Back in July, Chroma Squad was successfully Kickstarted. This made me happy as Behold Studios, the company behind the magic, is setting out to do something pretty unique. Chroma Squad is a tactical turn-based game where you manage your set of heroes as well as TV studio. The concept is really quite innovative and I have been wanting to talk to the developers about it. As luck would have it, they had some time to talk with me and I want to thank them for doing the interview and wish them well in finishing the game!
jdodson: The game was successfully Kickstarted last month and was recently Greenlit on Steam, which is pretty awesome. How has development on the game been going? On track for the Kickstarter backer beta in October?
Gui: Well thanks, we were reeeeeally happy and excited with our kickstarter campaign and being greenlit on steam! I believe taking 20 days to answer your interview confirms my point that we are hard working on the game haha! We are making our final adjustments to submit Chroma Squad to IGF so yeah, everything sounds like we'll have a beta late October.
jdodson: Chroma Squad allows you to play though episodes of your show as a way to progress through the game. Curious how many episodes will ship with the core game? Will the game feature a mode to keep going with your show indefinitely?
Gui: A good amount of episodes are definitely one of the great features in Chroma Squad, I can't really say how many will be but there will be a good amount of them, all of them unique. We are planning a really nice and funny way to make the game cycle "infinite", some sort of reboot on your series or who knows? I can't really tell you, otherwise it'll be spoilers.
jdodson: Behold Studios was founded back in 2009 and you went on to make The Grave Digger, Save My Telly and The Knights of Pen and Paper and a few others. How do you look back at the start of the studio and launching your first game to Knights of Pen and Paper and then Chroma Squad?
Gui: We feel that we learned a lot after Knights of Pen and Paper development and we feel that we can make even a better game now with Chroma Squad. We are working our best to make it even better than Knights of Pen and Paper too.
jdodson: One of the Kickstarter Stretch Goals was for the Episode Editor and it wasnât met, but it was very close. I am curious if you have plans to drop the episode editor and open up the Steam Workshop at some point after launch?
Gui: Yes we do have future plans but we first need to ship Chroma Squad haha We didn't drop the idea because it was too good to let it aside and the community loved it so much that we can't really say 'no' since that same community made the development of Chroma Squad available. So maybe after launch? Yeah, we will totally think of that.
jdodson: Rita Repulsa and Lord Zed are iconic Power Ranger arch enemies. Could you give us a preview of the villains we can expect to see in Chroma Squad?
Gui: We want our game to remind us of our childhood and how much fun we had while watching these series (not just power rangers). The arch enemies were evil enough but some of them had their comedy. So we want to make a satire of that. I can't really say who it will be our arch enemy but all I may say is that it's inspired by a real world character.
jdodson: How will chroma key, microphones and camera upgrades affect the in game battles?
Gui: As long as you upgrade or have them, they will provide extra buffs to your party. You will get more audience points for using props beucase it delights your telespectators. So you will have to worry about how your audience is doing instead of just finishing enemies off in a easy way and these props will help you to do it.
jdodson: What suggestions do you have for people wanting to make games? Is there any aspect of making games you would recommend people get into that doesnât have many people doing it?
Gui: This is something I say to everyone, 'the excuse/obstacle is in you', we live in a world that too many people are connected via the internet and too much information is shared. I remember when I was a kid, if I wanted information about something I had to go to the big books or a library and hope to find something related, today you just need to write what you want to find and click on 'search'. So if you don't know how to do it, search for it, if you don't have a place to do it, go to a public cafe, if you don't have a salary, well... get another job that may pay for your bills and do it in your free time. And if I say this is because we've been through all of it and we know that as long as people really want it, people actually can do it.
jdodson: Whatâs the tech you are using for Chroma Squad to get it ported to PC, Mac, Linux, mobile and consoles?
Gui: We are using the same engine of all our previous games, Unity3D.
jdodson: The story in the Chroma Squad Comic book is of Stunt Men working for the âBIG STUDIOâ and decide to strike out and make their own Indie Show. I am curious if the story of the game mirrors Behold Studios experience in the game industry somewhat?
Gui: Haha, I actually never thought about the story being mirrored but somehow I might say that it looks like that for a few of us. It's not like we worked in a previous game company before but some of us had boring/annoying jobs or had to work on terrible time-prize freelances, and etc. So yes, for sure!
jdodson: You mentioned you want to take Chroma Squad to consoles, but it will be a matter of how easy it is to work with manufacturers. Have you talked to any of the consoles about porting the game and have an idea which versions may be a priority? With that, since Chroma Squad is coming to Android devices any thought to an Ouya port?
Gui: All we actually want is to spread our game the furthest we can. First we are heading for the pc (mac/win/linux) versions and then other platforms. We've been trying to reach the big consoles and we really hope to port Chroma Squad like we want. So yeah, we know that it's not simple like "works on android? well then a version of ouya is coming!" because we need to make sure the controller experience should be good but as long as we are heading for consoles, it should just take some time before an Ouya port.
jdodson: Will we see any updates after the official game launch adding new episodes and game options as DLC or expansion?
Gui: Certainly! As long as the community wants it, we will probably do it. Knights of Pen and Paper had almost an year full of patches with quests, items, bugs, features, requests, etc, and we want to do the same with Chroma Squad.
jdodson: For you, whatâs the coolest experience you have had playing Chroma Squad so far?
Gui: I'm in deep love with the episode battles.
jdodson: Thank you for answering my questions, I canât wait to play the game when it drops later this year. Is there anything you want to say before we finish up?
