Log in member
We spoke with art director and co-founder of Mango Protocol to learn more about the upcoming puzzler that is all about using a magical wand to unravel the secrets of a fantastical land while learning and cooking delicious recipes.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is day 2 at the BCN Game Fest, formerly known as the IndieDevDay.
And, when it was called the IndieDevDay, we caught up with you, I think it was two years ago?
Maybe three."
"Maybe even three, talking about Clem, and before Clem you guys released Colossus Down, and then both Clem, Colossus Down, and Angie Magica are part of your Psychotic Universe.
So thank you so much for joining us, Mariona.
What can you tell me, I mean this is Zelda-like, I like the elevator pitch, it's Zelda-like, but within your universe."
"So what can you tell me about this sort of main concept here?
Yeah, we are making this game super influenced by the Zelda franchise, but we like to call it an action-adventure, gourmet action-adventure.
Gourmet?
Gourmet, yeah."
"Because of the quality to it?
No, because you cook, you actually cook, cooking is really important.
This place where you are developing your adventure is the land of Penuria, and in Penuria you will gather a lot of ingredients, you will know the people who live in Penuria, they're also gourmet people, and they will share with you their recipes, and you can collect little stickers from the recipes, and yeah, it's a fundamental part of the game."
"If you want to make it cozier, you want to be more prepared to face the challenges, you can cook, and these dishes will help you to face difficult challenges in your adventure.
How does the cooking system work?
You gather ingredients around the world, the recipes you just mentioned, and then you prepare buffs for your abilities, or is it temporary, is it somehow a way to upgrade your skills permanently?
No, no, it's all temporary, it's like eating that gives you certain characteristics for the moment you eat this dish."
"For example, we have dishes with extra hearts, like temporary extra hearts, we have like armored hearts that are more resistant than the regular hearts, so if you cook these dishes with love, you can get extra things.
How do you cook with love?
It's a minigame, really cute minigame, like steering the pot, and if you want to spend some time steering the pot and cooking with love like our grandmothers do, you will get better dishes, more tasty, and better for your health in the game."
"Fantastic, I just got some almonds before this interview to get my energy, my stamina up, to be able to talk with you.
So what can you tell me about the other side of the game, like the more dungeon crawling or map exploring side of things?
It looks like, you know, A Link to the Past, the perspective, we were talking about this yesterday.
Yeah, it's really similar in that aspect, you will have this open section of the map, we will open the map in different sections at a time, there will be like three biomes very different from each other, and you will have this free will to navigate the map and gather ingredients, make some side quests, make you stronger to reach this final place where you are going to fight a boss, and there you will get this magical power, because this is the story of a magical girl, and this magical girl will get different magical powers every time she faces a villain in a castle that is like a dungeon."
"Like a dungeon, so you explore different biomes, then you unlock powers to unlock a different biome, and then dungeons are pre-bosses.
Yeah, yeah.
That's the structure."
"Yeah, more or less, yeah.
I got that right.
How does this play into the wider Psychotic Universe, in terms of lore and what's going on here?
Yeah, the protagonist, Angie, is a villain that already exists in Colossus Down, so this is like the character arc, like the villain construction of the character of Angie, and how she became the villain she became when you face her in Colossus Down."
"We got the, yeah, the community really tell us that they love her, made a lot of fan art, so we thought that it was a really cool opportunity to explain to the community who she is, and how she gets to the place she gets when you fight her in Colossus Down.
In Colossus Down."
"And what is the status of the project?
I think you have a really cute presentation with a CRTV in the background.
Are you much into the development?
Are you looking for a publisher?
How is it looking?
We are into a year and a half into the development, and we are right now looking for some partner to help us finish the game, because this is a really ambitious project, and we want to make super cool things with it, and yeah, right now we are in this kind of stage that we are showing to the public, and also to publishers."
"Is this a demo, vertical slice?
Yeah, it's kind of something in between, because it's the first time we are not super happy with how the super quality of the demo, so it's not a vertical slice on that side, but we have more content than a regular demo, so it's kind of something in between."
"Fantastic, and are you going to get the rights to the Rolling Stones song?
I hope so, that it's just a name, so we can get it, yeah.
Fantastic, thank you so much for your time, looking forward to learning more in the near future.
Thank you, thank you, see you."
