This beautifully-looking RTS will be published by Kepler Interactive next year, but here we already got an in-depth overview on its whole proposal, lore, and fresh mechanics.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the Barcelona Game Fest and this is the end of day one and I'm taking a look at a game that I wanted to check out before but I couldn't which is called Blightstone. It's an RTS and it's looking fantastic, so congratulations on that Thank you What would you say would be the elevator pitch that describes this game?
Blightstone is a dark fantasy tactical RPG, inspired in old games like Xcom and more actual ones like Darkest Dungeon Main feature is we don't use a grid and we allow players to interact with almost any object you can find in the scenarios You mentioned Xcom, which I like, I like Fire Emblem as well, but it's not on a grid, but it's turn-based and then you keep progressing of your characters throughout the story?
Yeah, the main thing is you're doing battles, you handle a group of three, four heroes so you gotta use them, they have different skills, they can, for example, you can pick up things, throw them, explode barrels use magic and raw force to beat the demons, so you have to progress The farther you go, you start unlocking new skills, you can unlock them, stat increases and so on so forth With permanent death?
Yeah, for sure Of course, it's a staple of the genre And what can you tell me, these are the inspirations, but of course this is not sci-fi or futuristic, as you mentioned it's dark fantasy So what can you tell me about the lore, about the stories you're gonna tell with these characters in this setting?
Yeah, the main thing is that demons have taken over the world Okay, again?
Yeah, again And there is a wizard called Xander that wants to save the world So he picks up a group of adventurers and then helps them to go to the main source of the demons So every time the heroes fall, he's a chronomancer, so he can rewind, go back in time So he picks up the heroes, goes back in time and it starts all over again So you always go with the same group of heroes But they don't remember a thing, they always think it's the first time They start anew So we mentioned permanent death before, if you lose somebody, you can also do this to sort of save them, or not?
In the run, when you start it, once they die, they die So you cannot recover them until you start the run again Start over, alright And mechanically, is there something that makes this stand out compared to other references in the genre?
Is there something special about, I don't know, combat, or the way you mentioned character progression Or the way you interact with the world, something that you are proud of?
Yeah, the main appealing of the combat system is that there are a lot of interactions between almost anything So what we wanted to achieve is that you could think like you were there For example, you see a rock that you could pick it up and throw it So you can push people, you can use magic as telekinesis Also move things, you can throw people into holes We want to have that emerging gameplay that the longer you play, you keep on discovering things that, of course, you can throw things And that kind of stuff, but most of the times in this kind of games, in the tactical games, the things you can do are very..."
"Are very restricted Are very restricted And then you have the greed, but you remove the greed, and then you make us also interact with the environment Which is very interesting I know you're a programmer, but I also wanted to ask you about the art, because I think the art is fantastic So anything that you can tell me about the art in this game?
Yeah, art, the scenario, mostly everything is in 3D, besides the characters Characters are done in 2D, but they have their own 3D models to do the shadows and that stuff So we have that kind of... We merge them, the 3D and 2D Yeah, pretty much it's... Yeah And the status of the game, I mean, it's pretty much... It looks very well finished So why can't you tell me about that, about potential publisher and about a release window?
Yeah, I'd say we're in final stages of the game, we're going into early access next month, most likely If everything goes right We're working with Kepler as main investors, and we also work with them for the marketing And that's it, we're mostly polishing the game, adding content, bug fixing And you're aiming PC for now, I guess?
Yeah, for now we're only doing PC, but we'll be doing also consoles And what is the Blightstone?
What is the Blightstone?
You'll have to play too Yeah, you'll have to find out by yourself Thank you so much for your time, enjoy the show Thank you"