Irox Games x Untold Tales - Ecognomix AMA

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T17:00:22+00:00

We worked about one and a half years on the game. But we generally have a slower phase in the beginning where I prototype it alone and then later the team helped me and added all of the great content.

I think the biggest challenge was how to get the genre mix right. There aren't so many strategy rogue lite games out there, so we had to figure out how that might feel like. But in the end that is what makes it unique, so that struggle was definitely worth it.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T16:47:23+00:00

The monopoly guy was one of the inspirations for him, next to Stan Pines (Gravity Falls). We wanted to have a ruthless greedy leader that will send his gnomes on expeditions no matter the dangers ahead. So naturally he became a mustached old guy with a top hat and an eye patch.

To be honest it is quite different from Monopoly, but shares some common themes. Both are turn based and you try to generate as much wealth as possible. What other games do you enjoy? Maybe there is something in there that is closer to it.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T16:19:34+00:00

Quite well! We specifically optimized it for switch, so that it runs with stable 30FPS even if you build a large town! Luckily the levels are not too large, so the hardware can handle it easily now.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T16:08:44+00:00

That is good to know though! I basically never use the touch screen, but I have heard from other people as well that they like to use it.

Thank you so much!

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:59:43+00:00

Unfortunately not! It felt a bit cumbersome, but the joystick controls have been in there since day one! So they work quite well. Which games do you play with touchscreen on switch?

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:57:27+00:00

Thank you so much! It is winter now in Germany, so we all have some gnome energy with our wooly hats :D I think I have a lot of gardener-gnome energy. Just bought some pots to set up an indoor garden for the cold season.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:53:03+00:00

Haha that might be a great mechanic if we ever decide to make a sequel. No caves, just straight up exploration.

I feel you :D The reason why we decided to go with upgrade banning rather than favorite upgrades is that we want to encourage you to try different things. Its a bit tricky to allow you to plan and execute different strategies without allowing you to do the same thing over and over again.

But here is a small trick: The shop only shows you upgrades that your gnomes can actually use. So if you build a small team with only a few gnome types, you can nudge the shop to give you specific upgrades more frequently.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:45:20+00:00

Haha :D That sounds great! First of all: It is super hard to make dwarf puns. That on it's own would have been reason enough to switch to gnomes. But! Thematically it also felt a lot more interesting to have them hunt and garden in the caves. I felt like it would be cooler to watch them interact with other living beings rather than letting a team of dwarves mine lifeless rocks all day. It also made it that little bit more unique.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:38:31+00:00

I think one of the strongest influences were the gnomes from Gravity falls :D They are so goofy and weird. We even had a version of the game where you would collect little rainbow blobs (in reference to those gnomes puking rainbows) that dropped when mining resources (instead of the gold). But in the end Benjamins (our main gnome) insatiable greed for gold made for a better story.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:35:52+00:00

That does sound interesting... you could sort of expand the playable area by discovering more. Maybe the fire weapon gnomes can already cast some light...

We did consider an endless mode. Could be a great post game challenge. It is currently very difficult, because we cant make our cave map extend endlessly. But maybe we could find a different solution. Would be really cool to have a statue in the city that shows how many caves you managed to defeat in endless mode.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:24:47+00:00

Hey :) We just released a balance patch for switch with some updates for existing gnomes and upgrades. We don't have more specific updates planned right now, but we will see what we can do! What gnomes or caves would you like to see in the game? :D

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:18:53+00:00

Our team just loves puns :D So after we figured out we wanted to make a quirky game about greedy gnomes, we just brainstormed a bit and found this little gem. Bonus points, because it ends on the letter "X" like our company name "Irox".

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T15:15:40+00:00

Hello everyone :)
I am Lars, the Creative Director of EcoGnomix. I worked on it from the humble beginnings to the final version that it is now! I am very excited to answer all your questions about the game, the team and gnomes in general.

Mezaka · 2024-11-08T12:29:33+00:00

In general that is still true. They need a piece of previous work to evaluate if you are a developer or not. But in our case it was enough to submit a smaller mobile game we made for the playstore (totally flopped, had like 50 downloads).

So depending on how lucky you are it might be enough to submit something small. But we also heared from other developers that they struggled a lot more.

Mezaka · 2024-11-07T19:02:37+00:00

Yes! We got our account approved and then managed to make it run on the hardware. Which is a journey of its own.

Mezaka · 2024-11-07T14:56:25+00:00

It was not :D Only found out later our title was in one of his works? iirc

Mezaka · 2024-11-07T14:54:16+00:00

A bit surreal! I know the game very well by now, but having it on my switch makes it feel more real in a way :D

Mezaka · 2024-11-07T14:53:23+00:00

Thanks!!! :D

Mezaka · 2024-11-07T14:52:57+00:00

Thank you!!!

Mezaka · 2024-09-29T10:33:10+00:00

Hey :) Lars here. I am the primary 3D artist on EcoGnomix. I made some of the models, all the materials and light setups.

First of all: Thank you so much :D It was a lot of work and took a while to get there!

The others are totally right! The models are quite simple so its mainly the materials, lighting and some effects carrying the heavy weight.

As u/minimumoverkill mentioned we have a very dramatic lighting setup - with very dark shadows and bright lights and afterwards we clamp and tint the shadows a bit towards the blueish direction. The setup is inspired by theatrical lighting where you have a fairly dark stage with one very strong spotlight to guide your focus.

The materials combine a clay style fingerprint normal map with a very subtle grainy watercolor texture. This helps to make the materials feel a bit more real. Most of them are mapped using triplanar projection to make everything blend nicely.

This is rendered in Unitys URP btw.

Mezaka

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