Hinterberg, a city within the Alps, had been a stupendous, if quiet, vacationer vacation spot earlier than the looks of 25 magical dungeons made it a world-renowned attraction. “We love when video games provide you with fascinating locations to discover, locations that really feel actual and that you may make your private home for some time,” Microbird Video games explains. “From the beginning, we needed to make one thing that has quite a lot of classical ARPG parts however is ready in a spot that’s grounded in actuality. We felt that the central European Alps are additionally an fascinating trip vacation spot that not everyone may have the ability to go to, so we actually favored the concept of our recreation providing a vacation expertise there.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg splits its days into 4 components: morning, midday, night, and night time. Inside these parts, you do every little thing from exploring dungeons and battling monsters to fixing puzzles and constructing relationships. It’s an fascinating combine, to not point out the distinction between the stress-free trip theme and the action-packed schedule out there, however as we present in our personal expertise with the sport, these disparate components meld collectively very properly. “Dungeons of Hinterberg is certainly a comparatively giant recreation for a workforce of 9 folks. It was all the time significantly necessary to us that each one components of the sport ought to match collectively in a significant approach, and that the general expertise will not be solely significant, however above all else, enjoyable!” Microbird Video games says.
![Interview: Xbox Game Pass' Dungeons of Hinterberg devs on gameplay, story, and more](https://www.trueachievements.com/imgs/151209/interview-xbox-game-pass-dungeons-of-hinterberg-devs-on-gameplay-story-and-more.jpg)
“For instance, we paid quite a lot of consideration to making sure that each one magical skills can be utilized for each fight and puzzles. The rewards you get when forging friendships with different characters all affect the dungeon crawling facet in a significant approach — for instance, you may get new abilities, distinctive gadgets, or unlock small gameplay programs. If a dungeon ever feels too difficult, you may take into account spending some extra time socializing, and unlocking some useful skills that approach. It was undoubtedly a problem to attach all these points and to tweak and iterate till it was all working collectively, however I believe it undoubtedly provides a ton of depth and likewise enjoyable to the completed recreation!”
You could have 4 biomes to select from when deciding the place to spend your afternoons. “Every of them comes with its personal distinct visuals and vibe, however in addition they every provide totally different units of spells that the participant can solely use in that individual atmosphere,” Microbird Video games explains. “It was necessary to us that the spells work nice for each fight and for puzzles and that they really feel totally different from biome to biome. As an illustration, the alpine mountain pasture atmosphere comes with dungeons which can be mine-themed, and the spells that associate with which can be a really heavy exploding wrecking ball and a steel ball and chain. Whereas within the forest, your spells are wind-themed, equivalent to a controllable whirlwind with which you’ll be able to choose up objects or your self.”
Microbird Video games continues, including, “However we additionally actually prefer to shake up the sport’s mechanics in some dungeons fairly a bit — for instance, one in all our later dungeons is loosely impressed by ‘Monument Valley’ and can have you determine find out how to reconfigure rooms with variable gravity in an nearly Escher-style isometric perspective.”
Within the recreation, Hinterberg sees an inflow of vacationers and adventurers after the looks of dungeons and magic, together with “skilled slayers, influencers, and informal vacationers which can be on the lookout for a family-friendly alternative to slay some monsters. There’s additionally the locals, a few of that are excited for his or her city to be the middle of everybody’s consideration, whereas others have a extra important view of mass tourism.” Of all these, there are over 15 NPCs who we will work on constructing relationships with — as Microbird Video games says, “far more than will match right into a typical playthrough, so that you’ll need to determine who you need to hang around with, both primarily based on how you want them or on what perks you’ll get for deepening your friendships with them. Relationship rewards can vary from stat upgrades like extra HP or dodge stamina all the best way to unlocking total gameplay programs, equivalent to armor upgrades, the photograph mode, or a combo counter.”
In case you’re questioning how Dungeons of Hinterberg’s time parts work, Microbird Video games has defined it in full: “Each morning you begin with a breakfast in your terrace, and choose which biome you need to go to at present. Each biome has about 5-7 dungeons. Not all are accessible from the beginning, and the sport is fairly non-linear on this facet: gamers can have freedom to choose which dungeon to enter subsequent, and can discover themselves returning to beforehand visited biomes as they see match.” Within the afternoons, you head to one in all these overworld biomes, the place you may discover, chat to NPCs, and calm down at one of many recreation’s pretty scenic spots (which additionally assist enhance a few of your stats). Then, in fact, there are the dungeons themselves, packed stuffed with monsters, puzzles, and loot.
![Interview: Xbox Game Pass' Dungeons of Hinterberg devs on gameplay, story, and more](https://www.trueachievements.com/imgs/151210/interview-xbox-game-pass-dungeons-of-hinterberg-devs-on-gameplay-story-and-more.jpg)
Within the night, you head again to Hinterberg, to buy, make improve to your gear, or promote what you have discovered, earlier than choosing your important exercise for the night. “In case you really feel like stress-free by yourself, there are additionally many choices, together with a ship trip, spa, or cinema go to, that may enhance your stats. Again in your lodge room for the night time, you should have a while to consider the day’s experiences, and possibly watch some TV or get pleasure from e-book earlier than going to mattress — simply ensure you have sufficient power to deal with the following day!”
The beautiful village of Hinterberg itself was impressed by Austrian cities that the workforce visited between 2020 and 2021 when brainstorming the sport. “Locations like Hallstatt, which is so picturesque that the Chinese language have really created a life-sized copy of the city in Guangdong; or Unhealthy Gastein, which is layered right into a mountain very like Hinterberg, and whose grand resorts ooze with outdated monarchy appeal.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s eye-catching visible model, in the meantime, simply stands out in all of the trailers and pictures proven earlier than launch. “Founders Philipp and Regina are each huge followers of stylized artwork in media, be it cell shading in different video games like Zelda, or animated films like Into the Spiderverse,” Microbird Video games says. “We additionally learn a bunch of graphic novels and studied the visible types of varied illustrators. For a small studio, it clearly additionally is sensible for manufacturing: working with stylized belongings can will let you use extra environment friendly processes and pipelines.
“For Dungeons of Hinterberg, our important aim was to create expressive worlds: realism or stage of element had been much less necessary to us than evoking a sure temper, impression or feeling within the gamers. A restricted however sturdy shade palette is a really useful design instrument as nicely and likewise permits us to create very visually distinct biomes and dungeon settings.” This undoubtedly comes throughout within the recreation, which has lovely and putting locations to discover, in addition to an fascinating distinction between a powerful feeling of leisure and the chaotic dungeon exploration.
We beloved what we have performed up to now, and you may take a look at extra data about that in our Dungeons of Hinterberg first impressions. In case you’re fascinated by listening to extra from the event facet, take a look at what Microbird Video games needed to say about how Xbox achievements “ought to by no means be grindy”.