Quote

Quote has not long been announced, and it seems developer Vindit has been keeping this action-RPG very quiet. When we previewed the game in London back in November, they revealed to us just how quiet they had kept it, since they have actually been working on it for around two years. They said they wanted to make sure the ideas were right before revealing their passion project, and we were excited to see what Quote had up its sleeve.

While we didn't have hands-on time with an early build, we did see an hour long demo where the two minds behind it, artist Evan Lovejoy and developer Robin Lacey, explained what it's about and how the development process has been over the last two years. To give a brief overview of what Quote is; it follows the player, Novella, and her companion Tatters, as they go about the world looking to cleanse it of knowledge, which is banned, and this entails finding and destroying books (by Tatters devouring them) and authors.

What we saw didn't dwell too much on the overarching story, and instead focused on exploring, combat, and puzzles, all of which will play key roles throughout the game. What we did find out about the story, from Lacey's explanations throughout the commentary on the demo, was good, though. For example, there are two narrators over the game, voiced by the same actor, and one provides a narration of events whereas the other provides the voice of the figure who dislikes knowledge, providing contrasting perspectives on events. We thought this was a neat feature, and the juxtaposition between the two worked nicely.

The first level we saw was mainly to ease us into the game, being gentle-paced and focused on exploration. The abundant nature in this environment was inspired by pastoral literature like Milton, and although we didn't stay on this level long, we saw the beginnings of what the game would grow into, with us doing things such as searching out fragments of knowledge.

The later level we saw, however, was far crazier and offered a lot more of a visual spectacle. This level revolved around ice cream that people were crazy for, and it involved dancing, colourful environments and jolly jingles, a stark contrast from the serene tranquillity of the first level.

Magical realism was the inspiration for this level, such as The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, however, while it may seem a bit daunting for those who don't know the works of literature or the themes behind these levels, Lacey assured us that they have made sure it's not pretentious or inaccessible. They had played around with the idea to make the solutions for puzzles lie in the narratives of certain pieces of literature, but they found this came off as annoying for those who hadn't read them. Now, works of literature have been confined to design only, and it doesn't matter if you have or haven't read any of works that are being referenced.

A lot of effort has been put into designing the game visually as well, as both Lovejoy and Lacey have been tinkering endlessly with the designs of even the tiniest little details to get things spot on. For example, we were told that Tatters alone had gone through many design changes in terms of animations and appearance to make sure he was just right. The same level of meticulous detail has been applied to the weird and wonderful environments that have been lovingly crafted, and these are the standout feature of Quote, not only being varied and interesting but also visually spectacular. You can tell the pride is in the presentation, too, as both Lovejoy and Lacey were annoyed that technical issues meant they couldn't play the demo in the highest resolution, even though it looked fantastic nonetheless.

This applies to the level design more than anything, as tiles after tiles of isometric grids have been hand crafted by Lovejoy, a painstaking effort in order to create large, sprawling and interwoven environments full of little secrets, both in terms of what you can do in them and what you can see. Again, these have gone through many iterations, and the artistic side of Quote is influenced by artistic movements almost as much as the whole game is influenced by literary movements, the two working together to great effect.

In terms of what you do in each level, in each world, to find authors and books, there are often puzzles to solve or enemies to defeat in order to access them, and one puzzle involved you taking objects from each person in a group and then choosing which one to hand over to the authorities. What adds another layer to the finding of books is that they also grant you powers, so the more you find, the more abilities you unlock. You also go about collecting quotes in each level, which are scattered on the floor, and these also advance Novella's abilities.

Along the way you'll find trinkets throughout the world, however, Novella can only carry two at a time, and so players need to prioritise which to keep and which to discard, which should lead to some very interesting choices. These trinkets, from what we could tell, have varying functions, with some being important to the narrative and others granting certain effects.

The abilities you unlock from books mostly apply to combat. Lacey said they didn't just want the combat to be a "clickfest", and so tactical elements have been incorporated into this side of the game. For example, combos need to be utilised to get better attacks in order to defeat harder enemies, which means tactical combat is more of a priority. This, coupled with abilities you unlock throughout the game, means that there should be an extra layer of depth and variety to combat.

The UI is also very cleverly designed, and all of the menus have an antique look about them, and the detailed craftsmanship has been applied equally here too. When you are organising quotes in your brain, or books in Tatters' stomach, anatomical drawings come up, for example, adding something most certainly original to the game.

There isn't much that concerned us about Quote during this demo we saw, although the proof is in the pudding and we'd love to play it a bit more and see how all of this feels in-game. As for when that will be, Lacey said, to paraphrase slightly, that they want to release a game in Early Access for people to say what doesn't work, not to say that it's broken. We are very much looking forward to playing it, and seeing whether all this polishing has really paid off.

Disclaimer: Dan Griliopoulos, one of the writers who worked on Quote, has written a couple of bits and pieces for Gamereactor in the past, although he's had no previous dealings with the author of this preview.