We’re currently playing Iron Crypticle for review, so we got in touch with the development team to talk about the game and it’s road to the PlayStation 4.
PS4Blog: Hi! Welcome to PS4Blog.net. Could you please help us by introducing yourself to our readers and telling them a bit about yourself and your work?
Dave Parsons: Hi, I’m Dave Parsons and I did the programming and led the design on Iron Crypticle. I’ve been making games since the 8-bit days, originally on my own, later for a living, and I’m still working on independent stuff (such as Iron Crypticle), as well as doing contract work as a software engineer, mostly working on ports of games to other platforms.
Dugan Jackson: Hello, I am Dugan Jackson and I made the art and animations for the game, as well as helping out with design. I started working in games in the late 90s after learning to do 3D modelling, and have worked at a variety of development companies on a range of hardware platforms.
PS4B: Iron Crypticle is out on PlayStation 4. What can you tell us about the game?
DP: The King’s Royal Treasures have been stolen! So his loyal knights must team up to recover them.
Iron Crypticle is a top-down twin-stick dungeon shooter for 1-4 players with pixel graphics. Fight your way through each floor, collecting goodies as you go, and dealing with a boss at the end of each floor.
Though the game can be played with more than one player, during development we were mostly playing solo, so the game is completely playable (and complete-able) with one player.
PS4B How long did it take you to develop the game? Where there any big changes to its structure or gameplay mechanics during that time?
DP: The game started life some years ago as a little Gauntlet-type game, to test a sort-of game engine I was working on. Dugan got involved doing some graphics, and the game changed considerably into what became “Iron Fisticle” which was released on the PC.
We later decided we’d like to do console versions, and Iron Crypticle came into being.
DJ: Since we’d already put a lot of time into Iron Fisticle – several years of spare-time work – we had a good foundation. But for Iron Crypticle, we did a total overhaul of the game, examing what worked well and what didn’t.
We added, reworked, tweaked & changed it onto something we were much happier with. The overhaul took about 18 months in total, some of that in our spare time, and some of it full-time.
PS4B: Since the game has been released, are you working on additional content for Iron Crypticle or are you now focusing on a new project?
DP: We’re hoping to get a small patch released soon with a few tweaks and a couple of minor bug fixes, but beyond that we’re not planning any additional content for the game!
PS4B: And now it is time for us to go. Would you like to add anything else?
DP: We’re very happy with the way Iron Crypticle turned out, and still enjoy playing it ourselves. We’re delighted too see how some people have responded really well to it, so a big thank you to everyone who has bought and enjoyed it!
