Community Q&A - you asked and we answered!
Hey everyone!
Recently we've run a community survey on Kickstarter and our official Discord. We got some questions along with your feedback, so we sat down with Kuba, the designer, programmer, and creative mind behind Project Warlock II to answer them for you below.
When do you expect the early access and full versions of Project Warlock II will be released?
We’re aiming for early 2022 with Early Access but it’s too soon to commit to a specific date. There’s still a lot of feedback from gamers that we want to implement before sharing the 1st chapter (Palmer’s World). Once the Early Access starts, the work on chapter 2 will continue alongside tweaks and updates to the first one. And then we’re on to the third chapter. The full release of Project Warlock II will come once all three chapters are ready.
Doing some carnage while testing the game
How is Project Warlock II changing based on demo feedback?
We’ve made substantial changes to the level design, monster design, and texture work. The game resembles the original PW graphics more than ever before. We’ve also added new graphical interfaces and new Quality of Life features such as keybindings. The list is huge and we plan to test these upgrades during extensive playtesting sessions in December.
What inspired you to make Project Warlock?
As an aspiring game dev, I had tons of unfinished projects. I made horror games, driving games, and first-person shooters. At one point, I felt like making FPS games is what I really want. I understood what makes a good FPS, so I decided to put that knowledge to good use. Project Warlock had a couple of different names before but the concept of a Wolf3D dungeon-crawler with simple RPG elements was always there :)
How did you manage this whole project basically on your own? Who else do you work with?
First of all, I had to set a scope of the project and only do stuff that I was 100% sure I was capable of. This is the key to success in my opinion. Other than that, it’s important to set certain boundaries when designing the game according to your capabilities. That way you can avoid promising stuff that you can’t work out!
I also work with Dawid Korzekwa (Lead Artist), Jerry Lehr (Musician), Luke Wilson (Musician), Bogdan Biro (Artist), Piotr Niedzielski (Sound Designer) - that’s the core development team of Project Warlock II.
Project Warlock II dev team. Top from the left: Kuba, Jerry, and Piotr. Down from the left: Luke, Dawid, and Bogdan.
How did you decide on the games' visual style?
In the original Project Warlock, we wanted something unique yet simple, because when making your first game you shouldn’t create unnecessary obstacles. We knew that drawing a lot of different sprites with complicated colors would make things difficult, so Dawid thought about using the Commodore 64 color palette. In PW2 we’re expanding on the style that Dawid created and trying to define our own color palette.
I absolutely love the first game but so far PW2 looks like it's going to make PW1 almost obsolete. How can the first game stay exciting and relevant with all this awesome stuff coming in PW2?
PW will never be obsolete because PW2 is a real sequel, a new chapter that expands the fun instead of being identical to PW. Still, there will be noticeable differences and upgrades in both gameplay and visuals.
One of the levels in the first chapter of Project Warlock II
Will the three warlocks have their own different campaigns/stories with their own unique levels or will it be just one campaign and you choose which warlock you want to play as? Or will it be one campaign and you play as the three warlocks throughout it?
Each Warlock is going to have their own campaign with different levels and stories (lore).
Are there any plans for using warlocks outside of their specific campaigns? For example, using Urd in Palmer's campaign?
This is something we have thought about and might come back to in the future. First, we want to balance and finish all the episodes separately.
Are there any plans to add the original warlock as a playable character to PWII?
Can’t answer that question!
Any plans for mod support?
Would really love to! We’ll see what the future brings. I am not crossing it out, however, it’s not our main focus.
Any plans for console ports/releases?
Definitely!
Look out for these spikes while dodging!
What is your opinion on the Early Access model? Do you think it leads to better games? Is it necessary to secure operating funds for indie devs or a useful way to steer development?
It really depends on the developer. For me, it’s important to get feedback from players throughout the development process. This way it’s easier to adjust certain parts of the game rather than patching a complete product.
What are your favorite FPS campaigns in the last few years?
I have to say, I really liked the story in Far Cry 6. The world is so beautiful and just fits me very well, because I love Cuba and the Spanish language. Other than that, I also liked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s (2019) single-player campaign, and obviously both Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus as well.
Do you have any games that you shouldn't enjoy because of your preferences but you actually really like them?
I’m not a huge fan of League of Legends but I really enjoy playing it from time to time. Also, Arcane is lit AF!
