The release you’ve been waiting for is here! Baffling with a medieval-inspired art style, Inkulinati is now available on GOG in its full glory. That’s not all though; you can also get the Supporter Bundle, containing base game and goodies such as an artbook, soundtrack, wallpaper, and even more! Both of these titles receive a -40% launch discount, until March 7th, 6 PM UTC. Inkulinati is a turn-based strategy game with a proper dose of comedy; straight from medieval manuscripts. As a player, you’ll take your turn in duels filled with unexpected tactical depth and a solid amount of humor. You’ll embark on an ever-changing journey, build your own bestiary, defeat medieval superstars and collect perks to unleash special powers. It’ll be your goal, to become a master of the Living Ink, grab your quill and build a unique strategy, so that you can be named the greatest Inkulinati of all time!
The game’s medieval-inspired art style will surely capture your attention right away – after 700 years, those bizarre art pieces came alive in a form of video game, to show that medieval people were just like we are nowadays; they laughed from the same silly things we do, from sword-wielding rabbits, dogs with spears, and much, much more. All that, and even more content, you can enjoy in a special
Supporter Bundle!
We’ve also prepared something extra, to give this funky title the well-deserved spotlight – we asked the game’s producer,
Ryszard Kiełtyka, to share a couple of insights of the
Inkulinati creation. Let’s take a look!
During the process of development, we’ve had some turning points; and there were quite a few of them — but one of the most important was the successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for Inkulinati. It was significant because it gave us our first external funding and confirmed that the game had potential. Also — signing the publishing deal, which gave us additional stability and allowed us to develop the game for more platforms (including launching the game on GOG from day one). The final turning point in our development was the launch of Early Access, because from then on we began a more structured and intensive period of releasing regular updates to the game. EA gave us access to player feedback and opinions, which allowed us to significantly improve the game over the course of the year, taking into account player expectations.The production brought some peculiar stories and situation, too. For instance, we realized that we needed a special licence for the initial font we used, which was fundamental to our visual identity. It turned out that such a licence couldn't simply be bought off the shelf and would require non-standard actions with a massive platform that sells font/typeface licences, which seemed completely unrealistic for us as a small studio. So we tried to get in touch with the creator of the font we had initially used for visualisation and graphic prototyping — and it turned out to be a huge, huge success. Not only did we come to an agreement on pretty great terms, but we did so under special conditions - we are one of the few games to have our own custom typeface, created by a designer with extensive experience.
Another story was the collaboration with our friends at Obsidian Entertainment, the creators of Pentiment, which resulted in Pentiment's main protagonist becoming a playable character in the single-player campaign of Inkulinati, and our characters appearing in their game. And it all started years ago when they supported us during our Kickstarter campaign - you never know what a seemingly small kindness from a big studio can lead to!But game development isn’t just interesting stories and anecdotes, it’s a lot of lessons, too. I can say that for me, it’s all about people, and it's crucial to take this into account when planning production, especially for creative tasks. The team atmosphere is an invaluable asset that I, as producer of Inkulinati, have made a priority. Looking back over the past few years, prioritizing people over deadlines has served us well. You can always make another game or adjust your plans and schedules, but with this particular team - of which I'm immensely proud — if relationships fall apart, another game just won't happen. Another thing that’s worth trying, is to build relationships with people in the industry, and even with larger studios — our history with Obsidian Entertainment shows that real friendships can be forged even between those who seem to operate at a different level in the industry.
Overall, game development is a constant series of setbacks and improvisations on how to get through them in one piece — things don't go our way at almost every stage. But you get used to it over time, and you just keep going, because that's what the overall success of the project demands. That kind of attitude helps a lot on a day-to-day basis! And if I can give a couple advices to aspiring game developers: first of all — just start making games. Plain and simple. Whether at game jams or on your own projects to develop your skills. You don't need a big team for every game, there are a huge number of tools on the market that allow you to create simple games, including narrative ones, based on ready-made solutions where you can create games by simply clicking. Your first projects will probably not be successful (although who knows?), but they will give you a lot of the necessary knowledge — including the ability to assess what you don't know and what you need to improve. Each subsequent project will be that little bit more complete in terms of production (deliberately not saying whether these are better or worse projects — that is not what matters at this stage). Such small projects will allow you to make further decisions — whether to continue as an indie developer and work on your game at home, or to find work in existing professional studios. In the latter case, your indie/gamejam projects will come in handy — these are really strong portfolio items! And I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who ran the recruitment process in our studio. Finally, though — if you have the financial means — go to game industry events. It’s an industry where meeting people is very important — from finding companions to collaborating on projects.We’d like to thank Ryszard a lot, for taking the time to talk a little about both Inkulinati and behind-the-scenes of game development.Now – let’s get to inking!