Gui: We love to play our own games after development so I keep asking my teammates if the game is ready because I want to play too. hahah Keep an eye on our facebook page, any announcements (which are not "backers only") will be made there and soon enough we will be all playing it! Thanks a lot for the interview, I had a good time answering the questions.
http://beholdstudios.com.br/
https://www.facebook.com/BeholdStudios
jdodson: The game was successfully Kickstarted last month and was recently Greenlit on Steam, which is pretty awesome. How has development on the game been going? On track for the Kickstarter backer beta in October?
Gui: Well thanks, we were reeeeeally happy and excited with our kickstarter campaign and being greenlit on steam! I believe taking 20 days to answer your interview confirms my point that we are hard working on the game haha! We are making our final adjustments to submit Chroma Squad to IGF so yeah, everything sounds like we'll have a beta late October.
jdodson: Chroma Squad allows you to play though episodes of your show as a way to progress through the game. Curious how many episodes will ship with the core game? Will the game feature a mode to keep going with your show indefinitely?
Gui: A good amount of episodes are definitely one of the great features in Chroma Squad, I can't really say how many will be but there will be a good amount of them, all of them unique. We are planning a really nice and funny way to make the game cycle "infinite", some sort of reboot on your series or who knows? I can't really tell you, otherwise it'll be spoilers.
jdodson: Behold Studios was founded back in 2009 and you went on to make The Grave Digger, Save My Telly and The Knights of Pen and Paper and a few others. How do you look back at the start of the studio and launching your first game to Knights of Pen and Paper and then Chroma Squad?
Gui: We feel that we learned a lot after Knights of Pen and Paper development and we feel that we can make even a better game now with Chroma Squad. We are working our best to make it even better than Knights of Pen and Paper too.
jdodson: One of the Kickstarter Stretch Goals was for the Episode Editor and it wasnât met, but it was very close. I am curious if you have plans to drop the episode editor and open up the Steam Workshop at some point after launch?
Gui: Yes we do have future plans but we first need to ship Chroma Squad haha We didn't drop the idea because it was too good to let it aside and the community loved it so much that we can't really say 'no' since that same community made the development of Chroma Squad available. So maybe after launch? Yeah, we will totally think of that.
jdodson: Rita Repulsa and Lord Zed are iconic Power Ranger arch enemies. Could you give us a preview of the villains we can expect to see in Chroma Squad?
Gui: We want our game to remind us of our childhood and how much fun we had while watching these series (not just power rangers). The arch enemies were evil enough but some of them had their comedy. So we want to make a satire of that. I can't really say who it will be our arch enemy but all I may say is that it's inspired by a real world character.
jdodson: How will chroma key, microphones and camera upgrades affect the in game battles?
Gui: As long as you upgrade or have them, they will provide extra buffs to your party. You will get more audience points for using props beucase it delights your telespectators. So you will have to worry about how your audience is doing instead of just finishing enemies off in a easy way and these props will help you to do it.
jdodson: What suggestions do you have for people wanting to make games? Is there any aspect of making games you would recommend people get into that doesnât have many people doing it?
Gui: This is something I say to everyone, 'the excuse/obstacle is in you', we live in a world that too many people are connected via the internet and too much information is shared. I remember when I was a kid, if I wanted information about something I had to go to the big books or a library and hope to find something related, today you just need to write what you want to find and click on 'search'. So if you don't know how to do it, search for it, if you don't have a place to do it, go to a public cafe, if you don't have a salary, well... get another job that may pay for your bills and do it in your free time. And if I say this is because we've been through all of it and we know that as long as people really want it, people actually can do it.
jdodson: Whatâs the tech you are using for Chroma Squad to get it ported to PC, Mac, Linux, mobile and consoles?
Gui: We are using the same engine of all our previous games, Unity3D.
jdodson: The story in the Chroma Squad Comic book is of Stunt Men working for the âBIG STUDIOâ and decide to strike out and make their own Indie Show. I am curious if the story of the game mirrors Behold Studios experience in the game industry somewhat?
Gui: Haha, I actually never thought about the story being mirrored but somehow I might say that it looks like that for a few of us. It's not like we worked in a previous game company before but some of us had boring/annoying jobs or had to work on terrible time-prize freelances, and etc. So yes, for sure!
jdodson: You mentioned you want to take Chroma Squad to consoles, but it will be a matter of how easy it is to work with manufacturers. Have you talked to any of the consoles about porting the game and have an idea which versions may be a priority? With that, since Chroma Squad is coming to Android devices any thought to an Ouya port?
Gui: All we actually want is to spread our game the furthest we can. First we are heading for the pc (mac/win/linux) versions and then other platforms. We've been trying to reach the big consoles and we really hope to port Chroma Squad like we want. So yeah, we know that it's not simple like "works on android? well then a version of ouya is coming!" because we need to make sure the controller experience should be good but as long as we are heading for consoles, it should just take some time before an Ouya port.
jdodson: Will we see any updates after the official game launch adding new episodes and game options as DLC or expansion?
Gui: Certainly! As long as the community wants it, we will probably do it. Knights of Pen and Paper had almost an year full of patches with quests, items, bugs, features, requests, etc, and we want to do the same with Chroma Squad.
jdodson: For you, whatâs the coolest experience you have had playing Chroma Squad so far?
Gui: I'm in deep love with the episode battles.
jdodson: Thank you for answering my questions, I canât wait to play the game when it drops later this year. Is there anything you want to say before we finish up?
Gui: We love to play our own games after development so I keep asking my teammates if the game is ready because I want to play too. hahah Keep an eye on our facebook page, any announcements (which are not "backers only") will be made there and soon enough we will be all playing it! Thanks a lot for the interview, I had a good time answering the questions.
http://beholdstudios.com.br/
https://www.facebook.com/BeholdStudios
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I am looking forward to this game!
Yeah, me too!
The game play looks very similar to Card Hunter... so I will be hooked.