Blackheart, developed by NZ-based indie studio Hyporeal, releases tomorrow! Blackheart is a top-down action RPG centred on Azriel Blackheart and the inner conflict of the royal Blackheart family. Based on the world of the Azriel Blackheart books created by studio founder, Josiah. We spoke with Josiah about the debut title, the development journey, and the transition from novels to a video game medium.
Hey Josiah! Thanks for taking the time to join us today. How are you feeling? The release for Blackheart is not too far away.
Yeah, I’m feeling good. Feeling excited, a little nervous. It’s been something that I’ve been working on for over four years now. It feels hard to properly comprehend it until it’s out; there’s still a little bit of polish I’ve got to do. It’s pretty normal, especially in your first game, to be frantically trying to finish stuff. If I hadn’t set myself a launch date, then I would have kept procrastinating and trying to perfect everything, which, in this case, can be an enemy of never finishing your game.
Can you tell us about your journey up to founding your studio, Hyporeal?
I founded the studio in 2020. I did a computer science degree after finishing high school. After that degree, I worked at a mobile game studio called Runaway as a junior programmer. That was a great experience to get my foot in the door of the games industry and see what it’s like to create a game from the prototype stage to launching it. I was there for a year and a half. I always felt that mobile games weren’t what I wanted to do long-term. I thought, while I’m still young, try to make what I really want to make, which is Blackheart.
The game is based on two fantasy books I wrote in high school and university. It tells a story about a royal family and all the drama and political intrigues. I started making it in my spare time, and it was really rough for awhile. I had some help from artists who did a few pieces for me here and there. I wanted to work on the game more, but I couldn’t do that while working full time. You have a full day at the office, and then the last thing you want to do is boot up Unity again. Luckily, I did some part-time web development work for my dad’s company, and the rest of the time I could work on Blackheart.
I found out about Code (Centre of Digital Excellence); their first funding rounds were localised to Dunedin. They had a meet and greet where the CEO, Tim Ponting, spoke. I thought it sounded like an amazing opportunity. I was at a stage where I already had a prototype, and I thought I should apply for the startup funding. Everything was a bit rough, and the concept was quite vague; unfortunately, my application was unsuccessful. I got some great feedback; there was potential, but it just needed fleshed out more. Later on, through our second try, Blackheart got the Kickstarter funding, which helped us fully startup and brought on some artists, and we’ve been working on the game ever since. Now we’re almost at that finish line.
Could you give us a bit more background on the Blackheart book creation process and why you wanted to go into the video game direction?
I never really tried to be a professional author because it seemed so saturated. I sold copies of the books to friends and family and my old school library. I love telling interesting stories, but I found that I didn’t think books were the medium for making a career. Once I learned about video game development, I wanted to tell some interesting stories through that medium.
At its core, I would describe Blackheart, the video game, as falling into the action RPG genre with a top-down perspective. You play as a young character called Azriel Blackheart, part of a royal family. They’re all power-hungry and scheming against each other, and you’re the black sheep of the family. There’s a lot of banter; the characters are pretty snarky, which is fun to write. It’s a story about this family and a character who gets magical powers that seem extraordinary and powerful but come with a price he doesn’t realise he’s paying. It’s about different moralities clashing and the growth of the main character, who initially wants to prove himself and show he’s the best but realises there’s more he can do with this power and a responsibility associated with it.
Is Blackheart a direct adaptation of the books?
I think of it more as a parallel time-line or retelling. The books are quite different. It has the same characters and some of the same settings and plot points, but a lot of qualities are different; a book doesn’t translate directly into a video game. We had to think carefully about how to take the same ideas and tell them in a way that makes sense in a video game. In a book, events can be instigated by another character, but when someone’s playing a video game, they should be the ones instigating events. There’s a lot in the books that are just conversations that wouldn’t be fun gameplay-wise.
Action RPG mixed with top-down shooter elements; how come you chose that genre and direction to tell Blackheart’s story?
I really like that art style or perspective. One of the main inspirations for the game is the game Hyper Light Drifter, a bit of a classic. I remember playing that for the first time and being so absorbed in it. The way the character moves around the world and the art style were really appealing to me. I wanted to make something kind of similar to that. The game actually started off as a pixel art style as well. Our first iteration was pixel art; the style was not cohesive or appealing enough, and also the thing with pixel art is that it’s so saturated.
We had great mentoring from CODE, specifically Vee Prendergast. I remember very clearly the advice: if you’re going to do pixel art, you have to do it better than everyone else, otherwise you’re going to be lost in the saturation. We came up with a style that’s more unique and more us. Bringing Sean onto the project as the main artist, he’s been able to realise that for Blackheart and really create a unique art style for the game.
You mentioned inspiration from Hyper Light Drifter. Were there any other inspirations for Blackheart or the series as a whole when doing the books?
