Interview: BeerDeer Games On Nyrthos

Whenever my eye spies a new hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, it immediately commands my hands to contact the developers. Having seen Nyrthos the very same happened, and so it is I got in touch with developer BeerDeer Games' Martin Jelinek. Planned to be an online, somewhat cooperative Action RPG, it's intriguingly being developed to be playable on both PC and smartphone - as in, you should be able to continue playing your game on either. About this, and more, they explain:

RPS: Hello Martin Jelinek.

Martin Jelinek: Hey! First of all, thank you very much for giving us a chance to do this interview. I really hope that people will learn some cool stuff about our game – and about us!

RPS: How did you guys get started at BeerDeer?

Martin Jelinek: Simply put, our beginning was a little wild. We were tired of studying and procrastinating, we had some skills and decided to make something happen. Everyone around us thought we were completely crazy (as doing something for no money isn't really easy to understand), but... we found out how mentally rewarding the creative process can be. And there was no going back. It's been three years already!

RPS: The Action RPG world is getting crowded again, with both AAA titles and indies developing for the genre. What is it about Nyrthos that will make it stand out from this crowd?

Martin Jelinek: It has to be a great game. That's it. A fun and enjoyable experience. And we will put all of our effort into making it that way. On our side, we have excellent 2D graphics, great accessibility, multiplatform play, an original concept, and the will to make it a great game. If we succeed, we want to continue developing it and add new stuff all the time.

RPS: So why make an ARPG at all? What is it about the genre that appealed to you?

Martin Jelinek: It was a natural decision. We enjoyed this kind of games immensely in the good old days, and deep inside, we always wondered what would happen if we mixed existing concepts with our own fresh ideas.

RPS: You've talked about elements of the game requiring players to work together. How is this happening? Will the game have MMO features, or is this just for people you've invited to play with you?

Martin Jelinek: The basic idea is simple but possibly a lot of fun. There will be places or objects in Nyrthos that allow players to interact. Noone is “required” to do so, but if he does, he actually casts a vote on what should happen next. For example, there might be a broken bridge across a river, making the cave complex right behind it inaccessible. The bridge can be built, but only after a certain amount of wooden planks are gathered. It is a pretty big task, so players have to cooperate to make it happen and it will probably take some time. And after the operation is successful, the area will be opened for everybody. That's just a basic example.

RPS: You're cross-developing for Android and iOS. Are there any plans to make it possible for someone to transfer their game state from PC to phone, and back again? Because that would be awesome.

Martin Jelinek: Simple answer – yes. We definitely want to have player accounts connected, it brings so many amazing opportunities! Still, there are some significant challenges and decisions ahead. We have really cool ideas that are based around the “multiplatformity” of Nyrthos, but we have to test it thoroughly. A touchscreen is not a mouse-keyboard combo, and we need to make sure that the player will really benefit from this connection, and hopefully, use the strength of each platform.

RPS: What's your favourite feature that you've added to the game so far?

Martin Jelinek: It's definitely the mechanics behind the “though the world has its history, the future is yet to be decided” idea. The feeling that we will develop the world together with the players is just really exciting and I cannot wait to see it happen in reality.

RPS: And, of course, when might we expect to get our hands on the beta?

Martin Jelinek: The beta is scheduled for the first quarter of this year. We are so excited to let people try the game for the first time! We have a lot of people signing up for the beta, talking to us about how they feel about the game or what they want it to be like. I would like to thank them for taking the time to write whatever positive or negative they have on their minds, we really appreciate it.

RPS: Thanks for your time.