Interview: Crownstone Survival dev team talks flipping the script on the Arthurian legend, and the distinct pixel-art style of this upcoming strategy sim
The Crownstone Survival team shares insights on their upcoming pixel-art strategy sim
Tencent has a whole bunch of exciting new stuff planned for players in the next few weeks, and one of them is the pixel-art strategy sim Crownstone Survival! Thanks to a recent trip to Tencent HQ in Shenzhen, China, I got the chance to sit down with the devs to chat a little bit about the game, its King Arthur inspirations, and what you should be looking forward to in the upcoming adventure.
Interestingly enough, I played Crownstone Survival as part of my Ahead of the Game series at Pocket Gamer without realising at first that this was under Level Infinite (and I didn't know this game would be featured here on this trip!). I love the visuals first and foremost. What do you think sets Crownstone Survival apart from others in the genre?
Yeah, as you said, first of all, it's the visuals, the graphics. We chose the pixel style, and we found that a lot of players, especially the casual players, find this pixel art really interesting. And for some people our age, we played a lot of console games back in the day that were made of pixel art, so it may make players feel a little bit of nostalgia.
And the second thing is that our gameplay is very compatible with different kinds of playstyles. Even if you are a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer, you can still find a lot of very good experiences in our game. We try to keep the balance between casual players and hardcore players.
That's interesting because for me, I'm not really a super hardcore strategy gamer - that's probably why the visuals appealed to me. I also like that it's in portrait mode.Yes, exactly.
So, one of the things that caught my attention was the premise, the story, because it's like a retelling of the classic King Arthur story. But then when they pulled the sword from the stone, it unleashed a curse, which is very interesting. I've never heard that version of the story before. So what was the inspiration behind that?We got our inspiration from King Arthur's background story because at first we were trying to make an original story, but we found that it was a little bit difficult for casual players or for players who don't want to dive too much into the story to get to know the whole picture. So we figured it might be easier for us to retell some form of fairy tale or legend to help players get into the story more easily.
And as for the curse, we thought we needed some kind of crisis in our opening scene for this world, and we found this curse very interesting. We actually got inspiration from this visual we saw before, about a little man holding a torch. He was exploring the land when he came upon a petrified stone, and when he purified the stone, a human jumped out. We saw this in a short video online and found it very interesting!
That's kind of funny! But apart from the story, actually, one of the things I also noticed is the battle outside of the wall because, for me, it feels very much like Vampire Survivors, with all of these enemies suddenly rushing at you, which I really like. I know that you said you're trying to make it more appealing to casual gamers and that you want to simplify things. But I find it interesting that you chose to have the battle play out like this, because in the genre, it's usually turn-based, right? Was that a conscious decision?Yeah, we wanted the players to feel like they're really powerful, like they'll feel very secure with all these heroes protecting their home. So we wanted to create a scene where a lot of enemies come towards you, and you only need one tap to unleash a very powerful skill and repel them all. We wanted to create this experience.
So far, from what I've played, I think you can, like, summon a meteor and then it falls and defeats everyone. It did make me feel very powerful!Yes! (laughs)
But I guess I'd like to ask you guys about the early access so far. So how has the response been during the early access phase with the players?Actually, it depends.
It depends? (laughs)Yeah, it depends. To be honest, it depends! (laughs) I think for the audiences who haven't played this genre before, they think the experience is very good because they haven't been exposed to this genre before. But for those core users, they might think, "Oh, again, you're too casual. I think the events and the activities in the game aren't enough." So, we are still trying to balance the requirements of the two audiences.
So would you say your focus is more on the more casual players, or is it more on the hardcore players?I think it's dynamic. It's dynamic; it depends on data. For the early access phase, we haven't collected enough data yet, but we're trying to please every player, and right now, we're trying to make a lot more interesting events for those who want to spend more time in our game, for those hardcore gamers, as well as for those who put a limited amount of time into our game. We want them to have the same kind of experience, so it's a challenge, and we're trying to do our best.
I guess that segues into my next question, which you've already kind of answered: what are your biggest challenges so far?Yes, balancing the different types of players' requirements.
Is there a target launch window?Late October.
Oh wow - that's very, very soon! I didn't realise that. But no exact date yet?Yes! (laughs) No exact date yet, though.
Well, I look forward to that, definitely. For you personally, though, what would you say is your favourite aspect or feature of the game?It would probably be the characters. And the second would be the tower defence - the battles outside the wall. Then, the art style - this is a big feature of our game, because we think this is the first pixel-art style in this genre.
I guess that's true - I did mention that I don't think I've ever played anything that looks like this before in this genre. Now, what do you personally want players to look forward to the most?I would say the battles that they'll experience in the later gameplay, forming alliances with each other and having great epic battles on the battlefield. And also how players can experience more of the tower defence, the battles beyond the wall, and experience more challenges and different heroes' skills and features.
By the way, are there more pets coming as well? Like the cute dog?Yeah, we see that a lot of players like the dog. We'll consider it!
Cool! Then I guess the last question is: do you guys have any message to the players?Download our game…or you'll regret it! (laughs)
That sounds like a threat! (laughs) But I like the spirit!No (laughs), but we hope that our players will enjoy their first pixel simulation strategy game!
