Upcoming real-time strategy and castle-building gameCataclismoimmerses players in an intriguing dark fantasy world where the titular destructive event destroyed much of society. Now, the few survivors are forced into battle against hordes of monsters that routinely assault the castle walls. The team at Digital Sun describedCataclismoas a game that takes the joy of playing with LEGOs as a child and marries it to a memorable story about community and the environment.
Game Rant spoke with Javier “Javi” Gimenez, the CEO of Digital Sun Games, and creative director Vicent Ramirez aboutCataclismo.The team, who previously worked on titles includingMoonlighterandThe Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story,talked about the many inspirations behindCataclismoand the ups and downs of journeying into self-publishing. They even provided a small glimpse into the richly thought-out world that awaits players whenCataclismolaunches later this year.This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Design of Cataclismo
Q: You mentioned that you wanted to capture the feeling of playing with LEGOs inCataclismo.Could you talk more about that?
GIMENEZ:Internally, a lot of people here on the team have played with LEGOs for a long time, and some of us are fans of the RTS genre. We played a lot ofWarcraft 3back in the day.Age of Empirestoo, a lot of those games. We love castles. It was natural to try to do something using a LEGO system to build castles, but we also wanted to bring in the resource management elements of the RTS genre.
Q: So you blended LEGO and RTS to create something brand new?
GIMENEZ:Yes. You have the traditional buildings you’d expect in anRTS game. There are about 13 of those, more or less, but then, we also have a lot of small pieces with their own sizes and physical rules of stability. We also have something called “stone toughness.” With stone structures, the higher they are, the stronger they get. This gives a lot of options to the player, so they can customize their own structures. We also have different materials that have different properties. Stone is very sturdy but wood is more flexible, and you’re able to use it to build scaffolds or more complex structures to move your troops around. You have to be tactical, but you can also get creative and start thinking about what will be the most optimal - but also the most beautiful - thing to build. During development, one thing we really wanted to do was make sure that the most useful structure was also a beautiful one, so we had to come up with the right rules to achieve that.
RAMIREZ:During development, we had this issue where the optimal structures were not the most beautiful, unlikeLEGO setsbecause they were more practical. As the development progressed, I want to think that we found some creative solutions so the more beautiful structures ARE also the more effective structures. Like, if you put windows in a tower, then you can have your units fight against enemies without going so high up. If you put in banners or other decorations, those decorations in reality provide practical boosts to the units. It has a tactical component in it. A very high-powered building is going to be very sturdy if you decorate it with metal, for example.
Q:Cataclismois such a visually stunning game. What are some influences you looked to for its art style?
GIMENEZ:I can answer that up to a point. David Aguado is the art director, so he’s responsible for all that. I agree that the game is very beautiful. I really like it because usually real-time strategy games are not beautiful. Usually, visuals aren’t that important. In terms of references, we have a long list. Romantic painters, like Caspar David Friedrich, as well as the movies and games that we love.
RAMIREZ:David is the same art director thatMoonlighterhad back in the day, so we have all the same references because it’s the same director. He’s also an illustrator and a painter, so he has a lot of fine art references. We also love Studio Ghibli, and we loved theDark Soulsgamesas a reference for that kind of dark, high-fantasy setting. At the same time, the genre is a challenge because the camera is not going to be orbital like inDark Souls.It can be far closer. It’s kind of different. That’s why it’s also very synthetic. We are not going for a super realistic art style, and for details, we have these 2D illustrations, kind of like comic panels. A huge reference for us was the art of Mike Mignola -Hellboyand all those kinds of things. The hard shadows, a lot of black, those kinds of things.
GIMENEZ:Romanticism is a big one, romantic paintings from the 19th century. I thinkStudio Ghibli is always a referencefor us. The world is decaying, but people are still fighting for it. There are two sides to it.
Q: I love the design of the monsters - this horde of very sinister creatures assaulting the castle. What can you tell me about them?
RAMIREZ:These creatures are called “the Horror” or “the Horrors of the Mist.” They used to be, back in the day, the inhabitants of the Old Kingdom. When the cataclysm happened, the mist appeared, and that’s linked to the lore of the game. As you play through the game, you’ll see that the mist transformed a lot of people into horrors. What you’re seeing is the remains of the old inhabitants, mixed with the animals who also breathed the mist. That’s why you’ll see a creature with the hooves of a horse, the face of a woman, and other things. This happened centuries ago, and horrors can continue reproducing and growing and forming their own kind of society. They have their own life cycle - some of them start out as pupae and then grow.
Q: Another design that really catches my eye that you’ve showed off is Lady Iris. She’s very beautiful and mysterious.
RAMIREZ:She’s going to be the main character of the game’s campaign, and she’s also present in all the different game modes because there is more to the game than just the campaign The thing is, she’s the only one that has a Perla inside of her chest. Weuse some Spanish wordsto refer to lore concepts in the game like the name, which means “Cataclysm.” One day, the people ruling the last human city in this world hear a knock on the door, and when they open it, they find a baby girl inside the basket, abandoned, and she has one of these Perla orbs inside her chest.
They decide to adopt her and raise her, and she ends up being very proficient in the Arts of the Orb, which is the magic of this world. Iris is the hero who you are going to be moving around in the game, and she has a quest, which is to discover what happened with the Cataclismo and attempt to revert it. Two things are happening at the same time: you understand more about the Cataclysm, and she learns more about her origins and where she comes from.
