[exclusive] Defending 1930’s Chicago from the Meat Mafia - a Prohibeast Dev Interview
I had a chat with Théo and Adrien from Super-AC about their upcoming title Prohibeast: a tactical stealth game in the spirit of Commandos and Desperados. It’s set in a 1930’s Chicago inhabited by animals who outlawed the consumption of meat. Crime and black markets are flourishing and players control a squad of characters to clean the streets!
Beasts in 1930’s suits with guns and vision cones - Prohibeast aim to make both fans of Commandos and fans of anthropomorphized animals happy! Image: Super-AC
The Meaty Origin Story
What made you guys choose Chicago in the 1930’s as a backdrop?
In the concepting phase, we knew we wanted to make something with animals. And we knew we wanted to do something in the style of the Blacksad comics.
One day someone came up with the idea that meat is a controversial topic in a society where predators and prey animals live together.
So when thinking about it, developing the world, we found out that the meat prohibition would work similarly to the alcohol prohibition - that's how we chose the setting.
History, but with More Fur
Will Prohibeast’s story follow that of the actual historic events closely?
We have the same base, with prohibition, mafia, Capone. It’s based on the movie The Untouchables a lot. We also read a lot about the time and so we mixed history with our own ideas and turned it into a fun story. With this approach, we could create a unique new world for our characters to live in.
So there’s lots of cool Chicago stuff in there?
We did our best to have real life landmarks - if you know Chicago, you’ll recognize places! And for people interested in this era, they’ll recognize characters as well. Most famously Capone, of course. People who enjoyed The Untouchables will catch some references as well!
The Untouchables is quite important for you!
Yeah, they have those archetypes in the movie: the leader, the sharpshooter, a lot of common points with what we were trying to do with the game, with a team of specialists. We watched the movie many times and we think there is an overlap in audiences for the film and our game.
So, What's the Beef?
As a vegetarian I’m curious: Is there a message you want to convey with the meat prohibition?
*laughs* We think interpretations of players can be various.
We don’t have the type of society where we eat our neighbours, so it’s more of a fantasy setting. But the message that can be taken from the game: maybe what society wants you to do is not always the best thing for you. As a carnivorous animal, maybe you don’t want to adapt to a new society where you can’t eat what you want, just because it’s prohibited.
Is Prohibition new in your world?
Yes, they’ve had it for about five years. In the lore of the game, there’s been enough time to form an underground meat market and Chicago’s already completely corrupted by the mafia.
This crime-fighting dog got caught and now has to fight his way out of the situation! Image: Super-AC
It's a Dog-Eat-Bear World
What gameplay can players expect?
We use control and input schemes that players are used to that worked in other titles.
New to the genre are senses that animals have, they can smell you or have excellent vision or hearing, so we tried to implement that in the gameplay. Not a lot of games used olfactory senses in a game, so we had to pretty much invent our own way there.
How do the differences in animals play out in your world?
In other titles, there usually are different classes of enemies, like smart officers or dumb grunts. We tried to do something like that but with different species, a bear will be a lot stronger than a simple hyena, for example.
We have four types of enemies: Hyena, wolf, vulture, bear. Depending on the animal, they have different strengths, skills and weaknesses. For example, one of our heroes can throw a frisbee and what happens when a wolf guard sees a frisbee? Our characters are people but their animals instincts certainly influence their behaviour.
Inspired by the Greats
As a smaller studio, what do you focus on to deliver a good experience in a genre with titles like Commandos or Mimimi titles?
Our main objective is to focus on the originality of the game, with the anthropomorphic aspects and different skills enemies and characters can have through them being animals.
What inspired your art style?
The Blacksad comics were very inspirational for the anthropomorphic design of our characters. For the environmental art, we’re inspired by Batman and gangster movies As for games, the Mafia titles and Empire Of Sin were influential as well.
How long have you been working on Prohibeast so far?
Too much *laughs*. More than two years now, especially considering pre-production.
Did you have to iterate a lot until you found the right formula?
When we started the project we had many ideas, but after a year of work we had to decide what we wanted to keep and what not, in order to actually make the game. The more features and levels you have, the more you have to do QA for and debug.
