GamesRoguelikeDead CellsDead Cells developers felt “pressure” to match the roguelike’s high bar in their next game: “It’s awful and very, very cool at the same time"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRoguelikeDead CellsDead Cells developers felt “pressure” to match the roguelike’s high bar in their next game: “It’s awful and very, very cool at the same time"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Motion Twin)
The sophomore slump, or second album syndrome, is a well-documented phenomenon in music where breakout artists sometimes struggle to replicate the heights of their debut in their second album, but does that ever happen to game studios? The developers behind Dead Cells certainly felt that pressure while makingtheir next roguelike launching this month.
Inan interview with GamesRadar+, Thomas Vasseur and Yannick Berthier of Dead Cells creator Motion Twin talked through the sometimes overwhelming pressure of following up one of the best and most successful roguelikes in history with their next game, Windblown,another similarly gorgeous action game.
“It’s awful and very, very cool at the same time,” Vasseur says. “Because when you want to do better, it’s like you’re running after another thing. So I think we needed this pressure to be effective in the development, but when it is too hard for us to think about that, we just remember what we are doing. We just wanted to make a game to play together.” Vasseur even likens that rush to the feeling of storming through a World of Warcraft dungeon as a seasoned veteran. “We really want to have this kind of feeling to rush. It’s hard to be in the shadow of Dead Cells.”
The pressure indirectly put onto Motion Twin newcomers, who joined after Dead Cells rocked the world, was slightly different. As one such new recruit, Berthier felt he had to “reach that level” and thus spent “all my nights for a year and a half to, I don’t know, kind of fill myself with knowledge that I missed in my previous experiences because I wasn’t working on such games.”
“The added pressure is like you have millions of players that are waiting to check what you will do, and that will compare with Dead Cells, so you have to be at the level to be able to give them something else that will matter to them and that they will consider interesting,” he continues.
Despite the mental pressure of trying to live up to something as successful as Dead Cells, Motion Twin also acknowledges that it’s “lucky” to have that financial success to fall back on. “Not all indie teams have the chance of working based on the success of something else that can buy the groceries, as you say, so that’s a huge benefit,” Berthier says. Dead Cell’s popularity meant the team could spend years working on Windblown without having to take on jobs-for-hire or releasing games that didn’t match “the level of quality we wanted.”
We’ll see what those years of work culminated in when Windblown hits early access on October 24.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
1Squid Game season 2 review: “Secures its place as one of the best shows on television right now”
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2Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
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3Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
3
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4Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”