Curse of the Deadwood is a twin-stick shooter with co-op, about an inventor-golem duo. We talked to devs Steamroller Studios to study extra.

Curse of the Deadwood launched on July twenty eighth this 12 months, presenting a narrative of friendship between a woodling inventor and an enormous stone golem. Together, the 2 should fend off picket zombies, meet the characters of the land, and study new abilities to match your playstyle. The recreation is co-op oriented, through which one participant can play every of the protagonist associates as you’re employed collectively to fend off the clacketing enemies.

We talked to developer Steamroller Studios earlier than the sport got here out, to study extra about its improvement and design.

First, inform us about your self and Steamroller Studios. How did the studio come to be based, and the way has your journey been up thus far?

We began Steamroller Studios about 8 years in the past with simply myself, and my two companions Keith and Jalil. I had a design enterprise that I offered, Keith stop his job at WETA and Jalil stop his job at DreamWorks. We pooled collectively our life financial savings and began engaged on our ardour venture full-time.

We launched a profitable Kickstarter however rapidly realized making a giant recreation takes some huge cash. So we leveraged our connections within the animation trade to start out taking up contract work so we may preserve the sport funded.

Fast ahead 8 years and Steamroller now has a tremendous group of virtually 200 artists, builders, and coordinators. We’ve by no means stopped engaged on Curse of the Deadwood, however we did study lots via its lengthy improvement course of. I’m tremendous pleased with our entire group for the sport we’ve made and I can’t look ahead to the world to play it.

Set the scene for us. Who can we play as, and what are we doing?

It’s a twin-stick shooter the place you play two characters directly. Lathe, who’s a teenage Woodling and avid inventor, and his pal Roguard, an enormous stone golem. Lathe rides on Roguard’s again and so they work collectively to kill picket zombies known as “Deadwood”.

Lathe handles all of the long-range fight with a bunch of enjoyable weapons you possibly can mod, and Roguard takes care of locomotion and close-quarters fight. Some Deadwood can solely be killed by Lathe, and a few can solely be killed by Roguard.

We even have a neighborhood co-op mode that lets every participant assume management of 1 character, which is a extremely enjoyable method to play the sport. It was additionally an vital characteristic for us to incorporate because the theme of the sport is friendship.

What are among the attention-grabbing issues we’d discover on the planet of Knottington?

Knottington is stuffed with all types of enjoyable and quirky characters who assist advance the story. The world is stuffed with fairly a little bit of lore, which actually helps fill out the world constructing, however none of that’s important to take pleasure in the primary story. You may discover off the vital path to search out uncommon powerups to switch your weapons and high off your provide of ammo (or amber in our recreation)

What have been the influences behind Curse of the Deadwood, each in gameplay and design?

Quite a number of of us are kids of the 80’s. And in case you take a look at the cartoons from that point they weren’t afraid to have a little bit of a scary edge to them. That’s one thing we tried to seize with our world. Tim Burton is one other affect. Even although it is a kid-friendly recreation, there are picket zombies in it so it’s not fairly the identical as leaping on mushrooms.

We would say “Creepy but cute” lots once we have been designing. From a gameplay perspective, we’re big followers of dual stick shooters and wished to place a little bit of a twist on the style. We’re additionally big followers of story and so it was vital for us to weave a story via a fairly motion packed recreation.

Was there anyone problem that stood out when creating the sport? How have been you capable of overcome it?

Anyone who’s in recreation improvement will inform you there are all the time a ton of issues to beat. It’s simply a part of the method. I feel for us the largest hurdle was how one can finance the sport in our personal power. We basically solved this drawback by creating a complete animation studio simply so we may make our ardour venture with out having a writer telling us what to do.

Can Curse of the Deadwood be performed solo, or is it co-op solely?

You can play both approach and they’re each lots of enjoyable. Nothing can evaluate to taking part in with a pal, however taking part in single-player lets you expertise all the things for your self. So they each have their deserves.

How difficult is the sport when in comparison with its genre-mates? Is it appropriate for gamers new to twin-stick shooters?

We have three issue settings. I might counsel the simple mode for anybody new to twin-stick shooters. My children play on this setting and it nonetheless provides them a problem however is far more forgiving. The regular setting might be what most individuals who’ve performed a twin-stick earlier than will need to go together with. The exhausting setting is simply that, very exhausting so I’d solely advocate that for the extra hardcore gamers.

How lengthy is a typical playthrough of the sport?

It will actually rely in your playstyle and the way a lot exploring you do. But I’d say someplace between 8-12 hours for many gamers.

Curse of the Deadwood is out now on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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