VGTimes Interview with the Authors of Encased

To find out what the full version of Encased will be like, what problems the developers encountered, and whether they are happy with the sales, we talked to the creative director of Dark Crystal Games. In the interview, you will learn how the game was created, how much it cost, what worries the developers before the release, and much more.

Encased is an isometric RPG inspired by the first parts of Fallout, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the Strugatsky brothers' novel «Roadside Picnic». The gamer creates a hero who can be strong and stupid, weak but smart, or whatever, and sets off to explore a huge world.

According to the plot, the USSR and the USA almost unleashed World War III during the Cold War. An important discovery was able to save the world from disaster. One day, researchers discovered a mysterious Dome in the desert: it is unknown who built it, but the civilization was clearly more advanced than earthlings.

The superpowers laid down their arms and began to explore territories full of incredible technologies, anomalies and secret knowledge. The problem is that it is easy to enter the Dome, but impossible to get out. However, this did not stop the hero.

The character gets into the Dome, not even suspecting that something terrible will happen soon, and the area will be overrun with raiders, monsters and other madmen. Now he will have to help the locals, fight in turn-based battles, make friends and decide the fate of the world. Only the hero decides how this story ends.

In the fall of 2019, the game was released in early access and was constantly being improved. The release day is approaching — but what will the final version be like, and how was Encased created? Creative Director of Dark Crystal Games Vyacheslav Kozikhin will tell you about this.

VGTimes: Hi! Thank you for coming to the interview. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do at Dark Crystal Games?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Hi everyone! My name is Slava. I am the creative director. It sounds pompous, but in reality, our team is not that big. Everyone does everything.

VGTimes: How big is a small team?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: We are currently at our peak: after all, more than three and a half years have passed since the start of development. There are currently 30 people on Dark Crystal Games. At first, there were fewer of us — it all started with a team of eight developers.

VGTimes: How did Dark Crystal Games come about?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Like all developers, we had a special path. After previous work — specifically for me it was Divinity: Original Sin 2 — a small number of people became available, and our founder became interested in creating a studio that would develop RPG strategies. The interests of someone who can found a studio and make initial investments, and developers who know how to do it, coincided.

VGTimes: What exactly did you do for Larian?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: My position was called «scripter». There are such people in all studios that work on RPGs. Roughly speaking, this is a person who fills the game with moments that you directly see on the screen. Specific puzzles, levers that need to be pulled, and all that. This is what scripters do.

The work is carried out in pairs with game designers and writers. Together they create entire villages, settlements and regions. Usually this is a whole gang that makes some game zone. I made quite a few of these zones. When I run through the game, I know all the bugs that are there.

At first, I was responsible for several large regions, and in the second half of the development, I managed a team of scripters in St. Petersburg.

VGTimes: You said that you initially planned to make old-school RPGs. However, if we take the example of Pillars of Eternity 2 from the legendary Obsidian, it did not sell very well. Why did you decide to make such games, and not more popular RPGs in the spirit of Dragon Age or GreedFall?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: There are many factors: some of them are creative, some are industrial. The problem with Pillars of Eternity 2 is that the game was expensive. If we were in Obsidian's place, such sales would seem cosmic to us.

If we talk about why we don't make our own Dragon Age or GreedFall, the thing is that such projects require expertise. It doesn't come out of nowhere. Even if you hire experienced people, it's problematic to make a super-powerful project right away.

When we started, we had nothing. Many people don't understand that three and a half years ago there was only space emptiness, and now we are in a completely different phase. If we take GreedFall, the Spiders studio had three or four games under their belt, in which they continuously honed their knowledge. It's better to go gradually and try to make a breakthrough in each new project. We couldn't do something like Divinity: Original Sin 2 right away.

VGTimes: You raised money for the development of Encased on Kickstarter. People supported you with $105,000. What would you have done if the campaign had failed?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: The bet was really on Kickstarter, but it wasn't even about the money. At that point, we already had a minimum set of content. If we hadn't been able to interest people with it, it would have been an indicator that we were doing something wrong. Kickstarter showed that there was interest after all.

Someone contributed money there. Articles appeared on good resources. The press paid attention to the project. This is not a huge breakthrough, but it was important to assess the interest, and the goal was achieved. In monetary terms, we still spent much more. Without these $105,000, it would have been much harder, but we would have managed.

VGTimes: Can you give me an approximate figure that could describe the Encased budget?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: I can't give you an exact amount — we're very strict about that. But the final budget significantly exceeds what we raised on Kickstarter. About ten times more. I'd even say at least ten times more.

VGTimes: Encased entered the starting line of Prime Matter publishing house, which has a large company behind it. How did you manage to agree on cooperation?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: It's all banal and simple. First, you do something for a long time, reach a stage that can be called alpha or something else. Then you start communicating.

There are an infinite number of options for cooperation — it all depends on how hard you tried before sending something to someone. If you tried well, then most likely you will get a response.

