Mirror Slug

Introducing 'Interalios'

01 October 2020

As the first real post on the site I figured I'd actually try to talk about something I'm doing. Well, at least something interesting that I'm doing. And that interesting thing is a 2D turn-based RPG called Interalios (or at least it's called that for now as that's a bit better than Untitled Battling Game)

The core premise of Interalios is everyone's favorite pastime: Monster Battling! If you aren't familiar with the concept, it's really as simple pitting your team of monsters against your opponent's. That's the gist, but don't let the simplicity fool you; each monster has unique stats, abilities and moves it can choose from. The right loadout can make or break a battle!

The astute gaming scholars amongst you may notice it bears a striking resemblance to some other, notable, monster battling series. I've always felt endeared by the GameBoy era of the Pokemon series firstly for its iconic art style (particularly the first generation), which I've attempted to recreate with my own, sometimes nightmarish, spin. Additionally there's an aspect of romantic simplicity to its battle system (as compared to later entries) despite it's fair share of eccentricities.

That said, some of the "complications" actually add quite a bit of depth to the gameplay and strategizing, and so I didn't want to sacrifice that depth in the name of facsimile. What you wind up with is Interalios--what appears to be a monster battling game you'd be playing back on the schoolyard with friends, but with a more modern approach to the mechanics and 20 years of quality of life improvements.

The mechanics themselves are congruent to what you might be familiar with, but they're not identical. For instance, as you might expect the HP stat determines how much damage that monster can sustain and the magic stat (MAG) determines the power of magical attacks and so on. However, new up on the roster is the Vitality stat (VIT), wich you could liken to the 'mana pool' of the game as it determines how many moves a monster can make before becoming exhausted. Likewise, each move has an associated cost, with more powerful moves having higher costs. Speaking of stats, most of the stats can be 'overclocked' or 'underclocked' to provide customization for each monster depending on the role you'd like it to play in battle.

That about wraps it up for this brief little sampler. I'll do more writeups that go in-depth on other game mechanics later on. If any of this seems like something up your alley stay tuned to the development! We also have an RSS feed for posts on the site if that's your thing link here. Keep your eyes peeled for first public alpha release, available for free October 23rd!

-- pastelic