In terms of development time, an ambitious project like Crowntakers could have proven a big undertaking for a small team. When you find a way to optimize some move, you want to apply it every time you can on your next attempt.” “I think this is one of the reasons you keep trying to reach the end of the game. Rather that putting players off, Monnereau believes that this trial-and-error dynamic actually keeps players coming back for more, as they are continually learning rather than being driven. So while the paths are well-trodden, there's a unique lesson to each death.Įvery time your character dies you take control of the next in the family line. “I spent so much time playing tutorials on my tablet that I just wanted to play and discover things by myself.”Įxperiencing and learning firsthand is a core tenet of the Crowntakers experience, as every time your character dies you take control of the next in the family line. We wanted you to figure out how to defeat enemies, optimize battles, and not simply give you all the tricks to do so via a tutorial,” he said. “We focused on exploration and mastery of mechanics. Over-emphasis on tutorials and hand-holding was one aspect of mobile game design that particularly irked Monnereau, and the uncompromising toughness of Crowntakers is, in part, a reaction against this. With it being designed as a tablet game first and foremost, Crowntakers had to justify its existence by being notably different to the pre-existing mobile experiences disliked by the team. If you play it on a computer you should feel this in the UI experience.” But we designed it with tablet in mind from the very beginning of the project. “This is easier to achieve on Steam because of their forums, instant-patching system, etc. “Our strategy was to release it on Steam first because we wanted to evaluate the audience and be able to react quickly to feedback,” he revealed. The uncompromising toughness of Crowntakers is, in part, a reaction against mobile tutorials. So, we decided to develop a game we would personally play on our tablets.”Ĭrowntakers was released on Steam before it arrived on mobile platforms, but Monnereau is keen to emphasise that this was for infrastructural reasons primarily, and that it remains every inch a mobile game by design. “We were a bit disappointed by this conclusion. “Back in those days we all owned a tablet at the studio, but we didn’t play games on them because the majority of free-to-play experiences just weren't our kind of games - in 2013, at least.” After their release we felt strong enough to start developing more personal games, and with Crowntakers we had a big ambition,” he said. Project Manager Emmanuel Monnereau says it all began with a rather personal vision. It's also, perhaps more significantly, the first game to be published by Kalypso Media Mobile, the German PC game publisher's premium-focused mobile division.īut what were the circumstances under which the deal was struck, and how did Crowntakers evolve to become the game we know today? Crowntakers isn't the longest game, but what's there offers hours and hours of replayability.Crowntakers is a turn-based strategy game from Bulwark Studios, a small studio based in Angoulême, France. Even better, you can extend the fun by buying an additional (and, at $2.99, reasonably priced) chapter. You'll start to see the repetitive bits as opportunities to improve and appreciate the many unexpected happenings on the randomly generated maps. And once you get the hang of the turn-based combat, battles are fun, dynamic, and sometimes downright nail-biting. Once you get over the initial difficulty, the game takes off, sending interesting landmarks, useful loot, and colorful characters your way. But if you can learn from your mistakes, you're in for a lot of fun. Still, getting to the good stuff takes time - more time than some gamers might want to spend.īottom line: If you're rash or thoughtless, Crowntakers will punish you. Easy difficulty softens the blow somewhat by letting you keep the experience you've gained in previous games, thus making progress easier the more times you play. If you die, you start over again from the beginning. Normal difficulty (the "true" experience, according to in-game text) only allows you one life per game. This fun little game mixes role-playing elements and light strategy to give fantasy fans a chance to test their mettle - and their patience.
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