Speaking to GamingBolt, Weiss talked about the biggest obstacles to creating a game single-handedly, the new content that will be coming soon and what exactly people can expect when they pick up Songbringer.

"The benefit to working alone is a sort of pure creativity. An idea goes from conception to implementation without any of the typical middle steps associated with working in a team."

What inspired the concept for Songbringer, especially the atmosphere and aesthetic?

The concept for Songbringer is roughly Burning Man in space. It’s about a crew of adventurers, explorers, artists and party-goers who travel the galaxy in search of places to throw massive parties. But when landing on Ekzera, they find a sleeping evil and fall into its trap.

For a single person to create such a game is a huge undertaking. What obstacles did you face in development and what were the benefits to working alone?

The biggest obstacle working alone is time constraints. There’s only so much one can do, so it forced me to focus on being as effective as possible during development. For example, prototyping ideas had to be swift and some things got cut or changed nearly as swiftly as they were thought up.

The benefit to working alone is a sort of pure creativity. An idea goes from conception to implementation without any of the typical middle steps associated with working in a team. This makes the end result focused and near to the original vision, in my experience.

How has the reception been to Songbringer across all platforms thus far?

It’s humbling to hear how much players are enjoying Songbringer.

What can you tell us about the overall plot and story-telling of the game?

The overall plot starts out light-hearted, with a sort of hippie rockstar vibe. But it grows more serious as certain events happen to change the characters. The main hero, Roq, begins to eat cacti, learns to meditate and his metaphysical power grows along with his personality to some extent.

"The idea is to make sure that every single hurdle the game puts in front of the player, it also provides multiple ways to overcome that hurdle."

How does the world seed generator work? Are there specific words or letters which can trigger different conditions or is it all random?

Each world seed gets mathematically turned into a large number. That number is used to seed the world deterministically, so it always turns out the same based on that number seed. The seed determines the layout of the overworld, the layout of the dungeons, the order of the bosses, the order of the items, the placement of secrets, the key of the music and many more elements.

With this much randomization in place, what elements of the game are hand-crafted? How does a player’s world seed dictate those hand-crafted elements?

The art, the bosses, the story and the music is all hand-crafted. A player’s world seed simply dictates the order, the placement and timing of such elements.

When designing the boss battles, abilities, etc. what did you have to keep in mind when it came to how players would approach them, especially with how one’s progression could be worse on one run versus another?

The secret sauce of Songbringer is here. The idea is to make sure that every single hurdle the game puts in front of the player, it also provides multiple ways to overcome that hurdle. For example, there are these blocks that are shaped like horns that the player usually crafts an acidic weapon to use to melt them. But the player can also get the level 3 blink orb, or craft something icy and freeze any surrounding water to pass the horn blocks as well. So in a sense, there is no progression which is worse than another, just different. Everything is possible.

Have you seen many players sharing world seeds with each other and exploring their worlds? What has the response been to this so far?

This seems to be a mechanic that people really love. Time will tell which worlds become favorites, which worlds become best to speedrun and that kind of thing.

"There’s going to be these clutch courage refills for players that return to the same room that they died in previously."

What changes will be coming in the next few updates to ensure a better-balanced experience?

There’s already been an update which tightens up the sword combat, making it more precise and accurate. There’s going to be an armor item for players that are having a difficult time. There’s going to be a new sword attack ability for players that want more nuance in the combat. There’s going to be these clutch courage refills for players that return to the same room that they died in previously.

Will there be any paid DLC or free content in the coming months?

Yep, free content is coming, as mentioned above with the new items. Also a new boss and another thing that is sort of a secret place.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we let you go?

Just to have fun.

Knack 2

When the first Knack released, intrigue gave way to disappointment as the story and gameplay were just…meh. Let’s not forget about the erratic difficulty. Knack 2 is apparently looking to fix all of that by offering more complex combat, better gameplay balance, improved platforming and so on. It also doesn’t hurt that co-op returns with the ability to drop in and drop out. It obviously remains to be seen how the final product pans out but Knack 2 is still worth watching out for when it releases on September 5^th for PS4.

Wizard Fu’s Songbringer, an action RPG which takes inspiration from the NES Zelda games, has a release date – it’s out on September 1st for Xbox One and PC. The PS4 will receive it on September 5th. On top of this, a new gameplay trailer was released which teases some of the game’s 13 bosses and features.

Developed by Nathanael Weiss all on his lonesome, Songbringer focuses on Roq, a planetary surveyor who awakens on a strange planet with no shirt on. Soon enough, Roq realizes that he’s awakened an ancient evil and must now combat it by exploring dungeons, fighting bosses and becoming more powerful in the process. One of the hooks of Songbringer is the randomly generated world that draws from a 6-letter world seed for overworld and dungeon layout.

Though it’s a single-player experience, two player local co-op is also supported. Players can look forward to “hundreds” of items and power-ups, combinations of items, secrets like paths and entrances, leaderboards that rank the best players on the basis of completion time, a permadeath option and roughly 6 to 12 hours of gameplay depending on how thorough one can be.

Overheard action RPG Songbringer which takes many cues from Zelda will be out later this year and in the meantime, developer Nathanael Weiss has released a new gameplay video to showcase a new foe.

The video is short and simply reveals the Viper, a stealthy foe that you must be cautious with. Patience ultimately leads to its death though. As for the rest of Songbringer, the game seems on track to fulfill its procedural generation premise of varied items, dungeons and worlds.

In addition to all of the above, not to mention a trippy pixel art-style, Songbringer will also include day/night cycles, numerous enemies, huge boss fights and various puzzles to solve. It will also have co-op play.

You can expect Songbringer to release on PS4, PC and Xbox One in 2017. Steam says it’s due in the Summer so cross your fingers for a release next month or so and stay tuned for more information.

Wizard Fu’s Songbringer is a pretty bizarre creation. It’s set in 13,000 B.C., features procedurally generated worlds and centers on Roq who has to save the galaxy from an ancient evil that he kind of awakened.

Songbringer will be out this Summer for PS4, Xbox One and PC and features an overworld with 10 dungeon. The procedural generation is interesting because you start by entering a six-letter seed code that then generates a world from among 308 million possible combinations. These codes can be shared with friends and will always generate the same world.

As for the adventure itself, it includes nanoswords, top hats which work like boomerangs and rare cacti that may have psychotropic properties. If you’re feeling lonely, then you can invite a friend to play as Jib, a robot with a thing for moustaches, in co-op. Check out the beta gameplay for Songbringer below and let us know what you think in the comments.