Early Access launches through platforms like Steam have become more common. Some have complained about needing to purchase a game while it’s undergoing development, even if the price tag is cheaper. However, the chance to get ongoing fan feedback has been invaluable for numerous studios, such asSupergiant Games withHades. Lavapotion launchedSongs of Conquestin Early Access on May 10 with the goal of tailoring its experience to players' interests.
Songs of Conquestbegan its journey in 2017 with CEO Magnus Alm, technical artist Patrik Liljecrantz, lead game designer Carl Toftfelt, and lead programmer Niklas Borglund aiming to create their own take on the self-titled adventure-strategy genre. The team has since grown to eight employees, along with a number of freelancers helping to recapture and improve upon the magic of classic turn-based strategy games likeHeroes of Might and Magic,Age of Wonders,King’s Bounty, andDisciples. While Lavapotion knew what kind of audience it was appealing to, Game Rant spoke to Toftfelt about how it is using Early Access to gauge what kind of improvements will be focused on.
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Songs of Conquest’s Early Access Launch Was Intentionally Limited
The core “constellation” of founding members has experience in the gaming and wider entertainment industries, with Toftfelt working as anactor and singerfor 11 years. Toftfelt and Alm were childhood friends, and Alm described the lead game designer as “one of the most dedicated gamers and clever designer minds I’ve ever encountered” in a statement to Game Rant. Though Toftfelt had only been an acquaintance of Liljecrantz’s beforeSongs of Conquest, and he’d never met Borglund, “We hit it off really fast.”
Lavapotion andCoffee Stain Publishingcame together early on, with the Swedish publisher facilitating development even after Toftfelt and the team decided to change course nearly two years in. Not only wasSongs of Conquest’s 2.5D pixel art so complex it led to concerns that designing one faction would take years, Lavapotion also wanted to concentrate on defining its magic system.
Toftfelt also found it important to work on story campaigns that explain why different factions are at war even in more casual, custom single-player skirmish matches. Lavapotion originally hadexpansive 50-hour campaignsplanned for each faction, but realized if it wanted fans to embark on learning each song (rewarded verse-by-verse for every mission) they would have to be short and intense. Not knowing how interested players would be, Lavapotion only developed campaigns for two of the four factions.
“One of the main reasons we decided to go into Early Access at the end of last year is because we were trying to figure out what modes people would like to play. Two things we really underestimated are how much campaign and multiplayer they want to play. Most people on the team thought they’d want to play skirmish.”
Based on feedback overSongs of Conquest’s first month, Toftfelt said Lavapotion is “convinced to make more” campaigns - though he added “I don’t want to make promises.” The studio also has a prototype in the works to makemultiplayer easier and open more robust support, which could be implemented by this summer if all goes well.
Fan-Driven Content in Songs of Conquest
One major facet ofSongs of Conquest’s Early Accessis a custom map editor, with fan creations able to be downloaded and used in skirmish. Toftfelt said this feature was important to Lavapotion, “That way we can get more of the stuff you want, because we could never produce enough.” The designer has played a bunch of player content, and says the results are particularly impressive given how “wildly unruly and hard-to-use” the map-making system is. Making this feature more understandable for audiences has always been pushed back in favor of other developments, though Toftfelt finds it cool that players have all the same tools as Lavapotion. “I think it has caught me by surprise how good players are at using our resources to make pretty things.”
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Though the Swedish studio hopes to gauge player interest generally, it also has a feature suggestion forum available onSongs of Conquest’s website. Here, users can offer up ideas for their fellow fans to upvote, and popular suggestions are given “a lot” of attention when deciding what to implement - weighed against relative time commitment. Toftfelt said some popular ideas may seem easy to fans, but require a disproportionate amount of work. Others may have fewer votes, but are easy to implement in a day or two; for example theoption to redo an Auto Battleor surrender partway through a multiplayer match have already been added.
Designing a Roadmap for The Future
Lavapotion has numerous features in mind, including arandom map generatorcurrently in prototyping phases (an idea with 1,400 upvotes inSongs of Conquest’s user suggestions forum), and better campaign scaling with difficulty levels. Toftfelt said Lavapotion did not have a full roadmap when this interview was conducted in early June, but hopes to have the right goals it can be confident in by the end of this month or the next.
“There are so many ideas, our backlog is like 10-years long. We’re trying to zoom in on what players want, and keeping the EA within a reasonable amount of time.”
Additional factions are the biggest fan request, and something the developers hope to get to. Toftfelt said Lavapotion’s first priority is to finish missing mechanics in the four current factions: Arleon, Barya, Rana, and the Barony of Loth. From there, the team has half-a-dozen others in mind, but will likely only pick two or so - balancing the time it takes to design the groups and their animations in a pixel art style reminiscent ofSquare Enix’s HD-2D games. Each faction is associated with a unique environmental biome, and that will likely carry over to additions that “could add a lot of flair to the map.” In terms of what to expect, Toftfelt teased how fans who read lore snippets may have an idea for what factions are being considered.
Songs of Conquesthas only been available for a few weeks, but Toftfelt said it has felt like months - and the team is looking forward to getting back to normal working hours. However, he believes nobody at Lavapotion anticipated just how well theEarly Access launchwould go after five years in an echo chamber. “We’re super overwhelmed in a very, very good way,” he said. “We’re super thrilled so many people are interested in a game releasing in Early Access like this, and there are very active players.”
