Lozano spoke with Game Rant about his big win and how it will shape the development of Elementallis. The title is much more than a love letter to The Legend of Zelda, featuring a unique, elemental magic system that players must leverage for puzzle-solving, traversal, and combat. And with the extra funds, the game will further differentiate from its source material with an enhanced narrative and modern bonus features.
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A Surprising Show of Support
No matter how much community support and buzz a developer can garner in advance, there’s no such thing as surefire Kickstarter campaign. Sometimes the premise of a project resonates strongly with backers, however, and funding dreams come true. Sometimes, Kickstarter projects meet their goal in the blink of an eye. In Elementallis’ case, the game hit its asking price of €18,000 in the space of 24 hours. Lozano was blown away by the response from backers.
When campaigns meet their funding goal quickly and start to pick up steam, there is a temptation to overpromise with stretch goals. But Lozano stayed conservative, capping the campaign at seven additional features which include a customizable boss rush mode, an additional temple, a CRT mode, and a challenging new difficulty setting.
Kicking Narrative Up a Notch
Lozano is thrilled to have a larger budget to work with, but he hasn’t lost sight of the core deliverable: a complete game, delivered on time. As a result, deciding where and how to expand on the game without stretching the team too thin is a challenge:
When a fundraising campaign reaches a certain sum, it can be difficult to maintain perspective. It is tempting to take on the world in terms of wish list features and added content, but such ambitions can burn developers out, or easily push back release. While the end result was a stellar Metroidvania title, the numerous delays Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon suffered after its Kickstarter concluded come to mind.
But an expanded narrative and extra translations are smart buys. They will not only enhance the overall experience of the game, and open it up to a broader audience, but they shouldn’t require much extra programmatic work or additional sprites. Similarly, the stretch goals added, like an in-game bestiary and pixel art cut scenes, are attainable additions that won’t require a radical reworking of the project. Lozano revealed that he would also be hiring a dedicated writer to raise the quality of the narrative while allowing him to focus on other tasks.
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The More, The Merrier
Again, while it is easy to be blinded by dollar signs, having a huge pool of backers adds other benefits as well. Having six times the budget means expectations are six times as large, but Lozano is looking forward to receiving a wealth of feedback from backers. A small development team of four now has an army of passionate beta testers who have already invested in the title’s success. Furthermore, establishing a community for a small title will go a long way towards generating buzz before launch, and word of mouth after. Promotion and polish just got a lot easier.
Lozano was overwhelmed with the response, and repeatedly expressed gratitude for his backers. Their support will not only make the game possible; it will enable the best possible version of the game to be made as well.
Elementallis is projected to release in June of 2022 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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