A new developer diary has been released for Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, the sequel to 2005’s action RPG Kult: Heretic Kingdoms.
In the video Chris Bateman, creator of the Heretic Kingdoms universe, talks to developer Game Farm’s Peter Nagy about his role in the development process.
Bateman was lead designer and writer on Kult, and he’s working as part of the design team and as lead scriptwriter on Shadows. Slovakian team Games Farm are taking over development duties on the series with this new game, but Bateman’s presence should satisfy fans of the first game.
“Fans of the old games will enjoy the connections between the two games,” says Bateman, ”but new players can come into it as an entirely new game. It’s more like Kult is a prequel to Shadows than Shadows is a sequel to Kult.”
He describes the Heretic world as dark sword and sorcery, having more in common with pulp fantasy authors like Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock than traditional high fantasy in the style of Tolkein. With an added splash of horror and dimensional travel to zones such as the mysterious Dreamworld.
”In Kult the Dreamworld was a parallel dimension that you could switch into to get various tactical advantages during combat,” explains Bateman. ”That all remains in Shadows, however the World of Dreams has been corrupted, and demons are escaping from the hell dimension known as Shattered Heaven. it’s a much more dangerous place than it was in the first game. We also have some travel to other dimensions in Shadows, but I can’t say too much about that.”
If you’re interested in the fantasy hack-and-slasher, which is currently in Early Access on Steam, the interview reveals a few more nuggets of information about Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms’ background and lore. Oh, and Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor himself!) turns up to introduce a new area - the deadly mountain roads of Broken Spear Pass.
