by Kevin "Couchpotato" Loveless, 2015-05-18

In his last interview for RPGWatch, Couchpotato talked to Boian Spasov of Haemimont Games about their game Victor Vran, which is currently on Early Access.

RPGWatch: Welcome to RPGWatch to start the interview can you introduce yourself, and your studio Haemimont Games?

Boian: Hi! My name is Boian Spasov and I am one of the lead designers here at Haemimont Games. We are the first Bulgarian game developer studio and we've been making games for more than 15 years now. Over the years we've created a varied portfolio of titles, including city builders, real-time strategies, a turn-based tactical game and an action-adventure.



RPGWatch: Can you give a brief overview of your new Action-RPG Victor Vran for our readers, and gamers who never heard of you game?

Boian: Victor Vran is our first title in yet another genre - action-RPG. It holds a very special place in our hearts.

In the past we've always started working on a game partnering with a publisher, but Victor Vran is our first independently-developed title. It represents our vision for what a modern, dynamic, action-role-playing game should be. We've been developing Victor Vran for many years now, between working on our other games, and it is our most ambitious project yet.

Victor Vran is almost done and is already available to the public in Steam Early Access.



RPGWatch: Victor Vran feels like quite a change of direction for Haemimont. What made you decide to go this way instead of developing another Tropico game?

Boian: The game industry has this way of forcing you as a developer into a particular niche. Once you create a successful, say, city-builder title, it is almost expected that you will continue to make city-building games for as long as you exist.

As gamers we enjoy many and varied games, and we don't want to constrain ourselves to a single genre as developers. The perspective and experience we've gained from making our very different previous titles have proved invaluable for the development of Victor Vran.

For example, we've learned much about creating a dynamic combat system from our old action-adventure title The First Templar. Real-time strategies told us much about creating interesting enemies with varied combat behavior.

We aimed to create a fresh and different action-RPG experience and all those life lessons from previous projects really helped us do so.

RPGWatch: What inspired you to make Victor Vran? Also what sets your game apart from the other A-RPG, and Hack & Slash games?

Boian: The visuals of the game and the setting were inspired by movies such as Van Helsing and Underworld, but I think we've managed to put our own creative spin on the gothic vampire mythos.

The gameplay was inspired not only both by classic action-RPGs but also by our favorite action games. We aim for a much more dynamic experience that is expected of an action-RPG, where the character constantly moves, jumps or dodges; and player skill and reflexes matter just as much as gear and character build.

We've got several distinctive mechanics that set us apart from the other titles in the genre such as the way equipped weapons change your playstyle and classless system where the character is customized by equipping destiny cards, demon powers and consumables.

Another thing that sets us apart from the mainstream action-RPGs is how you don't need to invest countless hours to feel awesome and kick ass. Our goal was to create a game experience that is fun and engaging from the very beginning of the game.



RPGWatch: The graphics look very good so I was wondering if you could talk a bit about the engine you're using?

Boian: Thanks! We are very proud of how our visuals turned out, and our proprietary engine and toolset definitely helped us achieve this result. Using our own technology allows to us achieve a distinct look and feel with the game and readily move into any direction we choose. At the same time maintaining an engine requires a lot of effort. It's a tradeoff that we've made. A fun fact - this is the same engine that powers the city-builder Tropico 5 and the turn-based Omerta: City of Gangsters.



RPGWatch: Have you learned anything by watching/playing other ARPG games? Are there any mistakes you've learned to not make, or systems you want to adopt?

Boian: Of course! We've logged hundreds of hours of "research time" - we should have something to show for it.

For example, we have a Hex system for customizable difficulty that is inspired by the idols in Bastion. Some of our inspiration comes from other genres, as well: the way weapons change your attack skills was inspired by Guild Wars 2. Still, copying an existing formula does not work, so it is very hard for me to say "this mechanics is taken from that game" - it's more about having a similar feel and approach.



RPGWatch: Victor Vran has been available on Steam Early Access for a few months now, so how has early feed back been?

Boian: We are very happy with the way Early Access influenced the development of Victor Vran. We shipped the first Early Access version with integrated tools for reporting bugs and providing feedback and have been making good use of the community feedback since then.

We are working on several new features based on user input, such as an alternative control scheme and a more involved itemization mechanics. Some of those are already released for beta testing in the current Early Access version, while others will be added to the game really soon.

I'd like to use this opportunity to thank everyone that helped us by providing feedback and joining the discussions in the Steam forums. Keep being awesome and helping us make a better game!

RPGWatch: One of your latest Steam updates added a Cooperative Multi-player mode. So with just one main character how is that going to work?

Boian: The multiplayer supports up to four players slaying monsters together and sharing progress, as long as they stay close to each other. Monsters scale up to provide an adequate challenge.

Each player experiences the story from his/her personal point of view, but you can easily play together with everyone, even if you are on different steps in the main quest.

Player characters can be personalized and colorized, so there should be no issues with telling players apart.



RPGWatch: How much longer will the game be on Steam Early Access, and do you have a planned release date yet?

Boian: The game is on track for full release this summer, but there is no specific release date announced yet. We've always aimed for a short stay in Early Access, but development won't end with our release date. We will continue to work on the game and improve it with free updates after release.



RPGWatch: That's all for now so thank you for answering my questions. Do you have anything you want to add before we finish?

Boian: Thank you for your interest in Victor Vran! We've been working on this project for quite a while and it feels great to finally be able to share it with you. Let's hunt some demons together!