Black Shell Media has recently partnered with Outsmart Games in order to promote their upcoming PC title, BloodGate. The game has currently been successfully Greenlit and we wanted to be able to share the wonderful story of our newfound friends. Despite being an unreleased PC title, BloodGate might actually already be familiar with some readers here. In order to share some of this knowledge with our loyal blog subscribers, I sat down with the Business Development Specialist of Outsmart Games, Daniel Jackson, to ask him a couple of questions.

 

Read on to learn more about BloodGate’s intriguing development history!

– – – –

 

Thomas Ponce de Leon: Sometimes we all forget, but awesome games are made by equally awesome people. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself as well as your team?

Daniel Jackson:  Outsmart was founded in 2005 as an entertainment and online media company. We have been creating games and virtual worlds for the last 8 years. We are based in Auckland, New Zealand and are proud to be a part of the growing game development community here.

The core team is made up of around 30 people, including industry veterans, all who demonstrate a real passion for creating the best gaming experiences possible. We are best known for our virtual worlds, SmallWorlds and MiniMundos. We have had an amazing experience creating and supporting these games. We are really looking forward to showing off our skills on the PC platform.

 

655709804_preview_BG_PC_Shop

 

T: All art generally starts from a big idea. A passion, an interest, a drive to build something related to this idea. What was this spark for BloodGate, and how did it affect BloodGate’s creation?

D: The decision to create BloodGate came from a few different places, one of the biggest driving forces behind the project for us was our ambition to start making more games that we can identify with as a company.

Outsmart is a team of very keen gamers and we all love PC gaming. Games like Diablo, Dota 2, Battlefield, and Rocket League are what we play in our downtime. We have been hungering to start putting something forward on the platform ourselves. BloodGate became the outlet for this passion when we started looking internally for projects that we that we not only wanted to create, but play ourselves.

 

T: Many gamers have come to easily recognize and loathe mobile game ports on Steam. How much have you changed BloodGate since it’s mobile release, and how can you reassure gamers that this is a true PC experience?

D: We definitely count ourselves among those gamers who have been burned too many times by tragically bad mobile ports and are very wary of them. While BloodGate was first released on the mobile platform- our original design and development concept was structured around a PC game. We changed midway through development to partner with a mobile publisher and changed the game into a F2P mobile game. This was a critical success, but the Freemium model just never felt right and didn’t work out.

Because of the history of the game, we have been able to go back to our original vision and create what we feel is a true PC game experience. The changes from the mobile game are countless but include an entirely new rendering engine, complete rework of the game balance, resources, gear, skill loot drops, ripping out all the freemium features, and updating every single piece of art in the game to create a proper high-fidelity PC product that we are very proud of.

 

655709804_preview_BG_PC_Craft

 

T: Is there any feature in specific that you are excited to show off to the public and have people experience?

D: We are really looking forward to see people getting into the multiplayer. We have worked diligently on a ranking and league system. With the huge amount of gear crafting and load-out possibilities in the game, it’s going to be great to see the variation and competition that arises.

 

T: One of the things that makes BloodGate so interesting is its incredibly distinct visual aesthetic. What were some of the inspirations that lead to the development of this style?

D: The aesthetic direction of BloodGate is something we are really proud of, it’s the result of a long process of refinement and a few overhauls along the way. We are big fans of the gritty gothic styles of older RPG’s like Diablo and newer games like Darkest Dungeon and Bloodborne, so we tried to capture a similar feeling here.

 

655709804_preview_BG_PC_Inventory

 

T: There are multiple unique classes in BloodGate, how does this affect the game’s core puzzle matching mechanics? What gave you the idea to implement this concept in a game of this type?

D: The idea of having different classes is a very strong cornerstone of the RPG genre and we felt it was an absolute must have for BloodGate. Swapping between your heroes in a dungeon creates really cool combos once mastered.

Having different skills, attribute strengths, and gear types specific to certain classes opens up so many more opportunities to let players define a gameplay style that suits how they truly like to play the game instead of being forced into a single mold.

 

– – – –
As you can see, Outsmart Games are some truly fun folks with an unusual history behind them. Great to see this team of talented gamers-turned-developers getting the chance to work on a project they can be this passionate about! If you haven’t done so already, check out BloodGate on Steam Greenlight and keep an eye out for it on the Steam store soon!

 

Please be sure to share this article if you enjoyed the read!

If you’re looking for a marketing partner to help make your game a success story, drop us a line at [email protected] and let’s chat!