WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:03.000 Hello everyone. Welcome to Gamescom. 00:03.000 --> 00:07.000 I'm Alex here with Gamereactor and I'm here with Carl and we've just checked out Songs of Conquest. 00:07.000 --> 00:13.000 A new strategy game that is looking to be something that we're probably going to need to get hyped about. 00:13.000 --> 00:17.000 Carl, can you talk a bit about Songs of Conquest and why people should be excited about it? 00:17.000 --> 00:20.000 Well, they should be excited about it because I'm excited about it. 00:20.000 --> 00:26.000 But it's a throwback to the 90s classic of Heroes of Might and Magic, 00:26.000 --> 00:30.000 it's a wondrous adventure strategy kind of game. 00:30.000 --> 00:35.000 And so if you're really into pretty pixel art, which is one of our main things, 00:35.000 --> 00:40.000 or if you're really into exploring and building a little army and doing some fun magic-y things, 00:40.000 --> 00:43.000 then I think you should be excited about our game. 00:43.000 --> 00:46.000 Nice. I mean, something you touched on there was the visual style. 00:46.000 --> 00:50.000 It's very unique, it's got this nice 2.5D, I guess we call it, 00:50.000 --> 00:54.000 where you can look around the map as if it's a board game, 00:54.000 --> 00:58.000 but then when you zoom in you get these lovely visuals of the terrain and the characters. 00:58.000 --> 01:01.000 Could you talk a bit more about the design decisions behind that? 01:01.000 --> 01:03.000 Yeah, that was a big thing. 01:03.000 --> 01:10.000 Because we started out just doing 2D pixel art because we kind of like the longevity of pixel art, 01:10.000 --> 01:12.000 it doesn't get old kind of thing. 01:12.000 --> 01:16.000 But if you look back at the really nice-looking pixel arts of, say, Metal Slug, 01:16.000 --> 01:19.000 it's still really cool. 01:19.000 --> 01:21.000 Because we're like, OK, we're going to go with pixel art. 01:21.000 --> 01:25.000 And then we started doing it, and then one day one of the technicolors, 01:25.000 --> 01:29.000 he was just playing around, setting it up on canvases. 01:29.000 --> 01:33.000 And then I went over to his desk, and I just zoomed in, 01:33.000 --> 01:35.000 and it was just like, oh, that's really cool. 01:35.000 --> 01:38.000 It's almost like it's 3D, and it just kind of pops out in the world in a different way. 01:38.000 --> 01:41.000 And I was just like, OK, I think we're doing this. 01:41.000 --> 01:45.000 And it took way longer than we thought, but very much worth it. 01:45.000 --> 01:48.000 Yes, it looks great, and there's a lot to do with it as well. 01:48.000 --> 01:50.000 There's not only sort of your standard multiplayer 01:50.000 --> 01:52.000 and the way that people usually play strategy games, 01:52.000 --> 01:55.000 which is just paint the town red or your color. 01:55.000 --> 01:58.000 There's also four distinct factions, and they'll have their own campaigns. 01:58.000 --> 02:01.000 Three of them are ready now. One of them is going to be ready for launch. 02:01.000 --> 02:04.000 You're seeing a lot of popularity with these campaigns, right? 02:04.000 --> 02:08.000 Yeah, we did. They're very popular, way more than we thought. 02:08.000 --> 02:12.000 And we're super happy about that because we've put a lot of effort 02:12.000 --> 02:15.000 into actually building our own setting and lore 02:15.000 --> 02:17.000 and making these factions pop in a little bit. 02:17.000 --> 02:20.000 And then we're really excited that people actually play the campaigns 02:20.000 --> 02:23.000 so they know what they're playing instead of just, you know, 02:23.000 --> 02:26.000 you pick the cool-looking team and you go, which is a fine way of doing it. 02:26.000 --> 02:30.000 I'm not saying that's bad, but yeah, so that's very exciting. 02:30.000 --> 02:34.000 Then we get to release the Bariak campaign, which is our last one, 02:34.000 --> 02:37.000 when we're doing the 1.0 as well. 02:37.000 --> 02:42.000 I mean, as well in the campaigns, we've sort of got a lot of different ways to play, 02:42.000 --> 02:45.000 and there's a lot of different things to do from, like, base control 02:45.000 --> 02:48.000 to moving your armies around, and then there's combat, 02:48.000 --> 02:51.000 which I think is quite interesting from what I've seen in the trailers so far. 02:51.000 --> 02:54.000 Could you talk a bit about how combat works and how it's sort of 02:54.000 --> 02:57.000 intricate in its own way as well as sort of the base design that we get? 02:57.000 --> 03:03.000 Yeah, absolutely. So combat is pretty much just like, in a way, 03:03.000 --> 03:05.000 kind of standard turn-based combat on a hex grid, 03:05.000 --> 03:09.000 but then we have a system called, like, Essence, which is, that's our magic. 