Free 'The Ghost Ship' survival mode update coming soon!
Welcome back Sea Rats!
We’re excited to share with you our upcoming plans for the upcoming 1.4.0 patch as well as reveal a FREE content drop which adds an entirely new gameplay mode!
Thank you all for the love and support so far with Curse of the Sea Rats, your feedback has helped us implement three waves of updates so far including:
1.0.2: Rebalanced Character Skills and Robert Garfield’s Store Prices for a smoother and fairer experience along with several bug fixes
1.1.2: More bug fixes and changes to the late-game progression and final sequence to make the experience feel less grind-y.
1.3.7: Major improvements to the combat system including animation cancelling, improved hitbox detection, more dynamic and responsive platforming, disabled pitfall deaths, improved Map UI, and so many more quality-of-life changes!
The improvements won’t stop there, as mentioned we are now working towards the next big patch, 1.4.0. This update will add an enemy log menu to showcase which enemies (and how many of them) the player has defeated, improvements to the player inventory UI, and additional changes to boss balancing. 1.4.0 is scheduled to go live later this Summer.
This brings us to an exciting announcement, we’re currently putting the finishing touches on a Major Free Content Update!“The Ghost Ship” adds a new Survival Mode that tasks players with defeating increasingly more challenging waves of enemies and bosses one after another!
If the player(s) can clear a wave they will receive a reward in the form of a usable item, attack or defence buff before progressing onto the next wave. After certain ‘milestone’ waves player characters will also unlock additional bonuses in the form of new ‘inner element’ magical abilities and skills. But be warned however, if all players are defeated progress will be lost!
When playing through The Ghost Ship your fastest clear times will be logged after each wave so you can challenge yourself to smash your existing records!
How far will you progress against such terrifying odds? The Ghost Ship update is planned for Fall 2023.
Finally, if you’re enjoying Curse of the Sea Rats please consider leaving a positive review? We’re working hard to respond to as much player feedback as possible and add exciting new content to make the experience the very best it can be.
Until next time!
Petoons Studio
Update notes for version 1.3.7
Combat System
General improvements to the combat in order to make it more fast-paced and dynamic:
Attacks are now cancelable with the jump and parry actions.
Hurt animations have been shortened.
Hitboxes when sliding have been improved.
Character Control
General
Rebalanced the skill tree for all four characters.
All the attacks' ranges have been increased to better adjust the slashes to their hitboxes.
David Douglas
Run Attack's momentum has been reduced and its speed has been increased.
Down Air Attack’s boost has been increased and its preparation speed has been increased.
Parry animation has been reduced and recovers faster.
Improvements to the Fireball attack.
Akane Yamakawa
Faster recovery after parrying.
Changed the hits per second of the Water Shield attack.
Bussa
Run Attack's momentum has been reduced and its speed has been increased.
Knockdown animation has been shortened.
Improved Dash hitbox activation.
Multiple tweaks to the Down Attack.
Buffalo Calf
Knockdown animation has been shortened.
Gameplay
Disabled death upon pitfall; now the player teleports to a connected room.
Added Dolores in a new room between the Flora and Long Fuse Jones boss fights (with a save point and teleport), to allow the player to purchase items and further unlock the skill tree.
Now the Backtrack stones can be removed by interacting with them.
Changed the spikes' placement, size, and damage caused.
Improved Major Mallory’s tutorial with clearer visual guidance.
Reduced amount of enemies in Fodla’s Bog.
User Interface
Added map legend.
Added custom markers functions to the map.
Added map marker that shows the buried treasures' locations.
Added map marker that shows the NPCs’ positions.
Added XP counter on the status UI.
Updated inventory item order.
Implemented defined order for the Treasure Bag’s items.
Added combo details in the Transmutation item description.
Bug Fixing
Changing the direction on the D-Pad works correctly.
Cutscenes don’t display graphical corruption.
All chest icons on the map update properly after opening them.
Poison status and buffs don’t persist after death.
Enabling or disabling the minimap saves correctly.
Treasure icons show properly when the meanwhile scenes end.
Sam doesn’t disappear when reloading.
Spirit drops don’t follow the player if collected while resurrecting with the resurrection ring.
SFX doesn’t persist after the Long Fuse Jones fight.
