Co-Optimus: Could you expand some on what those abilities and items are? You mentioned before how a player may want certain things for their “build;” is their customization to a degree that a player may be the equivalent of a “tank” and another a “DPS” type? What will the money be used to buy? How much carries over into the next playthrough?
Charles: Oh sure! So we've done some blog posts about this, but abilities come from ability orbs. Players 'customize' their characters by collecting equipment and orbs. Orbs give special abilities such as faster movement, life draining, or making defeated enemies sometimes explode, stuff like that. Equipment alters your weapons, your dashing, character behavior... etc. So it's not so much a 'tank' or 'DPS.' Every one is DPS in Ruin of the Reckless, but more to do with ability/item combos. For instance, certain weapons might work really well with jump boots, even better if you have an agility orb to up your movement speed. There are abilities that make your spells better, items that help you generate mana, and spellbooks that are sought after. Combine all those and you have a build. It is of course possible to go 'tanky' or 'spellcasty' or 'melee combatty', or 'monster summony' and it's all about combining those abilities with items to see how far you can get.
Co-Optimus: I saw in another interview that you expected the average run in Ruin of the Reckless to last around 30 minutes and will encompass between 15 and 20 procedurally generated floors. What do you earn when you complete it? What more is there to do to go back through a second, third, or 25th time?
Charles: Thanks for asking, and that's something we've definitely thought about. So firstly, I just want to highlight the card system. Cards are persistent 'rewards' that get unlocked as you progress through the game and get certain achievements. You might get a card for destroying the first boss, you might get one for dying three times in a row, and things like that. As you earn cards, you can then go to the library and equip them. Some of them just make the game easier or more forgiving, others will make the game much harder, but many of them will be mutators that alter some rule of the game to change how it plays (for instance, the friction of objects in the environment.) You can combine these cards in whatever way you like, so there's a lot of variety there.
Secondly, I should mention that the thirty minute run time is for a very seasoned expert player. For the average player, a successful run may take a bit longer than that; depending on their pace of play.
Co-Optimus: What’s next for Ruin of the Reckless? I know you’re debating on a few different options on how best to proceed, i.e., Early Access vs Kickstarter vs full release, have you made a decision?
Charles: Oh, this is an interesting one. We have actually been contacted by a few publishers who were interested in jumping on board, and we are considering doing some pretty 'new' stuff, with regards to funding thanks to the new laws allowing small studios like us to sell equity to fans. The one thing I can say almost for sure, is that there will be a Kickstarter campaign so I hope every one will keep following along and come check us out.
Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us, and if any one wants to know more they should head to www.ruinofthereckless.com, check us out on twitter @FauxOperative, or head over to our steam community page.
Thanks again to Charles for taking the time to speak with us about Ruin of the Reckless. You can check out the game's website and the Stream Greenlight page for more info about the title.