Genre mash-ups are increasingly common as independent studios flourish with the game engines and legacy knowledge available online. Roguelikes and card-battlers are particularly saturated, be they slow and methodical like Slay the Spire or fast-paced like One Step From Eden - itself inspired by the combat grids in Mega Man Battle Network. Remixed inspirations often give an indie game the means of standing out, and Righteous Hammer Games' ZOR: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs aims to use tabletop and survival games to make its deck-building experience more Chess-like.

Righteous Hammer founder Clint Jorgenson wanted to blend that style with his love of the cute, yet creepy pop culture zeitgeist of the 1980s; exemplified by works like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and The NeverEnding Story. In ZOR, a pair of Slorfs travel to discover what fell from Zor - their star god. The duo not only has to beat back enraged creatures, but also the looming threat of hunger. Game Rant spoke to Jorgenson and artist Gavin Yastremski about designing and balancing ZOR's visuals and gameplay.

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ZOR: Balancing the Cute and Creepy

righteous hammer games interview august 2022

Prototyping on ZOR began after Righteous Hammer's debut title Solitairica released in 2016, and it quickly snowballed with the funding for contractors through a British Colombia Creative BC grant. Its first pass focused on concept art, and getting enough 3D art, animations, and audio to build the "vertical slice." Yastremski joined shortly thereafter, bringing environmental art experience from projects like Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Apex Legends.

"Thank god Gavin joined because the 3D stuff is such a step-up from the 2D of Solitairica," Jorgenson said. "If you see the art before Gavin joined it can't hold a candle to what things look like now." While Jorgenson set the groundwork for ZOR's fantasy setting, which pulls from '80s worlds created "before the rules were set," the duo organically feel out nitty-gritty details together. One alluring part of this project to Yastremski was having more say than one might get on a big AAA team, "More ability to follow your own gut."

"For the most part there was a pretty big blank slate - more than I was used to. Which is scary, but it's kind of awesome to really contribute and establish something we come up with on our own."

It took a lot of back-and-forth to find the sweet spot between too cute or too creepy. Yastemski said Dark Crystal has appealing, beautiful colors, but can "still give you nightmares," and the upcoming game aims to capture this dynamic by avoiding desaturated grays and browns, so things look appealing on the surface. But "when you look a bit closer, some things might look a bit gross or creepy, giving you a freaky vibe." That balancing act has been especially difficult with each new biome.

righteous hammer games interview august 2022

As ZOR approaches its Early Access launch on August 30, Righteous Hammer has participated in events like Steam Next Fest and the Yogscast's Tiny Teams. Getting a demo out for Next Fest was a particularly "awesome feeling" for Yastremski, who said getting to watch a wide audience enjoy it gave the team juice to push on. As lead artist, Yastremski wanted to make sure everything was visually clear without its procedurally generated set dressing pulling away from the overall experience.

One example of adjustments made to ZOR in-part thanks to fan feedback is its perimeter art. Yastremski said it would have been easy to make its hex-grid maps floating in space to stand out. Instead, the grid look like a small clearing in an otherwise large, intimidating world, that way players can feel their progression. "That went through quite a bit of iteration."

ZOR: A Soup of Gameplay Mechanics

Jorgenson said heavy strategic board games like Twilight Struggle offered ideas on how to make card-driven tactical gameplay more "accessible and streamlined."

"There's something really cool about the way a hand of cards become this decision engine, where there's a bit of randomness but because you're managing your hand and know what's in your deck, every turn becomes an emergent puzzle."

Yet Jorgenson also wanted to ensure ZOR did not sacrifice movement depth. Pulling from Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest's use of the environment, Righteous Hammer implemented survival and crafting elements to make sure players can't always do the "best," most predictable thing. The Slorfs that players control begin with a handful of cards, and can collect recipes and materials to craft new ones. Gathering experience allows players to upgrade some cards between stages, resulting in "hundreds of cards" to make each run unique.

righteous hammer games interview august 2022

However, every action a Slorf takes - moving, attacking, and harvesting - must come from a card, many of which cost hunger or thirst points. Even discarding a card to pass one's turn pays its cost. After defeating every enemy the player can keep pushing their Slorfs to collect more materials before resting at the campfire; a quiet moment to craft or upgrade cards and other stats. "Every turn, every step, everything you can do is something you need to deeply think through," Jorgenson said, and ZOR's design avoids the downtime of moving across the map in games like Advance Wars.

Making a card-driven tactical "board" game where players juggle eating, drinking, and combat took a lot of time to nail down. Its intense, puzzle-like decision-making is meant to capture the strengths of games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Into the Breach. Jorgenson said balancing all of these elements became easier when Righteous Hammer approached the idea less like playing Whac-A-Mole forever, and instead establishing a hierarchy with basic concepts that have more granular ideas stacked on top.

"This game is more about the infinite ways its smaller amount of content combines. You never get bored because there's always different layers emerging."

Feedback from Steam Next Fest helped focus the game's mechanics too, such as implementing deck slots to avoid the natural behavior of hoarding. "We've all played Witcher where you have 75 potions and never drink any of them," Jorgenson said, but having too many harvested materials would leave Slorfs unable to draw cards (a realistic, but "pretty lame" representation of being over encumbered).

righteous hammer games interview august 2022

Once ZOR launches in Early Access, Jorgenson said it will receive frequent updates "until we're satisfied." "There probably won't be any time to celebrate or pat ourselves on the back," he said. "I just hope it resonates, because I know it's a really novel concept." Jorgenson feels he's too much of a perfectionist to leave something unfinished, and his experience at AAA studios birthed a distaste for trends like microtransactions that might come in the way of a polished, tight game. "We hope people appreciate it, and we can keep growing this idea."

ZOR: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs is in development for PC, with a Steam Early Access launch scheduled for August 30.

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