All dialogues are properly skippable.
Dying on a room transition doesn’t cause the game to crash.
Player always properly dies and respawns when falling into a water pit.
Bussa’s skill tree descriptions have all the correct values.
Correct SFX volume when collecting the XP orbs dropped when dying.
Quitting the telescope on the Lighthouse is more intuitive.
Resurrecting the Necromancer without changing to a different room works correctly.
Platforms appear correctly in the Necromancer boss fight.
Enemies don’t disappear briefly upon being hit.
Multiple enemies' AI bugs have been corrected.
Treasure items don’t appear in the general inventory after using the shortcuts feature.
No need to press Join when selecting a character in single mode.
Addressed some localization issues.
Enemies' alpha values in Tuatha de Danann Temple are now correct.
Improved performance on the credits scene.
Added missing consumable items in Robert’s stores 2 & 3.
All SFX change volume according to the master mixer’s value.
Animated slide bar added to the bosses' HP HUD.
Fixed some level design issues.
Corrected and improved multiple environment art issues.
Update notes for version 1.1.2
Optimization
Optimized ambient sounds and music to reduce change room loading times.
Bugs
Fixed Long Fuse Jones AI issues in the third phase of the boss fight.
Fixed Backpack bug that caused issues when exiting and loading a save file.
Fixed Treasure Map bug that caused marks to be missing.
Fixed bug on the Meanwhile scenes that prevented obtaining the Timothy drawings.
Fixed duplicated items bug in the Quick Inventory.
Fixed blocker in the Cursed Ship Flora Burn boss fight.
Fixed enemy level display in the ending backtrack section.
Fixed various minor bugs.
Gameplay
Added ability to break the stones during the ending backtracking section.
Removed the Cursed Ship’s lockpick doors besides the last one.
Tweaked some level design elements.
Balancing
Rebalanced Premium Whool pricing.
Sound
Added and improved some sound effects.
Balanced volume of some sound effects and music.
Original Soundtrack now available!
Good news music lovers, the Curse of the sea Rats Original Soundtrack is now available!
Composed by Màxim Ballet this collection features 14 tracks that will transport you to the storm-lashed shores, ancient forests and crumbling tombs of the mythical Irish Coast.
Whether it’s the soothing strings of The Hope Waltz or the intense battle-ready Ratoidvania Forever, there is something for every sea rat to sing their shanties to.
Here is the complete track list:
The Curse
Pirate Blues
Rat Race
The Last Rat Standing
Freedom Fighters
The Hope Waltz
Fight Together or Die Alone
I’d Rather be an Animal
Lost
No Surrender
Take No Prisoners
The Sea Rats
End Titles
Ratoidvania Forever
The Original Soundtrack can be purchased in a bundle with the full game or separately as a ‘complete the set’ add-on, both options include a 10% discount.
Click here to visit the Original Soundtrack Store Page.
Petoons Studio
Update notes for version 1.0.20
Trophies
The Collector: fixed Timothy drawing items placement that prevented trophy obtention.
The Fighter: added missing enemies to the trophy logic that prevented its obtention.
Professional cartographer: fixed room count issue that didn’t allow reaching the 100%.
At the end of the rainbow: updated Leprechaun minigame to facilitate trophy obtention.
Crashes
Fixed crash that happened when entering a room in the Flying Rat’s Hole area.
Bugs
Fixed the Spirit Points glitch that allowed the player to obtain too much of this currency.
Added ability to speed up and skip the credits when finishing the game.
Added missing Amelio’s treasure map in Tuatha Dé Danann Temple.
Fixed various enemy bugs related to AI, placement and collisions.
Fixed other visual issues.
Balancing
Rebalanced Douglas’ Battle Cry skill and Bussa’s healing skills.
Fixed incorrect Ghost enemy level in Tuatha Dé Danann Temple.
Fixed and rebalanced pricing for a few store items.
Curse of the Sea Rats is OUT NOW!
Avast ye!
The wait is finally over, Curse of the Sea Rats is OUT NOW! The time has come to take down Flora Burn, rescue Admiral Blacksmith’s son, and reverse the curse once and for all!
