Interview: The inspiration and future of Awesomenauts
Awesomenauts trailers and details up to this point, gave me an instant connection with some of the best animated 80′s cartoons ever created. From the 2D layout, to the unique cast of playable characters (including Lonestar my player-choice below), the game seemed to be an homage of personal favorites remastered for a MOBA title on a console.
As a fan of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) titles on PC, I was interested to see how an online-console version would play out over XBLA and PSN. Ronimo Games used some great innovations to overcome some of the obstacles that console games, of its kind, have faced in the past. The “drop-in/drop-out” feature was a hit with me right away. The feature allows the player to instantly start playing the game, even if a match with other players isn’t available at that exact moment. To do this, Ronimo allows AI players to play on your team or against you, until a new human-player is ready and drops in. This allows for an “always on” gameplay experience, something that fans of multiplayer titles should really appreciate.
Awesomenauts screams fun, from the beginning to end of the match it created an atmosphere of enjoyment and competition. Little was known about the title, before members of our staff had a chance to try it out, so we wanted to sit down with the development team and learn everything we could about Awesomenauts. To do this, I talked with Fabian Akker, co-founder of Ronimo Games.
What was the inspiration behind Awesomenauts?
The style of the game is heavily inspired by Earth Worm Jim, Metal Slug and cartoons like Bucky O’Hare, Galaxy Rangers, Bionic Six, Bravestar, Transformers, Visionaries and Thundercats. You will find hints to a lot of cartoons within the game, for instance every achievement refers to a different cartoon.
MOBA is somewhat new to XBLA and PSN and is a multiplayer option that has seen great success with PC users, how do you think console players will respond to the gameplay?
I think they will love it. The game has been completely built for console(s) without losing the depth associated with the genre. Awesomenauts combines the rich strategic gameplay from games like ‘League of Legends’ with the twitch gameplay from games like ‘Super Smash Bros’. The multiplayer is very easy to get into, you’ll never have to wait to start playing thanks to our drop in and out system. And with over 100 items there is a lot to unlock and discover.
How many game-modes or objectives are available in the Awesomenauts multiplayer?
The objective is always to destroy the other guy’s base. There are a lot of ways you can do that, you can play online on your own, play some practice matches to improve your skills, or you can invite friends in a private match up to 6 players. Our star feature is to go splitscreen with 2 or 3 guys and play either online against others, or against bots offline.
Is the game (achievement/trophy) supported and will it have single-player and multiplayer achievements and trophies?
There are 12 achievements/trophies all spread over the game, some are more multiplayer focused such as getting a killing spree, or winning a game with every hero. But there also ‘single player’ focused achievements. For instance there’s an achievement for doing a perfect ‘droppod drop’ by collecting a perfect string of solar coins. There’s another for killing the solar boss, which is this fat alien who can be killed for a lot of solar coins.
At PAX we learned that teamwork is completely necessary to dominate your opponent, what gameplay mechanics did you use to encourage players to work together?
Healing is one of them, we have two healers in the game; Yuri and Voltar. Healing is essential in team-fights and gives you that little bit of extra time to do damage on turrets and enemy players. Also we designed a lot of skills to create synergies, for instance Clunk can explode but he is very slow and it is difficult to get near enemies. Fortunately, Leon can pull enemies towards him with his tongue, so they make a great team. This team strategy is even better when you use the slow of Yuri’s time bubble and he puts a pile of mines on top of each other near Clunk to make it into one big deathtrap.
How many playable levels will there be in the game?
There will be 3 different levels/planets to play on. Each level has it’s own unique lane setup and some special features. For instance on Sorona there is a huge giant worm, that can be summoned to kill enemies and on ‘AI station 404′ there are pods with flying minions, which can be unleashed and a low gravity chamber.
Are you looking to add more characters or levels in the future through possible DLC?
Absolutely, we hope to add a lot more characters. We are already working on two new ones, each with unique items and skills.
Is there a chance we could see this on PC or MAC in the future?
Depending on the success of the game we will consider a PC/Mac version. Based on the attention the game is getting we are quite positive about the future of Awesomenauts.
There are possible designated roles in the game to a degree (healer, tank, attacker) yet you have stated (on your website) that these roles will not be bound to a single character. How did you go about balancing the characters to support this?
Each hero has a wide selection of items, these items are unique for that hero and upgrade different parts of their skills. Some upgrades are mere stat increases, other upgrades actually change the skill and add special effects. For instance Yuri has a time slowing bubble, this bubble can be upgraded to increase the size and slowing effect. But with the right upgrades it can also increase the speed of allies within the bubble or even heal teammates.
Obviously is was quite some work to balance, and the only way to do this is by playing the game. Each weekend we had play sessions at Ronimo, where we would invite random gamers to play the game and give feedback. Dozens of groups have played the game and we did a lot number tweaking, nevertheless once thousands of players will storm the galactic battlefields in May we will probably find some new imbalances, so we will be keeping a close eye on that after release to make sure we patch the game where necessary.
What do you hope gamers will take away from Awesomenauts?
Awesomenauts will show that the MOBA genre can work great on console and with a lot less frustration. Hopefully the game will do really well so we can keep making new characters for a long time.
Awesomenauts is being developed by Romino Games, you can check out more screens, find wallpapers and show your support for the game by visiting their site Romino-games. Awesomenauts is set to release on May 2, 2024 for XBLA and PSN.
