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I never know what to expect from indie studio 17-Bit, which debuted more than a decade ago with strategy game Skulls of the Shogun and followed it up with the great roguelike Galak-Z, before taking a detour into VR with Song in the Smoke. Well, I do expect one thing: whatever wildly different ideas they tackle from one game to the next, they’ll be fueled by whatever founder Jake Kazdal is recently obsessed with.
“I’m addicted to physics-based games: I think they’re so much more rewarding, deeper, so much more interesting inherently, but I haven’t found any that are done really well,” he tells me. At least, not done well in the exact form he envisions: something that blends the slapstick physics silliness of a game like Human Fall Flat with a more classical, Zelda-esque style of adventure.
That’s what his studio has been cooking up for the last three years, along with a sort of claymation art style that the trailer above barely does justice. It looks like someone took the pre-rendered, plasticy CG art of a PlayStation 1-era game, molded it from clay, and then scanned it back into a computer to make wonderfully textured 3D models.
“When I first watched Gang Beasts, there was a crowd around it at PAX, and people were freaking out,” he says. “When you’re trying to throw a guy off a ledge the tension is so high. That game simultaneously super inspired me—like, I think this is the future of videogames—and I was also super frustrated with how goopy it was, and how lacking in an impactful punch.
“So what if I had a sword and like, pulled it back with rubber bands and really fucking let you have it. How would that feel? How would that tie into the physicality of all this stuff? That’s the puzzle we’ve been trying to solve with this whole project.”
Nearly a decade ago 17-Bit was already dipping its toe into this sort of combat; the ship you control in roguelike Galak-Z had a sense of careening rocket-propelled physics to it that was harder to master than moving a typical platformer character. But Awaysis is wholly built around that concept, with directional swings and weight to everything in the game world. You can pick up an apple and chuck it at an enemy instead of eating it, beaning them in the head for a kill… though if it doesn’t do enough damage, they may pick it up and use it to heal themselves.
There’s also a magic system with potential for chaos that reminded me a bit of Arrowhead’s pre-Helldivers game Magicka, which was frequently hilarious.
“These again are very physically based: fireballs knock shit all over the place, a wave of water magic will stun guys and carry them away,” Kazdal says. “We have directional attacks, so it’s almost like a pinball approach to physics-based stuff. I’ve got quick attacks that don’t do much or ones I can charge up to really whack you. When I’m looking for physicality in combat games… if you have one sword strike, it’s just timing at that point. There’s not a lot of strategic ability to it. This way I’ve got multiple sword strikes from both angles, I’ve got an uppercut, an overhead slam and dive.
“There’s a lot of blocking, a lot of parrying and deflecting, so when you do get a hit in, you’ve earned it and it feels great. This is the stuff that really excites me in combat: there’s a very high skill ceiling.”
Unlike Galak-Z, Awaysis isn’t a roguelike, but its missions are meant to be plenty sandboxy and replayable. “It’s a combat game: it’s dressed up like a Zelda game or something where you’re going on an adventure, there’s lots of dungeons to explore, but it’s more of an arcade game,” says Kazdal.
“So it has to be pretty straightforward; that being said, the idea that it’s like an arcade game means it’s very replayable. Hopefully you’re going to go back in, and each time you finish a mission you’re getting a new piece of gear. You’re getting loot, magical capes and helmets and body armor, and the power up modules on those weapons are procedurally generated, so everytime it’ll be a little different than the last one.”
I’ll have more on Awaysis soon. For now, you can check out the game’s Steam page.
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