As a continuation of our Clued-Up article on Freekstorm’s new adventure-puzzle game Doctor Kvorak, lead designer Richard Bang kindly answered some of our questions.
In case you haven’t heard of this fun title, the story is quite unique. After their planet is captured by the insane Doctor Kvorak, Greeboo (a cute blue alien) and his friends find themselves trapped in the evil genius’s mysterious test lab and forced to complete a series of challenging puzzles for his own amusement. The game follows Greeboo’s quest to rescue his comrades and save his world from certain destruction.
Doctor Kovorak is a great family-friendly, single-player, 3D adventure-puzzle title. It provides eighteen levels of challenging gameplay as well as a full map-editor and community map server. When we met Richard at the Eurogamer Expo this year he was very enthusiastic and generous with his time – even though we’d just run up to his stand and shoved our microphone in front of him (sorry Richard!). He’s now had a bit more notice to answer our questions and we thank him for his help!
How did the Freekstorm team meet and what inspired you to create Doctor Kvorak?
“The Freekstorm team are a family, and I mean that in a literal sense. Everyone working on the game is part of my family. Sam is a game artist and works on assets; Lin manages the business and marketing aspect, Maria and Michael are play testers, and I do the rest of the game design, programming, art, animation etc.”
Can you introduce Doctor Kvorak to us? What made him decide to get up one morning and start destroying planets?
“Doctor Kvorak is a genius and as such he doesn’t see the universe in the same way as everyone else. He has amazing technology at his command and yet he apparently uses it to indiscriminately destroy things. He does have a shocking and terrible reason for what he does, and as you play the game the story will be revealed. We are keeping this a secret until the game is released so you will have to play the game to find out!”
How did Greeboo get himself caught up in this mess?
“Greeboo and his friends were unfortunate enough to be on a planet ‘selected’ by Doctor Kvorak. They don’t know why they have been selected and they will find out just as you do in the game.”
We understand that our little blue hero has two friends joining him on his adventure. Can you tell us anything about them and their special powers?
“Micmac and Tiktok are from the same planet as Greeboo but are a different species. Their powers have evolved to give them a survival advantage and they will all have to use those powers together to complete Doctor Kvorak’s challenges.”
Doctor Kovorak is an evil genius.
There are a number of interesting game mechanics such as the invisible cubes and the cube launcher. Where did these ideas come from?
“The game mechanics have evolved over time and have expanded as we found interesting ways to increase the challenge and visual appeal of the game. For example the invisible cubes were originally just visible blocks used to make a simple maze, this then evolved into a maze with invisible walls, and then we realised the cubes could be used as floors as well. This gives a consistent use of an object as the player understands what they do and how they work when they encounter them.”
Whilst playing the demo we didn’t encounter any enemies. Will Greeboo and his friends come up against Doctor Kvorak’s hired goons in later levels?
“Doctor Kvorak has a clone army! You can see some of them standing as observers during the background loop on the menu screen. The clone guards in the game are well armed and must be avoided at all costs. Being caught leads to a shocking end.”
We liked the music and found that it went well with the sci-fi setting. Who composed it and can we expect more in the final version?
“The Doctor Kvorak music was created by myself so I’m very glad you liked it. The demo has two tracks and the intro, while the main game currently has over sixteen. I’m working on new tracks all the time.”
It appears that the next-generation consoles are looking to embrace indie developers and their games. Are these new opportunities something you’re looking forward to?
“We are very excited at the prospect of bringing Doctor Kvorak to the next-gen consoles. I think it offers a great opportunity for indie devs to reach an audience that has typically been difficult to access in the past. We have been asked many times if Doctor Kvorak will be available on the PS4, XBoxOne, Vita and WiiU and we would like the answer to be yes! We just have to see if the platform holders make the system open and transparent so that we can bring Doctor Kvorak to their communities.”
Is there any advice you’d give to someone who’s thinking of making an indie game?
“Making an indie game is a wonderful undertaking and a daunting challenge. These will be many times that you will consider giving up, and many games get close to the end, then die. So I would recommend that you make a game that you believe in, that you are passionate about, and that you will finish no matter what the cost because not finishing it is the worst thing you can do to your vision. That said, making an indie game is undoubtedly ‘the ride of your life!’ It’s the most amazing and fulfilling thing you will ever do, and we thoroughly recommend it!”
Can you tell us which component of Doctor Kvorak you’re currently working on? How are you feeling about its release?
“We are currently updating the art style for the levels we have completed before finishing the remaining planned levels. We also have the cut scenes to complete. Then some final polish and testing before release. The final part is in some ways the hardest. We have most of the game complete and are really eager to show to everyone, but we know that we need to hold it back until it’s ready. We owe it to ourselves and our fans to give them the best game we can create!”
Doctor Kvorak’s puzzles are fun to figure out.
Thank you again to Richard for taking the time to answer our questions. Doctor Kovorak is coming soon to Mac, PC and iPad – make sure you get yourself a copy upon its release so you can stop the Doctor from destroying your planet!
