Evoland : An interactive museum

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What is Evoland?

Evoland was created during the 24th edition of the Ludum Dare, a game jam organised to created a video game in only 48 hours, on the theme "evolution".

After an undeniable success in the eyes of players, and the first price of the Ludum Dare, won above almost 1400 others participants, the french studio Shiro Games decided to allow his prototype to grow, and finally came out Evoland on his final version on Windows in April 2013.

We surely can assure that this game in innovative on his theme, his gameplay and his graphisms, allowing players to trace the history of RPG, and capacities of differents consoles, in a fun way through few hours.

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What about RPG?

Classic RPG code stipulates the incarnation of a character who's after a quest, evolving in an environement, sometimes hostile, with which he can interact with, leading to some fights allowing him to evolve.

In addition of using these codes, Evoland brings novelty in the way the game itself evolves, at the same time as it's character, illustrating an evolution in RPGs, and possible thanks to the parallel evolution in console hardware.

Gradually, the player would in this way, observe an evolution in the gameplay but also in the graphics.

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The game starts with 2D pixilated graphics, in monochrome with a simple righ-left control scheme, and, later, up and down, reminding one of the era of the Game Boy Color. The player progresses while opening chests that unlock new features in the game which evolves, developping on one hand the graphics and on the other, the gameplay. Rapidly, the combat system is introduced, the monsters, mostly bats and octopi, inspired by Zelda, illustrating an A-RPG where the hero's actions are manipulated with the controls in real-time and everything exists on the same plane. Then arrives the save system, refering to, once more, the first video games to have a save system, and exactly at that time we have The Legend of Zelda on NES (1987). The number of colors on screen increases progressively, making a reference to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on Super Nintendo (1992).

In parallel, the interactions between the players and their environment equally increases, he can rest at inns to save his game, such as in Dragon Quest, known for being the first RPG to be released on console in 1986, talking to NPCs who give the player advice on how to continue his adventure, going into houses to collect items, slashing at bushes, interacting with shopkeepers to buy/sell items...

The gameplay systems and the graphics are effectively in constant evolution depending on the different chapters of the game. During the first half, it's mostly in a 2D view, but it has a tendency of going more and more towards 3D.

We will also observe the introduction of Mode 7, which gives the viewer an illusion of 3D, this method first appeared on Super Nintendo and was most notably used in Super Mario Kart (1993). The player then must walk around a map in Mode 7, which triggers surprise random encounters with a turn by turn fight system like in Final Fantasy.

Then, quickly, the 3D and HD arrive at the end of a dungeon and, unfortunately, the graphics will remain this way until the end of the game. That said, there is still an evolution in the gameplay, with the introduction of a heart system such as in Zelda, the counter is at the top right of the screen and represents the health points of the character. Once entered into the Mines of Noria, an undeniable reference to the Lord of the Rings, the game tends to become a puzzle game, with challenges to solve to be able to progress through the dungeon, once more, a Zelda reference.

The videoludic references follow one another until the end of the game where the combat goes back to dynamic real-time with an ATB gauge like in some Final Fantasy, which fills progressively and, once full, allows the player to perform an action, this dynamises the combat and breaks the turn by turn rythm of before.

It was the lastest evolution in RPG combat systems as of its time of release.

The studio decided to represent all the different advances and novelties which marked RPG and players, and that are characteristic of some of the big famous RPG sagas, mostly inspirated by Zelda, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

But, the point is that, by reducing his list of inspiration, Evoland limited his possibilites.

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Was Evoland innovative?

Evoland is clearly a precursor in this area, so much that few times after its release, other games have appeared, using the innovative idea to create a game inspired by others games.

For example, there is Ittle dew, released only 2 months after Evoland, taking the example of the famous Zelda series for its action puzzle adventure aspect. Or even DLC Quest, released in 2012, taking the principle of a game which evolves during the adventure, mostly around the gameplay, when the player collects DLC.

Evoland had opened a new possibility in video games.

In this way, Evoland can be considered as an interactive museum and a real lesson about RPG evolution, well respectful of the initial theme of the Ludum Dare, and allowing to the player to relive progressively this evolution, with some humor and many references which will make the players who know them smile.

Overall, it's a nod to every RPG players, and gives the possibility to note technic evolution through years, producing a gameplay and a graphic evolution.

Nostalgics and the curious take note ! Let Evoland offer you a trip in time !