A lot of people, when they see it, comment that it looks like Hades, because we definitely took some inspiration from it in terms of character designs, mechanics, and perspective. The storyline is so well executed, tying the narrative into every gameplay mechanic; that’s something I’d love to emulate eventually, but it definitely inspired me personally. Another inspiration would be Children of Morta; the action RPG elements and the different characters, especially the family aspects.
Blackheart involves a family that has pretty heavy internal problems. What made you choose this heavier, darker theme?
Haha I’m a happy, cheerful guy, but as a teenager, I was really into dark fantasy books. I remember reading Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence; I really enjoyed it. The main character is such an antihero; there was just something intriguing about it; I wanted to do something similar. I really like dark fantasy because it creates settings where the situation is bad, but there are usually human elements or redeeming qualities that make the world interesting.
In Blackheart, you have various spells and passive abilities. Are you encouraging different builds as players progress through the game?
Yes, there’s an emphasis on choosing your own build. The game’s narrative is linear, with three different endings and a secret ending you can find. Because of this linear story, I wanted to give players choices in combat, which is part of why I wanted to add build diversity. You can customise your load out of different spells. Depending on what you find in the world, you can create some cool builds. There’s a build where you can retaliate damage back to enemies when they hit you, builds focused on renewing healing charges, or raw damage where you try to one-shot everything but get one-shotted in return. There’s variety in how you can approach the builds.
Speaking of combat, I noticed there’s a bit of challenge to it. What’s your development strategy when it comes to combat gameplay?
The difficulty is interesting. A lot of people who haven’t played top-down action RPGs find it quite difficult. I’m not planning on turning the difficulty down, because those who have found it difficult have said it’s rewarding once they understand the mechanics. I’ve considered an easy story mode for those who just want to enjoy the narrative, but at launch, we probably won’t have that. If people ask for it enough, we’ll implement it. I want the game to be challenging enough that it feels like an accomplishment when you overcome challenges. Games like the Souls series have influenced me. I wouldn’t say Blackheart is difficult at that level, but the challenge there makes those games enjoyable. I want that same feeling in our game.
Can you explain finding that balance in terms of difficulty?
Yes, it’s really hard, because as the creator, I coded the mechanics, so I know how they work. I’ll play an encounter and think it’s too easy, but I’ve been playing for six months. I watch others play and realise most people can’t perfectly time the dash. That’s why we’ve done some playtesting with our community.
Difficulty is very hard to manage, especially when player levels and stats change and they can use different builds. A certain build might feel really difficult while another feels trivial. The good thing about Blackheart is you can change your build at any rest point. I think it’s good if certain builds feel weak in certain encounters while others feel strong. It incentivizes players to look in their spell list and come up with something new.
Do you have an estimate of how long Blackheart might be for players?
That’s hard to gauge. When I play, I’m speedrunning through the whole thing. I’ve watched people spend over two hours in the first act, and there are three acts. The second act is probably the longest, and the third is the shortest. If you take your time, read the dialogue, and don’t clear all the bosses on your first attempt, the game is probably around five to six hours.
Regarding release platforms, Blackheart is releasing on Steam; do you have any other platforms in mind?
We had a big push to find a publisher in 2023. Some of the messaging was contingent on finding one, but it turned out to be a difficult ordeal. I reached a point where I decided to launch it on Steam with our three-person team. We’re not localising it; I don’t think it’s feasible with the amount of dialogue. That was probably a design decision I wouldn’t make in the future. To answer your question, we’re launching on Steam initially. If we get interest for ports to Switch or Xbox, then we’ll do it, but for now, it’s just Steam.
What are your thoughts of the New Zealand game development scene? We touched on CODE before; can you give us your thoughts on their impact and the general progression of our industry?
CODE has been a massive boon to New Zealand games and especially to Dunedin. There have been so many studios that have popped up in the last few years, including ours. The industry is going to keep growing thanks to support from places like CODE. Having them come along and create these pathways, help bring something to life, and actually give them the resources that they need to do that, it’s just amazing. I still can’t believe that we got this opportunity.
Can we expect more novels in the future for Blackheart, or do you plan to continue in the video game direction?
Yeah, great question. I would really like to write another book in the universe. I actually did start writing another one; I wrote the first few chapters and planned out the general plot points. I would like to come back and write that once I launch Blackheart, but of course we’ll see how things go after the release.
Is there anything else you’d like to add on how we can keep up with Blackheart and Hyporeal?
You can wishlist on Steam! Please also follow us on Twitter; that’s where I post most of the updates. If you want to be part of the community, you can join our Discord server. We also have a YouTube channel for video-focused updates.
Blackheart is available on Steam on October 30th. Blackheart Book One can be read online here; physical editions can be purchased via this form.
