With ASTROBOTANICA just launching its Kickstarter, it seemed like a great time to sit down with Space Goblin Studio Game Director, Arkadiusz Woźniak to discuss how things are going.
Woźniak has a long history in the games industry, having worked on titles like Dying Light and Green Hell, so we chatted about all manner of things. From what it’s like going from developing a game like that with Techland, to the early access and Kickstarter ideals behind ASTROBOTANICA. We chatted about the early access plans, community feedback, rewards, funding, and how things might evolve along the way.
The studio says that the game will be in early access “one to two years”. How do you calculate this? Is it based on scope of the game, experience in development, or all of these factors?
Probably a bit of everything. There’s some experience, as the previous big project I worked on, Green Hell, had been in Early Access for more than a year. But there’s only so much we can plan ahead and in advance. In essence, once we have released and community participation will kick in, changes are not excluded. Quite the contrary. We will only release, when “community-approved” for quality, size, and overall satisfaction that the game is the best it can be.
What challenges come with releasing a game in early access. Do you worry about things like player retention?
There are many “key challenges”, but definitely the biggest is with respect to the game design. To develop and polish a core gameplay loop that will get players to stay in the game for a few hours, is the key challenge we must deliver, the rest may happen. If the game isn’t engaging from a game design with a strong gameplay loop, nothing else matters since you build upon that foundation.
How important is community feedback to the development of the title?
It’s actually the core reason we want to release in Early Access, and not work silently for a couple of more years. I don’t want to sound trite, but games are for gamers. How else can we know what they like or not, until we let many people play and exchange thoughts? I gather some game studios may think they know exactly what players want, but that’s not us. And it’s not to say that we’ll implement any single thought or idea. Many will be opposing, but that’s exactly why we need a community; to discuss and decide together.
How do you come up with the ideas for Kickstarter rewards?
At first we planned to offer a physical item, be it merch, or a figurine, or something similar. There are still these concepts and even prototypes stored for later! But eventually, since the game has such an open structure, and can evolve in many directions, we came up with digital goods only. They are in two groups: one are various artifacts for those wanting to get the most from the game for their customization, and the second, which gives the opportunity to make a huge mark in the game. We’re so eager to see how this will land with backers.
How important is the Kickstarter funding to the development of the game?
Any contribution will help a lot, even if it’s not monetary but just via sharing or commenting. Successfully funding the project will not only allow us to best set direction, but also to accelerate the work, and even, make the game bigger and with more features, if stretch goals are also met.
Some games change huge aspects like art style during early access, do you have plans for how Astrobotanica might evolve in this way?
The game may indeed change a lot, but not so much in terms of art style. This particular aspect has matured after a long period of iteration. Since it influences everything on every level, from level design to items, to interface, and to social media activity, it’s probably the one thing that we’d like to keep as it is.
How do you plan to balance the survival elements, such as managing stamina? It’s a fine line between frustration and fun often!
That’s very true. Anything that may work on paper, or even in a prototype, may not survive when met with a diverse, innovative and demanding community of gamers. That’s why we need Early Access, to iterate, iterate, iterate.
In terms of scale, how big a world are you aiming to create?
The world is composed of islands, each 250-750 acres, or, 1-3 km2. How to travel between them will be one of the mysteries to solve in the game. The EA is planned to release with three islands, each with a unique style and feel achieved via unique art direction and audio design. I can’t say definitively how many more islands we may add in Early Access, but probably thinking towards a dozen.
How different does development feel to titles like Dying Light, and the like?
Completely different! Theme, art style, genre, game scope, team size, even the engine–nothing is the same. Except the level of excitement. We are full of hope and anticipation that ASTROBOTANICA continues to be as fun, rewarding and satisfying to create as it has been for us for the last 18 months.
How grand are the plans for Astrobotanica. Would we ever see a console version, if things go according to plan?
Nothing is granted, in gamedev or otherwise, so anything I say may sound too forward. And is of course conditional; many things will need to happen, click and fall into place before we proceed any further than the Early Access version. If the game is well received, we’ll definitely roll out to non-PC platforms. Consoles seem like an obvious choice as a port, but we may equally want to re-do the game for a completely different tech platform with its own logic. Why not mobile? Or social? Or Roblox? The only thing we plan is to approach ASTROBOTANICA as a potential new IP, with no constraints.
Do you see yourself having to scale up, staff wise, if the project goes incredibly well? The team seems small for such a grand idea!
I wish we had this dilemma. While, certainly, we need more staff to make the game quicker and bigger, there’s a natural sweet spot where things such as productivity, creativity and team wellbeing are best balanced and harmonious. So while we absolutely want to grow, and have big ambitions, Space Goblin wants to stay a reasonably-sized indie outlet for the benefit of everyone.
How are plans progressing? Is your roadmap still on track (Summer Alpha, Autumn Demo)?
Knocking on wood, all has been going as planned so far. Summer Alpha is the next milestone, due if the Kickstarter campaign gets funded. Then we’ll fully focus on Autumn Demo, which I hope, will draw from the feedback received this Spring. Our social media and Discord will provide timely updates with details–everyone is welcome to follow, and join the absolutely precious community discussing ASTROBOTANICA and many interesting things by the way.
Are there any inspirations in the genre you can cite, currently? What are you playing that inspires you?
Let’s say Outbound, Dave the Diver, Valheim, are absolutely great among many others. We also look forward to Solarpunk very much. While at Space Goblin we play a lot to relax outside of the survival genre, we also try to play everything remarkable “for work”, leaning towards cozy. In that sense we don’t have a key inspiration or benchmark, we just try to unpack what lies behind the greatness of really brilliant titles. If I had to name the particular games, it won’t be Subnautica (haha), but definitely Sea of Thieves, Stardew Valley, and Legend of Zelda. But you won’t find anything 1:1 taken from other games. ASTROBOTANICA wants to find its own formula, and that’s why we’re on Kickstarter–to make this happen together with gamers.
ASTROBOTANICA is coming soon to Steam early access.