VGTimes: So you just wrote to Koch Media, and after a while they said: «Yes, let's do it»?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Exactly. We showed metrics, wishlists. We showed how we created Encased, how people react, rate us, and so on. I suppose they have their own staff of analysts who sum it all up and decide: «Let's talk to these guys, not to these, and let these work some more and come back in six months.» Now everything is simple: no matter what you do, you can come to an agreement with someone.

VGTimes: When you talk to developers, two pictures usually emerge. Someone says: «Everything was going like clockwork for us.» Someone, on the contrary, clutches his head and says that he no longer believed in the release. How was it for you?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: It depends on the day of the week. On Monday, you open your mail and there are 80 emails with bugs from users. The publisher sent the same amount. Then you open the reviews on Steam and see red ones among them. It seems like a nightmare.

Fortunately, then Tuesday, Wednesday begins, the internal review is collected, and you see: everything is fixed and working. Then the mood improves.

Of course, we did not have a perfectly smooth road. It was covered with potholes and dips. The main thing is that we managed to make the game that we planned. However, in the process of changes and decision-making, there were a lot of problems. Probably, no one has a smooth road.

VGTimes: You have said more than once that Encased pays homage to classic Fallout and Roadside Picnic. The game also sometimes resembles S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with its anomalies and artifacts. What other projects inspired you during the process?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Everyone who was on board used their past experience: gaming and life. For example, our scriptwriter worked ten jobs and lived in different regions of Russia. Perhaps someone was in the army, learned to shoot there, crawl on the sand. Such stories can influence the development and inspire.

If we talk about games and the pillars that we focused on, then in terms of freedom, interaction with the world and history — this is the first Fallout. In addition, the game reacts to what you do, who you hit and whether you steal. This is taken from the latest Divinity. Everyone reacts to your actions: for example, they call security.

VGTimes: You can find comments in which gamers scold the project for being derivative. What do you think about this?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: As I said, three and a half years ago there was nothing. We started from scratch. Probably because of this, we focused on great games.

Sometimes the technical task sounded like this: «Take the first Fallout, open a certain moment, see how it was done, and repeat.» Only then did we begin to interpret and make changes, because it is impossible to copy the mechanics one to one. A lot of changes are added to all the actions.

If we make Encased 2, we will already have a base on which to innovate. Before being smart, we need to learn how to do some basics.

VGTimes: Many people praise Encased for its script. Did it change much during development?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: If we talk about the central storyline, there were about 10 versions in the process. The story is constantly being adapted and rewritten. It is a living organism.

How did it change? During Early Access, the player started at Magellan Base, and a different path was laid out in front of them. Then we analyzed the main storyline and seriously re-designed it. There was a linear prologue that allows you to understand the basics of the world and the mechanics.

We wanted to make a story that takes place before, during, and after an incident that could be called apocalyptic. This was the idea from the beginning, and the central idea remains.

But interactions with different factions, tasks that can be completed in the main storyline... All this was constantly changing. Powerful changes stopped only at the beginning of the year, when it was necessary to wrap up and polish the version that was at that time.

VGTimes: The game has a survival system. The hero must monitor fatigue, thirst, hunger and other parameters. Many say that it does not affect the gameplay enough. What is the role of this mechanic?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: The survival system was laid down at the very beginning. It was supposed to become a deterrent that forces the player to interact with the world: search locations better, participate more in trade and the economy.

It also has not only gameplay purposes, but also atmospheric and role-playing ones. This is especially important in the first act, when the player finds himself in a greatly changed world: he has not yet gained muscle mass and found companions, and the Dome is dangerous.

The Dome is initially a hostile environment, but by the time the player gets there, everything has already stabilized. The Kronos Corporation is well established, and the player safely moves by transport from one protected bunker to another. The warehouses are overflowing — steal as much as you want.

Just after this relaxed period, the hero finds himself in a world full of dangers. It's like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: no protection from anomalies, no protection from radiation. But he still has to cover long distances, and in the process he gets tired and hungry. This is part of the vision we had: the player should feel vulnerable at least at the initial stages.

VGTimes: Encased can be completed without getting killed, right?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Yes, that's right. You get an «achievement» for this, and at the very least, it will be noted at the end. To do this, the hero needs to choose abilities that allow you to do this. Each branch has knockout-focused perks. You will also have to interact more with the world economically and buy, for example, a spray that you need to spray in your eyes. You can find it too.

Some fights will become more difficult. You will have to separate enemies into different corners, beat them and manage to knock them out. Or quickly do what you came for and run away. This gives a slightly more problematic experience, but at the same time more unique. It differs from the usual passage.

VGTimes: If we return to the survival system, one cannot help but note the problems with the backpack. For example, you can't filter things by weight and find what weighs down the hero the most. Will this feature be available at launch?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: There are a few weeks left until the release, and now we are working on conveniences: sorting, filtering, transport, in which you can put extra things and not carry them with you. Plus there will be a general rebalancing. The weight that a player can carry can be different — it will be redistributed among the entire group.

