Rain Tactics - Interview @ RPG Jeuxvideo

Remove all ads!

RPG Jeuxvideo interviewed Lotfi Yelles, developer of Rain Tactics:

​

INTERVIEW - Rain Tactics: Introducing Lotfi Yelles and the title

Q: Could you introduce yourself? (name, age, education, etc.)/ What is your role in Ervya Stydios and on Rain Tactics?
- I am Lotfi Yelles, founder of the Ervya Studios and developer on Rain Tactics. I'm an aeronautics engineers, mainly work in company management and spend part of my time developing videogames!

Q: How did you get the idea for the game? What were your influences during development?
- The concept for Rain Tactics came from a long iteration process that brought three elements to the table: 1. what game would I like to play, 2. what kind of game am I capable to make and 3. how could I make a game that would have a unique concept.
The fact is that making a tactical RPG was kinda obvious given my love for that genre (and my familiarity with the game mechanics). The idea of doing a roguelite probably comes from the fact that I was playing Hades at the time, and that the « short sessions » system was fairly satisfying.

And so with all these elements combined, I ended up with the concept of an invincible god wanting to die no matter what. So that concept takes the shape of a tactical RPG with roguelike elements.

As for the main influences for the game, the combat mechanics are heavily inspired by the first Fire Emblem. The setting itself is cyberpunk-inspired, rather close to what you could find in ShadowRun.

Q: How did the development go and how much time did it take? How many people worked on the game?
- The development of Rain Tactics started in Q1 2023. I'm the main developer of the game, handling conception, prototyping, level design, etc. I work with freelancers for aspects I cannot handle myself, such as character portraits or the soundtrack.

Q: How many hours will Rain Tactics last? What about its replayability?
- Since Rain Tactics is a roguelite, a « game » should last around 1h30 to 2 hours. However, the story with the characters will only be developed through multiple games. So the replayability is planned to be pretty high since in every game, the player will be able to:
- choose a different Avowed team
- choose a different path through the city of Shavanath
- face different level configurations and get different bonuses

Q: If you had to do something differently during development, what would it be? Do you have anything limiting you?
- Rain Tactics is my first videogame. I made the choice of doing a lot of things myself for budget reasons and to learn as much as I can. This can slow things down but helps me have a very good understanding of how it is to make a videogame from scratch, which is invaluable for the future. And it's also very gratifying on a personal level.

[...]