Dead Cells is an indie computer game in the mixed genre of roguelike and metro , developed and released by Motion Twin, a French studio for Windows , macOS , Linux , Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 , and Xbox One gaming consoles in 2018; earlier in the year, preliminary versions of the game were offered to players through the early access system.
Dead cells | |
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Developer | Motion twin |
Publisher | Motion twin |
Date of issue | August 7, 2018 |
Genres | Roguelike , metro |
Creators | |
Composer | Yoan lolan |
Technical details | |
Platforms | Windows , macOS , Linux , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Nintendo Switch |
Game mode | single player game |
Carriers | , and |
During Dead Cells, the player controls a creature trying to get out of the maze. Levels of the game, made in the spirit of a two-dimensional platformer, are generated procedurally; they are scattered with enemies and various treasures, including weapons with randomly generated characteristics. Like games in the genre of roguelike , the Dead Cells character has only one “life” - if he dies, the player will be forced to start the game from the very beginning. Some once acquired abilities that open up access to new, previously inaccessible areas of the game are transferred to subsequent passes. The concept of the game changed dramatically during development: originally Dead Cells was conceived as a tower defense with a base defense against zombie hordes, but was later completely reworked under the inspiration of The Binding of Isaac . Dead Cells has received extremely high marks from critics - reviewers have noted an attractive visual part, a complex but fascinating gameplay and an extremely high quality of the game as a whole.
Gameplay
The Dead Cells genre is described as “roguevania” - a combination of roguelike genres with their procedurally generated levels and metros with their action- gameplay and connected worlds that require gradual research [1] . The creature controlled by the player is a sensible bunch of cells, in each new passage taking possession of the corpse of one of the executed prisoners in a huge prison. During the game, the character explores various dungeons, defeats the enemies inhabiting them and collects numerous items. A character can carry two weapons and two auxiliary items with him and find new ones in dungeons - from swords and throwing knives to grenades, traps and turret systems. Weapons and objects have different randomly generated characteristics and additional effects, like the Diablo series [2] . So, the weapon can cause increased damage to bleeding enemies or cause the corpses of defeated opponents to explode. Objects falling out of defeated enemies - “cells” - allow you to acquire permanent bonuses at the end of each level, such as the ability to use a bottle more often to restore health or a particularly powerful weapon from the drawings found in dungeons [3] . Cells can only be spent at the end of a level; if the game character dies, not having reached the exit from the level, he will lose all the collected cells. [four]
Each level in each passage is generated randomly - while the game collects intricate mazes of pre-defined elements, randomly scattering enemies and objects on them. Like the Souls series , the game takes the player through battles with enemies with complex behaviors and assumes that the character will die often, and the player learns from his mistakes. Although most of the battles in the game can be avoided, during the passage of Dead Cells, the player must defeat several particularly difficult bosses .
Dead Cells supports integration with the Twitch video streaming service - it simplifies the broadcast of the game via the Internet and allows viewers to influence the gameplay, for example, by voting in the chat, which way the player should move [5] .
Development
Motion Twin has been developing browser and mobile games since 2001. Over the years, this market has changed and became more competitive, and work on new games required more stringent discipline, investment and marketing research. This situation oppressed the developers, and they thought about the dissolution of the studio, but eventually they agreed to jointly develop “something that they themselves would like to play ... something complicated, ultra-niche, with pixel graphics and insane complexity, ”even knowing that a game of this kind could potentially scare away, rather than attract players [6] .
Motion Twin initially intended to continue one of its previous games, the browser-based Die2Nite , a tower defense multiplayer game released in 2008. Die2Nite offered a group of up to 40 players to defend the city from the hordes of zombies: during each day of the game, players built fortifications to protect against zombies, and at the end of the day the game checked fortifications, telling players whether the zombies managed to overcome them and break into the city or not. Initially, Dead Cells was developed as a development of the same idea - players had to build fortifications during the day, and at night directly fight with zombies; the game was to be distributed in a free-to-play model [7] . According to one of the early ideas of the developers, the winner in the game could be only one player, and each participant in the multiplayer mode had to decide when and how to betray the fortress building comrades — strike himself while no one sees, or let the zombies do all the dirty work [8] . Although the concept of alternately building a fortress and its defense against zombies worked well with large groups of players, it was not very interesting in the single-user mode [7] . In 2014, the studio presented a version of Dead Cells designed for one player at the Big Indie Pitch event - in this version, the player also alternately went through the phases of battles and preparation for them; concept took second place at the event. In the future, the developers decided to completely exclude from the game a phase of preparation for battles as too boring and slow. Only by the end of 2015, the concept of the game took the final form - from tower defense the game turned into an action - platformer [7] .
