Traditionally, point & click adventure games focus on the player moving through the story with interactive environments peppered throughout. Developer Ore Creative wanted to take this idea further for their upcoming project, Ira. New mechanics help players focus more on their journey, as well as the characters they take it with. A recent Kickstarter update revealed the new interaction system designed to give players a deeper experience.
The characters of Ira already had their own ways of speaking and expressing themselves through player selected dialogue options. Now, players can interact with the world through the different skills, tools, and abilities of each character.
“Ira isn’t about getting from point A to point B, it’s about the journey, and the connection the player has to both the character, and the world. It was imperative that we create a system that pushes that connection as far as possible”
Rather than break up the story with traditional menus, Ira allows players to activate a radial of skills and actions characters can take during gameplay. Selecting the playable character will slow down time so players can determine how they’d like the character to interact with the world. The new interactions complement the game’s existing dialogue system while allowing players to actively engage with their environments.
Of course, not all backers are particularly pleased with this shift from pure point & click gameplay. Especially when the simplified mechanics were what initially drew them to the project. Ore Creative has responded to these concerns on Kickstarter.
Working Through The Differences
“I know it looks foreign, but its really just an adaptation of a classic point and click mechanic menu, and when you use it your are simply turning things on and off (like a light switch). We promise its not a game changer, but I understand how it could look that way.”
Development on Ira is expected to wrap-up by the end of the year with a late 2017-early 2018 release date planned. This includes their Switch debut. The new interaction mechanics look promising, but we’ll have to wait and see how they work alongside the rest of the game.