Check out the action-packed Launch Trailer below:
Play as one of four prisoners of the British Empire on their quest for freedom and utilise their newly awakened elemental powers. Harness fire with the swash-buckling David Douglas, unleash lightning-fast combos as Buffalo Calf, create catastrophic quakes as Bussa, or harness the devastating power of a tsunami as Akane Yamakawa.
Battle your way through hordes of pirates, fauna, and flora to gain Spiritual Energy, and visit Wu Yun to unlock new abilities and upgrade your skills.
Explore a huge variety of different environments along the Irish Coast and take on challenging bosses. Seek out a range of NPCs including fellow shipwrecked crew, eccentric locals and even supernatural entities. Embark on numerous side quests and uncover the mysteries of the Island...
Team up in 2-4 player local coop or utilise Steam Remote Play Together to link up online! To learn more about the Steam Remote Play Together process CLICK HERE.
Before you get started, we’ve also put together a handy FAQ that should answer the most frequently asked questions you might have about Curse of the Sea Rats:
Q. Is there multiplayer?
A. You can play co-operatively with 2-4 players in local multiplayer and Steam Remote Play Together.
Q. What controller options are there for multiplayer mode?
A. Player 1 can use a keyboard or controller, however all additional players must use a controller, this also applies to Steam Remote Play Together.
Q. Are there custom key bindings?
A. There are limited custom key bindings.
Movement controls will not be customisable and will remain as W,A,S,D or ←,↑,→,↓
However, the following will be customisable:
Jump
Attack
Dash
Magic ability
Technique
Map
Instructions on how to customise key bindings are as follows: In-game -> Pause Menu -> Controls -> Press ENTER -> Select KEY(s) to change -> ENTER -> Input new KEY
Q. How long is the game?
A. 10+ hours but this will vary depending on the number of players and their skill levels!
Q. Are there multiple endings?
A. Yes, there are 4 endings (one of which is secret, sshhh!)
Curse of the Sea Rats is out now!
Petoons Studio
1 Week to go & Steam Remote Play!
Ahoy Sea Rats!
There’s only one more week to go until the release of Curse of the Sea Rats! While we countdown the days until you embark on your adventure, we’d like to take this opportunity to re-introduce the playable characters; David Douglas, Buffalo Calf, Bussa, and Akana Yamakawa as well as some of the nefarious bosses that you'll be facing!
With four elements and playstyles to master, you’ll have plenty of options as you adventure along the mysterious Irish Coast.
Remember it’s not just Flora’s scurvy crew that you’ll be battling, the pirate-witch’s corrupting magic has also spread to the local fauna!
Take on over 16 challenging bosses with up to three friends in local 4-player co-op or utilise Steam Remote Play to team-up online!
How does Steam Remote Play work?
After booting up Curse of the Sea Rats you will be prompted by Steam to access Steam Remote Play.
To do this press Shift+Tab to bring up the Friend Menu.
Next, click on INVITE ANYONE TO PLAY.
Then, to Host a session, click on either Invite a Friend to have an existing Steam friend join or Invite a Guest to share a link to someone not on your friends list.
And that’s it! Once you load into a game just have your co-op party press the prompted Join button and embark on your new adventure, together.
Curse of the Sea Rats releases on 6th April 2023.
Petoons Studio
Developer Interview Part 2 - Crafting the Characters
Avast ye Sea Rats!
With just 2 weeks to go until Curse of the Sea Rats launches on 6th April we’ve prepared another developer interview with some of the key staff from Petoons Studio! If you missed Part 1: 'Building the World' you can check it out HERE.
Today we'll be looking at Part 2: ‘Crafting the Characters’ where we shine the spotlight on character and boss design, animation techniques, and voice acting!
Character & Boss Design with Lead Game Designer, Yeray Toledano and Senior Game Designer, Alex Calvo.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about the process of designing the 4 playable heroes?
Yeray: David Douglas was the first character we developed. He was the first one we talked about and the first character to be created. He’s the most balanced character, both in offensive and defensive capabilities and is the ideal character to start with if you are not sure which combat style you like the most. Douglas is basically for everyone!
Alex: It was important to us from the beginning, that each character had to play differently and have a unique role in combat. Buffalo Calf is unique compared to the rest of the Sea Rats, since she has a lot of ranged abilities and is extremely fast and nimble.
