It won’t be long before Prelude Dark Pain - the long-in-the-works tactical RPG from Seville-based studio Quickfire Games - launches into Steam Early Access, but we were able to sit down with producer and lead story writer Nacho Requena to get a wider picture of the game as it stands and what’s next.
The following interview has been editorialised and trimmed for better flow and ease of reading.
“We have a very elaborate roadmap with the different milestones we have to reach. It’s subject to change, but it’s well-established,” Requena said of what’s planned to arrive between the July 27 early access launch and the 1.0 release. As noted on the game’s Steam page, the game will expand beyond its first act, have over 20 playable heroes with eight class types, 20 factions, and over 70 different enemy types, among other things. “Dates aren’t locked down”, but I’m told the rough release windows for each major update are set.
“I think we have a lot of artists, more than any other roles,” he explained when asked about Prelude Dark Pain’s striking (and clearly Darkest Dungeon-inspired) art style. The names include Arturo Martín (creative & art director), Jacob Portillo (lead concept & splash artist), María Jiménez (2D artist), and Diana Moreno (character designer, concept & 2D artist). “Diana is basically Jacob’s right-hand… He may draw an avatar or splash art, pass it to Diana, and she’ll do the colouring and pass it back for final approvals and touches.”
For cinematics, Jacob, Diana, and María’s work has been supported by David León (cinematic animator), who makes sure “every cinematic has that extra touch on an effects and polish level”. Gabriel Bermúdez was also mentioned as an extra pair of hands for effects across the game. “If you count everyone, it’s six core team members”, Requena concluded. It must also be noted that, according to the studio’s website, more artists have supported the development over time.
An overlooked thing about Prelude Dark Pain is it’ll be available in ten different languages even if there won’t be dubs: Spanish (Spain), English, Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil), and Korean. It’s an impressive effort of getting the “more than 50,000 words of Act 1 alone” translated for an indie game, and the full game will feature much more text. “It’s a titanic effort to make sure it reaches languages that typically aren’t the main ones for indie games.”
More specifically, I was told the Chinese market has been especially important for Prelude so far, with Gamersky Games taking over publishing duties from Firesquid for the Asian territories following a number of very successful playtests with precise feedback from a passionate Chinese crowd.
When it came to the narrative, the main story - which follows Soren, a retired warrior, stepping into a great revolution following an attack on his family - came from Arturo Martín, with Nacho Requena “giving it some shape with a plot”. Later, I’m told it was writers Samuel León and David Luque who fleshed out different story elements and characters while working alongside the leads. “It’s been evolving. Arturo has led the pack.”
Game balance was obviously a much trickier process. Prelude Dark Pain is a huge tactical RPG with plenty of heroes, classes, and enemy types. Even ahead of the planned early access launch, how hard was it to make the progression feel good? “It’s led to long meetings and debates at the studio. If the game’s scaling or levelling system doesn’t work, everything crumbles. We all were very aware of this. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous the art is or how good the music is, but if the game isn’t fun to play over time, you’re stuck with something boring.” He added Final Fantasy Tactics was the main influence, with enemies “adapting more or less to the player, but giving them the chance to be superior and creating their own builds”.
This is where Prelude Dark Pain’s seemingly complex class and build system comes in. Beyond the packed roster of playable heroes and before you even get to armour pieces, weapons, and trinkets, there are classes that combine in markedly different ways with each of the characters. “We have attributes and a skill tree with actives and passives (two unique trees for each hero),” Requena explains before getting to the classes. “You can change everything whenever you want, and changes are easily noticeable. I think we’ve done a good job there.” He noted there’s a big difference between a DPS and a control build for the same character as a big example. “We spent a lot of time on it.”
Similar to other RPGs, you’ll come across easier enemies early on, with the threat level ramping up as you level up, but “bosses aren’t damage sponges”. Quickfire tried to avoid that by giving them “more area damage” over extremely high defence. “We want you to control the distances and where to place every unit. They hit hard and aren’t simply tanking a lot of your damage. There are several in Act 1 already.”
On that note, Requena underlined the original plan was to have Act 1 last between eight and ten hours. Currently, it’s closer to 20. “Between 15 and 20 hours playing normally, focusing on the main quest… There are also ‘world missions’ adding a lot to the main plot without being in the critical path and the usual secondary missions.” He doesn’t shy away from confirming the team “went totally crazy” and ended up with something much larger than what was originally envisioned. “We had to decide to push some of the secondary content to Act 2.”
Once the game hits 1.0 (hopefully in 2027), the announced post-launch plans include a free DLC in collaboration with Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen is also located in Seville, Spain). Beyond that, “it depends on the game’s success”, but Requena admits they all want to keep adding to Prelude Dark Pain in similar ways to what’s happened with both Blasphemous games or Hollow Knight. “We don’t believe in DLC packs for 20 euros that barely add anything. We defend substantial ones that are free where possible, like Sea of Stars has done… If the game sells well, we want to do it because we believe players appreciate that kind of support.”
Console players will have to wait a bit longer, though we know ports are coming (with physical versions included) after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign. Requena admitted the team’s efforts are focused on the PC release for now: “I’m going to be honest: Right now, the console versions are planned, but we just haven’t jumped into them yet. We believe we need to make sure early access is as good as possible and that we hit those milestones and act on feedback as we near the 1.0 launch.” The idea is to have a practically finished version of the game before the porting process begins.
What Quickfire can already confirm is the game plays “really well” on Steam Deck even if more optimisation work can be done. For a turn-based RPG, handheld is a perfect fit, even if the ‘Verified’ badge isn’t there from the get-go, “it can be beaten from beginning to end on the device”, at least based on the developer’s testing. “Screen and text resolution are two problems most studios run into. It’s not easy to fix, but the game works really well otherwise.” In fact, the current data from playtests confirmed a lot of people played the early builds on Steam Deck.
Recent demos (one is still available at the time of writing) have also allowed the studio to act on recurring criticisms like the lack of more freeing camera modes and UI improvements. “We think we’re on the right path… People asked for less key presses.” For example, a lot of status effects and other information are now shown above characters just by hovering with the cursor over them. “We seek to make it all more intuitive and straightforward”, Requena added. That doesn’t mean the gameplay is being “dumbed down” though; don’t worry about it.
As we approach July 27, expect our own hands-on impressions of the early access release very soon. Below its familiar surface, Prelude Dark Pain packs a lot of juice which isn’t just plain nostalgia and cheeky references. That I already know after playing earlier builds. The road ahead is mysterious, but everything I’ve heard is promising. Here’s hoping Quickfire sticks the first landing and keeps up the good work.
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