A wonderful presentation of the domestic metroidvania took place in Moscow Slavania, which the VGTimes team managed to visit. A small indie game has received backing from the Game Art Pioneers holding company, the game’s publisher.
The heroes of the evening were artist Vladimir Khaetsky, game designer Vladimir Averyanov and programmer Maxim Leshchinsky, the three heroic founders of the FrostLeaf Games studio.
Slavania has been with us for at least a year
After a moving speech from the developers, Dmitry Zdesev, general producer of Game Art Pioneers, publisher of the game, shared his plans to promote Slavania to the masses. If you follow domestic matches, you’ve probably heard of his other project DISTORTION is the most expensive domestic AAA in the history of Russian game development.
Without pronouncing numbers, Dmitry assured the audience that there were “many” additions of Slavania to the wishlist on Steam, and that their number had recently doubled. The second statement is easily believed: the game’s marketing is powerful. Don’t be surprised if you see the Slavania logo on cereal boxes or packets of crackers at your local supermarket.
As for more specific figures and indicators, the total sales of 250 thousand copies (!), According to Dmitry, will be considered a real success. A colossal figure for a small game in an exotic setting for the industry, and also in a genre exploited by hundreds of indie developers.
Moreover, the bet on sales on Steam is made on the principle of “whatever happens”; the intention is to make money from the future release of Slavania on consoles, where the publisher sees more potential buyers. That is, within a year the game will receive patches, additions and localizations for a larger number of countries (emphasis is placed on the language groups of the BRICS countries), and console developers will already have everything ready.
First impressions of Slavania
But what about the first impressions of the game? We answer – a fat Slavic spirit. Here you have the snake Gorynych, and a brave guy in bast shoes, and a merchant on a carved ship with wheels. The bright decoration of the Novgorod rooms is replaced by a spruce forest. The colors are all bright (even if it’s too much, it blinds your eyes), the music is cheerful and the fictional language that everyone speaks in the game brings smiles and memories of the babble of Magic.
Do you often play metroidvanias?
The game looks exactly right on the Steam Deck. I can see you pulling out the console during a break to start exploring a new location. Based on what was said at the presentation, a release on Switch is planned, but these are still plans. On the big screen, repetitive elements, simple animations or their absence are more noticeable.
For example, the spear returns to the hero after the Slavic trigger clamp on the gamepad. As a player you do it with difficulty. And at this moment the hero is so relaxed, he stands in his usual position and does not even stretch out his hand to return his magic potion to himself. Or you jump on spruce platforms and for some reason dust flies out, like from an old carpet.
Although there is an example to the contrary: wooden boards spin like windmills and tell the player a point of interest. You forgot to talk to the merchant, and then those around you will clearly let you know where to go. I want more of this.
There were bugs, some fatal and some not so deadly. Interface elements flew out of place. For example, after the first death of the hero, the day and night indicator flew down somewhere. The outlines of unopened areas on the map may pulse too quickly. Although everything was fine on the nearby computer. After the character was reborn in blocks, he ended up in a different place after a few seconds. And this is just the beginning of the game, not even the first hour. But it looks like the day one patch is already in the folder and ready to be applied on schedule.
It seemed like a strange decision to allocate a separate loading ring for transitions and dialogues. In addition to the door and the character, it is not enough to press the “up” button, you just have to hold it, wait until the indicator is full and then talk or enter the door. The developers weren’t lying and said this was just a technical issue that couldn’t be fully polished.
I liked that, despite the plethora of competitors in the genre, the team came up with some pretty cool finds. There is also a universal spear, which is used in both combat and platform games. The change of day and night after the death of the hero affects the number and strength of enemies. And little things like writing ‘were’ after saving at the pillars add flavor and lighten the game from empty lore items.
It is a big plus for the developers that they perceive criticism adequately without a hint of snobbery or becoming defensive when confronted with uncomfortable questions. Yes, we have two trees here for the entire game, we had to master many skills from scratch and sometimes give texts to family members for checking! This is the path of an indie developer, difficult and thorny.
Are you planning to try Slavania?
Despite Slavania’s budget and bugs, I want to run through it at least once out of interest. Judging from the trailer, somewhere beyond the first location there are fights with clumsy bears, flying corgis and very beautiful places littered with sunflowers and birches. In total, they promise plus or minus 15-20 hours for one playthrough.
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So even if Slavania doesn’t deserve all the money in the world and the love in the world, at least three people in Russian game development gained valuable experience from releasing the game. I bow to these good guys. And the game can already be purchased at a discount on Steam for 392 rubles.
Source: VG Times