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Gonzalo Banki Martinez, Lead Designer at Rubber Duck Games — Interview Series

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Rubber Duck Games is conjuring up a new type of magic, and it comes in the form of a “humor-filled action RPG”—a game that will reportedly grant players the power to reverse the roles and play the tyrant. That's Evil Wizard, in a nutshell, and it'll be coming to consoles and PC a lot sooner than we thought. May 25th, actually.

In light of Rubber Duck Games' latest venture nearing its final phase, we thought we'd reach out to Gonzalo Banki Martinez, Lead Designer at Rubber Duck Games, mainly in the hopes of learning more about the upcoming RPG. Here's what we managed to find out…

Credit: Rubber Duck Games

What is your position at Rubber Duck Games, and how did you get started in the industry?

I'm the producer and game designer.

I started to look into game development in 2015 when I discover Unity, from there I started to do tutorials and some games in Game Jams. Then I started a career in game development in a school from my country, Uruguay. There I met my current partners, Diego and Ruben and we’ve been working hard on creating the wild world of Evil Wizard.

Your upcoming game, Evil Wizard, is due to arrive on consoles and PC later this year. In your own words, could you tell us what it is?

Evil Wizard” is a humor-filled action RPG that reverts the role of the classic villain, making it the protagonist of the story as it rises from defeat to reclaim his castle from the heroes that captured it.

The Evil Wizard has a Deadpool vibe, constantly making jokes and breaking the fourth wall, he acknowledges the player, and he knows he's in a game. We loved how these interactions came by, making the players as if they were another character in the game, and they're not just controlling an avatar.

Evil Wizard reverses the roles and has you playing from the villain's perspective. What inspired this decision?

We want to give players the opportunity to explore a new perspective of the classic story “hero must defeat the evil sorcerer to save the world”. The game puts players in the role of the Evil Wizard, fresh off his latest drubbing at the hands of the heroes of the land. From there, the game is about his quest to reclaim his power and get revenge on the heroes and anyone else who has slighted him in the past. This particular take on this thematic character gives us a lot of room to play with as he’s as an anti-hero with a fresh new look and the story is told through his POV, with jokes, funny cinematics and deep, fast combat.

Credit: Rubber Duck Games

There are clearly a lot of metroidvania elements here. What else can we expect from the gameplay?

That's right, while the game is not a metroidvania by itself, we took a lot of inspiration from the genre, mostly in the way you explore the world. Players will face some areas that they'll need a special power to unlock, like an ice wall that you'll need to throw fire to melt or a river that you can cross by freezing it with your ice spell, and so on. 

As for the RPG part, there are weapon upgrades, and an array of different elemental abilities that also have their own advantages and disadvantages that need to be used strategically. 

And my favorite part… we added a lot… and I mean, A LOT of easter eggs and references to gaming and pop culture. If players pay attention to their surroundings as they explore, they will always find some new detail around. Even the loading menu has a certain hollowed knight.

When can we expect to see the game hit the market? Do you have any plans to bring it to ex-gen consoles or any other platforms?

Soon. There will be an announcement later this month, so stay tuned.  We have plans to release the game in every platform we can.

Credit: Rubber Duck Games

And do you have any intention of developing a sequel? If not, then perhaps a seperate IP with similar elements?

We would love to keep expanding the world of Evil Wizard, we have so many ideas that we wanted to add, but the time and resources are limited! So I think there's a lot of room for sequels or spin-offs.

We also have ideas for new games that are not that similar to Evil Wizard. One thing that we know for sure is that we want to keep doing games with humor and fourth wall breaking.For now,  now we're focused on releasing “Evil Wizard”.

Lastly, do you have any words for our readers?

I hope you like what the game has to offer, we put a lot of love on this project, we can’t wait for you all to play it. As we like to say, we develop games with 80% love and only 20% skill.

The Evil Wizard needs your help to kick some good guys' asses, join him on his quest for revenge and show those so-called heroes that they can't mess with us… by adding this game to your wishlist.

Thanks for your time, Gonzalo!

 

You can slot Evil Wizard into your wishlist over on Steam here. Alternatively, you can check in with Rubber Duck Games' social feed for all the latest updates. If anything changes ahead of its May 25th release, we'll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

 

So, what's your take? Will you be picking up a copy of Evil Wizard when it drops? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.

Jord is acting Team Leader at gaming.net. If he isn't blabbering on in his daily listicles, then he's probably out writing fantasy novels or scraping Game Pass of all its slept on indies.