Cataclismo as a Self-Publishing Venture
Q:Cataclismois Digital Sun’s first self-published game. What has that been like?
GIMENEZ:Well, it’s a challenge. I was talking with the business manager of a well-known indie studio the other day, and he told me: “we live in a state of constant fear.” And I agree. I think, with self-publishing, you live with even more fear about everything you do. At the same time, there are a lot of expectations, but we’re very happy to be able to do this. We used to have apublisher in Humble Games, but we parted ways with them. We felt it was good for this project. They were fair, and they have been very nice to us. But we didn’t have much time to adjust, because it happened maybe five or six months ago, so we had to rethink how we were going to do this.
Self-publishing has been a challenge so far, and it will continue to be a challenge. At the same time, I see this as an opportunity to grow. Something we love about self-publishing is that we’re able to talk directly to the players. We’re a studio that’s absolutely obsessed about quality and trying to really verify what we do is worth the time of the players. Being able to talk to them, see what they are thinking about it, is really great. We’re very happy we were able to do that. That way, we can polish the game even further and continue talking to players. Self-publishing is a challenge, but we are also very happy to have the opportunity to handle everything here.
Q: WasCataclismoa good game to start your self-publishing journey with?
GIMENEZ:I don’t know. Once the game has been released, I can probably give you a better answer, but it’s been going well so far. Ask me in nine months or a year! So far, we are quite happy. I think we are realizing that we can do anything. I do thinkCataclismois a good game to do this because it’s the kind of game that I feel players can enjoy for many years. We can probably continue to add some stuff. I hope people will find and playCataclismofour or five years from now. That just happened withMoonlighter.It’s good for self-publishing to have continuous conversations with your players. That’s something we really like to have. I think it’s a good game to self-publish, and we are happy about this decision.
Q: What lessons did you learn from makingMoonlighterandThe Mageseekerthat helped you developCataclismo?
GIMENEZ:Well,Cataclismois obviously a very different game from our two previous titles. They are both, particularlyMoonlighter,action RPGs with pixel art. This is very different - it’s 3D and a strategy game. Also,MoonlighterandThe Mageseekerare multi-platform games. You can play them on console or PC.Moonlighter,you can even play on mobile, but this is very PC-oriented. It’s the kind of game you want to play with a keyboard and a mouse, so it’s very different. We had to learn a lot quickly because we were doing 3D for the first time. In terms of design, we’ve never done a strategy game, so technically it’s very different as well. There are always things that you learn from your previous games, but they’re more about how to build a good game.
For example, we learned fromMoonlighterthat giving enough time to a project to really find good solutions is worth it. We were patient with that game. We didn’t know a lot back in the day. But we gave it enough time to check stuff, to test stuff, to make changes. I think we did the same forCataclismo,and I hope that players can tell that in the final quality. I think we learned that patience, attention to detail, love, and care pay off in the end, and players can see that.Cataclismois much more sophisticated thanMoonlighter,much more difficult to produce, but I think they share the same spirit of giving love to everything that the game is.
Q: What direction would you like to take Digital Sun Games in the future? Do you think you’ll continue to self-publish?
GIMENEZ:We have two more projects in the pipeline. One is already signed with the publisher ofMoonlighter.Although we haven’t spoken about the game publicly, I hope we can soon. Actually, both projects are already signed with publishers. One is 11 bit, and the other we will share when it is time. We definitely also enjoy working with publishers. There is the possibility that we’ll work with publishers or that we’ll self-publish, depending on our needs. Some games are better for self-publishing for several reasons, like the ability to talk with players continuously. Other games might be perfect for a specific publisher, like 11 bit or somebody else.
I think it’s worth mentioning that, personally as the CEO, I have always looked up to Klei Entertainment andSupergiant as studiosthat do things very, very well. They are incredible in the quality of the games they produce, and they are also great as a business. They are independent, both studios that are able to self-publish. For me, being able to do that is an opportunity to be a little closer to those studios that we admire.
Q: What advice would you give to others who hope to get into self-publishing games?
GIMENEZ:Do it with enough time! We didn’t have as much time, and I think it’s probably better if you plan ahead and have the time to really find the right partners and organize yourself. Plan ahead, that’s one thing. The other is, give a lot of attention to marketing. Nowadays, for any indie studio, visibility is the main problem. You can have a great game, but there are so many great games out there that you need to convince the public that the game is worth it. I think every studio that thinks about self-publishing needs to think about marketing and probably look for help. Maybe you don’t need to do marketing yourself. Maybe you can find people or companies that can help you do that. We’re doing that. I think you need to take that seriously, and it’s probably worth realizing that you might need some help when it comes to communication and marketing. Just being good is not always enough.
RAMIREZ:Like, we had to think a lot about different profiles of players and who to advertise the game to. It’s appealing for someone who wants to build beautiful castles without concerning themselves too much with thehardcore strategic gameaspect. We have a difficulty, “Story Mode,” which is specifically designed so you can just enjoy the campaign. You can learn about the story, the world, the characters - and just have fun building castles because that’s the core of the game. Every aspect of the game, even collecting resources, requires you to build in some way.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
GIMENEZ:Please add this game to yourSteamwishlist! We are an indie studio that is self-publishing for the first time, and Steam cares a lot about how many people have a game on their wish list. Also, there’s a demo available via Steam, so you can go try out the game for yourself right now! We are super proud of the game we built, and we hope to gain some traction and visibility. We want players to see and like what we have created.
Cataclismois currently planned to release on PC via Steam in Q2 2024.
