Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Rokh’

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: 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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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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