Interviews

The Firing Line: 5 questions for Rodeo Games on Warhammer Quest

Dungeon masters

The Firing Line: 5 questions for Rodeo Games on Warhammer Quest
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iOS
| Warhammer Quest

Rodeo Games's Warhammer Quest is a digital remastering of a classic Games Workshop boardgame. And, yep, it's now out for iPad and iPhone.

We really like it. To prove it, we handed it a Silver Award earlier today, and said that "from the dank corridors you'll skulk along to the hideous beasts you'll bury your ever improving weaponry into, Warhammer Quest feels worthy of its name."

The game has been a long time coming, but we always knew it was in safe hands with Rodeo Games (its previous strategy title Hunters 2 also received a Silver Award).

We got a chance to chat to Ben Murch from Rodeo Games to find out what dungeon newcomers can expect in Warhammer Quest, what it was like working with Games Workshop, and what the most difficult part of making this new game was.

Pocket Gamer: What can newcomers to the boardgame genre expect in Warhammer Quest?

Ben Murch: Warhammer Quest was a tabletop game created by Games Workshop in the mid-'90s.

It had the trappings of a computer game experience. Randomly generated dungeons, set rules for enemies spawning / attacking, random events. Which was perfect for us when designing our take on the game.

At its heart, then, the game is all about exploring dungeons with a group of up to four warriors, battling enemies and looting treasures.

The meta-game within that experience centres on travelling from settlement to settlement in the Warhammer world, levelling-up your heroes, buying loot, and traversing the land.

How closely have you worked with Games Workshop on the game?

Incredibly closely. Games Workshop has been really great to work with. Not only are the Games Workshop guys a thoroughly nice team, but they're also the best lore-masters you could ask for.

The Warhammer universe is huge, so naturally there were one or two things we weren't too sure on. Whenever that happened, Games Workshop was always there to steer us back on track.

What was the hardest part about porting the Warhammer Quest experience to touchscreen devices?

It's not a particularly sexy answer, but getting the UI right was a massive part of development this time around. On Hunters 2, it was the talent trees. On Warhammer Quest, it was the UI.

You see, there are so many actions to do and so much info to take in that the player can get easily overwhelmed or get lost. We went through countless white boxed iterations before ending up with our final version.

You've mentioned implementing multiplayer in Warhammer Quest post-launch. What kind of timeframe are you looking at for that?

No timeframe. We have a very loose plan for how we want to support the game in the future. We'd like multiplayer to be part of that future. It all depends on lots and lots of factors.

What's the best bit of advice you can give to iOS adventurers before they set forth on their quest?

Stick close together and make sure you have enough healing potions and bandages to sink a ship. Staying alive in dungeons is the key to success.

Focus on killing enemies one at a time if you can, and try to get into a position where your deathblow will strike multiple targets.

Oh, and protect your wizard. He's a bit fragile, but can really turn the tide when your back's against the wall.

Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.