Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Heikki Repo, creative director and co-founder of Cornfox & Brothers and the creator behind Oceanhorn to find out what makes this new dungeon explorer a special one.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?
Heikki Repo: Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon was born from the idea to have a local co-op spin-off for the Oceanhorn series, something you could enjoy with your friend or with your family. We took the inspiration from old-school games like Gauntlet for this game, instead of leaning on Zelda-like roots of the series.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What is your role in the game?
Repo: I worked as a creative force behind the game: I was responsible for the game design, story and art in Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon, so it is not that different from the role I have for the other games in the series. I’m usually the lead artist in our games, but with Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon we relied more on freelancer work to help us out with the production.The Character Design was made by a Japanese illustrator Sora Rion, based on pixel art portraits and sprites made by me for example. We also had extremely talented pixel art artists working on the tilesets and characters. Later on in the development I worked more on the game’s pixel art as well. I started my career as pixel art game artist, so it was quite fun to get back to that work!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What has development been like?
Repo: It all started out from the idea of having a small game and a small production, but if there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that there are no small games! Chronos Dungeon ended up being a three year long production.
As most of the team at Cornfox were focused on other projects in the beginning, we had an indie developer Woblyware (League of Evil series) working as a programmer on the game most of the time. We were very focused on the co-op aspect of the development at first, but in the end, the game went through a big overhaul late in the development, where we improved many aspects of the game from the single-player perspective, adding randomized skill trees, the town of Nexus, NPC’s adding more lore etc.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game special?
Repo: The co-op aspect of the game makes Chronos Dungeon unique. It is a game that you can play through in one long session with your friends or family. For all the Steam players, I can highly recommend the Remote Play Together feature, which allows your friends to join the game on your computer remotely!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What games influenced this one the most?
Repo: There is no contest, Chronos Dungeon was influenced by the Gauntlet series the most, but there is a mix of Zelda and Castlevania in it as well. We wanted to keep that simplicity of the Gauntlet gameplay loop, but add Oceanhorn flavor to that mix. As the time passed we added many unique features into the game, like Special Items for example that were inspired by Castlevania games. Collecting mana potions increases the amount of uses of the Special items!
Old School Gamer Magazine: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?
Repo: I don’t have any wild stories unfortunately, but I can reveal some interesting tidbits behind the scenes: Oceanhorn 1 used a proprietary game engine, Oceanhorn 2 was made with the source code version of Unreal Engine 4, but this was the first game made with Unity for our team. We weren’t used to this kind of black box game development like this before.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What were the major lessons learned?
Repo: There is no such thing as a side-project or a small game! Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon started out as a fun thing we could do between bigger titles, but ended becoming a big title in itself! I have zero regrets as the game ended up being really fun and different from the rest of the series, but next time when I get an idea of a small side project, I know what I’m getting into!
Old School Gamer Magazine: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?
Repo: Absolutely! There are so many amazing mechanics lost in time that could be used in games today. Personally, I’m really excited about the return of the turn-based games and tactics games. But I do have to say that it can be risky as well, if the old conventions are already lost in time. You will need to find a way to use the old mechanics that the new audience will find comfortable.
Old School Gamer Magazine: The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?
Repo: It is a question that doesn’t have a simple answer, but with Chronos Dungeon we are hoping to stand out with the brand recognition, pretty visuals and overall quality of the experience. The game is free on iOS and Android, everybody can try it out and see if they like it! On Steam, we have a premium experience with a very approachable price point.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How did changing genres impact the fun?
Repo: Oceanhorn was always recognized as Zelda-like, but it always had action RPG elements to it, not found from the Zelda series. With Chronos Dungeon, we are leaning on the familiar elements of the franchise that works well with the fast-paced dungeon crawling gameplay. To be honest, this was a bit of a gamble from our part. The players might be approaching it from the zelda-like perspective and be disappointed with the lack of puzzles or open-world, but we are trying our best to communicate the genre with the name of the game and if they play the game with their friends, I doubt they will be disappointed! We realized the genre challenge and have added “zelda-lite” elements to the dungeon crawling mix. I believe everyone will be satisfied with the end result!
Old School Gamer Magazine: How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?
Repo: There is a saying in the industry that applies to rookies and veterans alike: limit your scope. We tried to apply that wisdom to Chronos Dungeon, but ultimately failed! The game didn’t turn out to be a small Oceanhorn spin-off game, but a full-fledged dungeon crawling chapter of the series!
Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?
Repo: We want the players to remember it as a fun dungeon crawling spin-off of the Oceanhorn series! The dungeon and skill trees refresh every time you start a new game, so this game can be played many times over before you’ve seen all of it!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?
Repo: We have been working on an unannounced Unreal Engine 5 game for the past years and hitting a finish line soon with the production! We can’t wait to share more details about this game at a later point!
