frustrating for players, but Wildfrost runs range between thirty mins to an hour, so losing doesn’t feel like the end of the world. “Finally, making sure the variety of cards and their iterations are unique enough between each run. Variety is crucial for a good roguelike, as you’ll be replaying the same battles over and over again. Of course, it’s not perfect! Some players expressed their concern with the accessibility working on for the game’s future updates.” Wildfrost can be a brutal opponent for those just
learning its systems, and its variable and sometimes rather for the game and its players alike. That’s something that the developers behind Wildfrost are absolutely looking to change in the near future, and easing its players in is something they wish they had factored in from the start. curve and have the game be more forgiving of mistakes explains Gaz. “There’s a lot to take into consideration for each game battle, and if players are expecting something similar to Slay the Spire, they’ll be presented with a much greater challenge early on. In hindsight, something like an ascension system other roguelikes have would most likely work well for this game too, and that’s something we want to add as a future update for the game.” “When we launched, press reception was largely positive, but the initial launch reaction from players was quite mixed - it felt like the marmite of deck builders!” laughs Lewin. “Since then the reception has been overwhelmingly positive, even people who were initially frustrated but have since clicked with the game,” adds Gaz. “We’re currently doing our best to address accessibility, as it would be great to convert more gamers into card game fans! “We won’t lie, it was quite hard seeing players react so negatively on launch, but we understand where the critiques were coming from and have used it as fuel to help make the game ever better, for even more players,” Gaz continues.
“Our goal from the very beginning was to create a fun experience for card game fans and casual gamers, but it’s a tough challenge to take on - balancing the barrier to entry whilst providing a real challenge to players familiar with the genre. Though it’s been great watching people really ‘get it’
MAKING SOMETHING AWESOME So what advice does the pair have for those that are aspiring game developers, or perhaps even starting out on time? Well, let yourselves fail, but make sure you’re not
putting a huge amount of time into making a huge failure. for later! This is something that I believe is true for almost any big project, and not just for game development,” says Gaz. “It’s hard to
accept, but your probably won’t be great. Adventure Time’s Jake the Dog says that ‘sucking at something is the being sorta good at something!’, and I absolutely agree with him. There’s no better way to Make them small so you don’t spend too much time on them and then learn from them. Before you know it, you’ll be making something awesome.”
After the upcoming accessibility updates to Wildfrost, the plan seems to be for the team to just get its latest work of art into the hands of as many people as possible. That means ports are coming, some of which involve new design challenges, and even, potentially, a revisit to that physical card game from near the very start of development.
“Ideally we’d put the game everywhere we can and give players the chance to check it out on their preferred platform,” explains Gaz. “Interestingly, the community has been asking for a mobile port in particular. We both agree, and think our game would be perfect for on-the-go gaming, but there are a lot of UI/UX problems that come with porting to such small devices. We hope to announce future plans fairly soon, though!”
“The community has been begging for a physical
release, and we’ve had some interest from physical game specialists,” adds Lewis. “We’re also really excited to see if we can make this happen! Ideally we’d like to get a bigger content that collectors can feel like they have the most complete version of the game. We already have some ideas about what to include in the box, so watch this space!”
June 2023 MCV/DEVELOP | 51
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