Kivi’s Underworld Was a Mistake

That’s the conclusion reached by Soldak Entertainment’s own Steven Peeler in a new blog post that cites the game’s casual nature and different target audience as reasons why the company should have done something else at the time.

Pretty much ever since we finished Kivi’s Underworld I have had two very different and opposing viewpoints of the game. On one hand I think Kivi is a really cool game and I’m glad that someone made the game. On the other hand I think that Soldak developing Kivi was a mistake. I’m going to talk about both viewpoints a little.

The Good:

1) Fun – I’m obviously biased, but I think Kivi’s Underworld is a pretty fun game. It plays like an action RPG where you fight tons of monsters, find secrets, grab loot, improve your characters, and even has cool powerups.

2) Easy to learn – It was designed to be a more casual game than the typical RPG, something that was very easy to learn. I think we did this really well. It’s especially a great game for people that are new to the genre or are put off by all of the usual complexities of more full fledged RPGs.

…

And the part everyone actually wants to read, The Bad:

1) We made it – I know that’s a strange statement. What I mean is that it was a mistake for Soldak to make the game. It’s a game that would have been better for a different company to make. If you play the “which of these things doesn’t fit game” with our 3 games everyone is going to choose Kivi. Other than being an action RPG (sort of), it’s not very much like our other two games. It doesn’t have much randomness, it doesn’t have a dynamic world, it’s not a hardcore game, and it’s not very deep. It’s not really a problem that it is different. The problem is that it doesn’t fit what our Depths of Peril gamers wanted and the new gamers that we did bring in didn’t stick around because our other games don’t match their expectations either. Basically they are two very different crowds with very different expectations and we can’t really please both of them.

The other half of the reason why Soldak making Kivi was a mistake is that I personally don’t love this type of game. I love the rival factions in DoP. I love the dynamic world in both DoP and DC that doesn’t sit around waiting for the player. I love how in DC something new is always happening because of the dynamic events, monsters, NPCs, the incredible amount of randomness, and how all of this interacts with each other. Basically I love really deep games and Kivi is not deep.

2) Graphics – No I don’t think the lack of bump mapping or some other graphic gizmo was much of a problem. I think the mistake we made was not having a much more casual graphic style that fit the casual gameplay better. Looking back on it, we should have gone with more of a Plants vs Zombies style, something much more bright and playful.

Now that I think about it, Pop Cap doing Kivi on Windows, Macs, and the iPhone/iPad with a Plants vs Zombies art style would have been pretty cool. 🙂