Review Fix chats with Benjamin Charbit, Darewise Entertainment CEO & Creative Director of Rokh, who discusses the game and the long road from development to eventual completion. Breaking down what makes the survival game special, Charbit said the game has the potential to take sandbox games to the next level.
Review Fix: What has the development process been like?
Benjamin Charbit: Coming from AAA games, where we work in the shadows for years without getting any external feedback (which is the one that actually matters!), we started Rokh with two things in mind:
1: We had to be ready to deliver a meaningful experience within 12 months.
2: And start interacting with the players as early as possible.
And this of course without sacrificing the required steps of any game development required to ensure quality and relevance.
So that’s pretty much what we did as we went public in December which was basically when we started coding the first lines!
Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid, how did it influence this one?
Charbit: I started playing MMOs very young with Ultima, Everquest etc. Basically, I’ve mostly been into online games, I like the way my experience is always impacted by other players behaviors. That’s actually the reason why I’ve always been working, even at Ubisoft, on this kind of games. From the games I played as a kid, I guess that Ultima and Mankind (if you don’t know this one, you guys should check. Hell of a revolution at the time) are both the ones that still have an influence in Rokh’s vision, in particular on the persistence.
Review Fix: What other games is it inspired by?
Charbit: Well it’s a survival game and we’re all big fan of the genre, so games like DayZ, Rust or Ark are definitely a strong source of inspiration.
But also Banjo-Kazooie. You don’t see the connection? Hahaha, wait and see…soon.
Review Fix: What went into creating the game’s unique art style?
Charbit: The whole challenge of setting the art direction for a game like Rokh is to find the right balance between authenticity and identity. We want everything to be believable but at the same time, we want the players to recognize the game at first sight.
And this becomes even more challenging when you push crafting like we do as players will be assembling components, so making sure that such a system does not break the identity is a real tricky part.
Review Fix:Â What do you think makes this game special?
Charbit: Rokh is unique by the fact that it will bring the survival sandbox to the next level: survival mechanics, enemies, crafting, building and housing, long-term objectives.
And all of this with the powerful setting – the Red planet and I’m already pretty proud of what we achieved on the map – and
the backstory on which we’re still working.
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