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Interview With Brian Kwek Of Witching Hour Studios, Maker Of 'RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion'

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Interview With Brian Kwek Of Witching Hour Studios, Maker Of 'RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion'I recently played iOS game RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion and found the story line to be engaging, game mechanics to be detailed and well thought out and overall a fantastic game for the genre. I liked the game so much that instead of a writing a formal review about the app, I wanted to interview the app's maker, Witching Hour Studios. I had the opportunity to ask Brian Kwek, one of the co-founders of the studio, questions about RAVENMARK, future games in the hopper and the mystery behind the company's name.

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AppPicker: What made you choose a turn based SRPG game to be your flagship game? Brian Kwek: The concept for the gameplay of RAVENMARK has its roots in a tabletop boardgame designed by our creative director, Ian. Many of the features that are in the final game, such as Formations, can be traced back to the original mechanics concocted for the boardgame! If you’re familiar with how most tabletop boardgames work, you’d agree with us that a turn-based strategy system would be the most natural way to adapt such mechanics, instead of an RTS. The other major thing that drove us to complete RAVENMARK first was the incredible campaign world that Ian had built for the purposes of the boardgame. Seemed to me like a shame if only tabletop gamers were to experience the vast lore and history that had been developed for this world, and moreso a waste if we did not try to craft a captivating character-driven plotline within it… AppPicker: What other game ideas are a-brewing? Brian Kwek: We’ve a ways to go before we finish developing additional content for RAVENMARK. However, we have an idea for a word game that we’d like to explore for a break from all this heavy stuff. We’re also tossing around the idea of a King of Dragon Pass-esque game that would be set in Eclisse, the world of RAVENMARK… AppPicker: Is there a story behind the company name? Brian Kwek: Simply enough: The directors’ best creative work is done closer to the “witching hour” of 3:00AM (some people say it’s 12:00AM, but whatever) than not. Well, Ian virtually never sleeps, and I myself am creatively brain-dead during sunlight hours, both for inexplicable reasons. AppPicker: Witching Hour Studios’ website states the company is focused on making games for hardcore and casual gamers. What type of games do you believe appeal the most to these two groups? Brian Kwek: We didn’t exactly mean the average casual gamer – the phrase we used was “story-loving casual audience”. This refers to a person who doesn’t get their game on very frequently, but is willing to invest time into following an intriguing story. So our aim is to develop titles that are accessible by way of articulate tutorials and well-designed systems, so that the casual-gamer folk won’t immediately pooh-pooh the game. AppPicker: According to one your website’s posts RAVENMARK is based on the same game genres as Nintendo 64’s Fire Emblem and PS2’s Final Fantasy Tactics and Advance Wars. Are there any parts of the game you feel pays particular homage to these games? Brian Kwek: I think the most specific “homage” we’ve got would be the Element Types (Infantry, Ranged, Cavalry etc.) which echos the Weapon Types in Fire Emblem quite closely. Otherwise, it’s a fine line between paying homage and outright copying, so we tried to put a new spin on our game systems if the design made sense. I guess we leaned on the ideas put forward in Advance Wars in terms of simplifying the command system to make strategic play as straightforward as possible. In a different sense, you could say that Final Fantasy Tactics partially gave us the inspiration to aim for an epic plotline, and to develop the intricacies of a vast campaign world, in the way that Yasumi Matsuno did with Ivalice. AppPicker: What RAVENMARK race and weapon element would each of the founders fall into? Brian Kwek: Kevin: Greyjacket Riflemen (humans, not dwarf) from the Commonwealth of Esotre. Ian: Primrose Pain Harvesters (barbaric humans) from the Tribes of Lyri. Brian: Corpsejumpers (mystic humans) from the Priori of Kaysan; these elements will show up in the next campaign update, the Suneaters!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVqWiMP1W_g&feature=player_detailpage RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion trailer

AppPicker: How did you get in contact with Josh Whelchel to come on as the game's soundtrack composer? Brian Kwek: We think a game’s soundtrack makes the difference between a good and a great game, so it was of utmost importance to find someone who would endow our work with an epic-sounding score. Josh composed the soundtrack to Mark Pay’s The Spirit Engine 2 – a slightly obscure but amazingly put-together indie game which Ian played and loved. He shared the music with the rest of us, and we dug it, so we cold called Josh way back in mid-2010 and hoped he would feel strongly about the Ravenmark project. After sharing our story and plans with him, he jumped right on as our composer… and the rest is history. Honestly, even besides the sweet music he puts out, Josh has been one of our strongest backers throughout development and spreading the word about the game – we’re very blessed to have him.

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If this interview has piqued your interest, check out RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion in the App Store. You can also check out the company’s website for updated news and information.

RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion

$9.99

RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion

$9.99

RAVENMARK: Scourge of Estellion

$9.99
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