1. Ubisoft and Evil Empire Studios
At a party after a regular meeting one day, an employee from Ubisoft bumps into an employee from the Evil Empire studio, and in the middle of a casual conversation, someone suddenly comes up with an idea: "What if we took what we learned from Dead Cells and made a Roguelite game for Prince of Persia?"
The not-so-evil Evil Empire studio logo
It may sound a bit casual, but Ubisoft and the Evil Empire studio really hit it off, and Prince of Persia: Rogue was born.
Speaking of Evil Empire Studio, we have to mention the famous "Dead Cells", and Evil Empire Studio is a new studio formed by the members of Motion Twin who participated in the development of "Dead Cells", producing "Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania" and many other critically acclaimed "Dead Cells" DLC and updates. This was an opportunity for the studio to accumulate a lot of experience in the production of 2D platformer action roguelite games. This time, Prince of Persia: Rogue will give full play to the solid foundation of "Dead Cell" and combine the excellent DNA of the "Prince of Persia" series to bring players a new action-adventure experience.
The critically acclaimed DLC: Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania
Although Ubisoft is a large game publishing company, the spirit of indie games has been preserved since the beginning of Ubisoft, which has led to Ubisoft's long-term commitment to supporting the development of indie games. Ubisoft has been supporting many excellent indie game studios and indie game titles, hoping to encourage more creators to express their creativity through indie games.
Ubisoft has long supported the development of various indie games
二、Roguelike与Roguelite
Prince of Persia: Rogue is a "Roguelite" game, just like Dead Cells, but what is a "Roguelite"?
The word first evolved from the word "roguelike", which literally translates to "a rogue-like game". Rogue here refers to a popular dungeon video game in the 80s, titled Rogue: Exploring the Dungeons of Doom.
The source of everything, the Rogue main menu screen
The biggest feature of Rogue is its special "permadeath" mechanic and "procedurally generated" mechanic, although a careless death will cause the player to have to start over, but each game is made up of new mazes, so the experience of each game is significantly different, and the game's durability and replayability are very fascinating.
Constant death is part of all roguelike games
As a result of the success of Rogue, more and more titles emulated Rogue's mechanics, and naturally the term "Roguelike" became popular as a term for the genre. In fact, in the early days, there was a very strict definition of "roguelike", but nowadays players are accustomed to calling games that have the characteristics of Rogue games, such as permadeath and procedurally generated mechanics, as "roguelikes".
In fact, the term "Roguelite" fits the definition of this type of game better, and it refers to a game that is "lighter than Rogue". Due to the development trend of modern games, the integration of different game types and gameplay methods has become more and more common. Strip away the core elements of the original hardcore, hard-to-play "roguelike" games and combine them with a variety of different game genres, allowing creators to unleash their imaginations. Dead Cells is one of the many famous roguelite games that have been born based on the core ideas of roguelike games, combining exhilarating side-scrolling combat with randomly generated maps.
Prince of Persia: Rogue allows players to interact with the environment to their advantage
3. "Prince of Persia" and "Dead Cells"
A prince eager to prove himself worthy of the throne must now manage to face a devastating situation that could have been of his own making: a group of Huns skilled in shamanic witchcraft have invaded the capital of his kingdom. This time, neither the prince's skill as a warrior nor the magic orb that protects him from death is enough to save his subjects. Only by remaining suspicious of his actions, constantly tempering his will, and with the support of those closest to him, will it be possible for him to find a way to save the kingdom.
As the player becomes stronger, the story will continue to advance
Prince of Persia: Rogue captures the most mesmerizing parts of the Prince of Persia series and Dead Cells, taking on an already ingenious side-scrolling combat gameplay that progresses through a cycle of exploration, looting, fighting, dying, and re-exploring, just like what makes Dead Cells so compelling. Players will continue to improve their character's abilities through game games, and the story will also be synchronized, so that players can earn corresponding progress and rewards for each game, and these rewards may bring new attacks, moves, new items, and even new game mechanics to the game, which will completely change your playstyle.
The new equipment will provide new ways to fight
One of the greatest joys of roguelite games is that the randomly generated maps keep each game fresh, while the pressure of death makes players think and act hard, and if the player loses, although he loses his progress in the game, he will not become nothing like traditional roguelike games, and the frustration will be less, so the player will be more motivated to continue the challenge. Accumulate resources through continuous challenges, gain permanent character improvements, and rely on randomly dropped items to combine more powerful combinations to defeat enemies that were once undefeatable.
Gain permanent enhancement through out-of-office upgrades
During the development of Prince of Persia: Rogue, the Evil Empire studio wanted to preserve as much of the innovative spirit and outstanding gameplay features of the Prince of Persia franchise as possible. Fluid navigation, environmental interactions, and fast-paced combat, combined with an ever-evolving story, all happen to fit perfectly with Prince of Persia's style. Through cleverly written procedural generation algorithms, randomly generated maps can also have a full sense of exploration. The classic "parkour" element from the "Prince of Persia" series is a great weapon for players to explore and fight.
Use parkour skills to your advantage
In addition to the refreshing battles and random level challenges, "Prince of Persia: Rogue" inherits the excellent art skills of the "Prince of Persia" series and "Dead Cells", and also depicts a strong exotic Persian kingdom for players. A variety of different scenes with different styles bring the characters and scenes to life through detailed hand-drawn styles.
The stylized hand-painted style has a strong exotic style
4. Prince of Persia: Rogue is coming to Steam!
Add the new Prince of Persia Rogue to Steam Early Access on May 14th, from the same team behind Dead Cells! Evil Empire Studios and Ubisoft have teamed up to bring players a new Prince of Persia experience!