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Crown Gambit
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What Will You Sacrifice to Save the Kingdom? (Gamescom) - Crown Gambit Interview with Wild Wits
We spoke with art director Antoine Tabouret-Loudéac to learn more about the tactical card combat game that is all about surviving a war of succession.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor.
Today, well I'm outside of a booth and we'll talk about exactly why we're standing behind this lovely Playdigious logo later.
But for the time being, I'm here with Antoine to talk a little bit about Crown Gambit."
"Now, this is a really exciting game, so for the people who aren't aware of what Crown Gambit is, just give us the works.
What is Crown Gambit?
So, Crown Gambit is a sort of card game, a sort of RPG card game.
It has a lot of tactical gameplay elements and it's mostly a narrative game with a lot of decision and greedy outcomes, basically."
"And you've got this really interesting design that you've set up here.
Tell me a little bit about why you went with the card mechanics and what that enables you to do.
Yeah, so basically a few years ago, Korto came to me, the director of the game, and asked me to work on a game.
He wanted something that had a lot of 2D art and some strong sense of, you know, a strong visual storytelling."
"And he thought card game was interesting because it can work on a lot of economy.
You don't have to use a lot of resources to work on that game, but you can have a very strong sort of stylization and aesthetics.
And that was very interesting to us, so that's what we wanted to go with, basically.
And the interesting thing as well is that it's not just a traditional card battle."
"Like, here's the thing, you place the cards, they do the damage.
There's like a strategic element in regards to a board that you use as well, so it's a little bit more complex than that.
So, why did you go down this more different route than the traditional card battle that we see?
Yeah, so we were inspired by a lot of other games, obviously, but this studio was founded by people that were fond of tactical RPGs."
"And the first game that they've made is actually a tactical game.
And so, naturally, as the game developed and the concept was sort of being made and invented, we actually went through a more traditional tactical kind of point of view for the game.
And essentially, yeah, that's sort of the shape it took, even though that's not necessarily what we thought it would become."
"But I guess habits are strong, and that's what it became.
And you've got a really core and, you know, really interesting story that you've incorporated into it.
There's also decisions that you have to make along the way, so tell me about how that's going to impact the story.
Yeah, so basically, this is a very choice-heavy game."
"So, every discussion and even the gameplay and the way you fight is going to have an influence on how you interact with the world.
And every interaction with the world and with the characters are going to force you to go through certain events and choices.
And essentially, it's a game about choosing the least worst outcome, if I may say so."
"So basically, you are really trying to not have the worst outcome happening.
And it's not easy, and doing the good thing is not just not easy, but it's also hard to understand.
It's hard to, you know, to notice, to get what is the right choice.
And that's something every player is going to have to struggle through."
"And maybe every player is going to have a different opinion on what is the right choice in Crown Gambit.
And I hope this is going to spark a lot of discussion between players.
Antoine, you're the art director, so tell me a little bit about why you decided to go with the art direction you did in Crown Gambit.
So, when Corto came to me, he was looking for someone that was in a bit of a dark fantasy genre."
"I'm also a big fan of historical and fantasy setups.
And basically, we went with something that was sort of inspired a bit by Darkest Dungeon.
But I went also with my own influences, the sort of romantic knight stories and legends that I was raised with in France.
And then also adding in some of the more modern, you know, a little bit anime-inspired style to it."
"And by going for the more gritty routes, I also went with a sort of darker and with a lot of, you know, black interface and stuff like that.
Something that's a bit reminiscent of the Hellboy and Mignola style that's very popular right now, obviously, but that I'm a big fan of as well.
And I really wanted to go down that route and explore what a fantasy game could look like."
"Also adding a bit of a dash of color, you know, to try to avoid the brownish, a little boring fantasy medieval idea that some people get.
I wanted to go with something a little striking, and I hope this is working as intended.
Now, some people may have already had a chance to play Crown Gambit because the Kickstarter version is out.
But for those who haven't yet had a chance to play the game, what's one thing you're really excited for them to experience for themselves?
I think I'm really excited for the player to experience their first time having a character acting in a way that they didn't expect it to."
"Basically, when you fight and use the Ancestral Grace mechanic, you can make the fight easier by the cost of having your conversation being overtaken by your own character.
And I'm really hoping to look forward to how people are going to react when their own characters are going to be turning against them.
And basically doing whatever they want and going through the darkest route possible. I think that's really something I'm looking forward to."
"So let's talk about the board behind us. There's a reason why we're standing here in front of this logo.
It's because while Crown Gambit was, you know, Kickstarted, you now have a publisher, Playdigital. Tell us a little bit about that.
Well, obviously, we wanted to, you know, work with as much freedom as we wanted, and a Kickstarter is a very good place to start."
"And it allowed us to give our own sort of vision for the game and to settle it in stone and have this sort of objective that we want.
But obviously, it is not sufficient to pay as many workers as we have. So we have had to choose a publisher.
And Playdigital has been really nice to us, giving us as much freedom as we wanted to actually make this story as gritty and strange as we wanted."
"And we're very grateful to them for this. So this is a great opportunity for us.
And we're hoping that we can, you know, pull the best outcome as we can.
And we're very happy that we didn't have to compromise as much as we might have with different actors.
And final question then. Crown Gambit, still, like I said, the Kickstarter version's here."
"But for those looking to play the game, what's your sort of release plans and what's your platforms in mind?
So this is going to come out next year, basically in 2025.
And we might release a demo earlier in the next year.
We're hoping to release something a little cleaner and something that's more relevant to our current vision for the game right now."
"This is a very early phase for the current state of the Kickstarter demo.
So we're hoping, yeah, as early as possible next year to release something that can give you a taste of what Crown Gambit is actually going to be like.
Well, you heard it there. Crown Gambit, definitely want to check this one out.
I had just a great chance to play a bunch of the Kickstarter build and it's a lot of fun."
"So I'm sure that a lot of people are going to enjoy this one.
For more information on the game, be sure to stay tuned to your local Game Retro region.
Likewise, for more games coming to views too.
Till then, thank you for watching and we'll see you all on the next one."
Gamescom
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