Motion Twin got the idea of turrets from the multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 : one of the classes available to players in this game, an engineer, can build turret installations and other objects that help other players. Turrets and some other elements included in Dead Cells at the stage when it was developed as a tower defense , were transferred to the final version of the game, although they ceased to be the main weapon in the arsenal of the game character. The developers did not want the player to get used to constantly using the same combination of weapons or skills, as happens in games like Dark Souls - the game had to push the player to try out new combinations of weapons and skills and experiment. According to Motion Twin producer Steve Philby, Dead Cells was greatly influenced by the game The Binding of Isaac , whose gameplay depends entirely on the combination of items collected by the player - “this is the main pleasure from the game.” [9] To give the player enough options to choose from, the developers created about 50 different types of weapons, trying to make them as diverse as possible, so that each type of weapon has unique gameplay possibilities. At the same time, special attention was paid not only to the characteristics, but also to the animation of the weapon, and to the tactile sensations when playing with a gamepad, so that the strokes and blows of the weapon were felt as something pleasant and believable.
Motion Twin decided to use the early access system in the digital distribution network Steam, on the one hand, to attract interest in the game before the release, and on the other - to receive real-time feedback from players on the features of the game and the balance associated with procedural generation. This decision was not easy: in 2015, indie developers faced indipocalypse, releasing such a huge mass of indie games on Steam and on mobile platforms that individual games risked going unnoticed. [10] Motion Twin tried to provide access to the early access of a sufficiently full version of the game to interest the players - by this time the game was completed by 30-40%, included intense battles and many ready-made gameplay elements. Early access allowed developers to gradually eliminate problems with balance: they did not want Dead Cells to punish the player for a particular style of play, and were guided by the feedback from the players. Communication with the players also allowed them to be convinced of the need to make battles with ordinary opponents as short as possible, and orientation within the level as simple as possible. According to the plans of Motion Twin, the game should have been held in early access for about a year - during this time the studio should have completed the game, taking advantage of both the players ’reports of errors and their suggestions for improving the game. According to lead designer Sebastien Benard, from 40 to 50% of the possibilities available to the player in the final version of Dead Cells were brought into the game thanks to the feedback from the players while the game remained in early access. [eleven]
External video files | |
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Dead Cells - Launch Trailer | |
Dead Cells - Animated Trailer |
The preliminary version of the game was released on May 10, 2017 for Microsoft Windows only; June 26 of the same year, the game also became available for computers running macOS and Linux . [12] In November 2017, the still-unfinished game also appeared on the digital distribution network GOG.com - this service used to sell games of previous years, but also showed interest in games still under development. [13] In January 2018, Motion Twin also announced that they plan to release versions of the game for the Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gaming consoles simultaneously with the release of the Windows version from early access - in August 2018 [14] [15] . The studio had no plans to create a sequel; instead, Motion Twin’s game development plans included adding custom modifications to the game so that the players themselves could develop the game after the release. The studio also decided to develop downloadable content for the game and look for other ways to complement and expand the game. [sixteen]
The full version of Dead Cells was released on the digital distribution network on August 7, 2018; later in the month, physical copies of the game were released for sale. [17] [18]
Reception
Reviews | |
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Overall rating | |
Aggregator | Evaluation |
Metacritic | (PC) 90/100 [19] (PS4) 87/100 [20] (NS) 91/100 [21] (XONE) 90/100 [22] |
Foreign editions | |
Edition | Evaluation |
Game informer | 9/10 [23] |
Gamespot | 9/10 [24] |
Ign | 9.5 / 10 [25] |
PC Gamer (US) | 90/100 [2] |
Within about a year after the release to early access, more than 730,000 digital copies of Dead Cells were sold; [26] shortly before the release of the full version of the game, sales exceeded 850,000 copies.
The game won second place in the category “Best action-game of 2017” according to IGN , [27] and was also nominated for the award “Best visual design” and “Best indie game” at the Golden Joystick Awards in 2018. [28]
The soundtrack of the composer Joan Lolana was released for sale in digital form on May 10, 2017. [29] . In addition, on July 5, 2018, Laced Records released a version of the soundtrack on two vinyl records. [thirty]
Links
- All Foxall, Sam 'Roguevania' Dead Cells Comes on May 10 . PCGamesN (April 22, 2017). The appeal date is May 12, 2017. Archived on April 7, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 Chris Thursten. Dead Cells review (eng.) . pcgamer (6 August 2018). The appeal date is November 4, 2018.
