Owlcat Games: The Last Hope of the Gaming Industry

[00:02] Last time I talked about the decomposition of the Mass Effect series into mold and linden honey. This time, on the contrary, I want to share a success story full of traditional patience for everyone. I want to talk about a studio that makes the best PG, has the most talented

[00:17] scriptwriters in the industry, and literally breaks through concrete walls with its head. On the way breaks through concrete walls with its head. On the way to a dream, All Cat Games was founded by people from Val, they managed to work on the heroes of 5 forms of LOD. As often happens,

[00:32] after 10 years on the gallery of mediocre games, they wanted to make a single-player project. In general, to be honest, at some point I didn’t suspect that in Russia there was a place. So in 2016, under the wing of mail.ru, the All Cat studio was founded.

[00:46] In 2017, All Cat announced their first game, a classic role-playing game in the their first game, a classic role-playing game in the Pathfinder tabletop universe

[01:04] issue seriously and forced the entire team to endure. We endure, dwarves, who endures, survives at an early stage. There were about 30 people, and They had to endure PAFR in their

[01:16] free time, the team gathered and played all the time, there was no point in using this experience in development. In short, we got together, we were sitting and thinking, we need to make a PG. It's clear. We really want to. How to make a PG for PG, we need... Well,

[01:28] we wanted to make a base based on a tabletop RPG, we even had some developments, actually. to make a good group, PAFR, you need to know PAFR, you need to play it. Well, we play together, everyone without exception, everyone played you, regardless of

[01:42] this is the ideological backbone of the development, its core in the sense that what's important. It seems to me that it's different from any other experience I've had in work before that everything is in context. That is, everyone understands what we're doing. What kind of game is this, like, on

[01:56] what basis is it built, everything in the context of lore. Yes, and including mechanically, regardless of position, and it seems to me that this helps a lot, I must say that this approach played both a plus and a minus. The fact is that the studio was looking for a

[02:09] good Western narrative that would help them with working on the plot and characters. and quests, in the end, they managed to get the genius Chris Avilon. Only thanks to the decision to play a board game together. Chris Avilon had previously used a

[02:22] similar approach and therefore easily agreed. He later admitted in an interview. On the other hand, some game conventions were too carefully the computer, which is why the combat turned into the spirit of Natori and the leveling into a

[02:36] real AT for an unprepared gamer. A fun fact: board game fans say that, on the contrary, there are inaccuracies and simplifications. Sick bastards. In mid- 2017, OLK launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for

[02:49] development. Back then, it was a popular topic. The final collection goal was half a million dollars, but the studio managed to raise almost twice as much. It was a stunning success that literally turned the gaming industry upside down, as

[03:02] the press wrote at the time. The game was released in September 2018, and something turned upside down again in the best traditions of SZ development. The game came out buggy and impassable at release, nevertheless, the story was interesting. Quests Original with a

[03:16] playthrough options and amazing replayability, even in its terrible state upon release, the game received mostly good ratings of around 72 on Metacritic. It was a success. The dream of the guys from LCT came true. They created

[03:31] their own single-player project, a world-class project. The plot of Pfinder Kingmaker doesn't try to be complicated or incomprehensible, it tries to be high-quality. The story works and every character here is in their place. The main character is one of the

[03:44] mercenaries who are invited to conquer lands inhabited by bandits. As a reward, they promise the title of Harrow and those very lands. The main character gathers a destroys bandits and gradually

[03:57] subjugates the lands along the way, solving problems. The teeth of the peasants, and the scriptwriters have prepared a huge number of problems, from everyday to ominously mystical, for every taste. The further along the plot, the greater the problems, the larger they become.

