Songs of Conquest may look familiar at first glance. It’s an adventure strategy game that allows you to control an army, build your own kingdom, and hopefully defeat your enemies, whether artificial intelligence or other players.
It’s full of nostalgia and mimics other games of the same genre from the ’90s, but it keeps up with modern standards in many ways. A big standout is the visual style, which gives us gorgeous 2.5D environments and characters. While chatting with lead game designer Carl Toftfelt, we talked about the design choices behind this unique look.
“We started out just doing 2D pixel art because we kind of liked the longevity of pixel art, that it didn’t get stale,”Toftfelt said.“And then we started working on it, and then one day, a technical artist, he was just playing around and putting it on canvas. And then I walked over to his desk and I zoomed in and was like, oh, It’s really cool. It’s almost like it’s 3D, it just appears in the world in a different way. I was like, okay, I guess we’re doing this. This is taking longer than we thought. Long, but well worth it.
Check out our full interview below to see how Songs of Conquest breaks new ground while maintaining a nostalgic feel.