Are there any other gaming genres that you would like to develop apart from FPS?
I really like driving games, so making one would be pretty interesting for me.
But I mainly want to develop FPS games.
Soon this arena will fill out with enemies!
What do you consider to be the most difficult thing about creating a game?
I see a lot of good games with awesome lore, great visuals, and sound that fall short in the mechanics department, like animation fluidity, movement, weapon weight, recoil, weapon bob, etc. Nailing the gameplay mechanics, the feeling of movement, gunplay, and making the gameplay-loop engaging are by far the hardest things to develop in my opinion. This is not something you can create easily - you need to feel it.
If speaking to a total newcomer to game development, what would you advise interested parties to consider? From game ideas to learning developer work, does one steer the other?
I think the most important thing is to start simple. With additional experience, you’ll start noticing things that you could have done better and you can start improving on yourself. Don’t be shy if something doesn’t work as expected. Just keep trying!
I think one should start with an idea, then try to make a document and describe what this should be exactly and try to tackle all game-related topics in it, like how certain gameplay mechanics should work, etc. Otherwise, you might come to the famous "wall" of gamedev at one point - asking yourself "what should I do next?". This makes you want to stop working on the project and is the main reason why I have so many unfinished projects.
Once you start creating stuff and sharing it online, you’ll start meeting new people. That is one of the best things ever!
Pass through this guard for the final answers...
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
One good bite :)
Will you be making any more FPS games after this one? Will there be Warlock III?
Project Warlock was always planned as a trilogy, and I still want to keep it that way.
If PW2 is set between Doom and Quake mechanically, where would you want to go with PW3?
I believe that 2D sprites in a 3D world really give a certain satisfaction when playing. It just feels so right, crisp, and fitting. I’d definitely want to improve on that. We’re constantly learning how to streamline the sprite-creation process more effectively.
PW3 might be an even more interesting evolution of PW2. I definitely don’t want to make PW3 look and feel like PW2 - otherwise, I could just make a DLC for PW2 instead of a new title.
Quake or Unreal?
Why not both!? I’ve spent more time with Quake 3 Arena tbh :D But love both series anyways
Follow us for more updates and see you next time!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1640300/Project_Warlock_II/
Recently we've run a community survey on Kickstarter and our official Discord. We got some questions along with your feedback, so we sat down with Kuba, the designer, programmer, and creative mind behind Project Warlock II to answer them for you below.
When do you expect the early access and full versions of Project Warlock II will be released?
We’re aiming for early 2022 with Early Access but it’s too soon to commit to a specific date. There’s still a lot of feedback from gamers that we want to implement before sharing the 1st chapter (Palmer’s World). Once the Early Access starts, the work on chapter 2 will continue alongside tweaks and updates to the first one. And then we’re on to the third chapter. The full release of Project Warlock II will come once all three chapters are ready.
Doing some carnage while testing the gameHow is Project Warlock II changing based on demo feedback?
We’ve made substantial changes to the level design, monster design, and texture work. The game resembles the original PW graphics more than ever before. We’ve also added new graphical interfaces and new Quality of Life features such as keybindings. The list is huge and we plan to test these upgrades during extensive playtesting sessions in December.
What inspired you to make Project Warlock?
As an aspiring game dev, I had tons of unfinished projects. I made horror games, driving games, and first-person shooters. At one point, I felt like making FPS games is what I really want. I understood what makes a good FPS, so I decided to put that knowledge to good use. Project Warlock had a couple of different names before but the concept of a Wolf3D dungeon-crawler with simple RPG elements was always there :)
How did you manage this whole project basically on your own? Who else do you work with?
First of all, I had to set a scope of the project and only do stuff that I was 100% sure I was capable of. This is the key to success in my opinion. Other than that, it’s important to set certain boundaries when designing the game according to your capabilities. That way you can avoid promising stuff that you can’t work out!
I also work with Dawid Korzekwa (Lead Artist), Jerry Lehr (Musician), Luke Wilson (Musician), Bogdan Biro (Artist), Piotr Niedzielski (Sound Designer) - that’s the core development team of Project Warlock II.
Project Warlock II dev team. Top from the left: Kuba, Jerry, and Piotr. Down from the left: Luke, Dawid, and Bogdan.How did you decide on the games' visual style?
