The initial concept for Challengers of Khalea was a multiplayer-only blend of turn-based MOBA and Management, but with this decision comes a decidedly different title. The Tampere, Finland-based studio has decided to abandon that premise in favor of what they believe to be a more exciting direction.

“After we failed on Kickstarter, we took a look at the feedback we were getting. It was mainly positive, but another online-only indie title was definitely not what people wanted. In a way, discovering that was liberating.” said Steve Stewart, company Co-Founder.

The company had long struggled with the difficulties of producing a quality online multiplayer title under the limited budget of a largely self-funded and self-guaranteed indie studio. After raising over €6,000 in its first week on Kickstarter last October, the project seemed brimming with promise, but when the contributions slowed, and funding goals fell short, the studio was left with an ultimatum: adapt, or disband.

“We simply weren’t ready to give up so easily. We’ve sacrificed a lot for this project, and we are passionate about creating the fun and exciting tactical experience we dreamed up all those months ago. When we found out that our one big stumbling block, the expense related to creating multiplayer netcode (and doing it right), wasn’t going to be an issue, things got fun again.” said Steve Stewart.

The dozen-person team brainstormed on the direction they would move, and the influence of tactical role playing games (such as Final Fantasy Tactics and the Fire Emblem series), on the original concept was not ignored. A tactical role playing game it would be, with a character-focused story revolving around the lives of a rising Arena champion and his team of support staff on their way to the Khalean Cup. But a piece of the puzzle remained unplaced.

“Our art style just wasn’t right for telling the story we wanted to. We thought long and hard, and in the end inspiration struck me from a variety of sources. Old school JRPGs have a ton of 2D, so we decided on that for our storytelling mechanism partly as an homage to those titles, and partly because we had already dreamed up the perfect visual style. We immediately felt that an amalgamation of Art Nouveau and Comic-style art would work perfectly for this otherwise rough bloodsport. A bit of visual charm to balance the savage nature of the sport this story revolves around.” Said Steve Stewart.

With updated visuals, and a story-based focus, Dreamloop Games has renewed their passion for the project, and with the expense of multiplayer netcode axed, has managed to free up severely limited resources in order to create the game they wanted all along.