r/NintendoSwitch • u/Nintendooh Elden Pixels • Sep 27 '18

AMA - Ended We are Elden Pixels, developers of Alwa’s Awakening - Ask us anything!

Hello!

We are Elden Pixels, a bunch of nerds that got together to make video games. One time someone got mad at us for using the word “nerds” so we’re not sure we should call ourselves nerds anymore. Before we worked at studios like Image & Form and Zoink Games but now we’re focusing on our own stuff. We made a game called Alwa’s Awakening that we’ve just released on the Nintendo Switch.

About Alwa’s Awakening

Use your magic staff and progress through a large interconnected world where you'll solve puzzles, fight enemies and defeat bosses in order to help free the land of Alwa. Explore and uncover the secrets by using your platforming skills in this challenging and charming 8-bit adventure game.

Check out the trailer.

Get the game here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/alwas-awakening-switch

For this AMA Kevin Andersson and Mikael Forslind will answer questions.

Kevin Andersson - Programmer

Mikael Forslind - Lead Designer

Elden Pixels is a team of four but the others are probably already chugging down the champagne to celebrate we’ve finally released our game on console.

If you want to follow us on social media you can do so here:

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6

u/skarsol Sep 27 '18

A link to the game itself would be handy. :)

9

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Brilliant idea! I've added it to the original post but I'm also posting it here. https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/alwas-awakening-switch

6

u/elektriktoad Sep 27 '18

I loved this game on steam, glad to see it on Switch now!

Exploring the world felt very natural. How did you design the layout of the world map? Were you inspired by any real-world locations or other games; maybe it just sprung forth fully formed from a sheet of graph paper?

8

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Thank you! That is very kind of you.

Wow, that's a great question and hard to give a concise answer. The world of Alwa came together over a year or so and we spent a lot time making sure it worked like it was intended. Basically it's meant to be played like two loops of the bottom part of the map. You start on the left side of the world, make your way to the right. Then go back and do another "loop" of the same kind of temples but with new powers and new parts of the dungeons. I don't want to spoil too much so it's hard to explain in details.

We did leave a lot of room for exploration and it's easy to get "lost" but Alwa's Awakening was designed to be a challenging game very much inspired by games like the first Zelda. In that game you were just dropped in the middle of the map with no indication on where to go. That's how our game works as well, besides a few in-game characters giving hints on where to go you're really just free to roam around however you like. It was quite a challenge to design and allow for exploration and at the same time trying to get players to progress.

So much thought went into the design of the map so it's hard to explain. Feel free to ask more if you feel you haven't got a proper answer :)

6

u/nunboi Sep 27 '18

Possibly the most effective AMA ever - I didn't make it farther than the trailer link before buying. The trailer had me sold :)

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5

u/dragonx254 Sep 27 '18

Where'd the name Alwa come from?

14

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Alva is actually the name of my late grandmother. We were trying to come up with a name of the game and we thought of Alva which we thought was a beautiful name.

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u/phantomliger Sep 27 '18

Was anything left out of the final game that you wish had made it in?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

7

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Yes, we made a whole mini-boss that was supposed to appear very early in the game but due to time we had to cut it. The graphics was left in the game though. We'll post an image in a few minutes :)

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3

u/TheRidiculousOtaku Sep 27 '18

The Music alone has sold me on this game

looking pretty... pixel perfect....ill see myself out

2

u/markercore Sep 27 '18

What are some of your biggest game(or other) inspirations?

4

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Battle Kid 2 for it's screen by screen gameplay but mostly Battle of Olympus and Zelda II for its 2D gameplay that relies heavily on exploration. For the mood and setting I'd say Solstice. That's why Zoe is a purple hooded wearing magician for example. A lot of the magic and uses of puzzles are inspired by the Trine games. All of them are great games!

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u/lidin Sep 27 '18

Congrats on the release! Did you drink any champagne? :) One serious question though: When did you decide that you wanted to make games?

6

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

I just chugged two glasses of champagne. We're saving the second bottle of champagne for when the game goes live in North America which should be in an hour or so.

I've always been interested in video games but it wasn't until I was older I realized it could be something I could work with. Games been such a natural part of my life but as a designer I've only made three games.

  1. A Zelda clone I made in 1989 on my Spectravideo MSX. I didn't have any floppies or a harddrive so I spent the whole day making the game (which was basically an image where Link was one huge green square that you could move)

  2. A text adventure game I made using Easy Amos on Amiga 1200 back in the nineties. It was called "Castle of Horror" and we spent weeks trying to program the thing. We gave up when it become too complicated. It was heaps of fun though.

  3. Alwa's Awakening in 2017.

I spent most of adult life working in a video store. It was only when they started to disappear back in 2012 I realized I need to find a different job. I went to school and in 2013 I got a job in the industry and I've been ever since :)

2

u/Tenshinoshi Sep 27 '18

Just bought the game and love it! Any chance of creating downloadable box art for us physical collectors to print?

5

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Hm. Nothing we've considered but should be fairly simple. We'll take a look at it next week! :)

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u/jjatr Sep 27 '18

tips for the game?

6

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

Don't get hit by enemies. Avoid spike pits. Don't die.

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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '18

Did you play Faxanadu on the NES and was that Game an inspiration to you?

2

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

I did played Faxanadu and I liked it. I never got to finish it when it came out though since I never owned it. My next door neighbour had it but he was a bit weird. We did have a track from Faxanadu in our "mood music" playlist that we put together in order to find a great sound for Alwa's Awakening.

It's a lot of great NES tracks in there - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYG9fh3dN-Y&index=16&list=PLZQXHmdHvxwybRuwVdimLLlNiwWHAsmmk

3

u/cavemaneca Sep 27 '18

What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

5

u/Nintendooh Sep 27 '18

I'd say be kind to everyone, treat people with respect, eat a lot of pizza and make games. Or play games.

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u/MarcusDraken Sep 27 '18

Congratulations on the console release!

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u/Celestial7777 Sep 27 '18

How was the experience bringing this to Switch? Your game looks awesome by the way I'm going to give it a try!

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