[04:11] The game does not let you relax for a minute. The companions, by the way, are varied, but not in a bad way. Quite lifelike with their own stories, but nothing unusual. I personally liked J-tal, a not quite living elf who will make

[04:25] anyone [ __ ] themselves upon meeting her. The gameplay is divided into two large parts. The first is exploring the map, clearing dungeons and completing quests on the ground. The quests are all interesting. Each dialogue is rich in meaning and reveals all the

[04:38] characters, even the poorest NPC. The scriptwriters did a good job. The work of the master of Avilon and his new students is visible. By carefully reading the dialogues, you can guess the nature of this or that character and get a hint about

[04:51] their real motives. However, this is all done in an unobvious way and is not striking at first glance. There is a ton of text in the game, it is incredibly interesting to read. This is also facilitated by the number of options in the dialogue, quest

[05:05] solutions and answers that are available depending on the set of character traits and their worldview. Unfortunately, the impression of Kingmaker is spoiled by the combat. Overdoing it with the commander

[05:30] construction is more or less clear. You build buildings, city upgrades, everything is as usual. In cities, you can build teleports that will allow you to quickly government problems are an interesting thing. To be precise, they are divided

[05:45] into problems and opportunities. Problems threaten to reduce well-being indicators. kingdoms and require immediate solutions opportunities offer increased well-being indicators Without risk Therefore, first of all,

[05:57] you need to focus on problems and not on opportunities in order not to lose To solve each of these problems, you need to appoint an advisor from the Hero's Party or some other characters available for this role,

[06:09] each advisor can only deal with one problem at a time Therefore, you need to be careful with their appointment In addition, residents or advisors regularly come to the player for advice on solving some issue

[06:21] These are short dialogue scenes in which you can make important, not very decisions everything related to managing the kingdom Incredibly captivating and I admit honestly I liked sitting in the castle and making a decision more than

[06:34] cleaning the [ __ ] out of another Dungeon, but the game does not allow you to sit in one place for a long time The developers hate casuals like me so much that they introduced a nasty timer for quests Why And who the hell knows, probably so that I would endure even more Apparently,

[06:49] Creed of post-Soviet developers I definitely liked Kingmaker, but I must admit that it had its shortcomings, so I hoped that their I fixed it in the studio's next project, and then problems began in October 2019. The studio,

[07:05] investment fund, became independent from mail.ru. No one knows the details of their deal. How did it happen that the studio lost the rights to its first game and the income from it, as it later turned out, from 2019 to

[07:18] 2021, free patches for Kingmaker, and all the profit from mail.ru loot. We must give credit to the guys; they already understood how important it is to work on your reputation after all. Just 2 months after gaining independence,

[07:32] the studio announces a new game, pfinder Versus rous, promises a darker tone for the story and again begins a fundraising campaign. Thanks to the success of the first game, they again collect much more than expected. Thanks to which

[07:46] new features appear in the game. When we make a kickstarter, it is also important for us to start communicating with our players as early as possible. It is important for us that our players, especially our most loyal fans, have been with us from the early stages of

[07:58] development. Therefore, for us, kickstart is not only a way to raise money, not even so much as a way to raise money. How to involve players in communication. It would be strange if I said that we don't need money, we need an independent studio. We need to

[08:12] on the other hand, to say that it's exclusively money would also be wrong for us. After all, Kickstarter is probably for starting work with Baker, who is also a skin maker. We saw that this is a very effective

[08:27] way of communication. When people appear who are very interested in playing early versions of their game, they give comments, any remarks, in general, to make it better together with you, and

[08:42] again the studio finds problems. This time, the scandal surrounding Chris Avilon. One after another, studios are canceling him, everyone is refusing to cooperate. A large-scale campaign of harassment is unfolding, but they didn't turn away from him, once again

[08:56] demonstrating willpower. Eastern rock formation in difficult times. They expressed deep concern on official accounts and simply waited until everything died down. Yes, don't be surprised. The game was released in September of 21 with a bunch of

[09:11] bugs in an impassable state, after all, this is already a tradition. The plot of the game begins with the attack of the Horde of demons on the city. The main character falls into a hole after being hit by a huge The demon cockroach begins his journey to the surface,

[09:25] picking up his first companions on the go. After some time, the hero loots an imbalanced item and becomes the chosen one, leading the crusade. There are several times more companions than in King Maker, and they have become much more interesting.

