Darkside of the Pixel has turned to the gaming community for help with funding for the development of their game, Hero-Arena. Using IndieGoGo to facilitate the money-raising campaign, Darkside developers hope to raise $10,000 by June 27th.

I recently talked to David R. a developer from Darkside of the Pixel, and talked to him about Hero-Arena and why the game deserves your support.

Visit Hero-Arena on IndieGoGo



Hey David, how long have you been a game developer, and what projects have you worked on in the past?

Hey Tom! I’ve been an indie game developer for a few years, and before that I would work on mods for various games such as the Source and Unreal engines. Some games I’ve had my hand in are Monster Truck Racing Extreme Offroad, PaintBallGame ( coming soon ) and Master Of The Freaks on iOS.

Hero-Arena will be free to play, when it’s released. How do you plan on monetizing the game to ensure long-term development as promised in the pitch video?

Hero-Arena will thrive on basic in-game Freemium content. Things such as purchasing bundles of coins, resurrection potions, and other non game-breaking additions like character styles and new arenas. Also the addition of expansion packs is definitely something important we plan to add at a very minimal cost for lots of new content !

Who else will be working on Hero-Arena with you? How did you meet these other developers?

Hero-Arena is being worked on by a whole slew of talented people. Danick, Vince, Tom, Hannah, Elise, Nic and David. While I developed the initial concept for Hero-Arena I was looking for a programmer to help me get the game going, that’s how I met Danick. Through him I met our Lead Animator, Vince. All the other team members I know in person and are all respected members in their fields of Art, Music, Illustration, and Modelling.

Will Hero-Arena be just for Wizards? Or will Warriors and Archers or other player “classes” find use?

In total for the initial game release we will have 6 playable classes and slowly begin adding more. Hero-Arena will have a wide variety of classes all with their own unique abilities, weapons, and play-styles. The 6 classes you can get from the start are : Guardian, Monk, Magician, Archer, Assassin and Reaper.

You mentioned in the pitch video that with the money you raise from the Indie GoGo funding, you plan on buying a game engine? For readers unfamiliar with the development process, could you explain what this means? Why do you need to buy the game engine?

The game engine which we are using is Unity3d to develop our game. The reason people buy game engines is to avoid a lot of the basic startup coding of a game, a lot of features that also enhance gameplay are pre-built into the engine, making the process simpler with less flaws and allowing the team to focus on creating a better game. The Unity3d basic engine which the game is built on has taken us a long way, but the Pro edition which we plan to purchase will help us develop and expand the graphics, loading, connections and make our multiplayer features come to life!

What sort of realistic long-term goals do you have in mind for Hero-Arena?

From the start of writing the design document until now, we have refined Hero-Arena to have very attainable goals. During our time we’d like to see Hero-Arena rise and expand to various platforms, include new single player and multiplayer game modes, and of course to have a wide variety of new classes and items.

How will Hero-Arena appeal to different types of gamers?

Hero-Arena‘s casual gameplay is built into it’s core design. We make it easy to register, create a new character and directly hop into the single player content within minutes. The games core fighting mechanics have players attacking, using abilities, dodging, countering and blocking against enemy attacks. These mechanics are simple at their core but require a keen eye for pattern recognition and timing to use effectively. The competitive players will have to spend their time not only mastering their classes abilities, but get a good sense of how other players are using their abilities as well !

A single-player mode is mentioned in the video. Will the game be more difficult for one person to play alone? How do you plan on balancing both the multiplayer mode and the single-player mode to ensure a fair experience?

The game difficulty depends on how well you can learn the mechanics and the patterns that enemies utilize. We promise a very small learning curve so that players can quickly learn and adapt to situations in both single and multiplayer. We balance online matches by matching players levels as best as possible so you’ll never face off against someone who is much more powerful then yourself. We plan to tweak and balance the game so that anytime you die, you can learn from it and overcome any obstacle.

On the Indie GoGo page, you promised weekly updates. Where can people interested in keeping up with the project find these updates, and will they be simply posts or weekly development video logs?

During the Indiegogo campaign we will be updating directly on the Indiegogo website and on our own temporary website www.hero-arena.com for your convenience !

Thanks David, any final words you’d like to say to the readers who may be interested in helping out with the funding process?

I’d just like to thank everyone for their interest. If you can’t donate, helping us spread the word about the project is more then enough help. We’re looking to create a fun and free experience for everyone to enjoy so I hope you show your support.

Visit Hero Arena on IndieGoGo and pledge your support, today!