Unmasking Verho: A Conversation with Sebastian Solczak
SaikingS walks us along the path he carved, detailing what went into development of his most ambitious work yet!
First off, congrats on launching! I love your game so much. I can’t imagine how much effort it took. It’s officially been out for six months now, how does it feel?
I feel really good! Before release, we had written out what theoretical Worst, Mid and Best scenarios post-launch could be. So far we are in the middle of Mid and Best so I’m really happy about that! It’s also amazing seeing people playing the game and giving their thoughts and feedback.
Kasur Games, the studio listed as Verho’s developer, has released more than just your game. How did your project get picked by them and grow into a team of people?
I think of myself as the leader of the Verho team within Kasur Games. The studio founder and CEO, Tomasz Rusak, actually reached out about funding after the first year of development. That’s how Verho officially became a Kasur Games project.
When it comes to my team, I did start off as a solo dev. Soon after work began, I invited Valentino Cervini onto the project to do musical composition. We’re good friends and have done lots of other projects together - most of which can be found on my Itch.io account. Not long after that, I met Angelo “Grave” Petrilli on the King’s Field subreddit. We talked and he offered to handle sound design, thus joining the team! Close to the end of development, my friend Łukasz “Kaku” Fetliński joined. He helped with modeling some weapons and environmental assets so I could focus on polishing the final product.
Is King’s Field-like an okay term for describing your game? How do you feel about games adopting that sort of a description?
I’ve been calling this style of game King’s Field-like before I heard other people calling them that, so I like it! I think it’s a cool term even though these days a lot of people have switched to calling them Field-likes. Overall, it’s difficult to perfectly describe this genre of game, similar to Rogue-likes and Souls-likes. Everyone has a different definition of what these games truly are so it will probably stay this way. Who knows, maybe in a few years someone will come up with a more exact definition for King’s Field-likes and we’ll start saying that.
I bought my copy in a Steam bundle that included Monomyth. Now I see you can grab a copy along with Fly Knight and several others! Is there a secret King’s Field Kabal? Or is this just an amazing time to be a fan?
Most of that’s from devs I befriended while making Verho. We’re in an era of King’s Field-likes and will probably see more in the next 2-3 years. The question is how long people will be interested in them - I hope for a long time because I’ve always loved playing them!
I was getting shades of the Shadow Temple from OoT in one of your game’s areas. As well as navigating the sands of Gerudo Valley! Would you mind revealing some of your undying inspirations?
Fromsoft and Zelda were some of the biggest for sure. Another strong one is the Gothic series, especially the first 2 games. Lunacid by Akuma Kira felt huge, as did the King’s Field games themselves! I’ve played all of them including both Shadow Towers and Eternal Ring. I want to grasp the essence of those games so I can make things fans of them will enjoy.
Yariv (the setting of Verho) is a place with so much history. Entire generations have passed and shaped its structure. Everything about it felt so three dimensional and alive! Truly amazing work - have you always been a world builder?
I just like making stories and universes. I have three to four big ones that I’ve written but never used. Maybe one day!
The first thing I conceptualized about the Verho universe was the Curse of Faces [a curse that forces residents of Yariv always hide their face, lest they catch a glance of someone else’s face and die instantly.] Then I just kept building on the gaps and plot holes. There’s actually even more lore to the world than what’s shown in-game Some of it you can see in “Verho - Curse of Faces - Behind The Mask”, a lore series on YouTube we made with CobraTekku Games, our publisher. Some will be shown in expansion and future games. I have big plans for that world, but time will tell how I will be able to show it to everyone.
Every location is so unique, undoubtedly hand crafted with love. I imagine most fans could see a screenshot of a random wall or corner of a structure and be able to pinpoint exactly where on the map that is. I’m dumbfounded - how did you pull this off?
That’s funny! But a lot of Verho’s uniqueness is the product of me being kind of a bad 3D artist. I had never done modelling before so I just started making assets. I learned Blender for Verho. The more I did it, the better I became! A lot of cool things were actually the effect of me struggling to make something else. I’d need to pivot and would sometimes just let my imagination go wild!
When it comes to the process, usually I draw a map of the area first, then start modeling. A negative side effect of that is that many of my maps turn out flat, something I’m kind of regretting and wish to fix on future projects.
There are a staggering amount of weapons and runes. Player customization is extensive, just about every play style seems viable and enemies just keep getting harder and harder. What was balancing all this like?
Hmm, that’s a hard question. First of all, I believe I’ve finished the game with every build possible. I’ve run through it at least 15 times, including using a level one build. Second, I have a lot of spreadsheets. Stats, simulations, what the average experience level, health, mana and even damage per second should be in a given area. The final thing is player feedback. Even after steps one and two, there are always elements that feel too weak or strong, so I’m always listening to what players are telling me!
The Omens were an enemy who stuck with me - the flying skeletons who teleport around the player and attack with moves that require 360-degrees of awareness. How you ended up on this design? They’re really satisfying to fight!
It started with their concept art. When modelling, I decided to switch their skull heads for masks and made abilities based around each one. Foggy Borrows is also a pretty empty area so I was able to have enemies that can teleport and go through long distances.
I felt a little overpowered late game, using a three-hit combo that swung for 1500 per ‘turn’. Have you crushing builds from people in your community?
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of busted builds. I think it’s part of the fun , being a little overpowered in the late game! Especially if you explore a lot, do all the game’s content. It’s a part of the Field-like identity.
I imagine releasing Verho and living to tell the tale feels like sitting on top of a mountain, your perspective is more all-seeing than anyone could imagine. With your newly earned insight on life, do you wish to continue making games? Any plans for your future?
I wouldn’t say I’m sitting at the top of a mountain. If so, then I can see MUCH bigger mountains around me! Kira having made Lunacid, Deep Denizens working on Hark the Ghoul, Freshly Baked Games making Queens Domain. So many others! I aspire to keep making better games until I’m on their level.
For the soon-to-be projects, it’s not a secret that I’m working on Verho DLC. I hope to release that later this year! I’m also releasing Bonehold in July, that is my side project [being co-developed with Bloodcorvus, a dev who worked on the game Blood West]. After the Verho DLC, I would love to make the next Verho game - if it will be possible!
Once again, I owe a huge THANK YOU to SaikingS for indulging my curiosity with this interview! I can’t say enough good about the game he put together - go buy it and play it on Steam right now, if you haven’t already!