As mentioned earlier, I had another chance to ask Jade Sauders from Hashbane Interactive questions about Instinction. This interview is more extensive than the first.
Tobias (Game-Releases): „I already asked it, in the first written interview, but do you want to add something to, what Instinction is about?“
Jade: „We can share a few details with you that we haven’t made public yet. Instinction follows the intense, grounded explorative story of April Summers, a regular 20-something who is deeply affected by personal family demons and is unknowingly on a journey of self discovery. With nothing but a desire for answers, April’s findings lead her to Latin America, deep into the forests of the Yucatan region. It doesn’t take long before she realizes this place is hiding secrets of its own and creatures thought-to-be extinct are thriving. These beasts aren’t the only hostile inhabitants of the land. A civilisation of uncontacted peoples live side by side, worshiping the animals as deities. In her quest for answers, April learns that she shares a strange connection to the civilisation and dinosaurs, leading to more questions of herself and her family’s past.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „When you look at the progress in your work, do you think you can reach the planned release time?“
Jade: „Last year we had been asked when we’d expect to release and based on the team size then we anticipated making a fairly modest game by Q3 2022, with our new investment partners and the opportunity to expand our team by at least 8 more people we had a new opportunity to make the game we truly want and need without compromise. This does mean we will be moving the release date as we are now working exclusively on our vertical slice and we’ll announce a more realistic release date soon.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Have you any plan, how long the story will be?“
Jade: „We are focused on the vertical slice at the moment, so we’ve created a short-term and a long-term roadmap. The length of the final game will depend mostly on which publisher we choose to move forward with as they also have a say and ultimately this includes how much they are investing, from recent discussions it appears we are targeting 10-18 hours of gameplay for the initial release, but we’re also planning additional DLCs.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Can you please describe how the game uses the Dualsense-Controller-Functions?“
Jade: „We know how important this is to the experience, we’ve still got a long way to go to test how exactly we implement this into Instinction. It’s a balance between expected behaviours during game play, while retaining some level of uniqueness to our game feel.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Without any spoilers given, do you plan on implementing Eastereggs or recalls to games or other medias your team love?“
Jade: „With the prototype we added a few little easter eggs, which really set the tone for what we want to include in future builds, this includes some inside jokes/references but also things that our players can relate to.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Do you plan on releasing Instinction in a physical format?“
Jade: „Virtually every publisher we have spoken to has the ability to deliver physical copies. We truly hope there will always be a place in the hearts of games for physical copies, we get quite a few requests from our audience, it would be sacrilege if we didn’t. Short answer – yes!“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „If so, will there be something like a collectors edition?“
Jade: „We would love to, offering bundles with memorabilia and other items. Once we’ve revealed our Vertical Slice it would be a good time to gauge from the public what they’d like to see in a collectors edition based on items and characters from the game.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Back in April, I think, you proudly announced your soundcomposer. In the recent years soundtracks especially in vinyl format became more and more interesting to players around the globe. Do you plan on releasing the soundtrack as an download or physical?“
Jade: „Daryl Leigh Lynn has been a keystone in our development, he has a shared love for dinosaurs and games, most importantly a shared love for great audio in games and how important sound is in setting the tone, mood and pacing in a great game. When it comes to vinyl and physical soundtracks, we’d love to be able to oneday, perhaps in a limited run or something similar and digital copies are an absolute no-brainer!“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „You already announced that you want to release updates and dlc’s after the release oft he game. How long have you planned for yourself to support the game after release?“
Jade: „This is always a contentious issue, ultimately we intend to do everything possible to create a compelling and enjoyable game, the more successful the game the better we are placed to deliver on our DLC and sequel expectations.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „Do the creatures, that you release via update/dlc, come with their own story or will they be just added to the current roster?“
Jade: „Unlike a dinosaur simulator or a theme park creator, Instinction is heavily narrative based, any addition to the game needs purpose and reason to be within this digital world so all creatures are carefully considered. Additional DLCs with different game modes and modding capabilities will broaden the scope of what is possible and allow anyone to tell their own story and create their own experiences.“
Tobias (Game-Releases): „If the players really love the game, would you consider to support the game even longer?“
Jade: „We’re certainly not aiming for a one hit wonder, the intention is to build a successful IP in Instinction that has a long life and a strong following, supported by a talented and devoted team. Right now we are on the right trajectory to achieve those goals and who knows what else might come.“