[09:40] Words cannot describe how good they are. You have to play and feel it, except that they have moved on to the number of love interests, stray tam, cannibalism. But this is a matter of taste. Overall, the game is similar in structure to the first one, only now a

[09:52] tactical map with crusade management has been added. Here we will have to confront hordes of demon squads. Another VSJ ingenuity is hidden somewhere here. squads. Another VSJ ingenuity is hidden somewhere here. The developers

[10:05] time limit for completing quests and removed it, but instead, the waves of demons on the tactical map become stronger and stronger. Therefore, if you delay

[10:17] completing the main task for too long, they will sooner or later demolish the capital and the game will end correctly. One way or another, in SJ, the developers will strangle you, everything according to the credit. Among the new features, mythical paths have appeared, thanks to which the

[10:30] player can Becoming an angel, a demon, or many other things is a cool thing. It often replayability to an even higher level. Since each mythical path has its own story, we believe one

[10:43] of the things we did well in King Maker is the connection between choices and consequences. We certainly wanted to strengthen this component. We wanted the game to have even more choices. We also really wanted the new game to have some new

[10:57] interesting component. In this regard, the mythical paths really attracted us because it is such an additional level of Ney's build and the development of your character in addition to the main one that is in Passive Dere. The developers also worked

[11:11] on the balance and combat. The spirit of Natori in battles became much less. But the game was based on the same mechanics as in King Maker, so this did not play a strong role. I still advise taking the lowest difficulty and just enjoying

[11:24] the story. The game received high marks and became a great success, surpassing all indicators. Despite the problems, the studio was back on top and in June of 2022 announced a game based on the RHR 40,000 universe. Then another

[11:39] bad streak hit the guys. Wild dogs from XBT attacked Anton Logvino in 2022. He hadn't yet returned from warp, so the post of the most cringeworthy game journalist of the upper internet was picked up by the recently soaring popularity of the Belarusian idiots. Having barely

[11:55] gained popularity, they adopted all the vices of the upper internet code when ULKT refused to give them an interview. Vitalik got offended and started [ __ ] on the studio and shits on it. We still don't like the UCT studio at all. No matter what they do, we'll immediately say

[12:09] it's crap. He also launched Force about Cypriots, that's what he calls a Russian studio. For registering a legal entity in Cyprus. Just think about it. A jerk from Belarus thinks he can order games from Russian studios at his own request and organizes shows

[12:24] for Russian developers, and then he criticizes Russian bloggers for not covering this event enough. Force from Vitalik, picked up by the XBT audience, was enough to ruin the reputation of ULKT in Russia, but how do we

[12:38] We see further studios in the end it did n't really hurt. After all, they make better RPGs. When Rock Trader came out, it sold 500,000 copies in the first month. I remind you that the studio's previous games reached the 1 million mark in a few

[12:52] years. This is again a success and again, outperforming previous figures. A fly in the ointment. The previous figures. A fly in the ointment. The technical condition of the game again became bugs and impassability at release. But they were quickly fixed; the game could be completed to the

[13:04] end. Just a few months after the release and it was worth it. The change of setting did the studio good. On the Internet, it has long been noticed that people from Eastern Europe understand the Warhammer universe very well at the level of feelings. Born in

[13:17] Grim Dark, the developers perfectly conveyed the mood of this Universe. No Space Marina could have done this. Hammer, first of all, is a dysfunctional imperium at all levels. The complete lack of value in human life. The patience of

[13:31] humanity is like not finishing off that animal and not some kind of ridiculous pathos from a space marine, and this. The atmosphere is felt in the smallest details. Details range from location design to crazy dialogues. For example, the protagonist returns to

[13:44] Foot Fall station and is met there by a rogue trader from another house, a righteous servant of the Emperor who, upon meeting, sweetly eats a human brain from the skull of a heretic with a dessert spoon. If you follow the path of the dogmatist and love the

[13:56] Emperor, then you will have to cooperate with her. The game's plot begins on the void ship of a rogue trader from the von Valance dynasty. The protagonist is invited aboard as one of the possible heirs of the Great Trader. Suddenly, heretics

[14:11] the confusion, the rogue trader is found dead. The other Heirs, one way or another, drop out of the race. The protagonist becomes a rogue trader himself. Then he must solve the problems of the void cone, pursue heretics, establish

[14:26] trade, fight the xenos themselves and gather allies to fight back the crazy Inquisitor. Everything we love is in the game, the previously mentioned cop system is present. There are only three paths. The path of the dogmatist is the faithful one. The Emperor's servants, the path of

[14:40] schism, seems like it should be a more pragmatic and humane option, but in reality, we play because of some spoon who suffers for everyone in order to save as many who suffers for everyone in order to save as many people as possible, but there are no

