What did you learn working on your first published game—Helltown—and the work you did as a team of just two at the time?Gabriel B. Dufour, Art Director and founder:
Our biggest takeaway from Helltown is to never neglect planning and project management! Back then, we were both students and fairly inexperienced in game development. We had a couple of art assets done before we even knew what the core gameplay loop would be and we even added new levels and features well into development. It was pretty chaotic! For Born of Bread, we tried our best to plan the whole game well in advance and avoid feature creep. It allowed us to get a solid grasp of the game’s scope and keep coherency between all the game’s aspects from the very beginning of development.
How did you come up with the idea for Born of Bread?
Dufour: After Helltown, we knew we wanted to make a quirky RPG. We started replaying a couple of classic games and ended up getting really inspired by Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. We brainstormed a few ideas on how we could evolve the “paper-RPG formula” and put our own twist on some of those mechanics. I started doodling silly characters and one of them eventually became Loaf, then everything grew around that!
WildArts Studio was formed around the premise that video game interactivity can allow players to organically create their own stories through gameplay. How did you apply that to your development of Born of Bread?
Nicolas Lamarche, Lead Designer and founder: To achieve this, we focused on several key aspects during the development process: first and foremost, we designed a somewhat open-ended gameplay structure that allowed players to explore a world filled with details and fun characters. Secondly, we emphasized player immersion by delivering a visually stunning and atmospheric experience. The art direction, sound design, and narrative elements were carefully woven together to create levels players would want to explore and spend time in. Lastly, we tied the overworld exploration to our combat system as a way to foster a dynamic and interconnected gameplay experience. Players can find a variety of weapons, boons, items, and other secrets that allow for interesting and diverse ways to “shape” their Loaf (pun not intended) to their preferred way of approaching combat.
Source: Unreal Engine Blog