Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Songbringer’

Review Fix chats with Nate Weiss, owner and developer at Wizard Fu Games, who discusses the Action RPG and his hopes for it. Inspired by Zelda and Metroid, it’s a unique experience designed with a ton of passion by a one-man dev team. Songbringer will be releasing on Xbox One and PC on September 1st and PlayStation™ 4 on September 5th.

About Songbringer:

Play as Roq, a space-faring planetary surveyor who wakes up shirtless on a strange planet. With the help of your robot companion Jib, it’s your job to save the universe from the ancient evil army you’ve accidentally awoken. Only by exploring the harsh world of Ekzerra, mastering the dungeons and defeating its fearsome bosses will you unlock the secrets of your own power and return the galaxy to peace.

Songbringer is an action RPG inspired by the original Zelda games with real-time combat, a wide range of weapons and a ton of hidden secrets. World maps are generated from a six-letter world seed, which determines the layout of the overworld and dungeons.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Nate Weiss: It was a rough time. I had spent all my money and ran up credit card debt on my last video game, which flopped and was quite a disappointment. It flopped because of a lack of marketing. Thus, I began to learn how to do some grassroots indie marketing via Twitter, Twitch, Youtube, etc. This led to doing a Kickstarter which succeeded and Songbringer was born.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Weiss: It’s been incredibly rewarding and challenging developing a game of this scope solo. It’s challenging to get all the things done that normally a team would handle: programming, art, music, sound effects, business decisions, marketing, emails, social media, demo-ing, expos, quality assurance, etc. It’s rewarding because of how satisfying it is to have so little friction between the conception of an idea and its implementation.

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Weiss: It has the feel and bespokeness of a 2D Zelda-structured game, yet is procedurally generated, allowing for surprises every time you start a new world. It also allows you to solve problems in multiple ways. There is no one linear path. There are many paths to success.

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Weiss: The Legend of Zelda, Crystalis, The Secret of Mana, and Super Metroid.

Review Fix: Any thoughts on releasing on the Switch? Especially considering the success of a game like Kamiko?

Weiss: Would love for this to happen. No solid information as of yet.

Review Fix: As an indie studio, what do you think you guys do differently than the big studios?

Weiss: Well, indie studios can be more flexible and less committed to a particular way or design document. I personally dislike design documents as they tend to put a project on a railroad. What if halfway through the journey you would like to take a slight detour into those beautiful mountains? That can’t happen if you are stuck on the railroad. Bigger studios tend to require things like design documents so that everyone can be on the same page.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Weiss: The Kickstarter succeeding and seeing people lined up to play Songbringer at PAX were really fun moments for me.

Review Fix: How does this game disrupt the video game landscape?

Weiss: It seems like gamers lost faith in procedural games recently. Hopefully, Songbringer reignites some of that. I believe that if procedural is done well and it is not over-hyped, it can be a beautiful thing as it creates an ever-changing landscape. Being surprised is something I cherish.

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?

Weiss: Probably those that are into action RPGs, the action adventure genre, Zelda-inspired games, 2D gameplay and/or pixel art.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Weiss: Hopefully some players will remember it as one of their favorite action RPGs. Hopefully, some game developers will remember it as an example of how it is possible to mix bespoke elements with procedural game design.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Weiss: To make enough cash to make the next game.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Weiss: Songbringer will still require full-time work for at least another six months. There are updates planned and believe it or not there are still many things left to do in order to prepare for the September 1st launch.

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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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