[14:55] that any adequate person will choose either the path of the dogmatist or the path of the heretics, otherwise what is the point of playing a Warhammer RPG? It's nonsense to go and save everyone. Moreover, the authors very subtly applied the horseshoe theory, which is why

[15:07] the dogmatist walks over corpses no less than the heretic. But in the name of the emperor. During the second playthrough, this adds a new layer to this delicious narrative pie. By the way, if you are not familiar with the Warhammer universe, then no problem, this

[15:19] game is perfect for immersion. In every dialogue, the developers have provided links to certain concepts on the local Wikipedia, you can always point and look. The gameplay of the new RPG from All Cat Games has also

[15:31] changed: the developers threw out or reduced the entire spirit of Natori and focused on the strengths of the past. In games, battles are now turn-based, reminiscent of XCOM. But the deeper leveling still consists of a billion skills, but

[15:45] the number of classes has been reduced, and overall, the game has become much more friendly. Political decision-making and dialogue have become even more so. You could say almost half the game now consists of them, and solving these problems really has consequences.

[15:58] For example, in the very first incident on the Lower Decks, you can put a loyal Sinish in his place and he will never argue with your decisions again. Otherwise, he will grumble throughout the game, saying that in the past, the Kuplinov traders did everything

[16:11] differently. They introduced simple space combat mechanics. But in terms of taste, it is somewhat reminiscent of tactical battles from the Wrath of the Righteous. The ship can be upgraded and new modules can be installed on it. On the global map, you can lay

[16:24] paths for navigator points. This is much more convenient than the teleports from previous parts because a path can be laid anywhere and from anywhere. This does not require a specially built Teleporter. In general, the game seems to have become

[16:36] saturated, in terms of the feeling in Passage Dera, the dungeons were more drawn-out and empty of content. more And it's thicker, the dialogues are teeming with stat checks, they are influenced by the character's backstory, be it his home world, past trauma, the hero's greatest triumph,

[16:50] or decisions made during the gameplay; even companion quests have become more difficult. By the way, about companions, the number of companions in the tray has again decreased to the companions in the tray has again decreased to the Kingmaker level;

[17:08] Chaos Space Marine is true; then all companions with the Dogmatist worldview will leave you, and Eldar will also cook. Well, screw them, since Ritka got in the way. Be prepared to go to the end. A DLC was recently released for the game; it added a new

[17:22] companion, the Death Cult Assassin, and a storyline about genes on the ship

[17:59] heroine were well-integrated, too; she doesn't feel superfluous or tacked on to the side; in every dialogue, she has something to say, and it seems as if she's always been in this game. By the way, she immediately became one of my favorite characters. In short, Rock

[18:12] Trader is the peak of RPG today. I know that fans of Bald Gate 3 will disagree with me, but I like BG3 much less. It's more clownish and frivolous, and it has some kind of DND smell, you know, in a bad way. When

[18:26] I played BG3, I felt like the script was written not by a talented screenwriter, but by a game master. The characters seemed to be created by ordinary dwarf players without much imagination and context for the story, and this is felt in everything, even in quests that have

[18:39] many ways to complete but little meaningful content. I sincerely believe that CTY are now making the best RPGs, just like the young Obsidian once did. Yes, they were buggy on release, just like Obsidian once did, but it's a better RPG, and no

[18:54] one makes better ones anyway. Moreover, modern Obsidian has turned into a variety of non-Bernard trans earnings of feces in his ass. According to the latest news, everything is fine with Octa. To my surprise, even the latest DLC about the

[19:08] cult of death was released without critical bugs. Nevertheless, the news that they became publishers in my memory causes some excitement. Every time When a successful VSZh company becomes a publisher, it starts publishing some

[19:22] crap and dies a painful death. For example, this happened with wargaming, which I'll talk about another time. We'll see how it goes. I wish the guys We'll see how it goes. I wish the guys all the best, and Vitalik xbt will

[19:34] [ __ ] himself in his sleep tonight. That's all. Subscribe and like. Play Subscribe and like. Play gam games, it's worth it.

[19:47] driving around the city and I really like it. So, you haven't changed any of my special plans, guys. I'm just exploring the city. Have a

[19:59] city. Have a good evening.