We were fortunate to have the opportunity to discuss Ironward’s upcoming game, The Red Solstice, with Project Manager Hrvoje Horvatek.
As a “survival top down cooperative shooter”, what makes The Red Solstice unique when compared to others?
Hrvoje: Players spawn in a big city, and they are free to go anywhere they want and explore it, the trick is, they need to find their own way to try and stay alive for about one hour, it’s kind of a sandbox survival in which you choose what you do.
How long has the game been in development? Which engine does it use?
Hrvoje: It’s been in development for about four years, we’ve created our own engine for this game.
While it’s clear that The Red Solstice looks great as a multiplayer game, is there a single player campaign as well?
Hrvoje: There will be singleplayer yes, and idea is to teach players tricks and tactics with each class. But at the moment we are heavily focused only on multiplayer so singleplayer will come a bit later.
How does the game’s Random System work?
Hrvoje: It’s heavily dependent on difficulty and player ranks, so the harder the difficulty players choose, and the higher the ranks they are, the game becomes more unexpected in terms of enemies, missions, items, and events.
What classes are there in the game?
Hrvoje: There are marksman, recon, assault, medic, hellfire, terminator, demolition, heavy support. Each class is designed to complement one other class, so each players has to take up on his role. For example, a marksman is very good for covering the recon while he is scouting buildings for supplies, because he can shoot through walls. And demolition is great for taking out fat bosses, but he cannot defend himself well.
How does the character customization system work?
Hrvoje: As mentioned above, each class has certain role in game, but player customization can extend that class role to some other areas and make them better in this, this of course sometimes comes with cost. For example power-ups are very powerfull tool that can tweak some major characteristics of your character, but they also decrease some stuff.
Can you give us an idea of how the Ailment System can play a role in whether or not a team succeeds or fails in their survival mission?
Hrvoje: If players don’t have medic, or good supply management and scouting, players will succumb to various poisons, wounds, and fractures. As an example if you get a rupture wound, your marine will drastically lose health when he moves, in this kind of situations you must create a defensive circle around your teammate and patch him up so he can continue to move, or he will die.
Hrvoje: Every date we have given so far, something unexpected happened, so I will just say, very soon!