Review Fix Exclusive: Yakir Israel Talks ‘Plot of the Druid’ And More

Review Fix chats with “Plot of the Druid” creator Yakir Israel, who lets us know about the game’s lengthy development cycle and more.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Yakir Israel: I knew my game would be in a funny magical world along with interesting-bizarre characters right from the beginning, but finding the appropriate protagonist wasn’t easy:

Simon the Sorcerer was a character I really like and I wanted my protagonist to share the same selfish sarcastic personality: which is in contrast to pure heroes who want to do noble things such as saving the world.

Then, I had to decide what his role, I was trying to find a role which didn’t get much attention from all the games I’ve seen so far,  but still with a unique set of skills to utilize later in the game.The answer was a druid. 

Druids were always sidekicks – Radagast in LotR, Ashafix from Asterix’s comic books, Ivo’s father from BoUT2, they were never the main hero, even the initial abilities of the druid in Talisman board game are pretty low regarding other characters, what a shame!

Druids were also presented as knowledgeable, wise and pretty old men. But even the elders were young sometimes in the past, right?

So it might be a good idea if the protagonist will be a young, reckless and a bit arrogant student. 

“Student” led me to “Academy” and later to Discworld and Harry Potter.

After the protagonist and the world were set, I decided to go with 2D cartoonish art style.

I was a fan of cartoons, and also knew it could add to the humour of the game. In that step, I took references from many Sierra \ LucasArts games I played, to bring also some nostalgia for retro gamers like me. 

Mixing all of the above and you get – Plot of the Druid :-)

Review Fix: What is your role in the game?

Israel: In general I’m the creator of this game, but to be more specific – I’m responsible for the writing, design, programming, directing and producing along with other professional team members which most of them are freelancers and their working hours by demand.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Israel: It was a long road of almost 5 years!

In the first year, I took my time to experiment ideas for the entire story along with puzzle designs.

It was very important for me to see the full picture, before I go deep with technical stuff and become more bound. 

The next 2 years spent on finding the right people that can cover expertises which I can’t do on my own. 

It wasn’t easy though, people came and went – my budget was pretty low and most of them lost motivation. 

Sadly, this caused the project to progress very slowly.

But in the meantime, I worked on implementing everything in Visionaire Studio, it may look like those 2 years were a waste of time, but actually each time I got to see more pieces of the game it just encouraged me to move forward. I realize the story must be split into a few games which are all connected, and also to divide each game with several chapters so I can bound the scope of each chapter. 

After an additional 1 year where I started to work full-time on the project, and the team became more stable we’ve managed to cover 80% of the first chapter, but it was too long for a demo and doesn’t present good if removing parts of it.  I also felt Visionaire works good as starting point, but wasn’t flexible enough for my needs, and it might affect later on the features I want to implement so I thought it’s better to switch to a different engine.

Hard decisions were made – I planned and added a ‘before’ scene which will serve as a demo (Now called “Nightwatch”) and I started a new project from scratch with Unity. Fortunately it appears to be a good decision – it took me 9 months overall and with more flexibility in hands to add any feature I want.

Now, the demo is out and FREE to play :-)

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Israel: Playing as a druid with cool mechanism of shapeshifting for solving puzzles in different manner

British witty humour with funny and bizarre characters, each with an interesting backstory.

A magical wide open world which give hours of playing around. 

HD hand-painted drawing that still captures the old-school feeling.

The full game will also include an interesting nature-related spells mechanism.

And (maybe!) turn-based combats and skill points. 

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Israel: For characters and settings: Simon the Sorcerer, Book of Unwritten Tales, Discworld, King’s Quest.

For puzzle design also contribute a lot: Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis, Monkey Island, Day of the tentacle.

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

Israel: When you write British jokes it is always funny!

*spoilers here*

Writing Robin Loot – an alter ego of Robin Hood mixed with Murry the skull from Monkey island. His backstory was fun to make and especially when Jase (the protagonist) trying to convince him to give up on his hat with a lame excuses such as:  “It doesn’t add to your complexion”

Also Dezmond, the bitter goldfish “fighting” with Wagne,his rival parrot on the title “who’s the dean’s favorite pet.” When Dezmond mentioned Wagne insulting him and I quote- “He even called me big-eye fish!” and Jase in response: “No way! Did he say that?! what a jerk!”, like that’s the worst insult a fish could get from a parrot, I remember how much I laughed at this moment, a really weird situation.

Review Fix: What were the major lessons learned?

Israel: 1. Start with a small project

2. Get feedback as soon as you can, you will always improve in that way – in other words don’t work in a vacuum.

3. Put emphasis on hooks and other core ideas right from the beginning, always try to answer the question “what makes your game different from the other ones?”

The more open-minded you are, the more far you might get. 

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Israel: If it’s a good one that works well, then yes. But it’s better to get out of your comfort zone and experiment new possibilities as well. 

Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?

Israel: I usually tend to remember cliffhangers – it makes me wonder what can happen next.

*spoilers again sorry!*

Simon the Sorcerer 2 ends with Simon switching bodies with Sordid, Simon stuck in the magical world while Sordid walk free in our world

Honestly, the best cliffhanger I’ve ever seen! sadly Simon3D continuation was pretty disappointing, I might suggest to the Woodruffs a sequel to Simon 2 (in pixel art of course!), I wrote many ideas over the years.

Book of unwritten tales 2 also ends with an interesting cliffhanger,  Captain Nate turns into a stone statue, Arch-mage Alastair died, and Remi the rat disappeared. What will Wilbur and Ivo ( that in advanced pregnancy ) do next?

Review Fix: How have your previous experiences in the industry helped this game?

Israel: Definitely, before I entered the games industry I worked on VR entertainment projects, so I’m comfortable with programming with user-experience.

Later, I worked on Special Edition for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis – a non-profit fans project that shut-down and also worked on a demo for Special Edition of Waxworks, both projects were fun to work on and it helped me understand how other fields such as story, art and music play together in a game. 

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

Israel: As a fun game which gives hours of enjoyment in a unique world along with challenging puzzles!

But more than that, to hear people quote funny lines and having fond memories (maybe from a cliffhanger ;-)) That retro gamers will catch the subtle references we plant here and there and get the additional laugh  and at last, that everybody will want to hear more on Jase and his long journey.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Israel: The experience I gained from all those years will sure help me to produce the full game much faster now. However, my budget ran out, and we are going to crowdfunding.  And if we get lucky, we can finish making the full game. If we get even more lucky – we might do a sequel as well.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Israel: I hope people will appreciate the effort, it’s not easy to be an indie developer. Play the demo, and if you enjoyed it – spread the word!  Will need it to get fully funded.