Gameguru Mania

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Publishers Microids and Bilibili, and developer BadMudStudio have released the first story trailer for the recently announced consoles release of roguelike action game Warm Snow. The companies also shared an exclusive interview with producer Li Zi on the development and backstory of Warm Snow. Warm Snow is available no

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Exclusive Interview with Producer Li Zi

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about Warm Snow, the game you’re working on at BadMudStudio?

Li Zi, Producer: “Hello, my name is Li Zi, and I am the producer of Warm Snow from BadMudStudio. Before making Warm Snow, I had ten years of mobile game development experience, but they were all less successful games. In April 2019, my friends and I formed BadMudStudio and we decided to develop the game Warm Snow together. Warm Snow is an action rogue-lite game with a background set in Chinese dark fantasy. The game combines Chinese Wuxia elements and Cthulhu themes to create a new overhead fantasy world. In the game, players need to play the warrior Bi An to kill the evil five clans to save the world on the verge of collapse, but as players explore deeper, will gradually discover the great truth hidden in the world.”

How did you manage the coordination between the development team, the musical composer and the other members of the artistic team to ensure thematic coherence in the game?

Zi: “Our gameplay design and art are actually parallel, the art will be synchronized at the early stage of gameplay design, and the design will be finalized only after this mutual improvement. As for the music, that is the last step in the development, I believe that our music composers could produce music that is more appropriate to the style of the game through the game graphics.”

Did you have to carry out extensive research into Chinese folklore and medieval Chinese history to guide the game’s development ? How were these elements reflected in the overall production?

Zi: “We did look for inspiration from some ancient Chinese mythology or history, but since Warm Snow is an overhead world. So we didn’t use them directly, but we redesigned them in combination with the worldview of Warm Snow.”

How did you balance traditional Chinese elements with player expectations to create an entertaining and engaging experience, while respecting the cultural authenticity of Chinese folklore?

Zi: “First of all, we try to be faithful to traditional Chinese culture. Then we look for inspiration from the Chinese mythology stories, and after we find the inspiration we abstract the core concept and then combine it with our overhead worldview to re-figure it into the game.”

In a highly competitive genre like roguelike, how did you stand out, and what was your biggest challenge with Warm Snow?

Zi: “I think our game is relatively complex in terms of system design, while adding a relatively deep story background, which makes Warm Snow have more possibilities in the combination of BD, while the deep story is also more intriguing. I think with a small team like us, honestly all the problems are kind of a big challenge. Most of the time we need to keep making the best choices with limited resources. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is how to play the only cards in our hands when dealing with such problems.”

How do you choose the stories to tell in the downloadable content? Are they extensions of the main story or standalone stories?

Zi: “The stories of the downloadable content are still continuation of the main story, and we think that by narrating the whole story in a step-by-step way, it will make the story more impressive.”