Month: April 2016

Clippings

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With Dark Souls III out to rave reviews, Eurogamer has analysed the lore of Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. Interesting read for series fans.

Meanwhile, Cold War board game Twilight Struggle has been ported to Steam. The original game is highly regarded and so far, the PC port has been technically solid. If time permits, this is one game I’d like to explore further.

In other news:

 

Clippings: A Return to Mass Effect

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The link of the week is Shamus Young’s incredibly detailed retrospective of the Mass Effect series – 41 parts and counting. Even with my limited experience of the series, I found it fascinating; just the two introductory posts (the history of Bioware and the difference between “details” and “drama”-oriented science fiction) could stand alone by themselves. Enjoy!

In other news, here is an interesting interview with Pixar president Ed Catmull on managing a creative organisation, while balancing innovation and risk.

Arcadian Atlas Q&A, with Taylor Bair

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Screen Shot 2016-03-31 at 7.50.35 AM copyUpdate: Arcadian Atlas‘ Kickstarter campaign is now live and can be accessed here.

Arcadian Atlas is an upcoming indie tactical RPG inspired by two of the greats – Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. Read on for a Q&A with Taylor Bair, one half of the brother-and-sister team behind the game:

 

Hello, and welcome to the site! Please introduce us to yourselves and Twin Otter Studios.

I’m Taylor, the one typically found at the computer or walking my dog as I think of story details or gameplay tweaks for the game.

And Becca is the one with her graphic tablet working feverishly on art assets for our game.

We’re brother and sister living in Dallas and Austin, TX respectively, and we make up Twin Otter Studios.

 

Your current project, Arcadian Atlas, is a tactical RPG inspired by Yasumi Matsuno’s 1990s classics, Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. (The art and narrative themes — ”the choices people make in pursuit of the things they love, and the havoc it wreaks on a kingdom” — give me a particularly strong Tactics Ogre vibe.) What drew you to these titles? Were there any other notable inspirations?

We have a lot of inspirations, probably too many to count, though we definitely played Final Fantasy Tactics like crazy growing up. As kids we were pretty steeped in video games, particularly classic RPGs like Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, and Super Mario RPG.

Something about investing in a character is probably what drew us to RPGs most. We love characters, and our story in Arcadian Atlas is very character centered – about how people become saints or monsters because of the choices they make and the ripple effect that has on Arcadia.

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