If you have read our recent review of the excellent PC game known as Krater then you will probably agree that we were itching to send some questions to developer Fatshark on what we could expect from the breakout gem that they just released.
Executive Producer and CEO Martin Wahlund of Fatshark was kind enough to oblige us with these great responses to some of the questions we were dying to know. Check it out!
J: First things first, what initially inspired you and your team when making Krater?
M: Many things inspired Krater. Influences came from various old school games but in the end I dont dare to say what inspired us from each game because we have sort of done an unique game in many aspects. We also got some inspiration from some concepts that Christian Gabel found from an old movie than never got completed. In general we wanted to make a game for hardcore gamers that were prepared to put some effort into playing the game, it takes some time to get to know Krater even though we are working on making our features more obvious to the player. We wanted people to collect characters and play with friends, an other important aspect was to have random generated content.
J: The ‘Permanent Injury’ system you have implemented was a really challenging and unique feature in the game. Could you maybe tell us the reasoning behind it?
M: We felt like people arent afraid of dying in modern games. The penalty for dying is often so small than to flee is never an option. We wanted people to be afraid of enemies and run away if they felt they encountered a too tough enemy. I remember being overwhelmed in EverQuest back in the days and I was so scare as I knew I lost 4-5 hours of progress and had to do a corpse run for a few hours. Monsters were scary then!
J: One of the major challenges you had with Krater was releasing so close to Diablo 3. What do you feel Krater offers players that Diablo 3 might not?
M: First, as a small indie studio you dont have the option to just push a project. When we started Krater, Torchlight 2 and Diablo was to be released last autumn but then both projects got pushed forward. We did Krater in little more than a year with roughly 12 people. We also have an offline mode. 😉 Well Krater is also more of a squad based adventure game. It is more about strategy in terms of picking team mates and how you devlop them with implants and boosters. You need to be ready to swap in and out characters.
J: Out of the four character classes, which is your favourite?
M: I loved the Regulator early on but all of them has their use and with the boosters and implants you can practically redefine them. I use my regulator as a healer. I think this is one of the strong parts with krater, that the player can decide how to play with your team. You can choose to go all out aoe or a more traditional tank-and-spank strategy or a pure kiting.
J: We noticed the “I like turtles” kid made an appearance in Krater. Can we expect anymore future appearances?
M: Yes! I can’t let you know where but you will for sure notice it! 🙂
J: Might we see other platforms be graced with the awesomeness that is Krater in the future?
M: Yes, first it is Mac. After that we will discuss what the next step will be.
J: Something rare that you guys are taking on compared to other developers is player feedback. Since launch what have you learnt from the community and fan base?
M: That it is wise to listen to the feedback! 😉 We have noticed that there are always different groups that have different views of how the game should play. We made the casual, normal and hardcore modes to please all. Our original idea was to only have hardcore. Not sure if it was good or bad yet! The players have been awesome with helping out finding bugs report what features they would like to see and so forth. Hats of to the Krater community.
J: With the upcoming expansion pack containing coop, can you share anything on what players might expect from this new feature?
M: Yes there will be new bosses and each coop mission will be like a challenge. Something to try out with your friends and try to overcome. They will probably be pretty hard in the beginning.
J: Might we see some new classes, maybe in the female variety?
M: We are working hard to add more skills to new characters. I think for now all will be in there for classes we have now but the skills they have will redefine those classes.
J: At the moment the main storyline teases at the aspect of entering the mysterious ‘Center Hole’. What can we look forward to doing gameplay wise within the deep abyss in future updates?
M: Yes. 😉
J: Krater looks to be the start of a great franchise. Are there any other upcoming projects you would like to do a shout out for?
M: We are also working on War of The Roses that will be released this autumn. Also Hamilton’s Great Adventure will be released on Mac and on Android for Tegra powered tablets.
Einfo Games said in their Krater Review ” Anyone looking for a casual stroll through the end of the world will definitely want to pick up this right now. “
