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Late To The Party Interview

by Kevin Loveless (Couchpotato), 2014-11-10

Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest interview. This time I had the chance to ask Pyrodactyl Games a few questions about their new game Late To The Party.

You may remember Pyrodactyl Games from their last successful kickstarter game, Unrest, where they managed to earn $36,251 of the campaign's $3,000 goal.

Now they're back with a new game asking for $50,000. Here is the new kickstarter video and a short game description get us started.

Late to the Party is an espionage RPG about the struggles, fears, and turmoil of the oppressed during the dying days of the Soviet Union. Use your contacts, tools, and wits to stay alive in the midst of a dangerous historically-inspired conspiracy.

Now that we have that out the way, let's get started with the interview.


Couchpotato: Before we start with the questions about Late To The Party, can you share a few details about yourself, and your studio Pyrodactyl Games?

Pyrodactyl: Pyrodactyl is an indie game studio that crafts offbeat role playing games. We are an international team with members from India, USA, Estonia, UK and Canada. We have been making games for more than 7 years now.

As for me, I started my career making Half Life 2 mods (Dystopia being the most famous one). I started making indie games in 2007, and since then I've released three of them! If you're interested in seeing how I really started, I wrote a Gamasutra article about it.

 

Couchpotato: What are your favorite RPG games you played over the years?

Pyrodactyl: Planescape Torment, Deus Ex and Fallout: New Vegas are without a doubt three of my most favorite games. More recently I've been enjoying playing through Wasteland 2.

 

Couchpotato: Can you share a few details about Late To The Party for new readers, and what makes the game stand out from other RPG games?

Pyrodactyl: Late to the Party is a cold war espionage RPG about a local who is drafted as a KGB agent during the imminent fall of the Soviet Union. The gameplay will start with you investigating strange cases and using your contacts, spy gadgets and wits to solve them. Your allegiance to your homeland and your superiors will create conflicting situations, and you'll be forced to keep your head down if you decide to help the revolution.

Couchpotato: LTTP reminds me of Clandestine and Invisible, Inc., two other espionage-themed games in development. What was the inspiration for the game?


Pyrodactyl:
We were inspired primarily by a lot of documentaries and books that Mikk (our artist) shared with the team. In terms of other games, Alpha Protocol was a huge inspiration, and we wanted to continue in the vein of our previous game, Unrest, which was inspired by Planescape: Torment.

 

Couchpotato: This isn't your first time on Kickstarter, so I was curious if you learned anything from the last time that you would change with the development of Late To The Party?

Pyrodactyl: We learned a lot of small things about game development, and we have incorporated a lot of the feedback from Unrest in LttP already. We are always learning with each game.

 

Couchpotato: I see you're asking asking for $50,000 CAD.  Will it be enough to fund the game, and do you you have any stretch goals in mind yet?

Pyrodactyl: It will be enough to fund the game, along with sales from Unrest, to enable us to work full time.

 

Couchpotato: Will the game allow you to customize your npc and party members, or will they all be pre-set options?

Pyrodactyl:
In terms of visual design of your character, you won't have much customization - but you will be able to shape your character's personality and past life based on actions in the game. There won't be party members, since the game is about you being a lone KGB agent.

Couchpotato: You mention you will solve the game with character traits, KGB spy tools, and improvised equipment. Can you give an an example of how this will work?

Pyrodactyl:
For example, you can try to pickpocket a suspect if you have the right traits to see if they have something incriminating on them. You can place a bug on a plant near the table two suspicious characters are talking to, in order to hear what they're saying. Certain traits like "Con Artist" means your character can lie convincingly about their background in order to gain the trust of someone. Then there is poison which can be used to kill someone - but you will need to cover your tracks well enough.

 

Couchpotato: I see the game will also have some major plot choices that will alter the game, so I take it you can replay the game for different endings?

Pyrodactyl: Indeed. We plan to have 3-4 major endings, and a lot of minor things can change based on what you did in the game.

 

Couchpotato: To go along with the previous question, just how long will the game take to complete?

Pyrodactyl: Based on our estimates, one playthrough will take 4-5 hours to complete. There are many wholly unique endings, but if you really optimize your choices you should be able to see most of the game’s content in 3-4 playthroughs.

Couchpotato: You mention the game's feel will based on locally inspired art and music. Do you have anyone in mind to compose the game music, and do you think music plays a huge part in setting the game's mood?


Pyrodactyl: I think music is very important. We do have a musician, Meurig, who is composing the music for our game. He did the song in the trailer too!


Couchpotato: I also see the game will have mod support. Can you go into detail about how this work?

Pyrodactyl: We have had mod support in our previous games too, and how it will work is that players can customize any and all aspects of the game and create campaigns for them to play and share with other players. It will be similar to how modding worked in Unrest.

 

Couchpotato: On the kickstarter page you mention that combat will be secondary, and is not the main focus of the game. Since this is a spy game, I assume you will only have to fight someone if you mess up. Can you share some details on why you decided not to focus on combat?

Pyrodactyl:
It didn't seem thematically appropriate. In general, our games don't emphasize combat in order to make the life of the player feel more valuable - because then the rare times that combat does happen, you will be unprepared and your life will be in danger.

Couchpotato: Now comes the part where I have to ask if you can share any of your experience with crowd-funding for our readers. Cans you give us an inside look at how kickstarter works, and how to be successful?

Pyrodactyl: I can't say I'm a Kickstarter expert yet, but I think having a polished pitch and getting press attention are the two biggest things. You need to be regular with updates and respond to questions as they come up.

 

Couchpotato: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, and I apologize about not taking the time to interview you about your last game, Unrest. Is there anything you'd like to say before we finish?

Pyrodactyl: That's okay, no harm done. I didn't think of anything particular to say, so I'll just ask our readers to back my game on Kickstarter! :)

 

Thanks so much for talking to us, and we're looking forward to the next great spy thriller!

Box Art

Information about

Late To The Party

Developer: Pyrodactyl Games

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Historical
Genre: Adventure-RPG
Combat: Real-time
Play-time: Up to 10 hours
Voice-acting: Partially voiced

Regions & platforms
Internet
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Cancelled
· Publisher: Unknown

More information