Here is our exclusive interview with the developers of the video game Liberated!!!
What is Liberated and the story surrounding it?
Liberated is our side-scrolling action-adventure game with shooting, sneaking, hacking, and a focus on the narrative. It’s also the name of a group of hackers and activists that oppose the government and fight for the right to privacy. They live in a surveillance dystopia where you are watched at every step. You’re worth as much as your social score, and if you’re a troublemaker, ‘they’ can ruin your life. This new order was installed after a gruesome terror attack, and getting to the bottom of it is one of your goals in the game.
How long did it take to create the art in the game?
It took us a long time to establish the art style. We took several attempts. We needed to take a step back and think about the look of our game through. We knew we wanted to show the world from different perspectives and didn’t want to tell what’s right or wrong. And then it hit us – this is the vanilla definition of the noir movies and books.
What were the comics you enjoyed reading growing up?
This is an interesting question because what we grew up reading is not what inspired us to make Liberated. In Poland, the comic book industry was different. Before the 90s, behind the Iron Curtain, we had mostly Polish comics, such as the cult Kayko and Kokosh, which you can buy in English, or Tytus, Romek & A’Tomek (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tytus,_Romek_i_A%27Tomek), or the fantastic Expedition: Gods from Outer Space, based on Erich von Däniken’s theories. It is also worth to mention the worldly recognized Thorgal series, which was drawn by the Polish artist Grzegorz Rosiński.
Then, in the 90s, after the Iron Curtain fell, we started getting access to foreign comics. Asterix, Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman were probably the most popular ones. Some years later, the comic book market has matured and we got nice editions of the world’s best graphic novels, from Moore’s to Enki Bilal’s.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
I can’t speak for the whole team, but personally I always fancied Lobo.
What is something neat in your game that is important but nobody really
notices?
The playable graphic novel seems so organic, it just works and you just take it for granted. But to make it work, we had to use a lot of tricks. What you see is gameplay within a comic page, but the comic view, the page view, the panel view are three completely different aspects. Making them work together required three separate cameras to work simultaneously. There are many things going on under the hood.
When will the game be available?
Liberated will launch worldwide on Nintendo Switch on June the 2nd.
Where can our fans find out more about your game in social media?
You can find us here:
Liberated on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liberatedgame
Liberated on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiberatedGame/
Liberated on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liberated_game/
Liberated Discord: https://discord.gg/VGpZfXz
Website: http://liberated.games/
