Hello — I’m Scott, Design Director at Heart Shaped Games. I was given the chance to talk a little bit about the unique design process behind his new sci-fi grand strategy RPG. we are caretakersThe game has been over four years in the making, but our design team managed to pull it off from the highly unlikely sources of endangered animal poaching and the real world. We want to highlight how we discovered some fun and novel strategy gameplay mechanics. animal welfare work.
inspiration and inspiration
I always wanted to make a grand strategy game with lots of characters to build and upgrade, like games like this one. Xcom, Darkest Dungeonor my personal favorite classic Ogre Battle March of the Black QueenI’ve been working on concepts and prototypes for the grand strategy genre for years, but finally decided after our team was told to create a game about tracking and managing wildlife poachers. found the right time to reconsider their design.
At first, this seemed like a strange topic to build a game on, but after spending time with real researchers and rangers working in the field to protect endangered animals Afterwards, we were inspired. Their incredible work led us down a path of discovery about the realities of human-animal conflict and animal conservation. Work in small teams with limited resources to track animals and poachers that move in unpredictable patterns across vast spaces. Its unique management challenges translated into interesting gameplay decisions that mapped perfectly to the squad building and massive roster management RPGs we loved. We immediately knew we had something innovative and special and got to work.
Bending genres to create new gameplay
Our solution to translating that research into a game was to blend different game genres, each emulating a key aspect of wildlife conservation. We designed the Caretaker Headquarters, where you organize hundreds of recruited characters into squads, deal with detained poachers, and upgrade technology before they hit the field. Created a real-time map exploration system with pauses deploying squads to search for poacher activity. It also created a turn-based combat system for resolving meetings between squads and poacher teams, offering diplomatic options in addition to his traditional JRPG-like abilities.
Giving players action to take on macro and micro levels over the course of 30+ mission campaigns, players will experience what it’s like to piece together an organization and be able to fight back.
world building
Designing the gameplay was a long discovery process, but we put an equal amount of effort into creating an exciting world and style to suit the gameplay. Art director Anthony “robotpencil” Jones was inspired by the work of Afrofuturists such as: black panther Environment and character design. Composer Jon Parra drew inspiration from rap beats to imbue his score with an impressive orchestra. Narrative His designer Xalavier Nelson, Jr. added tales of alien encounters and post-apocalyptic planetary redemption to enhance the real-world narrative.
lesson learned
Biggest lesson learned in making we are caretakers Looking outside traditional genres and gameplay tropes was the way to new and original ideas. We found the right solutions to ensure different perspectives that could create something exciting and fresh for our players. Working with the team at Heart Shaped Games we are caretakers This is one of my greatest professional joys, and I hope that the last game you play will bring it to life.
I hope you enjoy we are caretakers as much as we do. Reservations are accepted from today, and will be released on Friday, January 6! Your purchase also supports the people who inspired the game, and his 10% of net proceeds from the game go to the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Rhino Recovery Fund.
we are caretakers
Heart-shaped game LLC
$19.99
$17.99
We Are The Caretakers is an Afrofuturist squad management RPG. Assemble a team of arcane Guardians with a squad-building system inspired by Darkest Dungeons, Ogre Battles, and XCOM. Defend the endangered animals your world depends on in strategic turn-based combat. Balance reputation, funding, research, animals and alliances to define our approach to global resistance. We Are The Caretakers is a challenging strategy RPG fusion that challenges you to protect the planet by fighting for the people, animals and ecosystems that inhabit it.
