Age of Fear: The Undead King Interview

The folks over at IndieRPGs have interviewed Age of Fear: The Undead King creator Leszek Sliwko about the independent fantasy-themed strategy/RPG, his inspirations while making it, his plans for a sequel, and more. A snip:

Where did you come up with the idea for Age of Fear? Did any games in particular influence its design?

I guess Battle of Wesnoth, Warhammer and Warlords 2 have their impact. However, the design evolved later on and current game iteration is far away from what it was initially. There were many improvements and features between 1.0.0 (initial release) and 1.4.5 (current version): multiplayer, new units, new battles, items, graphics improvements, evolve-able attributes, etc.

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Tell me about the sequel. What’s going to be different?

Like I mentioned above, there were many features between initial version and current one. Sequel is mainly new story (much less linear like current one). There will be whole new army set and probably editor (but not immediately).

In sequel there is already more than 80 units and over 100 skills/attributes. The whole new army set (Chaos Demons) will offer strategy based off summoning and destruction spells. IMO, the most interesting unit so far is Will-O-Wisp, which can take control over hostile unit and then jump to another enemy (if current host is killed). If used properly, Will-O-Wisp is real killer. But there is always a mage who can dispel energy from Will-O-Wisp, rendering it helpless.

Another meaningful difference are branches in single player campaigns. In Age of Fear player could find 90% of content in single play-through, in sequel, player will need 3-4 plays to visit everything. Also, we have hidden several bonus levels/units and few Easter Eggs.

We are also experimenting with RPG-like leveling system, where unit can exchange experience points for various upgrades (bonuses to statistics and also special skills). It’s based off players’ feedback, thus I am not sure in which direction it will go.