Chasm is an awesome new "Metroidvania" 2D fantasy RPG that is currently on Kickstarter. It is a really interesting mashup of 2D RPG side-scrollery and as such wanted to talk to Jame Petruzzi of Discord Games about it. I want to thank James for taking the time to talk with me and am looking forward to the new beta that should be coming out very soon!
jdodson: What prompted you to decide that you wanted to strike out on your own and bring this game to the world? It seems like you have done everything you could to bring the game to this point, did you consider an eventual Kickstarter or did that evolve later?
James: I was pretty much done with the corporate world, and wanted to do something on my own. Luckily we did pretty well off Take Arms, so I was able to self fund everything so far, and prove that concept of Chasm will work. I knew there was no way Iād be able to fund the whole game, but I took a risk in making a full-on playable prototype of the first area that could be used for either a publisher or Kickstarter. After we spoke with some publishers it became clear we were better off to stick to getting this thing done ourselves.
jdodson: I wonder what you plan to add to the game before its final launch? Will more NPCs be added or the town get a bit larger?
James: Weāll probably end up re-imagining a lot of the world. Everything so far is a rough draft just to get an idea of how everything is going to work. So after the Kickstarter, we plan to take a fresh look on the whole thing and redesign what we need to before getting started on the real deal.
jdodson: I know this might seem odd given the games name and all, but do you anticipate any kind of overworld exploration and adventuring for Chasm? Iāll admit, iām a sucker for forests.
James: Weāve got you covered with the templeās Overgrown Gardens! Your adventure will be strictly subterranean, but once you breach the temple far under the ground, expect to find some weird stuff!
jdodson: Recently I have been thinking a lot about what kind of super ability would be awesome to have. I am set on some kind of cross between Nightcrawler and the guys from Jumper. Its hard to set in stone though as I am not sure how they donāt materialize inside a dumpster or person that just happens to be standing or walking where you want to go. I am not sure this is a question.
James: We love acrobatics, so weāll be focused on bringing awesome special abilities to your character like double jumping, wall jumping, ledge grabbing, and more. These abilities will help you traverse to previous inaccessible areas ala Metroid.
jdodson: Ianuarius has made some pretty awesome weapon art on the forums. Have you considered using any of the fan art in the final game at this point or are you pretty locked in with your current art direction?
James: While we love fan art, weāll be sticking to 100% in-house assets for the game. Not only perfectly matching the art style, but thereās also the questions of rights, credit. etc. that complicate things. Iām sure weāll see plenty of fan mods though!
jdodson: I played through the Chasm demo and really enjoyed the challenge. I recently saw that you are adding difficulty levels to the game and I am curious how they stack up with the current demo difficulty. Is the current demo difficulty what will become normal?
James: Itās more game modes than different difficulties in the traditional sense. Hardcore mode brings permadeath and scoring to the game, while the Time Trial only scores you on total time to reach the end of the demo. Everything about the game otherwise is still the same.
jdodson: Will I be able to be killed by a Grue? Frankly I missed the whole Zork thing and feel a bit left out. Actually playing Zork is entirely out of the question!
James: Haha, we will probably add a bunch of nods to older games like Zork, Rogue, and the rest.
jdodson: I am curious what kind of unique weapons we will see in Chasm? Will any of these new items take the player beyond the Sword and magic tone? For instance, if one found a buried spaceship one may find some special gear not made by the town Blacksmith :D
James: Weāll definitely have unique item drops from enemies and other creatures that canāt be obtained anywhere else. As to the specifics, canāt comment yet ;)
jdodson: Thanks for answering my questions! I wonder if there is anything you want to leave us with before we wrap things up?
James: Please check out both our Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns! We really need help now to secure development for the rest of the game, and doing what we love most!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/discordgames/chasm
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=116879147
jdodson: What prompted you to decide that you wanted to strike out on your own and bring this game to the world? It seems like you have done everything you could to bring the game to this point, did you consider an eventual Kickstarter or did that evolve later?
James: I was pretty much done with the corporate world, and wanted to do something on my own. Luckily we did pretty well off Take Arms, so I was able to self fund everything so far, and prove that concept of Chasm will work. I knew there was no way Iād be able to fund the whole game, but I took a risk in making a full-on playable prototype of the first area that could be used for either a publisher or Kickstarter. After we spoke with some publishers it became clear we were better off to stick to getting this thing done ourselves.
jdodson: I wonder what you plan to add to the game before its final launch? Will more NPCs be added or the town get a bit larger?
James: Weāll probably end up re-imagining a lot of the world. Everything so far is a rough draft just to get an idea of how everything is going to work. So after the Kickstarter, we plan to take a fresh look on the whole thing and redesign what we need to before getting started on the real deal.
jdodson: I know this might seem odd given the games name and all, but do you anticipate any kind of overworld exploration and adventuring for Chasm? Iāll admit, iām a sucker for forests.
James: Weāve got you covered with the templeās Overgrown Gardens! Your adventure will be strictly subterranean, but once you breach the temple far under the ground, expect to find some weird stuff!
jdodson: Recently I have been thinking a lot about what kind of super ability would be awesome to have. I am set on some kind of cross between Nightcrawler and the guys from Jumper. Its hard to set in stone though as I am not sure how they donāt materialize inside a dumpster or person that just happens to be standing or walking where you want to go. I am not sure this is a question.
James: We love acrobatics, so weāll be focused on bringing awesome special abilities to your character like double jumping, wall jumping, ledge grabbing, and more. These abilities will help you traverse to previous inaccessible areas ala Metroid.
jdodson: Ianuarius has made some pretty awesome weapon art on the forums. Have you considered using any of the fan art in the final game at this point or are you pretty locked in with your current art direction?
James: While we love fan art, weāll be sticking to 100% in-house assets for the game. Not only perfectly matching the art style, but thereās also the questions of rights, credit. etc. that complicate things. Iām sure weāll see plenty of fan mods though!
jdodson: I played through the Chasm demo and really enjoyed the challenge. I recently saw that you are adding difficulty levels to the game and I am curious how they stack up with the current demo difficulty. Is the current demo difficulty what will become normal?
James: Itās more game modes than different difficulties in the traditional sense. Hardcore mode brings permadeath and scoring to the game, while the Time Trial only scores you on total time to reach the end of the demo. Everything about the game otherwise is still the same.
jdodson: Will I be able to be killed by a Grue? Frankly I missed the whole Zork thing and feel a bit left out. Actually playing Zork is entirely out of the question!
James: Haha, we will probably add a bunch of nods to older games like Zork, Rogue, and the rest.
jdodson: I am curious what kind of unique weapons we will see in Chasm? Will any of these new items take the player beyond the Sword and magic tone? For instance, if one found a buried spaceship one may find some special gear not made by the town Blacksmith :D
James: Weāll definitely have unique item drops from enemies and other creatures that canāt be obtained anywhere else. As to the specifics, canāt comment yet ;)
jdodson: Thanks for answering my questions! I wonder if there is anything you want to leave us with before we wrap things up?
James: Please check out both our Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns! We really need help now to secure development for the rest of the game, and doing what we love most!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/discordgames/chasm
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=116879147
