Protocol Games is a small indie studio based out of Madrid. Their lofty first project, Song of Horror, is a third person survival horror game with a heavy emphasis on narrative. Nowadays it seems like indies are the only teams that can even be bothered to make a scary game so we were thrilled when the team agreed to answer a few questions about indie development in Spain and their ambitious first steps into the survival horror world, as there are many other types of games besides horror, such as casino games you can play at the olympic kingsway casinos online. If you want to try something new, visit the Casino Zeus en Argentina and choose the best game that you will enjoy.
1. Tell us a bit about the Song of Horror team, how did you all come together?
The two of us (Carlos and Ignacio) met for the first time in high school (we went to the same class). That’s where we started dreaming about making videogames. Fast forward eleven years, we still had that dream, though it had been tempered by reality. We realized that we were not going to be really happy with the career paths that opened up before us. We had been tinkering with the idea for a while and one fateful night, around what one might call a more-than-modest amount of beer, we finally took the step: we would go for it, and we would go for it with all we have. Development began in October 2014, after we’d rented a small office to work in. David came one month later, as we needed a qualified artist for the game (the character modeling and animation more than anything) and Manuel, the composer and sound wizard, began advising us and working with us at about that time.
2. Spain is currently host to a growing Indie gaming scene. What’s the gaming community like out there? Has this growth helped in the development of Song of Horror?
Indeed it has! And what a community it is. We have spoken to several developers, including (but not limited to) the folks at Teku Studios (Candle) and Fictiorama Studios (Dead Synchronicity). They’ve been incredibly helpful and astoundingly nice to us, always advising us, always there willing to lend a helping hand. There is still ways to go in order for Spain to have a scene compared to other countries in our vicinity but this growth can only mean that more good ideas are added to the videogame world and that a bigger pool of experience and savvy is available when a new player enters the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWy6wd1uFJg
3. Most of your team either left or reduced their full time careers in other industries to work on Song of Horror. Have you found your unique personal skillsets contributing to the game in any surprising ways?
Yes, we have found out that almost any skill you have can be applied in one way or another to developing games. For example, Ignacio is an architect. This means he’s by no means a newbie in the use of 3D modeling tools, and that he has a very acute space and “graphical” sense, so to speak. And he makes a perfect level designer to boot, given that all Song of Horror’s environments will be closed spaces (all kinds of buildings). Many games make buildings that could not exist in reality (meaning no disrespect from our part), like they make “dungeons” which are then portrayed as buildings (houses, etc…) In Song of Horror, the environments are realistic and each has a distinct, well-defined style that goes along with what kind of space it is. They don’t exist in reality, but they could perfectly. They are buildings turned into “dungeons” (in a very liberal usage of the term). Carlos has had many jobs (including being a waiter, a newspaper boy, a door-to-door salesman and a helpdesk technician). All these jobs have one thing in common: they involve interaction with customers, so we said “let’s put that experience towards the game”. So, Carlos is, apart from the programmer (which he studied for), the PR guy, and the writer (he has dabbled in amateur writing and poetry. So has Ignacio, but Carlos is bilingual in English and Spanish). David is the only one whose studies are clear-cut for the job: he studied Fine Arts and Videogame Animation, so that’s what he does in Song of Horror. Manuel has worked in Mercury Steam Entertainment’s QA department, so he has very helpful advice and guidance he can provide for us. The music part is all his doing!
4. Two mechanics jumped out at me when I looked into Song of Horror: The permanent death of characters, and the inability to manually save. Could you explain a little bit more how this would work? What happens when I run out of characters?