03:09.000 --> 03:14.000 So that's tied to the troops. So whenever it's a new troop turn, 03:14.000 --> 03:16.000 they give you more magical resources. 03:16.000 --> 03:19.000 So the more troops you have, the more magical resources you get, 03:19.000 --> 03:20.000 and then the more magic you can do. 03:20.000 --> 03:23.000 So if you start killing off your enemy's troops, they can do less magic. 03:23.000 --> 03:27.000 And then when you build your army, you also have to think about, 03:27.000 --> 03:30.000 what kind of spells do I want to be able to cast? 03:30.000 --> 03:31.000 Do I want to do, like, destructive? 03:31.000 --> 03:34.000 Then you need units that have destruction. 03:34.000 --> 03:36.000 Otherwise, you can't do the spells that you want to. 03:36.000 --> 03:38.000 So you need to find these combinations. 03:38.000 --> 03:40.000 Maybe you want to make sure your archers fire twice, 03:40.000 --> 03:44.000 but your archers doesn't produce the essence needed to do that. 03:44.000 --> 03:45.000 So then you need to put those troops in. 03:45.000 --> 03:49.000 And so it becomes, like, a little bit of, like, an army-building thing. 03:49.000 --> 03:51.000 And then your opponent kills them, you know, 03:51.000 --> 03:54.000 the unit that produces that essence, and your plan goes up. 03:54.000 --> 03:56.000 So, yeah. 03:56.000 --> 04:00.000 I mean, as well as just the units and army, we've also got distinct heroes. 04:00.000 --> 04:02.000 How many of these can we have sort of running at once, 04:02.000 --> 04:03.000 and what can they bring to the table? 04:03.000 --> 04:04.000 Yeah. 04:04.000 --> 04:06.000 So, like, the heroes of the Commander's Hour game are called wielders, 04:06.000 --> 04:09.000 because they're wielders of the essence kind of thing. 04:09.000 --> 04:13.000 You start out with one, and then the more settlements and towns you claim, 04:13.000 --> 04:15.000 you can get more and more and more. 04:15.000 --> 04:18.000 And eventually you could have nine on really big maps. 04:18.000 --> 04:21.000 Usually you play with anywhere between one and five, maybe. 04:21.000 --> 04:23.000 But on big maps, you can get all the way up to nine. 04:23.000 --> 04:27.000 And they all have, like, a little speciality and kind of, like, 04:27.000 --> 04:29.000 skew the skills they get. 04:29.000 --> 04:31.000 It's kind of, like, depending on what class they are. 04:31.000 --> 04:34.000 So some of them can go, like, heavy into, like, damaging spells, 04:34.000 --> 04:37.000 and other ones can go heavy into, like, spells don't hurt me at all. 04:37.000 --> 04:39.000 And otherwise, they're all about movement or scouting 04:39.000 --> 04:41.000 or just, like, buffing your troops. 04:41.000 --> 04:44.000 And a bunch of them are just, like, specialized on one unit. 04:44.000 --> 04:46.000 And since, like, the city building of our game, 04:46.000 --> 04:47.000 you can pick whatever you want. 04:47.000 --> 04:50.000 If you want to make, like, an army of hyenas, you can do that. 04:50.000 --> 04:53.000 And then we have, like, you know, a wielder that loves hyenas. 04:53.000 --> 04:56.000 So then you just give him all the hyenas, and off you go. 04:56.000 --> 04:59.000 So finally, then, I guess it's when can we see it? 04:59.000 --> 05:00.000 When can we see it? 05:00.000 --> 05:01.000 It's in early access right now. 05:01.000 --> 05:04.000 When can we expect to see version 1.0 of Songs of Conquest? 05:04.000 --> 05:05.000 And it's on PC. 05:05.000 --> 05:06.000 Will it be Steam Deck compatible? 05:06.000 --> 05:07.000 Yes. 05:07.000 --> 05:09.000 So we're in early access right now, 05:09.000 --> 05:13.000 and we're aiming for getting Steam Deck done in Q4. 05:13.000 --> 05:17.000 You know, so we're in Q4, hopefully. 05:17.000 --> 05:19.000 It's looking pretty good on Steam Deck right now. 05:19.000 --> 05:21.000 So we'll see exactly when that is. 05:21.000 --> 05:25.000 And then we're doing, like, a 1.0 release in Q1. 05:25.000 --> 05:28.000 And that's when, you know, everything should be ready. 05:28.000 --> 05:31.000 So, yeah, either you can pick it up now in early access if you can't wait, 05:31.000 --> 05:36.000 or you can, you know, get the full game in, yeah, Q1 somewhere. 05:36.000 --> 05:37.000 Perfect, Carl. Thanks so much.