An Interview With Julian Gollop - Developer of Chaos Reborn

Chaos Reborn is an upcoming turn-based strategy game from veteran developer Julian Gollop. Julian designed the original game Chaos: The Battle of Wizards back in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum, as well the follow up Lords of Chaos in 1990. We spoke with Julian about the rebirth of the franchise, how it came about, and what the new game entails.

GG: Since Chaos: The Battle of Wizards and then Lords of Chaos, have you always wanted to rejuvenate the chaos series? Has it been a long term goal?

JG: When I was first working at Ubisoft I began working on a new version of Chaos, but I abandoned it then because I started work. Having left Ubisoft I’ve now come back to the idea. I took some paternity leave in 2009 and this was when I decided that I wanted to go back to indie gaming. Even though back in the 1980s, it wasn’t called indie gaming, of course, because almost everything was. So I was able to go back to that method of development with relatively small teams and working without the interference of a publisher. It’s kind of what I’m happiest with.

GG: Have you had other people help you with on Chaos Reborn or has it been a solo project?

JG: I’ve got other people helping me on this; four artists and some programming help from various people and an animator as well.

GG: What led to you choosing Unity as your engine of choice?

JG: Well largely because Unity is brilliant for cross-platform development, for example our stretch goals (on Kickstarter) we’ve got Android and iOS as part of our ambition, and we’re starting with PC, Mac and Linux, so all of this is possible to do with Unity. It’s just a very easy to use tool; relatively non-technical people can use it pretty easily and is just all round very, very good.

GG: Are you planning on keeping the game on a web-based client?

JG: The web-based client is only really for testing, it will be a downloadable client because it’s going to be quite sizable so won’t really be appropriate for web-based play. It’s possible that we might keep a light version of the game on a web client that’s just focused on a little bit of multiplayer, just to tempt people to go for the full product. Otherwise it will be a full download.

GG: What was the thinking behind launching the game through Kickstarter?

JG: Well Kickstarter is probably one of the best things to do, or at least attempt to do, because it means you can reach your audience very quickly and get the backing of your enthusiastic followers. It’s really refreshing to the see the support that Chaos has got from the backers, quite a few of whom were players of the original Chaos game. It is really nice to see people are still around to remember it fondly.

GG: At the time you must’ve not heard much feedback for the original game?

No we never got that direct feedback at all. When I made the first game for Games Workshop I just handed over the final version of it and it felt like it was disappearing into a black hole. I thought the game was a failure, basically. I took it to be published a bit later by Mirrorsoft for very cheap, under their Firebird label which was for games that were sold for under £1.99. I then gave the game as a Your Sinclair (magazine) cover tape (free with the mag) and that’s where the game achieved its most widely known distribution. Yet it wasn’t until the summer after that I realised that the game was actually quite popular and people started talking about it, and wanted to do remakes of it. So at the time, for a long time, I never thought it would be that popular.

But now I’m returning back to what made the original so good, which I had neglected that it really was that good. It’s only thanks to the players who still remember it, still play it and are making clones of it, that I felt encouraged to attempt a proper remake.

Although it’s not just a remake of course, we’re adding quite a lot to the core mechanics. In our current demo, for instance, we’ve got multi-level terrain which wasn’t available in the original.

GG: What other new mechanics can we expect to find in Chaos Reborn?

JG: There’s an awful lot that’s going to be added. We’ve got a whole single player experience which is going to be almost like an RPG system in that you’ve got a character that you need to level up by gaining experience points. You’ll be entering procedurally generated realms which appear on a regular basis, so each day there’ll be more new realms to explore. You’re wandering around the lands fighting Wizard Lords in an effort to finally fight the Wizard King and at the same time you’re accumulating experience points, and you’re winning artefacts, equipment and gold from battles.

There’s an equipment system in the new game, which will be very interesting. You can equip three pieces of equipment, staffs and hats and body gear and these will alter your basic stats, or the way certain spells are cast or some have a special power. The other thing that we’re significantly adding is the social ranking system; which takes you from Wizard Lord to Wizard King, Demi-God to God, which you can read all about on our Kickstarter page. They work as a relatively complicated social meta-game on top of the basic game. For example, Wizard Kings can create their own realms, Gods have to attract followers and guilds. They’re basically different ways to be involved in the game.

On top of that there will be a number of different online multiplayer options again, so there will be rounds of competitive matches, different game modes as well online multiplayer rankings (separate from the meta-game rankings). Plus, you can win artefacts and equipment through the multiplayer matches as well.

 

We’d like to thank Julian for talking to us about his game. If you want the full details on Chaos Reborn, then our simultaneously released preview of the game can be viewed here.