Our review for Numantia goes live this week, so we got in touch with RECOTechnology to talk about the game’s development for PlayStation 4.
PS4Blog: Hi! Thank you for joining us at PS4Blog.net. Could you please tell our readers a bit about the studio and your work?
Thank you for having us!
We are a young video game studio based in Madrid, Spain. We have been developing several different projects for a number of years now. Our current and recently released title is Numantia, a TBS game set in the Iberian Peninsula in the Roman invasion, but we have been involved too in VR-platform applications, other types of games and several apps. We keep working to this very day, and we are always interested in new ways of creating exciting ideas in the technology environment.
PS4B: Numantia is now out on PlayStation 4. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
Our game is a turn-based strategy title that takes place in 154 BC, a time when the Republic of Rome finds huge resistance from the Celtiberian city of Numantia. The player can control both factions, Rome and Numantia, and relive their history through more than 20 years of the campaign. Each faction faces its own challenges, battles, and decisions, and the player will get to know heroes, units, and buildings related to that specific side of the conflict.
The game is designed to be played with a controller, an aspect that was quite challenging for us as developers, given the inherent difficulty of it. We were excited to participate in this revival that strategy games are living lately for consoles.
We wanted to show both perspectives of the clash, not siding with one in particular, so the player could get to know the aspects of both civilizations while having fun.
PS4B: How long did it take the team to take the game from initial concept to the final release build? Where there any particular challenges along the way?
The whole process took us almost two years. From the initial idea to the final build, a lot has happened. We faced two main challenges when designing the core: one was to develop a game for a console release, with all the controller-support differences that it means compared to a PC release. Making it fully functional for a controller was a bit complicated, but it paid off in the end!
The second one was to create a story that remained faithful to the original events while being fun at the same time, as well as logical from players’ point of view. This was really hard, specially when deciding to take some liberties and change some events for both campaigns to make sense. We know some history fans will find several elements that could be considered misleading or incorrect, but we tried hard to make it as real as possible. It was, I guess, nearly impossible for us not to use some creative liberties in the game’s story, the units, and the characters.
PS4B: Now that the game has been released on PS4, what is the team working on next?
We are paying attention to the feedback, of course! Our community is very important to us, and we believe in the longterm work that needs to be taken care of well after game releases. When one is designing a product, one has to listen to the customers, especially after it has gone live.
We are always busy with the production of the next project. I cannot tell you what it is for now, but it is important to always have the next step in sight!
PS4B: And now it is time for us to go. Would you like to add anything else before we end this?
Just to thank everyone that made this title possible, and to the players for being supportive and give feedback. We hope this game is as fun to play as it was for us to develop.
