The world of strategy gaming has recently been captivated by Songs of Silence, a title that dares to blend familiar elements with a distinctly unique vision. With its striking art nouveau aesthetic and intricate card-based battle system, the game has sparked both admiration and debate. To delve deeper into the creative process and the future of this intriguing title, we sat down with Alexander Kehr, Creative Director of Songs of Silence, for an insightful interview.
As passionate strategy enthusiasts, we eagerly anticipated the release of Songs of Silence. Chimera Entertainment and H2 Interactive have masterfully blended elements from beloved titles like Battle for Wesnoth, Songs of Conquest, and even Clash of Clans, crafting a fresh and captivating experience that should delight even the most discerning strategy aficionados.
Regarding the reception of ‘Songs of Silence’ and the role of player feedback in the development of the upcoming DLC
“We are very happy with the reception so far,” Kehr began, addressing the game’s initial impact. “The game isn’t perfect, but we are continuously making improvements, and the ratings show that we are on a good track. Feedback from the players is very important to us and we monitor all of it very carefully.” He acknowledged the game’s unique design, which was always intended to be “a bit different,” and thus potentially divisive. However, Kehr emphasized the value of constructive feedback, highlighting how player input has directly influenced the development of upcoming content, particularly the DLC.
Some feedback is obviously hard to act on such as the oft repeated “Make it more like Heroes of Might and Magic!”. But we wanted to carve our own path anyway. Luckily most feedback is very constructive and helpful! An example: For our campaign our players have clearly signaled a preference for a less linear story-heavy maps, so we intend to develop potential future campaigns to be more open. We are currently experimenting with a new feature called “Scenarios” to get the hang of it (and see what our players like!). Another key point of feedback is that players generally want more content, especially playable factions. And this is exactly what we are doing for our upcoming DLC!
The design of the Lighteaters and their role in the overall narrative and gameplay experience
Discussing the enigmatic “Lighteaters,” Kehr revealed their inspiration from classic vampire mythos. “As a dark mirror of humanity, they embody an unnatural state: A human who was cut off from the ‘light,’ the divine Hymn in our world, and steals this light from other beings to sustain itself.” He elaborated on their role in the game’s narrative and their unique gameplay mechanics, including the control of “Gestalts” and the strategic use of their capital city, the “Nexus.”
Lighteates control “Gestalts”, our unique take on undead. Their armies are built on the shoulders of these corpse soldiers, and to get them they must inflict a special curse onto locations. They also have a unique capital city, the “Nexus”, which can be upgraded many times to unlock more powerful recruitment options. Their ability to teleport armies back to the Nexus enables aggressive hit and run tactics!
The game’s distinctive card-based battle system was another point of focus. Kehr explained, “Our goal with the card system was to find a flexible way to represent unique actions offered by heroes and locations.” While acknowledging the initial misinterpretation of the game as a deck builder, he highlighted the system’s advantages, such as intuitive use and the ability to represent all game actions within a single framework.
Cards seemed like the perfect option… until a lot of players started misinterpreting the game as a deck builder (for better or worse). In hindsight we should have potentially developed a different system! Cards do have many advantages, though: they are intuitive to use via drag and drop, allowing for easy targeting in the heat of battle, and offer enough space for details such as resource costs in addition to the nice art. The card system also allows us to represent all game actions with a single system: there is no need to differentiate between world map spells, recruitment options and battle abilities like in many other games.
The striking art style, inspired by Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau, played a crucial role in shaping the game’s world and atmosphere. “This set a clear tonality which we needed to adhere to: A dreamy, mature atmosphere full of hidden meaning and symbology,” Kehr explained. He emphasized the effort put into creating detailed artwork for each hero, unit, and location, adding depth to the visual storytelling.
The world needed to be complex with many layers of mysteries lost to the depth of time. The entire world mythos, story, and snippets of lore found when inspecting units or locations were developed to fit with the artistic presentation of the game. Each hero, unit and location have their own detailed artwork. This was a ton of effort! While not strictly necessary we do think that it adds a lot of visual storytelling to the game and makes the experience more compelling. It will also make for a great artbook (which we are currently finalizing!)
Looking ahead to the DLC’s release and beyond, Kehr expressed the team’s hopes for the player base and hinted at future updates. “Our biggest hope is that our player base likes what we have to offer! We will continue to work closely with our community to keep improving the game.”
A big balancing patch is our next big goal, based on the detailed feedback of our most active players). We do have further plans for more substantial updates but cannot talk about the details just yet.
Be realistic with your expectations and don’t overspend.
When asked for advice for aspiring developers Kehr offered a candid perspective. “It is a difficult time to be in the gaming space. Classic publishing deals are very hard to come by and self-publishing is increasingly challenging.” He stressed the importance of realistic expectations, financial prudence, and creating something truly special. “Make something special and it will have a good chance to float to the top and become visible for players.”
So much to say, so little space! Let me be frank: It is a difficult time to be in the gaming space. Classic publishing deals are very hard to come by and self-publishing is increasingly challenging when a literal ocean of games is released every year, ready to drown your own game (as we found out ourselves with Songs of Silence!). My best advice would be: Be realistic with your expectations and don’t overspend. Make something special and it will have a good chance to float to the top and become visible for players. I would shy away from making clones, but having a clear point of reference makes it easier to find your games. Getting players to check out something completely new can be frustrating… we may have overdone this part a bit with Songs of Silence
“We are proud and happy about Songs of Silence and hope to support it for a long time to come!” Kehr concluded. “We hope to see you on the battlefield!”
And with that, the interview drew to a close, leaving us eager to witness the continued evolution of this captivating strategy game. We expressed our gratitude to Mr. Kehr and extended our best wishes to him and the team for their future endeavors.
