Straight from the Source: Anucha Aribarg (Earth Atlantis, Switch)

This is part of our BitSumit coverage. We still have a lot more interviews coming, so please subscribe to us on Twitter. You can see our previous interviews by checking out the BitSummit Category on this site!

Source Gaming’s Twitter

PushDustIn’s Twitter

Anucha Aribarg’s Twitter

Hello, I’m here with the developer of Earth Atlantis. Can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Anucha Aribarg, and I’m the designer and director of Earth Atlantis.

What was your main inspiration behind this game?
There are actually two sources of inspiration. The first is the art — I wanted to make the game look like an old painting or drawing from the 14th century. This is because the game is all about monster hunting. I wanted to mimic the feeling of the old sketches of monsters from old times. For gameplay, my inspiration was horizontal shooters — which is unfortunately kind of dead as no one is really making them anymore. So I combined the two, and picked some ideas from Monster Hunter games, such as the [main objective] is hunting monsters. [Players] don’t need to go to the end of the stage, just to fight with the boss at the end. Also [Earth Atlantis] has a concept of an open world game, it’s non-linear.

So it’s almost like Breath of the Wild where you can almost immediately fight Ganon if you want to.
Yeah, but like 100 times smaller (laughs).

Of course (laughs). Earth Atlantis is being developed for the Switch, right?
Yes, we are planning a multi-platform release but in Japan it will be on the Switch.

What other platforms are you targeting?
PS4, Xbox One but that is for now for Europe and America.

Ok, do you have a publisher lined up?
Yes.

When is the expected release date?
Third quarter of this year.

What was the approach you took for level design?
I really enjoy open world games so I wanted to give the game the feeling of freedom as we are talking about a sea adventure or ocean. So I wanted to give the [players] freedom to go anywhere.

There are several different options for ship choices.
Yes, the ships are really interesting as you have tried the most powerful ship…but in the actual game you will start with only one ship. In [order to unlock the other ships] you will need to hunt them. If you cannot [defeat] them, you cannot unlock them.

Will the game feature a campaign?
There is a mission mode and free mode. The mission mode is like the story where you have to go to each boss in order to unlock a near area. When you complete the first mode, then players will unlock the free mode. In the free mode, the monsters and areas are unlocked and players can go anywhere and hunt them in a limited time.

So it’s almost like a speed run mode?
Something like that. If you can kill 25 monsters in 2 hours then you are really good.

Do you have any final words before we wrap this up?
As an indie developer we have the chance to develop the game that nobody wanted to make anymore. The horizontal shooter [genre] is really dead, but as an indie I have the chance to make a game that’s totally different — mix with elements from Monster Hunter, and the art style as well…if you were to talk to a publisher or a game developer, they would say ‘no one is going to buy a black and white game; you need more colors’. But I’m making something that I really want to make and that people want to play. So if people come and enjoy this game, I would be very happy.

What does being indie mean to you?
I think it’s the way you can express yourself. I don’t feel like it’s a business focus thing — as an indie you can do things that a publisher or a big game company wouldn’t want to do. That’s indie for me.

Where can people find updates on this game?
Check out our Facebook and Twitter, Pixel Perfex. Or you can search Earth Atlantis and you can find information online.

Thank you!