Yeray: She can also become invisible, throw elemental projectiles, and execute multi-directional ariel attacks… In contrast, Douglas has only his mid-range pistol and fire attacks. Each of the characters is tied to an element, Douglas uses his firearms to channel his magic, while Buffalo harnesses electricity through her throwing knives and tomahawks.
Alex: Then, as a counterpoint, we have Bussa. He is the tankiest character by far, with more hit points than the other heroes. Instead of a parry ability, Bussa can hold his block and stay on guard for a while. We also think he’s the friendliest of the four characters (laughs).
Yeray: While his attacks are slow, they do quite a bit of damage! Bussa’s gameplay style embodies his inner element, which is Earth, so on the outside he’s hard like granite! But despite this he does have a softer and more sensitive side which you’ll hopefully see as the adventure progresses.
Then we have Akane, the youngest and also the smallest! But beware, as a warrior of the shogun she’s pretty fierce and has some of the strongest attacks in the game!
Akane is quite agile but has less physical resistance to damage and as a result loses health quickly. She ultimately puts everything into her attack and uses versatile water magic to overcome the enemy. You’ll notice that her movements and combos are really fluid, just like her inner element, Water!
Throughout the game, you will unlock different kinds of magical abilities for each character. For example, one of Akane’s skills adds a water projectile to her aeriel attacks, while another creates a water shield which protects her and simultaneously damages nearby enemies. She’s a really cool character and plays aggressively!
Q: Could you tell us more about the design of Flora Burn and her crewmates?
Yeray: We're not going to say too much about Flora Burn because she's an important character and we haven't seen much of her yet in previous trailers and demos, but suffice to say she uses A LOT of magic! We can’t forget that she was already a pirate witch before her encounter with the Eye of the Serpent, so she is extremely powerful in that sense and uses it to her advantage with premeditation and treachery.
Flora is cunning, like a snake, and uses the power of the serpent to her advantage. She’s charismatic, with a lot of personality and a peculiar way of interacting with her subordinates. She's also deceitful, tricky, mocking, and her magic and combat style reflect this, so don’t let her deceive you!
In a weird way Flora is almost like a parent figure amongst her crew. Not because she is affectionate, but because she has to put up with their nonsense and make sure they stay focused! She sees herself as being surrounded by incompetence, which isn’t entirely wrong!
Alex: Regarding Flora’s crew, there are personalities of all types in the mix. Some characters are mysterious like the vampiric Murat Reis and sinister Freddy Eightfingers, while others provide some comic relief, such as the uptight Short Fuse Jones and ponderous Fatso. We also have the sultry Rama Cinnamon and her companion Sharpie The Sharp, who share a close relationship. There are different dynamics amongst Flora’s crew, and you’ll witness a few bust-ups because of their clashing personalities.
Q: How are the boss battles presented to the player?
Yeray: They’re all really varied! One of the more unique boss battles is Rama Cinammon, who has two phases: During the first phase she’s really agile employing a mixture of close-range melee attacks with her whip, and long range attacks with her vines. And then, in the second phase she teams up with her pet toucan Banana, and begins to attack from above using air currents to sweep the heroes off the treetops of Eriu’s Forest!
Alex: On the island, there are not only the pirates, but also local inhabitants and fauna such as the Lighthouse Keeper, Krabawaki, La Chusa, Necromancer... (the coolest character of all!) And some other mysteries that you’ll have to discover. Each boss has a really different style of combat accompanied by some truly expressive hand-drawn animations!
Q: What can you tell is about the process of designing boss battles?
Yeray: Designing a Boss battle is actually one of the more complex processes, you always start with an idea, a concept or something you want to teach the player. Thinking about the main objective that you want to achieve with that boss: visually, the movement, the attack patterns... and that's how the central plan is designed.
For example, if I want to highlight the jump mechanic, the boss is going to be designed around this. The game’s first boss, Fatso was designed exactly for this purpose: we wanted to teach the player how to move, jump, and dodge... To get a little used to the enemies that were going to come later. And well, basically we started by making some attack ideas and thinking about which objective could be achieved by each individual attack.