The inventory problem in RPGs has been going on since 2000 and remains to this day. It seems that no one has completely overcome it. In every game, especially at the start, all the main complaints are directed at this. How to compare 2 items? How to choose the coolest thing? How to understand what to keep and what not? How will this be useful to me? These questions seem simple, but since we are very busy, they are left until the last minute.

VGTimes: How long does it take to complete the main plot of Encased? And how many hours will it take to clear all the side quests?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Usually, studios answer that it all depends on the style in which you play. If you do without the default answer, then the main storyline will take about 30 hours. If you do everything, from 30 to infinity.

We have a lot of random encounters. If you drive around the dome, you can see many of them — there are about 100 of them in total. To see all the situations, you have to try. Plus, random encounters happen in the settlements themselves. They rather affect the atmosphere than the global history.

VGTimes: Will it be possible to explore the map after completing the story?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: One of the goals on Kickstarter was an option that allows you to play after the credits. This feature will not appear on release, but a special save will be created. You can load it, return to the world and travel further.

We decided that we would focus on a strong conclusion to the storyline, give players a break, and then release a large patch. It will allow you to run around the world after the finale. New random encounters and other content may also appear.

VGTimes: How many main endings will there be in Encased?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Everything can change, but at the moment Encased has 12 endings that are connected to factions and key choices. If you take into account each settlement, plot characters and all the actions done or not done, then all of them are modified into 40-50 or even an almost infinite number of endings.

VGTimes: I have questions about the partners. In the preview version, they do not seem like charismatic guys who will be remembered for a long time. Will they still open up at the release or will they remain the same?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: It's a matter of time, development and expertise. If you compare Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2, you will notice a huge leap in this regard. We hope that we will have the same breakthrough between Encased and Encased 2.

We think that the partners look, at the very least, interesting. Perhaps we lacked experience in some areas, or focus in others. The thing is that we also paid a lot of attention to solo playthrough. Many would like the lone wolf to be perceived normally in the plot and be able to master the mechanics of combat and economics.

When there are so many options for passing, so many systems, you have to choose what to sacrifice. We wanted to come up with different partners with different powers, and we succeeded. Alas, incredible detail did not work out. Let's see how it goes next time.

VGTimes: Do you have plans for DLC?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: We will definitely implement all the goals we reached on Kickstarter. And we will also do what we did not achieve.

However, a lot depends on what state we will be in in September. The game will definitely be corrected and improved based on user advice. There will be basic improvements, such as easier sorting and so on. We will make these changes first.

If we talk about major updates, we will announce this when we have a little rest. We will summarize what happened, what the response was, and based on this we will make an announcement about what we will release and when.

VGTimes: How many copies of Encased need to be sold for the development to pay for itself?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: In order not to consider the project a complete failure, you need to sell about 100-200 thousand copies.

VGTimes: How many copies have you already sold?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin:(9 videos — 03.03) About 50 thousand people played in early access, but much fewer bought. Several tens of thousands.

VGTimes: Russian developers of Pathfinder: Kingmaker said that 50 percent of sales were in the US, 40 percent in Europe, and 10% were scattered around the world. The authors of Atom RPG say that half of the copies were sold in the West, half in the CIS. What are your statistics?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: About 50 percent of our sales were in the US and UK markets. 40 percent is Europe.

VGTimes: The game will be released on September 7. If we take only turn-based RPGs, then King's Bounty 2, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Atom RPG Trudograd will be released around the same time. But there will also be other big releases like Diablo 2: Resurrected. Aren't you afraid that Encased will be crushed by competitors?

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: There are worries, and they are very strong. This is bloody September. It's some kind of madness that all the developers and publishers decided to release games at this time. There is also fear of what will happen in October.

We have already postponed the release date many times before, and this time we couldn't change anything. Although we really wanted to. We talked to the publisher and tried to find a day of the week where we could squeeze in between some hits and others, but there were no options. We hope that everything will work out.

VGTimes: These are all the questions we had. Thank you for telling us more about the game. We wish you good luck and great sales!

Vyacheslav Kozikhin: Thank you for inviting us. Good luck to you too!

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The Encased developers give the impression of rational and competent people who know what they are doing and do not try to jump above their heads. They understand very well what is within their power and what is beyond their capabilities. But if they take on mechanics, they work on it with the utmost responsibility. This is exactly the approach that Russian gamedev lacked.

Someone will scold Encased for being derivative. However, if we put these conversations aside, then, at least from the press version, it is felt that the game turned out to be exciting and made with love and talent. If you are a fan of classic RPGs in the spirit of Fallout and Wasteland, pay attention to the brainchild of Dark Crystal Games. Most likely, you will like the game.

What do you think about Encased? Write in the comments!