If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering,”What is Worldless?” And that’s a great question for a lot of reasons, amongst them being that we still don’t really know that much about the game (until this interview at least).
But, I’ll quit being coy. Worldless is a 2D Metroidvania with a unique, minimalistic yet juicy art style that has turn-based combat where you combo foes as if you were playing Devil May Cry.
More importantly, however, why should you care? Well, just watch the trailer and then let me ask all the question, eh?
The first trailer released for Worldless.
Asylum: First and foremost, how about we talk about the team for a minute (I know, every dev’s “favorite part”.) Looking through Twitter I saw that it’s you and two programmers? What’s your role? And how long have you been making games?
Worldless: We did the prototype with a core team of two programmers plus me. We also have friends who’d done music for some movies and spots that did the SFX and the themes for us.
As for my role, I did basically everything else. So, art, animation, FX, design, etc.
I’ve worked for around 7 years as an animator in the video game industry.
A: What titles have you worked on?
W: I started working with the Invizimals series, a Pokemon like game. Later I had the honor to be part of the preproduction of Ori and the Will of the Wisps for a few months. I recently worked on an indie game named Gris created by my brother and hand-drawn and animated by a good friend of mine. And a few other things here and there.
A: For anyone that has checked out your Twitter and seen some of your early gameplay clips, it’s pretty clear that your game has an involved combat system. But what’s the big picture for Worldless? How would you describe it in your own words?
W: I think I have a clear idea of what I want to do with Worldless, but the specific genre might evolve over time. I guess the initial idea is sort of a Metroidvania, but it has to have a good mix of exploration/platforming-puzzles alongside the combat.
Just another combo. https://t.co/Y0F8ykrTww
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Worldless (@worldless_game) June 26, 2018A: And what’s the meter that appears under the character used for? I saw Metroidvania.com suggest they thought it was used to make the game quasi-turn-based.
W: Yes! So the “meter” is actually a time bar. The combat is turn-based, but during your turn, you can perform any action you want in the time you have.
Once the time is over, you change to a defensive position, where you have different defensive actions you can take to protect yourself.
What you do during your offensive turn will affect your next defensive turn and vice versa. So your offensive actions may change the enemy state so it will do different things when it attacks. And your defensive actions can grant you extra time or charge your sword for your next offensive turn.
Plus, the main goal is not to kill the opponent, but to absorb it. There’s a meter that works similarly to the “Style” meter from Devil May Cry. The better you perform the better the odds to absorb successfully. This will grant important rewards.
A: So what would you say were some of your big influences for this title?
W: The core influences are things like Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry.
Odin Sphere shocked me once I saw it. I really wanted to do something like it, a 2D action RPG with amazing visuals.
Non-combat peek. https://t.co/ExsljVSnUv
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Worldless (@worldless_game) May 22, 2018A: Okay, so knowing that I’m guessing the rewards you earn might help you learn new skills and abilities like in these 3 games?
W: Yeah, that’s the goal, although these sorts of things may change a lot. But the idea is that you earn new skills by absorbing enemies. New weapon transformations or skill upgrades will be obtained by different methods, most likely. I know that is vague, but all of this needs to be tested to see how it works in the long run.
A: I think the first thing almost everyone has said about it is,”Wow that’s nice looking!” How’d you come up with this minimalist style? And what have you done to make it look so juicy even as a prototype?
W: So, initially, I was trying something similar to Odin Sphere. Not in that art style specifically, but I was doing character and enemy designs more in the tone of Odin Sphere.
But doing animation frame-by-frame with even simplified designs is very taxing, it takes a lot of time and effort to do right. So I gave up and had no plans to return to the project.
But several years later, I luckily came up with a kinda constellation style to form the characters after watching 3 movies. It hit me during watching The Fountain.
I tried it in photoshop and I was very happy to see that the style was easy and fast to do and it was more original. Plus, visually it fits more with the kind of tone and story I wanted the project to have.
What we’ve been showing is a mix of interpolation animation and sprites. Using Unity.
Even just watching The Fountain’s trailer gives you a glimpse at its influence on Worldless.
A: Is there a story premise? What can you tell us about this constellation come to life?
W: Mmm, I don’t wanna say too much or even anything about the story. I feel like saying anything would be a spoiler since so much of the story revolves around the mystery of the setting. What is this place? What are these characters? Why are they fighting? Things like that.
A: Okay, so you’ve obviously had some early attention. I haven’t really seen any coverage for your title, but you’ve had a ton of engagement on twitter so far. Most of your clips have broken 30,000 views and one is nearly at 400,000. There are some games that are established that haven’t received that sort of fanfare. How do you feel about the reception so far and what would you say to fans that are interested?
W: It’s been really crazy. We finished the prototype before 2018, and I spent a few months doing the trailer and polishing some things on my own.
It always feels a bit scary to show things publicly, so I hesitated for weeks, but thankfully it was well received.
To anyone interested in the future, if anything comes up I’ll be sure to say it on Twitter. But I guess I have to say that don’t expect necessarily anything.
Weapon Transformation - Bow https://t.co/7GbnEQkPKI
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Worldless (@worldless_game) May 19, 2018A: I know it’s early, but what are your plans for the game in the future? Are you going to try to crowdfund, self-fund, or what? Any target platforms?
W: We’ve been looking at anyone interested in the project and different offers. We have not pitched it to anybody yet on our own, but we might soon. So we’ll have to see what happens.
No plans for crowdfunding at the moment, and for specific platforms either.
A: Okay, this one is just for fun. What’s one idea you have which you’d love to include but that you’re not sure would be practical? Dream big!
W: Mmm, I don’t know. The ideas I have right now must be in the game. I want a ton of optional stuff, and that is always difficult to manage. Things like optional Super Bosses have to be in.
I think there’s a couple of gameplay twists that would be very cool, but we’ll have to see if it’s possible to do correctly or if it is fun.
Too early to even cut things off for being too “dream big”! haha.
A: Finally, I saw you were looking forward to a potential DMC5 announcement at E3 this year. Did you actually faint at the DMC5 reveal like you teased?
No more posting for a few days.
Let's sit back and enjoy E3!
I know I'm gonna faint once I see Devil May Cry 5 rev… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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Worldless (@worldless_game) June 07, 2018W: Oh, boy. I’m just so happy.
The gameplay design of Nero in DMC4 is incredible, and to see that the ExCeed concept is back, plus now there will be different abilities with the arm… It has a lot of fun potential.
Waiting for Gamescom!
There you have it. We finally have some info about this title that’s left many yelling questions into the void until now.
So what do you think of Worldless? If you’re interested, then you can keep up with its progress on Twitter @Worldless_Game. Personally, I am really intrigued. I know I might be in the minority, but I always love games that try to combine turn-based and live-action mechanics. It is definitely a challenge, but just trying to create a system that takes advantage of the best of both worlds is always so enticing to me.
that Gamers Asylum 