As a concept, Acid Nerve’s Titan Souls began development in December 2013 where the idea was to explore a world full of various dangers – namely from the Titans – armed with only a single arrow. The arrow is indestructible so you’re not completely helpless but you only have one health point. If you’re struck once, the game is over. To even the odds, the Titans also have a single health point but you’ll need to hit their weak spot in order to properly down them. Through various twists and turns, Titan Souls morphed into a full fledged game for the PS4, PS Vita and PC.
What sets it apart from the crowd and will it take advantage of the various features between the PS4 and PS Vita? We spoke to designer Mark Foster about the same and also gathered his input on why the game is only releasing for PlayStation consoles. Titan Souls will be out in 2015 for the PS4, Vita and PC via Steam to stay tuned for more details.
"Each Titan has a weak spot which you need to discover and hit with your arrow to kill. There's no grinding down health bars or anything, the game is set on a knife's edge..."
Rashid Sayed: I am intrigued by the concept of single strike. It can either kill the player or the Titan. Can you let us know how this will work?
Mark Foster: Each Titan has a weak spot which you need to discover and hit with your arrow to kill. There’s no grinding down health bars or anything, the game is set on a knife’s edge, one tiny slip and you will die, but the Titans have that same vulnerability.
Rashid Sayed: How are you making sure that each Titan is unique and challenging at the same time? Will they have a different personality and move set?
Mark Foster: Each Titan is just entirely different, in visuals, movement, attacks, pacing and weaknesses. No fight feels the same in any way and we explore different ways of using the game’s mechanics to get the most out of them.
Rashid Sayed: I find it rather interesting that Titan Souls is not scheduled for the Xbox One. After all, Microsoft did revamp their indie policy. Is there a specific reason why Titan Souls won’t launch on the Xbox One?
Mark Foster: Microsoft’s policies still have parity clauses which mean if we release it on PS4/Vita first, we can’t bring it to their console later so it probably won’t be on Xbox.
Rashid Sayed: Are you guys planning to include cross buy and cross save for the PS Vita and PS4 versions?
Mark Foster: Yep the game will be cross buy and have cloud saving available.
Rashid Sayed: Tell us about the playable character. He will be facing intimidating enemies. How do you plan to give personality and a sense of bad assness about him?
Mark Foster: The character is simply an extension of yourself, their personality and motivations are simply your own. You find out more about the game’s story as you progress through it.
"You don't gain any extra powers, weapons or anything else during the game, you just become more skilled at playing the game so you can execute tougher challenges as you progress."
Rashid Sayed: How many Titans will the final version have?
Mark Foster: Around 20 in the full game.
Rashid Sayed: Will there be strategic way to take out these Titans or will it be a case of players accumulating powerful weapons or skills to take them out?
Mark Foster: You don’t gain any extra powers, weapons or anything else during the game, you just become more skilled at playing the game so you can execute tougher challenges as you progress.
Rashid Sayed: The game has limited set of gameplay mechanics. Is that intentional by design?
Mark Foster: Yes, restricting the elements of the game to focus on specific aspects means we can use them in different and interesting ways, whilst keeping the game’s core simple and elegant. Variation comes in the form of Titans rather than new weapons or changing central mechanics.
Rashid Sayed: The PS4 version of the game will have more content compared to the PC version. Can you let our readers what they are?
Mark Foster: The full game will be released for PS4/Vita/PC/Mac/Linux and all those versions will be the same, but the game is greatly expanded upon the original flash jam game we made for Ludum Dare back last year. The jam only had 4 titans whereas this game will have 20 and the whole thing is much more polished, balanced and fun.
