Gravity Castle: A Puzzle Platformer Game with Changing Gravity Direction

Games in the platformer genre, such as the Super Mario series or Prince of Persia, have been popular for a long time. This recognition continued over time, and new systems and play methods began to gradually expand, such as games such as ‘I Wanna Be the Guy’, which made players suffer with tremendous difficulty, and Metroidvania, represented by the ‘Castlevania series’. Yes.

The game to be introduced this time is also a platformer game with some variations like this. However, unlike other platforms where the direction of gravity acts in one direction, this platform delivers a different experience by changing the direction of gravity in four directions. Every time the demo version was updated, I was able to examine the process more closely through the development log. I was curious about more stories that were not included in the development log. Mengdol) and talked about it.

Changing gravity, changing platform ‘Gravity Castle’

Gravity Castle is a 2D puzzle platformer game. If the main goal of a typical platformer game is to overcome various obstacles placed on the map through sophisticated manipulation, Gravity Castle goes one step further and adds the fun of solving puzzles to the platform. Accordingly, the user must break through the platform, which cannot be overcome with the character’s physical ability alone, by solving the various objects and devices placed on the map.

The game’s story and worldview are quite dark. First of all, from the main character of the game, he is a person who is sacrificed to the unknown ruins of the ‘Lantern’ in the endless snowfield, and is in danger of never being able to return alive. This ruin is a lonely space where only one person can enter at a time, but instead of getting frustrated and sitting down, the protagonist heads to the end of the ruins, believing that there will be a way to escape.

Gravity Castle is fundamentally a game whose main content is ‘exploration’. The mysterious and secret elements indispensable to exploration are contained in the platforms and ruins that contain the truth. The developer of Mengdol said, “People are beings who can find their own happiness in any harsh environment.” Together, they said, “Even in such an extreme situation, feelings such as curiosity, sense of achievement, and adventurous spirit will not disappear at all.”

The core of Gravity Castle is the ‘Soul Monument’ that helps pilgrims come back from the dead and go on adventures again, and the ‘Anti-Gravity Device’ that allows them to deal with gravity. In particular, this anti-gravity device is a very important element that penetrates the core of the story for both the creator and the installer. This mysterious device that changes the location of gravity according to manipulation is the identity of Gravity Castle, and it started with the developer’s idea of ​​’how about making a game where the laws of physics can be manipulated as variables’. However, he said that he is still thinking about it because the setting and direction of the changing gravity are not visually expressed properly because the platform ground is always made to be below for the convenience of operation.

From development to publishing alone, one-man developer studio REF

Studio Leff is a one-person game developer established to develop and release Gravity Castle. Gravity Castle is a project that started in early 2021, and it started as a simple hobby in the beginning, but gradually started to plan an actual launch and reached the establishment of the company. The developer of Mengdol completed business registration in October of last year, and is in charge of developing and operating the game alone. “It’s never easy to develop a single person, but I’m running with one single thought to develop a fun game,” he said.

The reason why I even proceeded with business registration was because of the reality that there are many restrictions on my personal identity when creating a page or signing a contract on a game platform. In addition, there were many cases where business registration was required to participate in various game development support projects. Therefore, in order to develop games in the realm of a job rather than a simple hobby, I felt the need to establish a systematic business, so I created a business.

Mengdol developers are continuously uploading the development process of Gravity Castle in various communities and SNS. The reason is that I want to open the game to an unspecified number of people and receive an objective evaluation. This continuous exposure is for communication and feedback, and there are many useful feedbacks gained through this. In particular, the feedback that was very helpful to the Mengdol developer was the word ‘boring’ that was delivered after uploading the demo to the platform.

Feedback that may seem ordinary at first glance, but this was the most important story. One of the things he considered important when he first developed the game was the game play time, and it was the feedback that he immediately noticed the repetitiveness that occurred as he was conscious of it and increased the volume of the content. As a result, even after giving up playtime, the repetitive content was deleted and cut. This is a ‘daring choice’ according to his expression, and he said, “Although the amount of content has decreased, I think the density of fun has increased significantly.”

It was not only the difficulties in development like the above. The Maengdol developer, who had to go through the publishing process alone, struggled with his head while creating a developer page on Steam, or lost track of the flow of publicity. Still, the reason I didn’t stop was because the fact that I was slowly but steadily getting better was the biggest driving force.

The developer of Mengdol said, “I don’t think everything can be solved in one fell swoop from the beginning, not just game development. Of course, you will experience failure, but I think the important thing is to learn from failure.” I learned a lot from this experience, and recently it has become much more natural to communicate with and seek advice from various developers.

Journey to begin in earnest with Steam Next Fest in June

Gravity Castle is scheduled to release early access in July at the latest, starting with the Steam Next Fest on the 20th. The official release is targeted at the end of this year. The developer of Mengdol said, “The more successful the better, but for now, our short-term goal is to secure the funds needed to develop the next game.” In addition, he said, “As a full-time game developer, the ultimate goal is to establish a company that develops unique indie games, and I hope Gravity Castle will be the first step in that.”

Concluding the interview, the developer of Mengdol said, “Games are a market that boasts a larger scale than any other content industry, but the reality is that the situation is not easy for small game developers, who are the basis of the ecosystem, compared to other content fields. Of course, even now, more indie games are being released every year, and the level of completion is increasing day by day, and the number of game developers who actually achieve great success is also increasing. I am optimistic that over time conditions for game developers will also get better.”

“However, we cannot simply leave this to the passage of time. Rather, I believe that game developers should prove themselves through more effort and more interesting works. I think showing the value and potential of indie games to the world is a task given to domestic indie game developers today.”