- ↑ Caldwell, Brendan Premature Evaluation: Dead Cells . Rock Paper Shotgun (May 16, 2017). The date of circulation is May 16, 2017. Archived May 17, 2017.
- ↑ Williams, Mike Dead Cells . USGamer (March 11, 2017). The date of circulation is May 12, 2017. Archived May 7, 2017.
- ↑ Grubb, Jeff Dead Cells' Twitch integration is great . Venture Beat (August 7, 2018). Circulation date August 7, 2018. Archived August 7, 2018.
- Project Chan, Stephanie Studio: Dead Cells . Venture Beat (April 19, 2017). The date of circulation is May 12, 2017. Archived October 19, 2017.
- 2 1 2 3 MacGregor, Jody Dead Cells . PC Gamer (August 11, 2018). The appeal date is August 13, 2018. Archived August 12, 2018.
- ↑ Chloi Rad. Only one player can win in Dead Cells, an upcoming co-op survival game with a twist (Eng.) . Pocket Gamer . The appeal date is November 4, 2018.
- Out Couture, Joel Design of each of the 50 weapons in Dead Cells to feel distinctive . Gamasutra (July 7, 2017). The date of circulation is July 7, 2017. Archived July 7, 2017.
- Loc Velocci, Carli Tuning . Gamasutra (August 31, 2018). The appeal date is August 31, 2018.
- ↑ Horti, player criticism helped make it . Gamasutra (August 1, 2018). Circulation date August 1, 2018. Archived August 1, 2018.
- ↑ O'Conner, Alice Dead Cells loots mod support, leaps onto Mac and Linux . Rock Paper Shotgun (June 26, 2018). The appeal date is June 26, 2018. Archived June 26, 2018.
- ↑ In Development: Dead Cells (inaccessible link) . GOG.com . The date of circulation is January 5, 2018. Archived January 6, 2018.
- ↑ Sarkar, Samit Dead Cells confirmed for PS4, Switch, Xbox One . Polygon (January 25, 2018). The date of circulation is January 25, 2018. Archived January 26, 2018.
- Les Wales, Matt Superb "roguevania" action platformer Dead . Eurogamer (May 10, 2018). The date of circulation is May 10, 2018. Archived May 11, 2018.
- ↑ Devore, Jordan Dead Cells developer talks (updates, DLC, and future plans . Destructoid (September 20, 2018). The appeal date is October 21, 2018.
- ↑ Lao, Shannon Roguelite action-platformer Dead Cells . Destructoid (July 10, 2018). The appeal date is July 10, 2018.
- ↑ O'Conner, Alice Dead Cells has now been oozed out of early access . Rock Paper Shotgun (August 7, 2018). Circulation date August 7, 2018. Archived August 7, 2018.
- ↑ Dead Cells for PC Reviews . Metacritic . CBS Interactive . The appeal date was August 8, 2018. Archived August 9, 2018.
- ↑ Dead Cells for PlayStation 4 Reviews . Metacritic . CBS Interactive . The appeal date was August 8, 2018. Archived August 9, 2018.
- ↑ Dead Cells for Switch Reviews . Metacritic . CBS Interactive . The appeal date is August 6, 2018.
- ↑ Dead Cells for Xbox One Reviews . Metacritic . CBS Interactive . The appeal date is August 6, 2018.
- ↑ Reiner, Andrew Dead Cells . Game Informer (August 6, 2018). The appeal date is August 11, 2018. Archived August 11, 2018.
- Ark Starkley, Daniel Dead Cells Review: Rise From Your Grave . GameSpot (August 6, 2018). The appeal date was August 6, 2018. Archived August 7, 2018.
- ↑ Tyrrel, Brandin Dead Cells Review . IGN (August 10, 2018). The appeal date is August 11, 2018. Archived August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Capel, Chris This metroidvania indie game has sold 730,000 units in a year . PCGamesN (May 1, 2018). The appeal date is May 1, 2018. Archived May 1, 2018.
- ↑ Best of 2017 Awards: Best Action Game . IGN (December 20, 2017). The appeal date is October 6, 2018.
- ↑ Hoggins, Tom . Golden Joysticks 2018 nominees announced voting voting now (September 24, 2018). The appeal date is October 6, 2018.
- ↑ Dead Cells - Soundtrack Part 1 | Yoann Laulan
- ↑ Laced Records on Twitter: “NEW #VGM #VINYL - DEAD CELLS OST by Yoann Laulan Pre-order at: https://t.co/fBt9iNT949 Limited 15-track double vinyl with gatefold sleeve. Shipping ...
External links
- dead-cells.com - the official site of Dead Cells