Skautfold: Usurper Mixes Metroidvania with Lovecraftian Horror
Summary
- Learn more about Skautfold: Usurper from the game’s solo developer, Steve Gal.
- Skautfold: Usurper’s creator tells us how his game differs from other Metroidvanias.
- The Skautfold series creator talks to us about Skautfold: Usurper, the second game in the horror series.
The Skautfold series is pretty unique in that every iteration is linked to a different genre. While Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity offered a Souls-like experience, its sequel is a true metroidvania. Now Xbox users will be able to dive back in the series’ gothic and tortured universe with Skautfold: Usurper.
I had always dreamed of making games of my own, and had nurtured a big complicated project. I quickly realized that I would have to first create smaller more diverse experiences to learn more about game design and all aspects of creating games though. That’s how I began working on Skautfold, a series where the focus would be on different characters while using multiple genres.
Skautfold: Usurper takes place in an alternate history setting where most of the world is rules by two major empires, the British and the Dawn empire. The setting is haunted by the fact that Lovecraftian forces are real and have been actively altering historical events since around 1000 AD. At the start of the game a giant alien structure suddenly lands in the centre of London and Lovecraftian beasts begin pouring out. After a short clash, things calm down and this is where the story starts.
In order for Skautfold: Usurper to stand out gameplay wise, I created its very own guard system. It combines both a shield and stamina which gives a very different rhythm to combat and increases focus on risk and reward. It wants you to get in the enemy’s face and take risks and circumvent relying on heals as many games do. It regenerates passively so it’s all about learning a nice rhythm to being offensive and defensive.
Gamers should really that the time to understand how the guard system works and see how forgiving it actually is. It will save their lives many a time and let them have a lot more fun more quickly. That being said, the atmosphere and creature design are also worth noting as they can be surprising at times.
Players shouldn’t worry about not having played Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity before jumping into Usurper. While several characters from the first game appear in the game, it tells its own story. Usurper‘s plot contains several important setups and hints at things to come not just for the rest of Skautfold, but its sequel series Granser as well. Besides the story and hinted details, users will find some of those hints by just exploring the map thoroughly.
Before I let you all go, I wanted to thank you all very, very much for your support. I am very happy to see people enjoy my weird games and hope they will enjoy this one too as there was a lot of love poured into it. See you in London!
Ported to consoles by Red Art Studios, Skautfold: Usurper is available now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
Skautfold: Usurper
Red Art Games
[This article originally appeared on Xbox Wire]