A chat with Bigchi
We’re getting a surge of survival games arriving on Steam in recent years; some give their own spin, surviving a somewhat lenient world. Others give you a colossal sandbox to explore at your own pace. Deiland is a game that takes a sandbox world and completely flips the meaning of survival, presenting a bona fide experience of living on a planet. I got the chance to speak with Chibig, the brains behind Deiland.
1. Deiland is all about living on a sphere; does this shorten the space of the world?
The Deiland idea came from The Little Prince, a child living in a small planet. One of the challenges in the design was to adjust the size of such a small planet. We had to balance the size to have a planet that feel small, but also it had to be big enough to give the sandbox feel. In Deiland there are a lot of space to create and personalize the planet, with four fixed references: the house, the lake, the mine and the Crystal altar.
Also, to make the game feel bigger, we add some external localizations that you can explore with Mùn.
2. You’ve mentioned traders visiting the player’s world and players being able to sell items. How does the economy work? Do traders charge different prices?
The game economy looks very simple in the surface, but it has deep importance in the game progress. The price of some resources help us to give the player the sensation of progress. Every character have a preference, depending on their role in the game: Brram, the chef, wants raw materials like fish, Locke, the magician, needs ingredients for her potions. To optimize their earnings, the players need to learn which objects are most valuable for which character.
3. What would you say was the most taxing part of making Deiland?
Deiland was a challenge for us, since it is our first console and PC release. We had to learn a lot of new tools and mechanics for the game. But the crucial was graphical requirements, because we are a very small team. We are really happy with the game, using a cartoon style that we make our own brand.
4. How does Deiland on PC differ from its mobile counterparts?
The mobile game was developed in 2016 with a free to play design in mind. In 2017, after we reached a million players, we decided to port it to Playstation and PC. We made a new game from the same idea. We give a story and a lot of characters for this bigger version. And we adapted the same mechanics in a larger experience. Finally, we made a 12-14 hours long game. We think of the mobile game as the prototype for the PS and PC version.
5. What’re your plans for post-launch content?
We’re still working on the game, thanks to our players feedback. Also, we’ll upload free new content this next christmas, in which we’ll include some objects and new locations outside of the planet Deiland. In Chibig, we make games about the same universe, the same IP named Deiland. We’ll be announcing very soon a new installment on the series.
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