battles with certain foes. It also meant that each and every encounter had to be analysed for that sort of player, too, which was time consuming. “It took a lot of work to blend the stealth game and strategy RPG game styles together. Not only did we need to build tight and intense tactical encounters - they also needed to work as stealth setups.”
“When we released Mutant Year Zero, we got a lot of comments that the game was too short, and that people really wanted a few more RPG things. So we added much more game time, and now allow you to talk and have conversations. Some people also didn’t get on with the RNG in Mutant Year Zero, so we added a ‘light tactical mode’ which has much less RNG and plays out tactical mode.”
Now on the other side of development, Varley reveals that his ideal version of Miasma Chronicles might have been less of a turn- based SRPG altogether. “If I were to start over again with Miasma Chronicles, I would like more experiences to play out in the real time sections. I’d want more skills that feed into the real time areas, so we could open up new experiences that are not just stealth-based.”
It was important that these systems worked together without friction for a long period of time, as strategy RPGs aren’t exactly known for being short, and if things had gotten stale or annoying the game could lose the player to one of the many other options out there. That is the very core of the game and must work not just once, but over 30 odd hours of game time. So we had to nail progression, weapons and enemy design to become stale.
A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION If you take a look at online reviews for Mutant Year Zero, a lot of people found that it was could have been a decision made to make up for the fact that the game was rather short. These were two areas where the team looked to directly improve with Miasma Chronicles, which not only has increased in length and settings, but has more granular customisation for the rules of the tactics systems within it in general.
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Admittedly, reactions to Miasma Chronicles overall have been a little bit mixed. That doesn’t bother The Bearded Ladies, who say they expected to garner stronger, more polarised reactions from those that gave “The response to our game has been really fun. Miasma is what I like to call a Marmite game, where you love it or hate it,” says Varley. “We try not to build bland games that try to appeal to everyone, and our games are titles that strongly appeal to a few.”
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