In the original Project Warlock, we wanted something unique yet simple, because when making your first game you shouldn’t create unnecessary obstacles. We knew that drawing a lot of different sprites with complicated colors would make things difficult, so Dawid thought about using the Commodore 64 color palette. In PW2 we’re expanding on the style that Dawid created and trying to define our own color palette.
I absolutely love the first game but so far PW2 looks like it's going to make PW1 almost obsolete. How can the first game stay exciting and relevant with all this awesome stuff coming in PW2?
PW will never be obsolete because PW2 is a real sequel, a new chapter that expands the fun instead of being identical to PW. Still, there will be noticeable differences and upgrades in both gameplay and visuals.
One of the levels in the first chapter of Project Warlock IIWill the three warlocks have their own different campaigns/stories with their own unique levels or will it be just one campaign and you choose which warlock you want to play as? Or will it be one campaign and you play as the three warlocks throughout it?
Each Warlock is going to have their own campaign with different levels and stories (lore).
Are there any plans for using warlocks outside of their specific campaigns? For example, using Urd in Palmer's campaign?
This is something we have thought about and might come back to in the future. First, we want to balance and finish all the episodes separately.
Are there any plans to add the original warlock as a playable character to PWII?
Can’t answer that question!
Any plans for mod support?
Would really love to! We’ll see what the future brings. I am not crossing it out, however, it’s not our main focus.
Any plans for console ports/releases?
Definitely!
Look out for these spikes while dodging!What is your opinion on the Early Access model? Do you think it leads to better games? Is it necessary to secure operating funds for indie devs or a useful way to steer development?
It really depends on the developer. For me, it’s important to get feedback from players throughout the development process. This way it’s easier to adjust certain parts of the game rather than patching a complete product.
What are your favorite FPS campaigns in the last few years?
I have to say, I really liked the story in Far Cry 6. The world is so beautiful and just fits me very well, because I love Cuba and the Spanish language. Other than that, I also liked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s (2019) single-player campaign, and obviously both Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus as well.
Do you have any games that you shouldn't enjoy because of your preferences but you actually really like them?
I’m not a huge fan of League of Legends but I really enjoy playing it from time to time. Also, Arcane is lit AF!
Are there any other gaming genres that you would like to develop apart from FPS?
I really like driving games, so making one would be pretty interesting for me.
But I mainly want to develop FPS games.
Soon this arena will fill out with enemies!What do you consider to be the most difficult thing about creating a game?
I see a lot of good games with awesome lore, great visuals, and sound that fall short in the mechanics department, like animation fluidity, movement, weapon weight, recoil, weapon bob, etc. Nailing the gameplay mechanics, the feeling of movement, gunplay, and making the gameplay-loop engaging are by far the hardest things to develop in my opinion. This is not something you can create easily - you need to feel it.
If speaking to a total newcomer to game development, what would you advise interested parties to consider? From game ideas to learning developer work, does one steer the other?
I think the most important thing is to start simple. With additional experience, you’ll start noticing things that you could have done better and you can start improving on yourself. Don’t be shy if something doesn’t work as expected. Just keep trying!
I think one should start with an idea, then try to make a document and describe what this should be exactly and try to tackle all game-related topics in it, like how certain gameplay mechanics should work, etc. Otherwise, you might come to the famous "wall" of gamedev at one point - asking yourself "what should I do next?". This makes you want to stop working on the project and is the main reason why I have so many unfinished projects.
Once you start creating stuff and sharing it online, you’ll start meeting new people. That is one of the best things ever!
Pass through this guard for the final answers...How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
One good bite :)
Will you be making any more FPS games after this one? Will there be Warlock III?
Project Warlock was always planned as a trilogy, and I still want to keep it that way.
If PW2 is set between Doom and Quake mechanically, where would you want to go with PW3?
I believe that 2D sprites in a 3D world really give a certain satisfaction when playing. It just feels so right, crisp, and fitting. I’d definitely want to improve on that. We’re constantly learning how to streamline the sprite-creation process more effectively.
PW3 might be an even more interesting evolution of PW2. I definitely don’t want to make PW3 look and feel like PW2 - otherwise, I could just make a DLC for PW2 instead of a new title.
Quake or Unreal?
Why not both!? I’ve spent more time with Quake 3 Arena tbh :D But love both series anyways
Follow us for more updates and see you next time!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1640300/Project_Warlock_II/