Alex: When Fatso throws his barrels or propels himself forwards, the player must time their jumps differently. We always start with drawings or schematics with detailed descriptions of the attacks, then this passes into the hands of Concept Artists who make a first sketch of what the characters will look like during these moments.
We get a lot of feedback from the Concept Artists: we propose things to them and then they respond, and so a boss character is built collaboratively between the two teams.
The Animation department are actually amazing, and they have some super crazy and fun ideas. Once we have the description of the attacks from the Game Designers, and the visuals of the boss from the Concept Artists, the Animators begin work on the animations for all of the attacks!
After this stage the Programmers work on the Boss AI. This way, we can test it and give our feedback to see if things like timings need to be changed. Most importantly we get a feel for the boss’s movement speed and how many frames have to be drawn for each attack.
Yeray: As we test and tweak, we can soon see which attacks have to do more damage. We also played around a lot with the level of the characters, that is, scaling boss difficulty to the level where the characters are, and the skills that are likely to be unlocked at the point of encounter.
2D Animation techniques with Lead Animator, Al Díaz and Senior Animator, Guillem Vallhonrat
Q: Could you tell us about your approach to animation?
Al: The style of the characters in Curse of the Sea Rats is quite cartoonish, and stylized, therefore the animations needed to match accordingly. We also took into account that this is a video game and not a film, so tiny details needed to look good and the character movements had to stand out and be easily understood by the player.
Guillem: Once the Concept Artists finish designing the characters, the Game Designers define the movesets and give us a completed animation concept. First, we make an initial sketch, where you can only see a bit of the silhouette of the character, and we test it in the game to see how it looks and how the timings feel. Does it go too fast, too slow, or look does it look small? Once we get this feeling right, we go through the rough phase adding in the facial features, the actions and the details of the character’s clothing which we'll later clean up!
Q: Was there a character that you really enjoyed working on?
Al: The Lighthouse Keeper was the first boss I animated and I'm fond of him because I had to think about all his different attacks. I really focused on varying his movements and animations in the later phases of the fight to really ramp up the tension and let the player know that things were getting serious!
Q: Did you face any challenges?
Guillem: For some attacks and movements that were particularly difficult to animate we used video references as a guide. Thankfully, the fact that the game has such a cartoony style, meant that we were able to exaggerate everything and add lots of additional colour. This gave us the freedom to do deformations and things that a more realistic art-style just wouldn’t have allowed.
Recording the voiceover with Game Director, Dani del Amor & Lead Game Designer, Yeray Toledano
Q: Tell us about the voiceover recording process?
Dani: For the voice dubbing we hired a professional UK-based studio called Charactoons, who previously worked on Disco Elysium, a game that we loved! It has honestly been such a pleasure working with them.
Studio Owner Mikee has been a real star throughout the project, and was instrumental in finding all the actors and actresses. He’s also really fun to work with!
Yeray: Importantly, Charactoons helped us find diverse actors from a wide variety of backgrounds. Since we have characters representing different nationalities, genres, and ages the voice actors had to be authentic to their on-screen counterparts.
To begin with, we looked for reference actors to link with each character. We passed these references to Charactoons to see if they could find similar voices and match the appropriate nationalities.
They then gave us different tests with different actors, all of them are talented and cool, so it was really hard picking our favorites! After that we started the dubbing.
Dani: In Curse of the Sea Rats there are characters representing all sorts of nationalities (e.g. Spanish, Japanese, American English etc...). Given the game’s setting we had to take great care with all of the regional accents for British and Irish characters in particular! You’ll discover characters who are clearly Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, but you’ll also hear specific regional accents being represented. It really breathes life and a sense of authenticity into the game!
Yeray: During the dubbing process, Dani was present in the studio. It was a cool experience! We had previously done some recording for other games but never at this scale. It was enriching because there were people here working in Barcelona alongside the team in the UK and everyone was collaborating to make sure that we didn't miss any lines of dialogue, and that everything was shot in the right context... When you're recording, you do takes with each individual character separately and some context can be lost against the conversation that actually takes place in the game. Different characters are interacting with one another depending on the context, so the actors had to be careful to preserve the tone of the conversation! In the final cut, we felt that they were all coherent and fun, transmitting the emotion that was originally intended.
