An Interview with Chris Fernholz of Argonwood About ‘Rising Lords’ for Nintendo Switch – TouchArcade
Whereas I relish the prospect to talk with any recreation builders, it’s at all times fascinating to get an opportunity to speak to up and coming indie builders. Rising Lords is a technique recreation that has been in Early Entry over on Steam for a short while, and it’s going to be making its Nintendo Change debut on January 18th of 2024. The event crew behind it, Argonwood, was based by a pair of German brothers who wished to make one thing impressed by their outdated favorites. One of many two, Chris Fernholz, took time from his busy schedule to reply just a few questions we had in regards to the recreation. Additionally, pizza toppings. As a result of I’m incorrigible. Let’s get to it!
TouchArcade (TA): Hello, thanks for giving us your time right this moment. Are you able to let our readers know a bit bit about your self? And, per TouchArcade custom, inform us your favourite pizza toppings?
Chris Fernholz (CF): Hello, and thanks for the prospect to speak to you! Argonwood is predicated in Cologne, Germany, and was based by my brother Manu and me (Chris) 5 years in the past and we’ve been engaged on Rising Lords full-time since then. Now we have been supported by just a few freelancers however Argonwood is a really small crew however. We initially studied electrical engineering and sociology, however we’ve been programming and drawing all our lives. Creating video games might be very time-consuming, the remainder of the time we frequently spend with our households or taking part in video games ourselves. Manu likes his pizza very fundamental, with cheese, tomatoes, and mozzarella. I lately discovered a brand new favourite with Hollandaise sauce and Kebab, however you possibly can’t actually eat this greater than as soon as per week.
TA: Are you able to give us the short pitch for Rising Lords? What ought to our readers be excited for?
CF: Rising Lords is a medieval turn-based technique recreation with components from board and card video games. The story marketing campaign for Rising Lords is definitely the factor we’re most enthusiastic about. It brings our core recreation components collectively completely together with a deep story and nice art work paying homage to the medieval ages. It’s the proper single-player expertise, however you too can play sandbox matches with different gamers or in opposition to AI. With simultaneous area administration and constructing in addition to tactical battles with a well-balanced unit counter system, terrain, talent playing cards, morale, and extra, that is particularly thrilling to play with buddies.
TA: I’ve seen the basic Lords of the Realm 2 cited as your fundamental inspiration for this recreation, however are you able to inform us about another inspirations?
CF: Now we have definitely taken some inspiration from many alternative genres and video games that we’ve performed for greater than 30 years, even pen-and-paper video games and board video games like Heroquest and Chess. HOMM, the Complete Warfare sequence and Civilisation definitely had an affect when speaking about PC video games. As you already talked about, the non secular prequel is Lords of the Realm 2, though we fully modified many features — battles was once actual time for instance.
TA: What have been a few of the challenges concerned in bringing this recreation to the Nintendo Change?
CF: Making the sport prepared for Nintendo Change was definitely a problem. There may be the restricted {hardware} in fact, and we needed to reshape and rewrite lots of core features to match that. Additionally, technique video games are often performed with a mouse. Nintendo Change has the benefit of contact controls, however even with out these we have been in a position to work with snapping factors so that you simply don’t need to play with a joystick as a mouse; as an alternative can choose the related objects and figures with the D-Pad.
TA: Are there any new or unique components within the Change model of the sport?
CF: No. we wished to make it possible for the expertise is identical throughout all platforms. Then again, this additionally implies that the Change model has every little thing included that the opposite variations have as properly.
TA: What are a few of your present favourite video games within the turn-based technique style?
CF: Though technically solely half of it’s turn-based, our long-time favourite for technique video games is the Complete Warfare sequence. Rome, Medieval, Shogun, Warhammer — you title it. A must have for us is a working multiplayer although.
TA: What do you suppose is the best factor about Rising Lords?
CF: We predict Rising Lords takes one of the best features from completely different technique video games and merges them on an accessible degree. Area administration, story marketing campaign, tactical battles, multiplayer, and so forth. A lot bigger video games function a few of these features in larger element, however others are sometimes not very approachable or fairly fundamental. One other factor that most individuals adore rather a lot is our distinctive artwork model.
TA: What was the pondering behind that particular artwork model? Any explicit inspirations there?
CF: The unique thought was to make Rising Lords really feel like a medieval board recreation. That’s the place Lewis Chessmen got here into play and served as an inspiration for our models. Different components are based mostly on medieval tapestry art work from this time interval. The medieval and even the traditional world have been much more vibrant than individuals suppose! Colors fade over time, however Rising Lords brings them again to life.
TA: Are you able to inform us about one thing you wished to incorporate within the recreation that simply couldn’t be accomplished?
CF: One of many issues we had with the sport and the lengthy growth time was that we included much more issues than we initially deliberate. If there was one factor lacking that we had thought of at one level, it will be devoted sea battles with ships.
TA: Thanks once more for talking with us! Do you could have another message you wish to give to our readers? That is your free area to take action!
CF: In our opinion, there should not many technique video games out there on Nintendo Change. There are even fewer medieval turn-based video games. Time to shake up some stagnant mechanics and take a look at one thing completely different! Particularly for these searching for a soothing gaming expertise, alone or with buddies. Now we have created an entire new medieval world for everybody to discover, full of heroic adventures and lovable characters.
Thanks once more to Chris for answering our questions, and for Derek at Hound PR for facilitating. Rising Lords will likely be coming to Nintendo Change on January 18th, 2024. We’ll doubtless be doing a evaluate of the sport, so do look ahead to that when the time comes.
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