Hinterberg, a city within the Alps, had been a fantastic, if quiet, vacationer vacation spot earlier than the looks of 25 magical dungeons made it a world-renowned attraction. “We love when video games offer you attention-grabbing locations to discover, locations that really feel actual and that you may make your private home for some time,” Microbird Video games explains. “From the beginning, we wished to make one thing that has loads of classical ARPG components however is ready in a spot that’s grounded in actuality. We felt that the central European Alps are additionally an attention-grabbing trip vacation spot that not everyone may have the ability to go to, so we actually appreciated the concept of our recreation providing a vacation expertise there.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg splits its days into 4 elements: morning, midday, night, and night time. Inside these parts, you do the whole lot from exploring dungeons and battling monsters to fixing puzzles and constructing relationships. It’s an attention-grabbing combine, to not point out the distinction between the stress-free trip theme and the action-packed schedule accessible, however as we present in our personal expertise with the sport, these disparate elements meld collectively very properly. “Dungeons of Hinterberg is certainly a comparatively massive recreation for a workforce of 9 folks. It was at all times notably vital to us that each one elements of the sport ought to match collectively in a significant approach, and that the general expertise will not be solely significant, however above all else, enjoyable!” Microbird Video games says.
“For instance, we paid loads of consideration to making sure that each one magical talents can be utilized for each fight and puzzles. The rewards you get when forging friendships with different characters all affect the dungeon crawling facet in a significant approach — for instance, you may get new abilities, distinctive gadgets, or unlock small gameplay methods. If a dungeon ever feels too difficult, you may contemplate spending some extra time socializing, and unlocking some useful talents that approach. It was positively a problem to attach all these facets and to tweak and iterate till it was all working collectively, however I believe it positively provides a ton of depth and in addition enjoyable to the completed recreation!”
You may have 4 biomes to select from when deciding the place to spend your afternoons. „Every of them comes with its personal distinct visuals and vibe, however additionally they every supply totally different units of spells that the participant can solely use in that specific atmosphere,” Microbird Video games explains. “It was vital to us that the spells work nice for each fight and for puzzles and that they really feel totally different from biome to biome. For example, the alpine mountain pasture atmosphere comes with dungeons which are mine-themed, and the spells that go together with which are a really heavy exploding wrecking ball and a steel ball and chain. Whereas within the forest, your spells are wind-themed, comparable to a controllable whirlwind with which you’ll decide up objects or your self.”
Microbird Video games continues, including, “However we additionally actually wish to shake up the sport’s mechanics in some dungeons fairly a bit — for instance, one among our later dungeons is loosely impressed by ‘Monument Valley’ and can have you determine learn how to reconfigure rooms with variable gravity in an nearly Escher-style isometric perspective.”
Within the recreation, Hinterberg sees an inflow of vacationers and adventurers after the looks of dungeons and magic, together with “skilled slayers, influencers, and informal vacationers which are on the lookout for a family-friendly alternative to slay some monsters. There’s additionally the locals, a few of that are excited for his or her city to be the middle of everybody’s consideration, whereas others have a extra crucial view of mass tourism.” Of all these, there are over 15 NPCs who we will work on constructing relationships with — as Microbird Video games says, “far more than will match right into a typical playthrough, so that you’ll need to resolve who you wish to hang around with, both based mostly on how you want them or on what perks you’ll get for deepening your friendships with them. Relationship rewards can vary from stat upgrades like extra HP or dodge stamina all the way in which to unlocking total gameplay methods, comparable to armor upgrades, the photograph mode, or a combo counter.”
If you happen to’re questioning how Dungeons of Hinterberg’s time parts work, Microbird Video games has defined it in full: “Each morning you begin with a breakfast in your terrace, and decide which biome you wish to go to right this moment. Each biome has about 5-7 dungeons. Not all are accessible from the beginning, and the sport is moderately non-linear on this facet: gamers can have freedom to select which dungeon to enter subsequent, and can discover themselves returning to beforehand visited biomes as they see match.” Within the afternoons, you head to one among these overworld biomes, the place you may discover, chat to NPCs, and chill out at one of many recreation’s pretty scenic spots (which additionally assist enhance a few of your stats). Then, in fact, there are the dungeons themselves, packed filled with monsters, puzzles, and loot.
Within the night, you head again to Hinterberg, to buy, make improve to your gear, or promote what you’ve got discovered, earlier than selecting your fundamental exercise for the night. „If you happen to really feel like stress-free by yourself, there are additionally many choices, together with a ship journey, spa, or cinema go to, that can enhance your stats. Again in your resort room for the night time, you should have a while to consider the day’s experiences, and perhaps watch some TV or take pleasure in ebook earlier than going to mattress — simply ensure you have sufficient power to deal with the subsequent day!”
The beautiful village of Hinterberg itself was impressed by Austrian cities that the workforce visited between 2020 and 2021 when brainstorming the sport. „Locations like Hallstatt, which is so picturesque that the Chinese language have really created a life-sized copy of the city in Guangdong; or Unhealthy Gastein, which is layered right into a mountain very like Hinterberg, and whose grand accommodations ooze with previous monarchy allure.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s eye-catching visible fashion, in the meantime, simply stands out in all of the trailers and pictures proven earlier than launch. „Founders Philipp and Regina are each massive followers of stylized artwork in media, be it cell shading in different video games like Zelda, or animated motion pictures like Into the Spiderverse,“ Microbird Video games says. „We additionally learn a bunch of graphic novels and studied the visible types of varied illustrators. For a small studio, it clearly additionally is sensible for manufacturing: working with stylized property can help you use extra environment friendly processes and pipelines.
„For Dungeons of Hinterberg, our fundamental aim was to create expressive worlds: realism or degree of element had been much less vital to us than evoking a sure temper, impression or feeling within the gamers. A restricted however robust coloration palette is a really useful design device as effectively and in addition permits us to create very visually distinct biomes and dungeon settings.” This positively comes throughout within the recreation, which has stunning and placing locations to discover, in addition to an attention-grabbing distinction between a powerful feeling of leisure and the chaotic dungeon exploration.
We liked what we have performed up to now, and you’ll take a look at extra data about that in our Dungeons of Hinterberg first impressions. If you happen to’re occupied with listening to extra from the event facet, take a look at what Microbird Video games needed to say about how Xbox achievements „should never be grindy“.