The lovely Kynseed is finally out of early access and available on PC, Switch 2, Xbox and Playstation.
If you’ve never heard of the game then I recommend giving my full Kynseed review a quick read, but in summary it’s a great mix of life sim and RPG elements from PixelCount Studios, which was formed by former Fable developers. The Fable DNA is everywhere in the game, from the cheeky English humour to the relationship and business mechanics, and it all comes together to make something rather compelling.
We were lucky enough to have a few of our Kynseed questions answered by some of the team at PixelCount Studios, including:
- Charlie Edwards – Co Founder/ Design Director
- Neal Whitehead – Co Founder/ Technical Director
How much has community feedback since the PC launch helped to shape the console versions?
NW – “Community feedback has been absolutely vital in shaping the console release. With a sandbox game of this scale, our internal team can test many scenarios, but hundreds of thousands of players spending countless hours in the world reveal how the game truly feels. Their input directly guided our priorities, including adding a stronger sense of purpose and ownership through new challenges and customisation. Countless balance adjustments, improvements and bug fixes also came directly from the invaluable support of our community.”
I love the writing in Kynseed, particularly the proverbs and item descriptions. How important was it to get the English sense of humour into everything, and is it harder to do so purely through text?
CE – “A decision was made early on to cover up my amateur writing skills with relentless puns, wordplay and pop-culture references. We think Kynseed may even hold the unofficial world record for the most pop culture references in a game!
The Proverbs were introduced to add a sense of fairytale charm and further immerse players in the superstitions and lore of this intriguing world. Plus, they are hugely fun to write.
The aim of the writing was to evoke a range of emotions without becoming a twee cliché. Darkness is woven through the humour, but things never become depressing. The people of Quill live lives filled with simple joys. There may be hidden dangers and Fae constantly watching, but they couldn’t care less, as long as they have a nice pie and a warm toilet seat.”
What other games helped inspire Kynseed?
CE – “We wanted to carry on our Lionhead heritage, having worked on all the Fable games, and we didn’t want the acorn to fall too far from the tree. To mix things up a bit, I was addicted to Fantasy Life at the time and borrowed its idea of having multiple jobs, each with its own little crafting minigame. Ultima VII is my favourite RPG of all time, so its living world, with NPCs following their own routines, was also a huge inspiration. Lastly, Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale was a source of ideas for the shop-owning gameplay loop.”
Quill is packed full of lore, do you have any favourite examples that you particularly love?
NW – “I particularly like that all the superstitions and strange customs are true – that these things really do happen. When Quillians die, they believe they are reincarnated as something in the natural world, and they are, whether as a butterfly, a rose, a willow tree or a spider.
I also like the rather dark fact that the immortal cows are actually people who wronged the Fae and were condemned to spend eternity chewing grass and providing milk. Actually, that doesn’t seem like such a bad punishment!”
Are the enemies in Kynseed inspired by English folklore?
CE – “The monsters of Quill are heavily influenced by British and Irish folklore. When I was young, I used to pore over books such as the Usborne Supernatural Guides and Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain. As cool as high fantasy and orcs are, it felt more fitting to draw upon creatures from the folklore of the British Isles to complement the game’s Fae themes.
We think our artist, Gary, did an exceptional job of bringing these ideas to life and creating a menagerie of unique monsters and creepy folklore characters.”
Kynseed is out now on PC and console.
