Lithuanian studio discusses process behind physical and digital versions of ‘Gremlins, Inc.’

Belief in the longevity of a game concept has at times prompted developers to explore such concepts in other media. For example, Might & Delight’s Shelter was later presented as a children’s picture book. The team at Charlie Oscar (based in Lithuania) are following a similar approach of cross-media pollination for their first project, but are going about it in a different way. 'Gremlins, Inc.' is a digital board game experience, but it is also a physical card game. Both are being developed concurrently and will be available soon on Steam Early Access and Amazon, respectively. GameZone had the opportunity to chat with Sergei Klimov about the game's setup of capitalism and corruption.

Like other board games where meeting win conditions is made into a flexible directive, Gremlins Inc. features an open structure that allows for multiple pathways that players can follow to secure the most prestige or political might. Klimov says this is an important distinction to make on how they’ve positioned their title, for it grounds the video game iteration in a traditional aesthetic. “The reason why we call Gremlins, Inc. not just a ‘strategy’ but rather a ‘digital board game strategy’ is that the game has a lot of mechanics interwoven with each other," Klimov said. "None of them [are] crucial, but all offering different ways to win the game. This, to us, is the board game legacy — the fact that depending on the player, or even on the player’s mood in the specific day, he or she may choose an angle very different from the others.”

Klimov went on to detail some of the strategies that players can adopt during a given play session. “Let’s say that we play until 10 score points,” Klimov began. “One of the strategies would be to play a Chaos Card called ’Sacrifice’, which is playable in the Inferno and requires the player to discard any already active permanent card, in exchange granting ten points. So I would just look for the cheapest/easiest permanent card to activate, and once I’ve done it, I’ll make my way to the Inferno, sacrifice it, and win the session right there.” In truth, the execution of such a strategy wouldn’t be as clear-cut, as Klimov added that observant players can disrupt plans by arresting you or teleporting you to an inconvenient location, as some examples.

With other strategic approaches, there is always an element of risk that must be accounted for: speed (with slow-moving actions), luck (waiting for several variables to work in your favor), or reversal of circumstances (if financial investments take a turn for the worse). These opportunities then grow if the objective is set to 20 points, in turn increasing the role of psychology on gameplay (i.e., certain approaches will mean a red flag to your opponents).

Interestingly, while the cards that appear in both versions are alike in appearance, they don’t necessarily carry the same function. What’s more, some of the mechanics (e.g., gambling, bribery, trap-setting, events of misfortune) differ in context and application between the two versions. “Very early on, we held some hope that we may end up designing both the video game and the board game with the same mechanics,” Klimov shared. “But this flew out the window once we started to add features which made total sense for the video game, but lead to hours and hours per session with the board prototype.” A lot of these design choices are dictated by the medium they’re working in. So while the card game may have more caps to prevent it from becoming too overblown with complexity, there’s more leeway with the digital board game because of “invisible and very fast” calculations running behind the scenes. “Like with PC and consoles, handhelds and desktops, I think you need to start from what the platform, the medium offers, and then design from there.”

When designing the in-game world, Klimov says there wasn’t a conscious decision to go with a Steampunk motif from the start. The process stemmed more from the lives and motivations of the characters, rather than conforming all elements to a pre-determined theme. “We started with the world of gremlins who would be immortal [and] selfish, and focused on the sort of grandeur that is typical for the Victorian era." He continued: “[We] went along what our game designer defined as ‘iconic 19th century scenes, populated by gremlins.’ Once we started exploring the motivation of gremlins, we understood that money (i.e., capital) as well as all things engineering (i.e., machines, factories, accessories) are the real passion of gremlins, and thus we entered the realm of Steampunk…mid-way through pre-production back in 2013.”

Nowadays, digital board game experiences get flack for not allowing online match-ups (something that Mario Party has lately been the recipient of). But when asked about how online play factors into the project, Klimov shared that it is in their plans to incite a competitive scene. “We’re looking at a ladder system with ratings similar to ELO in Chess, so that you’re able to start a new session and invite players who rank +/- 10% off your own rating, which should be fun enough for everyone.” Klimov remains hopeful that because sessions can be played with 2-6 players, “90% of the games played will be with human players, not AI.”

It’s realistic to recognize, however, that Gremlins, Inc. faces an uphill battle, as digital board games aren’t often sought out, instead slotted into a niche category where they can struggle to gain traction among non-fans. And it’s something that Klimov is cognizant of, agreeing that the genre is not represented well in today’s gaming landscape.

“A part of the reason,” Klimov mused, “is that a few years ago, the market saw too many lame ‘digital ports’ of board games that were ultimately mishandled. One the biggest challenges is the user interface, whereas I think quite many projects were simply rushed through that stage of development and ended up with a disappointing UX.” In Klimov's view, digital board games often fall into two categories: “very accessible” and “weak”, or “fairly deep but absolutely niche.” And unfortunately, this results in segmented audiences. “My hope,” Klimov continued, “is that with a good number of mid-sized (more than one but under 10) indie dev studios already in business now, we’ll see more products in this genre.”

Translating ‘Gremlins, Inc.’ into two separate but still connected experiences takes a team of skilled designers, and Charlie Oscar is evidently well-equipped for the challenging task.