Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Sergio Ordoño, CEO at Timeless Games Inc., to find out what inspired their new retro RPG and how important their current Kickstarter is to their success.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?
Sergio Ordoño: The development team is really keen on sci-fi, and we all like movies such as Back to the Future and Star Trek. We’ve always wanted to make a time-travel themed RPG.
Our original idea was to tell the story of a bronze age man who found an alien spaceship that turned him into an immortal timeless being able to predict alien invasions.
There were a lot of things which didn’t match, and we could not create time paradoxes such as those in Back to the Future and Star Trek. As a consequence, the project evolved and became what is it now.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What was development like?
Ordoño: The game began with a Unity engine and it contained a turn-based combat system. However, the rhythm of the game didn’t work properly with the CHAOS system we wanted to integrate. Therefore, we changed it and we started all over again back at the beginning of 2018.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game special?
Ordoño: Definitely, what makes it different is the CHAOS gameplay –it’s actually gameplay that registers the actions made by the player and makes a kind of butterfly effect. Contrary to other classic Zelda games which we got inspiration from, there are many ways to solve the levels and everything you do ends up affecting the CHAOS in a different way. This is why the end of the game may be different depending on your past behavior.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What games influenced this one the most?
Ordoño: Zelda – A Link to the Past
Zelda – Minish Cap
Chrono Trigger
Bastion
Rack n’ Ruin
Old School Gamer Magazine: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?
Ordoño: When we created the AI of the enemies we forgot to properly indicate that they should try to chase the player. We filled the screen with a lot of enemies who attacked each other. It was our own battle royale!
We also had strong discussions about the historical moments we should include in the game. Each of us had their favorite ones just as if we were Assassin’s Creed’s fanboys requesting a game based on the Japanese Middle Ages.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?
Ordoño: Yes, it is. These mechanics represent the foundations of current games and aren’t out of date. They work and people like them. We mainly have to varnish it and that’s it.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?
Ordoño: The first one is OKAMI. The second one is when Kefka left the world in ruins.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Who will enjoy this game the most?
Ordoño: The game will be enjoyed by many classic RPG lovers and by anybody who likes sci-fi time-traveling adventures.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Bottom Line, why must someone play this game?
Ordoño: We want to create an enjoyable, emotional and educational single player experience.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you want this game to be remembered?
Ordoño: We want it to be remembered as the crossover between Chrono Trigger and Zelda.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?
Ordoño: We want to keep developing games, that’s our passion. Our next game will also be inspired by a classic.
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Patrick Hickey Jr. is the author of the book, “The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult and Classic Video Game Developers,” from McFarland And Company. Featuring interviews with the creators of 36 popular video games–including Deus Ex, NHLPA 93, Night Trap, Mortal Kombat, Wasteland and NBA Jam–the book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of some of the most influential and iconic (and sometimes forgotten) games of all time. Recounting endless hours of painstaking development, the challenges of working with mega-publishers and the uncertainties of public reception, the interviewees reveal the creative processes that produced some of gaming’s classic titles.
