An Interview with Hrvoje Horvatek

Hrvoje Horvatek, CEO of Ironward, talks with Kyle Gaddo about their inspirations, moving from a mod to a full release game, what to expect in The Red Solstice, and the video game development scene in Croatia.

Kyle: First, a little about The Red Solstice—it's originally based on an old Warcraft III mod called “Night of the Living Dead.” What made you and the rest of the team at Ironward want to realize this into a full, standalone title?

Hrvoje: We realized that no game on the marked tried to offer what made NotD such a great mod. Seven years later, no one else attempted to make such a game. That’s means we did the right move in trying to create and give players the unique gameplay it offers.

In NotD you were playing as a member of a 10 men squad. Your goal was to survive for 15 waves, doing various missions along the way. It was really hard and required a distinct knowledge of the game, but it was a very rewarding experience. After spending numerous hours on it, rushing your way towards the dropship with only seconds being left on the clock before the nuke goes off and vaporizes everything and achieving that perfect victory, then you can understand how intense a game can be.

We want to provide other players with the opportunity to experience that same unique and intensive feeling. We aim to turn players into heroes, where they all work as a team, but also where each one of them is individually recognized as a true and valuable member who can change and influence gameplay at any time.

Kyle: With the basic framework already laid out (thanks to a faithful modding community), what were some of the more difficult hurdles in actualizing the title?

Hrvoje: The first step was, after being utmost determined to realize the idea, to gather other individuals who shared my vision. That was definitely not an easy task, and we grew over the years from 2 people to 8 people who shared this vision and wanted to bring this project to reality. We also had no idea about game development whatsoever at that time.

Second biggest issue was creating our own engine and handling the network synchronization. After you’ve done that there is always the balance issue. How do you make an 8 player co-op game equally hard and rewarding for 2 players, without hurting the teamwork aspect of the game? This is something we are still working on, and will continue to do so until we perfect it, so everyone has an equal chance to experience The Red Solstice on any difficulty with any amount of players.

http://i.imgur.com/diMaujT....

Kyle: Would you have been able to do any of this without the Kickstarter? What were your feelings about asking the public for money in such a way?

Hrvoje: Kickstarter was needed for several reasons. We were working for a few years without any money and we realized that we won’t be able to polish the project and make the final push without the help from people through Kickstarter. We hoped people would believe in our project and support us. We’ve received a lot of encouragement, urging us to go on Kickstarter, because they saw the project’s potential. At that time we had a demo to show off, which worked pretty well for us! We had no choice but to ask our supporters for money. Each and every one of them got the game by supporting us. The end result is us being able to finish making the game and them being able to play a game they like.

Kyle: What sort of long-term goals do you have with the game?

Hrvoje: We want to expand the game and make it even more epic. Imagine evacuating with the train while having mounted and assembled a huge autocannon on top of it. Or just ravaging through the entire colony that consists of 6 HUGE maps in some kind of an endless mode that can provide you with hours of fun. Or maybe just expanding the single player. Idea is to support the game as long as people play it, and we hope to make The Red Solstice one of the ultimate co-op games on the market.

Kyle: Has community feedback been invaluable during the development process? In what ways did the players help shape The Red Solstice?

Hrvoje: Our players are one of the key reasons TRS is what it is today. We listen to their feedback all the time. They can detect even the slightest changes we make. They make sure to bring to our attention anything that is broken, buggy and imbalanced or simply shouldn’t be there. Some of our most contributing players even have their own panels and special equipment within the game.

http://i.imgur.com/WeVgpSW....

Kyle: The Red Solstice is a game focused on multiplayer, like the mod that preceded it spiritually. Was there always a plan to integrate a single-player component in the back of your collective minds?

Hrvoje: The Red Solstice was focused on multiplayer in the past, simply because we started developing it with multiplayer on our mind and because it was the only thing we had to offer to our players.

A single player story was always there, waiting for the right moment when we would have enough people to develop it to stand toe-to-toe with the multiplayer. We know some players prefer one over the other, so it was important for us to have both equally strong single player and multiplayer.

Kyle: Any plans to further expand on the single-player for those that enjoy the gameplay and story, but don't necessarily want or have the capability for the multiplayer experience?