Thanks for asking this question! We’ll try to go into detail. Song of Horror is divided into chapters. In each chapter you will be able to pick among a set of characters. For example, the first chapter has 4 possible choices. Each character has his/her own personality, opinions (they will react differently to what they see and experience) and small playable quirks (such as being strong/weak, fast/slow, or stealthy/noisy, which will confer slight advantages and disadvantages). So you go and pick one. Now you’re committed: this character can either finish the chapter or die trying. If he/she dies, you get to pick one of the remaining folks and continue where you left. Should the 4 characters die, you will need to restart the chapter (never the entire game) with all 4 alive again. When you finish the chapter with a character, the game creates a save point, and all characters who died in that chapter remain dead. You can select to “Save and Quit” to come back later at any point but, when you come back, you will go back to the start of the chapter if you lose all remaining characters. In the next chapter, you will have a new set of characters to choose from (not neccesarily 4, maybe another number), with a survivor from a previous chapter possibly included in that set (depending on who you finish the chapter with and who is alive & dead). The sum total of playable characters is 16.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhyKS0GxtHQ
5. What kind of cool features do you think your Kickstarter campaign will allow you to implement that you wouldn’t be able to include in the game otherwise?
We are going to Kickstarter to hopefully obtain the funding we need to develop the game. The amount we’re asking for is the bare minimum he have calculated to be safe to implement the game with the features we list. If we happened to overshoot the goal, we could include awesome features like motion capture (which we are looking into right now), voice acting for the in-game documents that the player will find, and even an extra chapter (not vital to the story but aimed to shed more light at a particular part of the story) we had thought about (which would be worked on once we release the game).
6. Have you played the game ObsCure? Did this have any influence? You also call this the next ‘Alone in the Dark’, what are some video games that have inspired you while creating Song of Horror?
Actually we haven’t, but would love to someday. Our biggest influence has been the classic “Alone in the Dark”, but there are also other influences like the first “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill” games, the “Fatal Frame” saga and even “Maniac Mansion” and “Clock Tower” a little!
7. We really feel we’ve entered a “silver age” of survival horror with indie studios bringing a refreshing take on the genre. What do you feel makes your title special and stand-out?
Yes! As lovers of the genre we like the sprouting of new horror experiences. As for Song of Horror, the first thing is that it is an old-school third person survival horror. Not first person (as most are), not with an over-the-shoulders camera (another popular option) but purely third person with automated cameras. Our game aims to deliver not only a survival horror experience but also a cinematic one, and our cameras are being carefully designed one by one to add to this atmosphere. Another point that we think makes our game stand out are the 16 characters and the permanent death mechanics. You will not only experience the story through the protagonist’s eyes, but instead, most of the time you will see it unfold through the eyes of many more unwilling participants. And, last but not least, the Presence! The Presence is the name we give to the entity that will stalk the players in very diverse ways. Song of Horror is a survival game, you cannot directly face it. Not even the strongest marine could, let alone a bunch of everyday people. In order to survive, you will need to do take all sorts of desperate measures. There’s running and there’s hiding, but we didn’t want to make Song of Horror yet another game where that’s all you get to do. The Presence manifests itself in the most diverse ways, and each way requires an appropriate and quick reaction out of the player. Perhaps a manifestation will try to open a door to get to you. Block it! Perhaps the Presence will start “scouting” (in its own horrifying way) a room. Don’t let it “see” you!. Perhaps it will try to hear the noise you make. Perhaps a manifestation will try to directly chase you down. Or maybe it will be waiting for you in the next room, so be careful where you tread. React. Anticipate. Adapt :). We want the player to be on his/her toes all the time. There will be little to no safe places or moments in Song of Horror.
8. Are there any other influences, art, movies, books, comics, that contributed to Song of Horror’s inspiration as well?
Yes! Outside games, there are movies such as “Darkness”, “Sinister” or “Babadook” that have played a part, and in literature we love and look up to the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.
9. What are your plans for the future? Will you be creating additional content for Song of Horror or do you see yourselves moving on to something new?
We would love to add an extra chapter to Song of Horror. Not anything crucial to the story, just a chapter which delves a bit deeper into a particular part of it. But apart from that, we have a lot of cool ideas for games that we would love to create someday, if we can make a living out of creating games that is.
You can learn more about Song of Horror on the game’s official website. You can also support Protocol Games by donating to their Kickstarter here.
