As a game led by one person and took seven years to develop, the official release of Collage Adventure is off to a good start.
Collage Adventure is a game that combines roguelikes, bullet shooters, pet collecting, and more, and just a few days ago, it just finished a two-year Early Access phase and was officially released on Steam, and the game currently has a 98% positive rating.
When the early access version was launched two years ago, because "Collage Adventure" did not add Chinese, the corresponding map and system were not complete, which made many domestic players not notice this meat pigeon work with more special gameplay.
Now with the addition of the Chinese version and a series of new elements, in my opinion, this game already has a mature and self-appropriate system and gameplay mechanism, which is worth checking out for fans of roguelike, bullet shooter, and even "Pokémon" gameplay.
In terms of basic gameplay, the basic gameplay of the game is the traditional "dual stick shooting", players need to constantly explore randomly generated, huge maze maps, and strengthen their weapons and skills according to the transformation of the environment and monsters.
But compared to other games of the same genre, the most eye-catching design of Collage Adventure is its collection mechanism. The monsters, plants, and buildings in the map can basically be included in the player's booklet notes, and their role is not as simple as "supplementing the introduction", and the unlocking of any booklet element will bring new content to the gameplay.
Taking the most important capture system in the game as an example, most of the enemies encountered in the map can be captured and tamed as their mounts through a special lasso, and according to the characteristics, appearance, habitat and other elements of different monsters, each monster that becomes a mount will carry different active and passive skills.
As you level up and become more proficient, the monsters you catch will eventually master 4 active skills and 2 passive skills, because the game uses "barrage shooting" as the main gameplay, so they are basically related to the keywords "shield, displacement, ammo". For example, the "electric squirrel" that appeared in the hilly area above, after riding it, in addition to releasing electricity to shock the enemy, it can also be immune to specific abnormal states.
In addition, the "plants" of each area are also an important collection element.
In addition to the fact that it also gives players a certain buff after collecting, the collected plants can also be used as decorations to be placed in their "secret base".
Depending on the preferences of the captured monsters, you need to use the plants you collect to build different habitats for them, and a habitat with the right environment is not only more beautiful, but also improves the intimacy with the monsters, which in turn unlocks more skills and gameplay, so this is also an alternative "home gameplay".
At present, as the official version of "Collage Adventure", there are more than 200 collectible plants, nearly 50 rideable monsters, more than 10 types of ammo and a large number of maps of different styles, and these content and gameplay are all independently produced by one person, Liam, an independent game producer based in the United Kingdom.
Liam also made a video of his own experience and lessons learned from the independent development process. It took Liam 7 years from the idea of the game to the final production, and we also contacted Liam himself to chat with him about the creation of this game.
Yukensha: What do you think is the biggest difference between Collage Adventures and other meat pigeon games of the same type?
Liam: Collage Adventure is a game that explores the island and uses the island's hazards to strengthen itself. All the monsters in the game can be tamed, and the plants and insects that cause you trouble on the island can also be used and turned into their own advantage.
Yukensha: There are tons of monsters that can be caught in the game, where did these different creatures get inspired? How do you design functionally different skills for them?
Liam: I try to get as much inspiration as possible from real animals. Animals can have many different defense mechanisms, such as sting, venom, or rolling into balls. So by exaggerating these abilities, you can design some really interesting monsters, and I also gathered a lot of ideas from players in the community
When designing the monsters in the game, Liam took the easily forgotten characters of Pokémon as "lessons from the past"
Youkensha: In "Collage Adventure", the hybrid gameplay of Rogue + barrage shooting + pet cultivation is quite novel, can you talk about the creative source of the game?
Liam: In most roguelike games, you lose almost all your progress after each defeat, but I wanted to make a roguelike game that would make you feel like you're getting stronger all the time as you play. So there's a lot of different ability upgrades to collect in Collage Adventures – including all the monsters you encounter in battle.
Youkensha: Game development is a complex job, how did you manage to juggle programming, level design, art, music and other jobs in the past seven years?
Liam: It's difficult! I had to learn to develop quickly. At the beginning of each week, I think about which changes will have the biggest impact on the game, then plan accordingly and complete those changes by the weekend. This forced me to make plans more realistic and practical, and to stick to them. This has helped me become more efficient over time.
Youkensha: Which of these tasks do you think is the most energy-consuming?
Liam: Programming is definitely the most time-consuming part. I can usually draw something new in a few hours, but writing a program can take days. I would also revisit the old features to make them more interesting, but that added more programming time.
For example, I upgraded the base gun so that it can shoot ammo with a mix of different characteristics. This was the point where I had to reprogram the ammo system part to achieve this, and I did a lot of that throughout the game and spent a lot of time.
Switching and interacting with multiple ammo is an important part of the game
Yukensha: In the past seven years, has the basic gameplay and content of "Collage Adventure" changed on a relatively large scale, and if so, what is the reason?
Liam: Yes, the original game was completely different than it is now! It started out as a turn-based strategy game without even any monster collection elements. At the time, I was new to game development and it took a lot of time and practice to learn all the skills. Therefore, it is very difficult to do all these things at the same time, as well as make the game interesting and engaging.
Eventually, I decided to reboot the project and get new inspiration from my favorite games. The monster taming setting was added because I like to collect various ability bonuses in the game, and it seems to be a great way to bring more freshness to the player.
Youkensha: You mentioned that the community of players helped you a lot, so what suggestions did they make to the game in the end?
Liam: On top of that, the community provides a lot of balanced feedback. Collage Adventure is a difficult game, so it's important to make sure the challenges are balanced with difficulty. In addition, many monsters, plants, power-ups, and gadgets are designed based on community recommendations. I try to synthesize as many ideas as possible, because a lot of people have cool, unique suggestions.
Youkensha: Now that the game has finished the EA phase, what will be updated for the game in the future? Considering adding a mobile version to your game?
Liam: I plan to take inspiration from fan suggestions to add more rideable monsters to the game. There are a lot of real-life animals that can turn into cool monsters, but I haven't made them yet.
The mobile version can be a bit tricky, as the game uses a lot of buttons to control your various abilities. But I want to port the game to consoles and other suitable platforms.
Thank you all for your interest in the game! It's a huge undertaking for me, and it's an honor to see so many people enjoying it.
If you are interested in this pet catching + shooting meat pigeon game, you can also click the "Read Original" link at the end of the article to go to the "Collage Adventure" Steam Store page to support Liam's independent creation.