Dani: Some alterations to the script were also made in the studio because when the actor or actress gets into character, they naturally make contributions. So, maybe a phrase that worked well in the script, doesn’t work in practice and then the actor makes a better suggestion during the performance. If it fits, then you write it down and make the appropriate amendments in-game!
Q: How did you pick the best takes and do you have any favourite performances?
Dani: (Laughs) It’s really difficult to choose a favourite take because everyone did great and I think that every reading offers something interesting and unique. It’s true that when there are actors or actresses who have lots of experience, when they do four takes, all four sound good.
I also preferred interpretations that surprised me, Mikee Goodman’s rendition of the Serpent was amazing as you can hear a snake’s hiss within his voice! I honestly didn't think it was possible for a human being to make these sounds...
Yeray: Another favourite of mine was Flora, the dubbing actress added a lot to the character. It gave her so much personality, a bit like Cruella de Vil: evil but elegant at the same time.
Dani: I found it interesting to see that some voice actors were able to perform as multiple characters. In some cases, the same actor plays two characters that are going to interact in the same conversation and makes them sound totally different. When you hear these two characters talking to each other in-game they sound like two separate people. It's awesome!
That's all for today and remember, Curse of the Sea Rats launches on 6th April 2023!
Petoons Studio
Developer Interview Part 1 - Building the World
Ahoy there!
With just 4 weeks to go until Curse of the Sea Rats launches on 6th April we’ve prepared an exclusive 2 part interview with some of the key member of the Petoons Studio team!
Today we’ll be introducing Part 1: ‘Building the world’ where we take a look at the game concept and core inspiration, environmental design, and original soundtrack!
Game Direction & Narrative Design with Game Director, Dani del Amor.
Q: Can you tell us about the core concept of the game and its main characters?
Dani: Curse of the Sea Rats is a classic Metroidvania, but with a strong narrative component. Aside from what would be typical Metroidvania elements like combat and exploration, you will find yourself empathizing a lot with the character you choose. You’ll also discover many side characters throughout the game, and by interacting with them will learn more about their backstories and needs. With this, we also try to make you smile from time to time, humor is a key part of the game!
Q: What can you tell us about the incident on board the HMS Barfleur and Flora Burn’s plan?
Dani: The game begins with the British ship, HMS Barfleur, returning to England from the Caribbean with a hold full of prisoners. Among these prisoners are our protagonists, four individuals each with their own unique backstories. While they are not necessarily common criminals, they are lawbreakers in the eyes of the British Empire, and must stand trial for their crimes. Imprisoned alongside them is the notorious pirate captain Flora Burn, who possesses a mysterious ancient artefact, the Eye of the Serpent, that she stole (in a part of the story that is not going to be revealed now). She uses this artefact to turn all the Barfleur’s crew and its prisoners into rats, allowing her to escape along with her nefarious crew. And this is where the game begins.
Q: So what exactly is the Eye of the Serpent and who is Flora Burn?
Dani: The Eye of the Serpent is comprised of an amulet and a ring. To recover their human form, the prisoners must reunite these pieces in order to invoke the artefact’s power again and reverse the curse. The artefact is a kind of “magic lamp”, with a spirit inside that grants wishes. But at the same time, it embodies the concept of yin and yang, of good and evil. When both pieces are together they allow you to fulfil any wish. But when separated, good and evil are no longer balanced. The amulet is the good half where Wu Yun, the heroes’ guide, resides. The ring is the evil half, possessed by a serpentine spirit that Flora Burn uses to increase her magical powers!
However, Flora Burn is not inherently evil. She’s a pirate captain who travels the Caribbean and does what she pleases, and her life philosophy means that she won’t bow to any state, to any government, living in freedom.
Her objective is fundamentally to recover this freedom, return to the Caribbean and continue with her treasure hunting and raids on the ships of the British Empire and its various outposts. Unfortunately, our main characters happen to cross paths with her at exactly the wrong time, and although they share some values, they end up in direct conflict with her goals!
Q: Who are the main heroes of the game and how does their gameplay differ?
Dani: Starting with David Douglas, he is the most balanced character. An individual who does everything reasonably well, but does not stand out in any particular field. He’s a character with no defined fighting style and as such is a good choice for the beginner! He's your typical adventure hero, while the other three characters have more clearly defined roles and gameplay styles.