What inspiration did you take from other titles?
When I was young I watched my father play Commandos on the PC a lot. I always wanted to make a game like that, so we took a lot of inspiration from the series.
A lot of the game mechanics are inspired by the Desperados series. And all games by Mimimi are a gold mine for reference and inspiration. Of course we didn’t try to copy them but try to gain inspiration and see what works best for our universe and game. We also looked at recent titles like Commandos Origins and learned what worked well for them: how the doors work there inspired our own.
The Art of Not Getting Seen
What do you think makes Prohibeast a good stealth game?
Making a stealth game is a lot harder than we thought in the beginning!
Since we are in a top down view there are lots of things that work in the code but visually don't, like when a guard is close to you but can’t see you because of the sight cone not hitting your character. “Why doesn’t this guy see me?!” You need to make the world feel convincing.
Level design is the biggest part of making a good stealth game, though! Enemy placement is extremely important, as every zone of the game is a bit of a puzzle, with a so-called enemy chain. So you have to figure out how to get rid of one guy without triggering the guard around the corner and the next guy after that! Of course your skills for how to deal with the enemies and the environment need to be fun and balanced as well. Another one is how to make players feel safe when they’re hiding in a good spot - or feel threatened when they’re in bright lights and potentially seen by the enemy!
Image: Super-AC
What's on the Menu?
The game’s currently in Alpha, when can players download something playable on Steam?
We plan to have a demo out before the end of October, so we can have it ready for the Steam Next Fest. We’re looking forward to getting lots of reactions and feedback from people! At gamescom we had a player that finished a supposed 30 minutes level in 10 minutes, so once we came back we made changes to the level to accommodate more experienced players.
How much content can players expect?
We will have ten hours of main gameplay over eight levels - each level being between 30 minutes to 90 long. There are also optional objectives that can add another 10-15 hours of gameplay if you want to do all of them. Once the base game is done, we might add more content in the future, like challenges. At the end of each mission you’ll get a score, so there’s replay value in trying to play perfectly. We’re also giving you steam achievements like finishing a level with a specific character or in a certain way.
How the Sausages Get Made
You’re part of a group of studios working together, called Super-AC. How does that work?
We are a bunch of indie studios: about 50 people working on 5-6 projects at the same time.
It’s meant to work as an incubator for small studios and it helps us with publishing and marketing. Once we release the game, we hope we’ll be able to form our own studio!
Tell me a bit about your studio - how many people are you?
We are 13 core members - we are still working on a name for the studio *laughs* Most of us work locally in Tonnerre - our sound designer is remote though.
How many hats are each of you wearing?
We’re all Jacks Of All Trades.Since we’re a small team, we can’t try and find every specialist we might need, so we learn new skills on the fly when needed. If we have to fill a gap, we can usually find someone to help out, since we’re so multi-faceted in our skillsets. All of our artists and designers have basically the same set of skills, but some people are better in a specialty than others.
You’re making your game in Unity, right?
We use Playmaker in Unity for scripting, since it’s a very fast way to learn coding. We’ve been trying to implement C# but visual scripting is our go-to to help get the game done.
Bringing It Home
With the industry in a crisis, which opportunities do you see for European games?
The actual issue for European games is a little bit contrasted. On one side we have some big games like games by Ubisoft which aren’t as successful as they could be. On the other hand we have some outsiders like expedition 33, this is a cool one for us Frenchies and Indies . This proves that indie games always have potential and a place to make it on the market. With titles like Eriksholm and Commandos Origins we are hopeful people are still waiting for games like ours!
What platforms are you aiming for?
PC, for starters: Steam/Epic Games. We’re also hoping to get it ported to consoles if possible. You’ll be able to play it with a controller on your PC as well!
How can people support you?
You can follow us on Instagram, Reddit, and of course wishlist Prohibeast on Steam! Talking about the game on our Reddit and creating interest is the best way to build a community and help us out a lot. Once we have our demo released, there’ll be a link to our Discord if you want to chat with us as well!
