Maksym Pashanin Discusses Confederate Express

Kilobite’s Maksym Pashanin recently took some time to answer a few quick questions for us.  Who exactly is Maksym Pashanin?  He’s one of the guys behind the very promising isometric zombie rpg/shooter Confederate Express.  As we’ve covered previously Confederate Express seems to be separating itself from the crowded zombie and pixel markets with the high quality of its artwork, the moody environments, and the unique RPG elements that feature, among other things, permadeath, crew management, and the ability to upgrade and modify your equipment.  As you might expect from a description like that Confederate Express sailed passed it’s initial $10,000 funding target almost as soon as it hit Kickstarter in mid October Confederate Express, the project is now closing in on $32,000 with 7 days left in the campaign.

Now that there’s a playable tech demo available we thought it would be a good time to ask Maksym a few questions about Confederate Express, Kickstarter, and what the future holds.

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Cliqist : I usually have pretty good luck researching people online, but had trouble finding information about you. Who are you, a secret agent?
Maksym Pashanin : Kilobite is kind of a staffing agency. Credential means nothing to us, and we scout for people based on their sheer talent. We feel like in this extremely competitive industry people who are just starting up need to have their chance as well.

Cliqist : Congratulations on achieving your funding goal so soon. Are you surprised?
Maksym Pashanin : We are more surprised with an overwhelming support of our backers and very positive feedback rather than hitting our goal. It feels great to know that there are a lot of like-minded people who share your ideals about video game design. We are very appreciative of that, and will make sure to deliver on every promise.

Cliqist : Any fear of the over funding curse? That you’ll start obligating yourself to adding features that continually push back the release date?
Maksym Pashanin : One of our biggest concerns is delaying the release date. If we will get over funded drastically, the majority of that money will go towards hiring extra help to make sure we release the game on time.

Cliqist : Can you give us a quick explanation of what the game is about?
Maksym Pashanin : The game is all about exploration and fighting enemies while trying to deliver a package. The heavy randomization will keep the gameplay from getting stale, and various features will make sure to bring a lot of fun to a user who plays regularly.

Cliqist : Aren’t people tiring of retro sprites, as well as zombies? And yet you put them both in the same game.
Maksym Pashanin : Well, retro is something that we love. It is a dying breed, and we will try to keep it from becoming extinct at all costs. As for anti-zombite crowd, all we can say is that zombies are people too (or used to be at least) and deserve to be treated equally. Preferably with a heavy shotgun blast.

Cliqist : What’s the inspiration behind making Confederate Express?
Maksym Pashanin : One of our main sources of inspiration were classic turn-based tactical games like JA2, Fallout 2, X-Com and many others. As for recent products, I would say FTL was a big influence. We loved unknown worlds atmosphere where you can travel indefinitely and loot/kill enemies along the way.

Cliqist : The next stretch goal, Boundless World Map, sounds intriguing. Can you explain it a bit?
Maksym Pashanin : Boundless World map lets players to travel in any direction for as long as they want. We introduced this mechanic to allow the player to have, for example, a detour to level up, or let’s say a search for a secret hidden location or a unique boss event. We hope that this will make the gameplay more diverse and players will have the ultimate control over their destiny.

Cliqist : When do you think you’ll be starting the Beta?
Maksym Pashanin : The beta stage will begin about 1-1.5 months before the release date, depending on the production speed.

Cliqist : Any final words or thoughts?
Maksym Pashanin : We wanted to thank our backers again, as well as everyone who left feedback on our project. We sincerely appreciate your support, and this is truly what keeps us motivated. You guys rock!

Thanks to Maksym for taking the time to answer our questions!  We’ll get a haiku out of him next time, promise!

You can take a look at the Confederate Express Kickstarter here, it’s running until November 20th and is rapidly approaching its next stretch goal, which would add playable mech vehicles.  Another $8,000 after that and the team will add a full 10 skill RPG system.