SnowCastle Games is an independent developer out of Oslo, Norway that was formed in 2009 by Bendik Stang and Erik Hoftun. Having developed two different iOS games, Scale Tower and Hogworld, the team is now working on Earthlock, with plans to release it across multiple current generation platforms.
http://snowcastlegames.com/
Earthlock: Festival of Magic is a turn-based fantasy RPG. The game combines the element of a story of a mysterious world with a past to uncover, a wide range of characters with unique abilities and backgrounds, a combat system that allows you to pair up characters for devastating combos, and enemies that adjust to your own tactics and utilize the same pairing system.
http://www.earthlockgame.co...
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Mini Q&A
Answers provided by Bendik Stang, Game Director
Why do you make games?
We make this particular game because it represents everything we want an RPG to be. It draws inspirations from our favourite games we played growing up, as well as our current favourite games. So in short, you could say we are making a game for ourselves exactly the way we like it to be.
Why should people play titles from Snowcastle Games?
If you have the same preference in RPGs and Adventure games as we have, it is likely that you will enjoy what we are making. Not too pretentious, focused on interesting characters and a good narrative, wrapped around some interesting combat mechanics and a weird world to explore. Our goal is to make games that you remember and that means we strive to deliver a story with characters that sticks in your mind.
What element of game design do you hold above all others?
The story and the characters. Of all the games I remember fondly, it is the story, characters, humor and atmosphere that lingers in my mind. The gameplay mechanics are immensely important since they help deliver the story, so it becomes the perfect philosophical question: what is most important: Story or Gameplay? I have landed on story.
Today's stories:
- At a Glance: SnowCastle Games: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
- An Interview with Bendik Stang: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
- Earthlock: Festival of Magic Preview: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
- Enter to Win an Amazon Gift Card: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
- Win an Xbox One Bundle or 1TB Playstation 4: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
Day 19 | SnowCastle Games
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
""The story and the characters. Of all the games I remember fondly, it is the story, characters, humor and atmosphere that lingers in my mind.""
i like a good RPG game with a good story and humor !
hope we see more of this team:)
Damn, just read it was a turn based game. The only turn based game I'm good in is pokemon. I tried FF and sucked, Chrono Trigger I couldn't even finish it and there was this game on gba that I almost finished it was called something sun, but yeah I suck at these games.
Haven't played a good Turn-based RPG in a while. This one looks interesting though.
Seem like yet another genuine dev team out to make a solid RPG.
"The gameplay mechanics are immensely important since they help deliver the story, so it becomes the perfect philosophical question: what is most important: Story or Gameplay? I have landed on story."
I don't believe this kind of dilemma really exist in certain genres, or is like this blue pill/red pill choice. Sometimes, they're often treated like being perfect complements with one another instead of just being a "where do you side?" kind of deal. I don't know...maybe I'm just rambling. Tempted to write up something about this in the future.
Personally I hold gameplay above all else, if it's lacking the story doesnt matter to me. If the experience is frustrating not even a best story in the world can save it for me. We'll see how earthlock fares, doesn't look bad.