For example, Buffalo Calf is much more agile and is designed to fight from a distance. This gives her a distinct playstyle, fun for players who enjoy ariel acrobatics and fast combos! During battles, this allows you to play at a distance and therefore avoid taking damage.
Bussa, on the other hand, is a tank through and through. He’s a character that is designed to inflict a lot of physical damage at close range, which exposes him to the majority of incoming damage.
Akane Yamakawa is a complex and versatile character, with slightly more range because of her naginata, and decent amount of agility. When she executes a successful combo this can be really destructive. She is almost a perfect mix of the other three characters, but that's just my opinion!
Admiral Blacksmith is a stoic figure, who gives the prisoners their mission. He is an individual who is fiercely loyal to his country, to his family, and to his crew... He is that person who tries to do everything right, but the world seems to be intent on making this difficult for him.
At the start of the game he is on a mission to transport the prisoners to England, with his son accompanying him. During the journey, everything goes wrong and his son is kidnapped by Flora. Of course, he cannot abandon his ship and crew to pursue the pirate-witch, so must place his trust in our 4 heroes to embark on the rescue mission…
Art direction & environmental design with Lead Concept Artist, Xavi Montell, Senior Concept Artist, Júlia Fernández and 3D Artist, Enric Trullols.
Q: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art direction and game world?
Xavi: Curse of the Sea Rats is largely inspired by Don Bluth’s animated adventure films that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, such as “The Secret of NIMH”, “Pebble and the Penguin”, “The Land Before Time”. Naturally, movies starring mice and rats such as "The Rescuers" and "The Great Mouse Detective" were a key reference point!
There is also inspiration from adventure films e.g. “The Goonies” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and the golden age of Lucas Arts games, such as "Grim Fandango" or "Day of the Tentacle". We love the “Monkey Island” series in particular!
Although it is true that it is a pirate game at heart, after playing for a few hours, you’ll begin to realize the omnipresence of Irish mythology and folklore. This is something that will be accentuated as you explore the island.
Although we took a few liberties, there are many historical and mythological references throughout the game and easter egg hunters will find many reasons to explore every inch of the map that we have prepared for them.
Q: How did you go about designing the environments?
Júlia: As for the environments themselves, we have employed a principle called "navigation by color key". This method uses color palettes to help connect players to the story, environments, and the characters in a coherent way.
We started with an environmental color palette of blue and teal on Shipwreck Beach, and as the player progresses, the environmental color palettes gradually become more fantastical in tone. If for example you look at The Necromancer’s boss room, we wanted to emphasize and accent the boss character’s pink eldritch magic, so you will see complementary tones appearing throughout the environment and creating a nostalgic 80s high fantasy look and feel.
Xavi: When we faced The Necromancer section during development, we had a stable and defined area of the map with a specific color and a purpose. In this part of the game there are many dank dungeon rooms that give off foreboding vibes… For the boss room itself we suddenly had to convey something different, and that's where concept art and Júlia’s work was invaluable.
Concept Art is all a matter of perspective: As a first step you have the global point of view of the entire map that goes by color key. But then you get to the next stage of thinking “What's going on in this particular room? Do I have to suddenly change that color to convey something different?”. The creation of key rooms such as this takes a lot of extra planning and thought!
Júlia: In concept art, we document everything that needs to be reflected in the room, making some first sketches of what the room would be like, and trying different color palettes to get the right fit. This ultimately leads to a finished illustration incorporating all of the different details and assets of the final room, which will then be used for 3D modeling.
Q: Could you explain how you came to the final design of the Necromancer’s boss room?
Enric: Every artistic process during development has passed through a multi-departmental pipeline. Our Concept Artists come up with the initial idea and then negotiate with the 3D artists to see if all is possible.
In the case of Necromancer’s room, this environment changed a lot! Originally it was a grayish room with muted tones and no distinguishable features. Then it was reimagined based on the Necromancer’s design, and greenish and pinkish tones were added to make it feel more mysterious and evil. Cauldrons, swords, cobwebs, and knotted tree roots were added to emphasize the fact that the location is deep underground. It turned out pretty cool and the team is proud of what we managed to achieve with this location.
