Hinterberg, a city within the Alps, had been a gorgeous, if quiet, vacationer vacation spot earlier than the looks of 25 magical dungeons made it a world-renowned attraction. “We love when video games offer you attention-grabbing locations to discover, locations that really feel actual and you could make your house for some time,” Microbird Video games explains. “From the beginning, we wished to make one thing that has plenty of classical ARPG components however is ready in a spot that’s grounded in actuality. We felt that the central European Alps are additionally an attention-grabbing trip vacation spot that not all people would possibly have the ability to go to, so we actually favored the thought of our sport providing a vacation expertise there.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg splits its days into 4 elements: morning, midday, night, and evening. Inside these parts, you do the whole lot from exploring dungeons and battling monsters to fixing puzzles and constructing relationships. It’s an attention-grabbing combine, to not point out the distinction between the stress-free trip theme and the action-packed schedule out there, however as we present in our personal expertise with the sport, these disparate elements meld collectively very properly. “Dungeons of Hinterberg is certainly a comparatively giant sport for a staff of 9 folks. It was all the time significantly vital to us that every one elements of the sport ought to match collectively in a significant method, and that the general expertise isn’t solely significant, however above all else, enjoyable!” Microbird Video games says.
“For instance, we paid plenty of consideration to making sure that every one magical skills can be utilized for each fight and puzzles. The rewards you get when forging friendships with different characters all affect the dungeon crawling side in a significant method — for instance, you would possibly get new expertise, distinctive objects, or unlock small gameplay methods. If a dungeon ever feels too difficult, you would possibly contemplate spending some extra time socializing, and unlocking some useful skills that method. It was undoubtedly a problem to attach all these points and to tweak and iterate till it was all working collectively, however I feel it undoubtedly provides a ton of depth and likewise enjoyable to the completed sport!”
You will have 4 biomes to select from when deciding the place to spend your afternoons. “Every of them comes with its personal distinct visuals and vibe, however in addition they every supply totally different units of spells that the participant can solely use in that specific surroundings,” Microbird Video games explains. “It was vital to us that the spells work nice for each fight and for puzzles and that they really feel totally different from biome to biome. As an example, the alpine mountain pasture surroundings comes with dungeons which might be mine-themed, and the spells that associate with which might be a really heavy exploding wrecking ball and a steel ball and chain. Whereas within the forest, your spells are wind-themed, reminiscent of a controllable whirlwind with which you’ll decide up objects or your self.”
Microbird Video games continues, including, “However we additionally actually prefer to shake up the sport’s mechanics in some dungeons fairly a bit — for instance, considered one of our later dungeons is loosely impressed by ‘Monument Valley’ and may have you determine reconfigure rooms with variable gravity in an nearly Escher-style isometric perspective.”
Within the sport, Hinterberg sees an inflow of vacationers and adventurers after the looks of dungeons and magic, together with “skilled slayers, influencers, and informal vacationers which might be in search of a family-friendly alternative to slay some monsters. There’s additionally the locals, a few of that are excited for his or her city to be the middle of everybody’s consideration, whereas others have a extra vital view of mass tourism.” Of all these, there are over 15 NPCs who we will work on constructing relationships with — as Microbird Video games says, “far more than will match right into a typical playthrough, so that you’ll must determine who you wish to hang around with, both primarily based on how you want them or on what perks you’ll get for deepening your friendships with them. Relationship rewards can vary from stat upgrades like extra HP or dodge stamina all the way in which to unlocking complete gameplay methods, reminiscent of armor upgrades, the photograph mode, or a combo counter.”
Should you’re questioning how Dungeons of Hinterberg’s time parts work, Microbird Video games has defined it in full: “Each morning you begin with a breakfast in your terrace, and decide which biome you wish to go to immediately. Each biome has about 5-7 dungeons. Not all are accessible from the beginning, and the sport is slightly non-linear on this side: gamers may have freedom to select which dungeon to enter subsequent, and can discover themselves returning to beforehand visited biomes as they see match.” Within the afternoons, you head to considered one of these overworld biomes, the place you may discover, chat to NPCs, and loosen up at one of many sport’s beautiful scenic spots (which additionally assist enhance a few of your stats). Then, after all, there are the dungeons themselves, packed stuffed with monsters, puzzles, and loot.
Within the night, you head again to Hinterberg, to buy, make improve to your gear, or promote what you have discovered, earlier than choosing your essential exercise for the night. “Should you really feel like stress-free by yourself, there are additionally many choices, together with a ship journey, spa, or cinema go to, that can enhance your stats. Again in your resort room for the evening, you should have a while to consider the day’s experiences, and perhaps watch some TV or get pleasure from an excellent e book earlier than going to mattress — simply be sure you have sufficient power to sort out the subsequent day!”
The attractive village of Hinterberg itself was impressed by Austrian cities that the staff visited between 2020 and 2021 when brainstorming the sport. “Locations like Hallstatt, which is so picturesque that the Chinese language have truly created a life-sized copy of the city in Guangdong; or Dangerous Gastein, which is layered right into a mountain very similar to Hinterberg, and whose grand resorts ooze with outdated monarchy appeal.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s eye-catching visible model, in the meantime, simply stands out in all of the trailers and pictures proven earlier than launch. “Founders Philipp and Regina are each huge followers of stylized artwork in media, be it cell shading in different video games like Zelda, or animated films like Into the Spiderverse,” Microbird Video games says. “We additionally learn a bunch of graphic novels and studied the visible types of varied illustrators. For a small studio, it clearly additionally is smart for manufacturing: working with stylized property can can help you use extra environment friendly processes and pipelines.
“For Dungeons of Hinterberg, our essential aim was to create expressive worlds: realism or degree of element have been much less vital to us than evoking a sure temper, impression or feeling within the gamers. A restricted however robust coloration palette is a really useful design software as effectively and likewise permits us to create very visually distinct biomes and dungeon settings.” This undoubtedly comes throughout within the sport, which has stunning and placing locations to discover, in addition to an attention-grabbing distinction between a robust feeling of rest and the chaotic dungeon exploration.
We beloved what we have performed to this point, and you’ll try extra data about that in our Dungeons of Hinterberg first impressions. Should you’re all in favour of listening to extra from the event aspect, try what Microbird Video games needed to say about how Xbox achievements “ought to by no means be grindy”.