Hrvoje: We created a game mode called “Survival” where you play through the multiplayer campaign on your own, controlling four characters just like in single player. We wanted to do that because we understand that some people would like to have an option to experience 100% of the game’s story without being forced to play with others.

We will continue to update the game with new content and everything that is added to multiplayer can be played solo through the Survival mode.

Kyle: What sources did you draw from for inspiration to build the world of The Red Solstice?

Hrvoje: The Aliens movie was an obvious inspiration. We wanted to capture some of that feeling where you are trying to survive in a world where you’re the one being hunted and where your skill can make you the hunter in the end. Other inspirations include Warhammer, Starcraft, XCOM, Baldur’s Gate and a few others.

http://i.imgur.com/Zk8zbeh....

Kyle: Can you tell us about the prequel comic you're making for The Red Solstice?

Hrvoje: Definitely! The comic we’re creating is basically a result of our Kickstarter campaign. It’s a short comic that describes the relationship between few important characters in the game, as well as their personality, which helps explain the story within the game. Game has a few hidden pieces of information about the story, about what happened before single player and what players can expect. I am quite happy with how we managed to pull it off, so we hope everyone will enjoy it!

Kyle: What is the development scene like in Croatia? And perhaps the gaming scene as a whole? I know that Croteam (Serious Sam, The Talos Principle) are also from your country. Do you receive a fair amount of recognition? Perhaps even local heroes?

Hrvoje: The scene is rapidly growing. We have some awesome people here. The gaming community here is not that large, but those that do follow gaming news are very serious about it and are really big supporters of Croatian development teams. Bigger studios like Little Green Men, Gamepires, Croteam, and others, we’re all helping each other succeed and we’re mutually promoting our games. Apart from the gaming community, game developers here are not treated as heroes and we hope that will change.

Kyle: Has your region affected the ability to develop and release The Red Solstice at all? Do you feel you would have had the same or similar experience had you developed somewhere else? Better somewhere else, perhaps?

Hrvoje: Unfortunately, it affected it in a negative way. There are not many developers here in Croatia and those that are serious about it are met with prejudice and disapproval, mainly because games here are considered “toys” in a negative context. This resulted in many developers being forced to work out of their garages after they were done with their day jobs. With the amount of good and recognized games growing in number, we’re finally seeing some form of approval and praise for what we do. In the last three years there has been a huge amount of new games being developed here and a lot of new things are happening! It seems we’re finally moving towards a brighter future.

http://i.imgur.com/BDEOmIw....

Kyle: How did your relationship with Nkidu Games make The Red Solstice a reality? Would you work with Nkidu on future titles?

Hrvoje: The relationship is great. We’ve met and spent personal time with Nkidu members through different conferences and meet-ups. They recognized our potential and believed that we can create something special so they supported us the whole way through. We hope to work with them on future titles as well.

Kyle: Speaking of, do you have any plans outside of The Red Solstice at the moment? If so, can you divulge a bit about them?

Hrvoje: We are already talking about our next game, but nothing serious has come to fruition yet. We’re all currently focused on The Red Solstice’s release. What we realized with TRS is that we have created a community that enjoys a certain type of games, and we love creating that type of games. We want to create games that are tactical, challenging and fun. We are still unsure about how our next game will look like, but it will be tactical.

That’s all we can say for now, although we’re sure we will be able to reveal more details in the future.

Kyle: Lastly, why is your game so hard? Ha! I kid, but it is very challenging. What sort of advice can you offer to players who don't quite know what they're getting into?

Hrvoje: The game wants you to die and die you will. It is designed in such a way that every time you die, you can learn from that experience and build upon it. You learn what you did wrong and the more tactical approach your take, the longer you’re going to survive. I have set our game up in a way that it’s very hard for the new players to survive. I wanted you to experience first-hand how it is to be casted into the fiery abyss that we call The Red Solstice.

As for the challenge, the bigger the challenge is, the greater the feeling when you finally manage to complete it. That’s our guideline. We want the challenge to be both fair and rewarding. There are several endings to multiplayer, each one harder to achieve than the previous one. Once you reach the true ending, you will feel rewarded because you will conclude that chapter of the story.

http://i.imgur.com/BPRhXZ7....

Kyle: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day for this!

Hrvoje: Thank you for giving us the chance and taking an interest in TRS!

Day 9 | Ironward Games