leave no stone unturned to woo consumers with strategic marketing gimmicks, exciting gameplay experiences and almost anything that appeases the gamers.
In this same age, where indie studios are struggling to come into the limelight and get funding for their projects, there are still some indies who are making neat games which translate into amazing experiences. One such studio is Mumbai based Runestone Studios. AnimationXpress reached out to the studio to get some perspective about their upcoming project, Vanquish: The Adventures of Lady Exton.
“Vanquish: The Adventures of Lady Exton is a charming side scrolling 2D platformer set in a quirky steampunk inspired world. Steamscience has altered things in recent times. It’s now come down to a fight for survival. Kidnapped, escaped and armed with only a parasol, Lady Exton must bring back peace to the human strongholds.”
A player must go through levels, look for support and gain new abilities to advance the protagonist’s quest, all while slaying mechanoids and fighting epic bosses. The game scores an ace given the looks and feel while the gameplay is simple and catchy (depends). The world, although 2D has been designed tastefully to provide quite an immersive experience.
A team of seven people worked on the game for more than a year using GameMaker Studio as the game engine, Adobe Flash, Photoshop, GIMP and Illustrator for the art and animations. The game has been launched on Steam and is a premium one time buy game with no in-app purchases and the studio is getting quite a good response. “We have received a good response for the game so far. We have healthy sales and a very healthy wish list as well.”
We also asked the studio on why don’t we get to see a lot of Indian indie games on Steam, to which they replied:
“Developing Steam (PC) games is expensive and requires a more detailed level of storytelling and content. These games should also appeal to seasoned gamers. PC games also have a bigger development cycle.
Most Indian game companies prefer to publish on mobile platforms as it is less expensive, involves shorter development cycles and can appeal to a wider audience. That is how we started out as well – we have three games out on the App Store and Google Play Store.”
Although the company did not reveal any figures on the budget of the game, they did shed some light on their future endeavours. “Currently we aren’t working on a new IP / property. We are concentrating on the updates for the game – porting it onto Mac is the first update you will see soon.”
While it’s nice to see indigenous indie studios develop IPs which are quite engaging, it must also be kept in mind for other indies to provide quality product or their efforts might just go in vain (something that many indie studios face).
