Interview with a Guild Hunter - Gil Woo

Published: December 23, 2014 9:00 AM /

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Guild of Hunters

Guild of Hunters is one of the games TechRaptor recently covered on the weekly Kickstarter article so we got in touch with the team at Ignite to see if they'd be interested in talking, with their campaign still ongoing. I was able to talk with Gil Woo, a Game Designer and Lead Art Designer for the game via email. I'd like to thank Gil for taking the time to answer our questions, and would like to point out that Ignite is from Hong Kong and these answers are unedited.

TechRaptor: What inspired you and your team to make Guild of Hunters?

We grew up in the strong influence of traditional Japanese games. Zelda is one good example and we just fall in love with it. The control is simple, hands on but the game is full of fun. On the other hand, we are also a big fan of Monster Hunters, we enjoy so much the excitement of killing gigantic monsters with friend, collecting material to craft your own legendary item. Therefore, we decided to combine them by remaking Zelda with the system of Monster Hunter.

TechRaptor: What led to the decision to make crafted gear the primarily method of customization in the game? What do you think are the strengths of that approach?

We want the game to be realistic, a sword will not just come out in the air or from the belly of a monster! Right? Crafting is fun and sometimes, it requires a lot of creativity. This is how a hunter should survive in the wild.

TechRaptor: Are there going to be different variations of weapons within the categories? How will they differ from each other?

Yes. The weapon under each class varies in power, range and elemental attribute (fire, ice and thunder basically). Correctly picking an elemental type gives player advantage to exert stronger damage to monster (who bears another specific elemental attribute). There may be a special move for using a high-rarity weapon. That's TBC.

TechRaptor: You make it relatively clear how different weapons influence gameplay but not really on armor – how do the different crafted armors influence things or is it just rush up to the highest defense? What types of armors are there likely to be?

Boots, gauntlets, armor & headset. Boots gives agility in movement. Armor is mainly responsible for defense value. Gauntlet gives attacking advantage, especially in frequency of slashing or swinging the weapon. Headset while it means defense, it also gives a more aesthetic appearance to character (as it is the most obvious on a Chibi character).

TechRaptor: Much of the talk is on co-op game play on your Kickstarter, how does it function in single player? Does the player control one and hope the AI combos with him or can he issue some commands to the AI to set up combos?

Solo player will have different experience and reward. As solo mission and co-op mission are designed differently. Solo player will have NPC aiding them and player can build and setup their own team for solo mission. Currently, we are thinking to let player switch control to the NPC character to trigger combo.

TechRaptor: What was the design process behind the monsters and bosses? What sort of processes will be involved in beating them and creating unique challenges?

There isn't any shortcut, discussion, discussion and a lot of discussions. We have been studying hundreds of legendary monsters and picked up the key elements that makes these monster so remarkable. To create an exciting boss fighting, we always take a top down approach, design an super monster and then tune it down so that you can barely beat it. The bosses are designed for players who wants a challenge. On the other hand, nothing is perfect, so does the bosses, they all have a weakness. This is yet to be discovered by our players. Some require more than one player to beat.

TechRaptor: What other games or projects have you and your team worked on in the past?

We suggest you to take a look to our presskit. The below are the games we have made before. http://ignite-ga.me/presskit/sheet.php?p=Spirits_of_the_Ancients http://ignite-ga.me/presskit/sheet.php?p=kara_lyrics

TechRaptor: You had launched the Kickstarter originally earlier this year and cancelled it after it was slow to go anywhere. What did you learn from that experience that you brought to this campaign? What changes did you make?

Exposure is the key! Marketing counts! In the first time, we have prepared the material which is for KS only. We then did not see enuf backers. Before that, we had put GOH calling for Greenlight and we did have a number of supporters. We have [a] problem in exposure. People is not aware the existence of us in Kickstarter. So we stopped it, reviewed it and planned to show it again and shout for it.

TechRaptor: Going into each of the Kickstarters what sort of preparation did you do?

- Trailers, in which theme music composition, event scene rendering, game play scene capturing. - The images of our gameplays and rewards. - The content of why people has to know us, understand us and buy us.

TechRaptor: Where did the inspiration for the super early bird deal of $2 come from? Has it worked for you?

As you can see, it's not working as we expect. We thought this could create noise. Lack of the exposure is the key problem still.

TechRaptor: Many Kickstarters launch with Demos, especially from newer developers. Was there any thought of developing a demo version for Kickstarter before relaunching?

Yes. We did think of distributing a demo. The current prototype is playable enuf. However, we need to build UI & fine-tune of the AI. It's detail-craftsmanship to us. It always take more time than we think. Meanwhile, we are eager to know the public response to GOH first. So we make a decision of shifting the effort to Kickstarter marketing first. It also helps to gain feedback from backers.

TechRaptor: Anything else you’d like to add ?

We are HK based game company. We were born with mixed culture. We have got strong nutrient from Japanese and American ACG. We believe gamers need us. We could bring new impact to the market to sparks gamers' mind.


Again, I'd like to thank Gil for taking the time from what is surely a busy time to sit down and talk with us. You can check out their project on Kickstarter, which is seeking $100 000 NZD for the project and ends on January 9. If what you read here interested you, I suggest checking the page out - and looking at their Steam Greenlight Page which is still seeking to go up.

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don