Minko Minkov, Game Designer at Rebellious Software – Interview Series

Minko Minkov, is a Game Designer at Rebellious Software, a development company focused on making games that make you think.

When did you originally discover your passion for gaming?

I was 12 and I have just discovered fantasy books (“The Little Prince” and various gamebooks). I wanted to share those adventures with my friends but simply telling them what the book is about felt too boring, so I wanted to make them relieve these adventures. That is how I made my first game. It was of course a very simple dice game – a hero walking through a labyrinth, painted in a notebook.

Do you have a personal favorite game and why does this game resonate with you?

A classic from 1999 – Heroes of Might and Magic III. I don’t like games with a very high pace or where quick reactions are needed. I am a very calm and laid-back person, so I enjoy this type of games. HOMM3 is a turned based strategy game (no time pressure) with a very hard-core fantasy style and up to 8 people can play together on the same PC – the perfect match for the children of the 90s in a small town, where only 1-2 families on the block could afford a PC.

What made you choose to become a game designer?

After making my first few games, I discovered that watching other people play games and try to overcome the obstacles and advance through the story is as much fun for me, or even more fun, then playing games myself. It brings me enormous joy to go into my imaginary worlds and create adventures, which help people to escape reality for a bit. It is the perfect job for me and I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to dream every day.

Could you tell us about Rebellious Software and what the company does?

After the amazing results at the NASA Space Apps Challenges, the guys gained enough confidence and wanted to start working on bigger projects, and it had to be something we are very passionate about. The direction was clear – gaming!

We are an indie game developer based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Our goal is to create games that challenge existing genres with creative innovations.

One of the first products that was launched was the Chicksbook app, could you describe what this does?

Chicksbook was developed before we switched to game development. It was part of the NASA Space Apps Challenge – the largest hackaton in the world with 25 000 participants. NASA Space Apps Challenge is an annual event that brings hot challenges that NASA was facing both in the daily life on Earth and in space exploration. Raising chickens at home during that period was among those problems as many people started doing it for more healthy products without any preparations which led to multiple diseases being spread across the USA. So, we created an app – Chicksbook that can help people raise their chickens, schedule vets appointments, detect diseases, etc. We event received recognition from USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture). All that was in 2013 and Chicksbook won one of the six categories in the hackaton.

Another early app was the leaf zone, what is this app?

Leafzone was another project developed for NASA Space Apps Challenge in the following year. You can use the app to take s photo of a plant and the app will tell you the species of the plant and whether it has any diseases. In addition, it was sending data to servers about how affected is the plant from the ozone holes which was the ultimate goal of the app – to gather information on where the ozone holes are most affecting plants. Leafzone was another successful application that won one of the six categories in the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2014.

World of Myths is the latest game that is being worked on, could you tell us about this game?

When we started with our first brainstorming sessions about the theme of our first major game, everyone made a list of their favorite fantasy themes, characters, books. In the end, all lines crossed at “Mythology” – the myths and legends of the ancient civilizations.

The game itself had to be a collectible card game (CCG) as we are all very passionate card game players. Combined, we have played almost every card game that was ever created – Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Hearthstone, Legend of the Five Rings LCG, including the game that brought us all together – Game of Thrones LCG.

Using all the knowledge we have accumulated throughout the years, playing all those card games, we were able to put together some of the best elements, that would fit the digital format of the game and also create a combat system like no other.

The game board looks deceptively simple with only 5 slots for playing creatures, but the Endurance mechanic and the 3 different Temples, that can be plundered for various bonuses on each successful attack, makes for very deep and strategic gameplay, where luck (RNG) is reduced to a minimum. This is truly a skill-based game where every move counts – like chess with fantasy creatures!

What type of players would like this game?

The game is for the mid-core player. Someone who would like much less complexity and more manageable card pool than Magic, but deeper and more strategic gameplay then Hearthstone. It is truly free to play game with an amazing art style.

What do you enjoy the most when you work on World of Myths?

I personally love creating new cards. From the very first steps of digging through the books to find the right mythical creature, imagine what his abilities in the game should be and then testing for the balance and most importantly – the fun it would bring to use it in play!

Is there anything else that you would like to share about Rebellious Software?

We are a small but extremely motivated team, trying to outperform studios with 10 times our size in this very competitive industry. So far it is working well and the great reviews we have received for World of Myths on Steam (85% positive reviews) give us the strength to move forward.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Rebellious Software or should visit World of Myths.