Throughout the entire process, we also had to take into account the fact that at point zero (the area where the character plays) there cannot be any type of object or obstruction. Otherwise, the character would clip through the object, so the cauldron was a headache, as this is where the Necromancer emerges. We actually faked that effect by putting the cauldron in the background and reworking the layout so that the swords and chains didn't interfere with the boss’s animations.
Composing the original soundtrack with Composer Max Ballet.
Q: How did you approach composing the soundtrack?
Max: Starting with the instruments, while strings, piano, winds and percussion feature prominently throughout the soundtrack, there are also few unusual elements such as the harp and even my sister's voice that were used to add subtle details to many of the tracks.
The piano stands out from all the instruments used because the piano is the instrument on which I was trained: I studied classical piano at the Liceu Conservatory and I have always carried it with me! So, Curse of the Sea Rats has been a project crafted using this instrument. I first composed all the songs on the piano before I transferred them to a digital workflow.
With the wind instruments, the flute has a prominent role in the soundtrack. This is an instrument with a sweet sound that creates a degree of sentimentality and a more human touch. Also, the flute was introduced in such a way that it registers lower and deeper than normal, which is why it still sounds a little sweeter. I have used it in areas where the environment is calm, where you want to give the player a little more peace, conveying serenity with all threats removed.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the strings, which are the most present instruments during the intense boss battles. During these fights, the strings act as the base, giving weight and body to the composition. The strings intensely convey emotion, making the player feel stronger and more engaged at faster tempos.
The percussion is also key here, with a degree of primitiveness that gives the boss battle music its strength and urgency. This is particularly apparent with the tracks for the later bosses which are far more dangerous! Percussion barely features during moments of exploration, so this provides a striking contrast.
Q: Is there one particular track that you really loved working on?
Max: One boss track that I really liked, aside from the battle with Flora, was that of the Lighthouse Keeper. In that battle, the music had to represent this character, something strong, something big!
It’s worth noting that the more diminutive bosses such as Rama and Sharpie have more agile and lighter music. This allows the player to truly feel the speed of each character and adapt a little more to their attack patterns and movement. With the larger bosses, the music had to feel heavier, colder, and more gigantic!
For example, with the Lighthouse Keeper, we used a lot of percussion to accentuate his tremendously heavy attacks. It feels like tons of stones are falling on the player throughout this fight, and this sensation is ultimately achieved using percussion.
Q: Do you have any favorite tracks?
Max: I really like The Curse which plays during the start screen. This is where the whole journey begins and where one of the most important leitmotifs of the game comes from.
Other favorites include The Sea Rats which was composed to represent the four heroes, a short Minuet, (which is a baroque dance) that accompanies Flora Burn's abduction of Admiral Blacksmith’s son, and the End Credits theme that embodies a sense of salvation and ultimate victory.
Curse of the Sea Rats has been a perfect game for me to work on, as it strongly incorporates classical music. The game is set in the year 1777, where classicism is at its height in Europe and Mozart is just 21 years old (David Douglas and Mozart even have the same ponytail!).
It’s also worth noting the importance of Irish folk music in the soundtrack. Its lose, rural character had to blend seamlessly with the precision and perfection of classical music, which was quite a challenge!
Curse of the Sea Rats launches on 6th April 2023! We’ll be back with part 2 of our developer interview series soon!
Until next time!
Petoons Studio
Introducing the Voiceover Cast
Ahoy there Sea-Rats!
As some of you may know, Curse of the Sea Rats will feature full voice acting with seventeen amazing actors from all across the globe. Those that played our backers’ demo will notice a big difference as every character, including bosses and NPCs, has their own fully voiced dialogue! That’s a lot of lines!
We can’t wait for you to feast your ears on this new experience when Curse of the Sea Rats launches on April 6, 2023.
Today though, we’d like to introduce the voice talent behind seven of the main characters that you’ll be getting to know during your adventure; David Douglas, Buffalo Calf, Bussa, Akane Yamakawa, Admiral Blacksmith, Wu Yun, and the wicked Flora Burn.
For more snippets of dialogue, keep an eye on our social media or check out our recently released Boss Trailer, showcasing some of the deadly members of Flora’s crew as well as some of the dangerous denizens of the Irish Coast.
