For all its faults, 2020 has been a great year for roguelike games. The last few months have seen the release of Supergiant Games' Hades, Hopoo Games' Risk of Rain 2, and Derek "Mossmouth" Yu's Spelunky 2, as well as Early Access launches like Cellar Door Games' Rogue Legacy 2. ScourgeBringer, primarily the brainchild of two-person development team Flying Oak Games, is hoping to stand out amongst the crowd with a focus on "fast-paced, free-moving platforming" and high-octane combat.
In a 2019 article, Eurogamer described ScourgeBringer saying it's "Dead Cells meets Celeste," and Flying Oak boasts this in its marketing. However, the full catalog of roguelike elements it pulls into its package extends further. Fans of Hyper Light Drifter will likely recognize the game's similar blend of sword and gun combat, while titles like Enter the Gungeon helped inform its narrative integration. Game Rant spoke with ScourgeBringer Director Thomas Altenburger about how a community of creators helped bring ScourgeBringer's unique vision to life. An Early Access copy of the game was provided to prepare for the interview.
Altenburger and his development partner Florian Hurtaut are both based out of Metz, France, and met while attending Global Game Jam 2012. They ran into each other at a number of other game jams before deciding to take a "leap of faith" and start a studio together based on their similar interest in action-oriented indie titles like Risk of Rain. The independent development path is common for creators in France, according to Altenburger, because there are few "gigantic developers" in the country. He said finding opportunities is "quite rare unless you are willing to go to Ubisoft," which has acclaimed series but has recently come under fire for sexual assault and harassment allegations across the company.
Because of this "special context" there are purportedly a lot of indie studios coming out of France, and according to Altenburger they are "almost all bound into a single community." It's not uncommon for different groups to exchange ideas, talk about things that are going on, share advice, and spread resources, which Altenburger said is "really cool."
"The French community in indie development is growing into something serious from a market point of view, and a local, political point of view."
With regards to ScourgeBringer, the game fits an action mold similar to Flying Oak's previous title NeuroVoider, a roguelike twin-stick shooter inspired by Nuclear Throne. Altenburger describes himself and Hurtaut as being primarily gameplay-oriented almost to a fault, with one of NeuroVoider's shortcomings being its sparse narrative they felt would be carried by mechanics. ScourgeBringer has been in development for two-and-a-half years, and Altenburger said almost a year of that was spent slow-cooking and polishing the gameplay before any thought was put into the context around it.
The game's development has been mostly public, with an alpha disseminated to players through Discord after the first year and an Early Access release on Steam to follow. More content has been incorporated throughout that period, and Altenburger expects there to be a lot more once the base is set and feedback comes in following the official release.
Two major updates have even come out during the period when France was under "containment" due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has had "little-to-no" impact on ScourgeBringer despite initial anxieties about working from home rather than at an office. Altenburger said after a few weeks of adjustment they went into "cruise control," and shipped the game earlier than expected. He only laments not being able to show off the game at major events like Gamescom, which became a digital-only affair this year.
While gameplay mechanics are Altenburger and Hurtaut primary wheelhouse, the director said one goal for ScourgeBringer was to create a more integral narrative. "Even if it isn't the biggest story ever, it needed to be more integrated and have mysteries and so on." After creating a basic framework, Flying Oak Games brought in Pia Jacqmart, Lead Narrative Designer for Cyanide Studio working on the Blood Bowl franchise, to make everything "more smooth, relatable, and interesting." Thanks to Jacqmart, Altenburger said people interested in lore will get a solid picture of what's happening in the post-apocalyptic world by the end.
When players begin the game they meet Kyrha, said to be the last hope for bringing humanity back from the brink of destruction after a mysterious piece of technology called the ScourgeBringer descends from the heavens and wreaks havoc. The premise has some similarities to Horizon Zero Dawn in terms of its tribal versus technological set dressing, but becomes its own thing as Kyrha traverses ScourgeBringer and meets previous warriors like her, called Fallen, that now serve as NPCs and shopkeepers.
"We grew up in the 90s, and we like cheesy stuff. When it comes to action games, we want to get players into the game quickly, so we like to bootstrap games with cheesy setups and build something around it. It's a twofold thing that we bring you rapidly into our game, and once you're there we try to get you into something deeper."
Jacqmart is not the only collaborator who ultimately helped change how ScourgeBringer came to be. Altenburger said Flying Oak Games likes to offer its partners free reign to contribute to the game's vibe however they please, and that collaborative process fleshes out the final product. The game's composer is Joonas Turner, known for work on games like Downwell, Broforce, and Nuclear Throne. Turner essentially set the pace of the game with a blend of eerie, explorative tracks and "dynamic" heavy metal during combat.
Altenburger said the game was fast originally, but had a "bit more chill" before Flying Oak heard - and dug - Turner's sound. That encouraged them to make things more punchy, and soon enough it all clicked together. Between this, Jacqmart's narrative, and feedback from fans, ScourgeBringer has become a project its developers hope stands out for both its gameplay and everything around it. "We don't necessarily think about bringing a specific tone to the game," Altenburger said. "It's more like we want everyone on the team to bring their own tone, so we can build it together."
ScourgeBringer is available now in Early Access, but officially releases for PC, Switch, and Xbox One on October 21. Game Rant was provided a Steam Early Access code for this interview.