Mr Viral
A few weeks ago, we covered the news that Mixed Realms’ Gordian Quest is coming to mobile later this year. It’s another entry in the deckbuilding roguelike world, something that only seems to become more popular over time. But what does it do to stand out? And what’s involved in successfully porting a game to mobile? These are all questions I asked Justin Ost and Aldric Chang when I had the chance to interview them!
Could you introduce yourself and your role on Gordian Quest for our readers, please?
JO: I’m Justin Ost, Founder of Aether Sky. We are a publishing and distribution specialist, working with other publishers and developers to help expand the growth of awesome games worldwide. I’m a huge fan of roguelites, deckbuilders, turn-based titles, and the like – so I am thrilled to support the launch of Gordian Quest on mobile platforms as our first exclusive launch.
AC: I’m Aldric Chang, CEO of Mixed Realms. We are an indie studio based in Singapore, best known for our high-octane cyber ninja simulator Sairento VR and deckbuilder RPG Gordian Quest.
For those unfamiliar, what’s the elevator pitch for Gordian Quest?
JO: An epic roguelite deckbuilding RPG inspired by old-school classics like Ultima and D&D – now free to play on mobile for the first time.
Were there other games, films, TV shows, or perhaps books that inspired the game? And if so, how has that manifested in Gordian Quest? Whether that be the art style, story or game mechanics.
AC: Dungeons and Dragons, Path of Exile, and Slay the Spire are the biggest influences for Gordian Quest. We wanted to combine the 3 elements of party-based adventuring, such as D&D, sprawling skill trees like Path of Exile and deck synergies like Slay the Spire.
Deckbuilding RPGs are fairly commonplace, particularly on mobile. What makes Gordian Quest stand out from the crowd?
JO: Quality, scale, and style. This is a premium PC game that has been ported to mobile and we don’t see many titles on mobile that match it in quality. In addition, Gordian Quest provides a different kind of experience with up to 18 units on the battlefield at any one time – not including reinforcements – robust character and equipment customisation faithful to RPG systems, world exploration & camping mechanics just to name a few. Not to mention the sheer scale of content: different possible builds & party compositions across the 10 different characters with their unique specialisations, talents, and more are on a totally different level than pretty much anything else we’ve seen.
The game has previously launched on PC, so it’s a known entity to some extent. Why did you decide that now was the time to bring it to mobile? Whether that’s the current marketplace, requests from players or simply a case of ‘why not.’
JO: It’s a combination of players yearning for an opportunity to play the game on mobile and also a bit of ‘Why Not’ –the combination of the two is a powerful argument!
Gordian Quest on PC was still being updated until last year which is when the plans were put in place to port the game to other platforms. Indeed, why not bring an exemplar of the genre to more gamers? For mobile specifically, we didn’t think there were too many real competitors for Gordian Quest. Since then we have seen games like Loop Hero or Balatro also make the move to mobile – both absolutely phenomenal titles –  and do very well. This is a nice indicator of the market’s appetite for standout games of this type.
Can you talk us through the process of porting a game from PC to mobile? What changes were needed to make it run well on a touchscreen device? Is it a more complex process than non-developers like myself realise?
AC: The Unity game engine is generally super versatile – therefore flexibility and modularity initially are a big help. However, beyond the adaptive functionality of the Unity engine, there are several important considerations.
Players often appreciate customizable controls and full-screen options. Thankfully due to the click-based gameplay of Gordian Quest, minimal adjustments were needed to address this for the transition between PC and mobile.
Improving UI compatibility for mobile devices is another crucial process. We have spent a significant amount of time in this area. Â With the level of detail and text inherent within the gameplay of Gordian Quest, legibility and functionality are obviously critical. Â For example, ensuring that the UI scales properly across different screen sizes and resolutions, and ensuring tooltips and other elements are not being obscured during gameplay.
Another key step is testing. With the plethora of different devices and specifications across mobile, it’s somewhat daunting, but incredibly important to thoroughly test the game on various devices and identify any platform or handset-specific issues.  This ensures that players irrespective of device enjoy consistent performance and usability,
often flagged during the testing phase are a host of platform compatibility bugs.
We identified and addressed numerous issues in this phase, arising from the various handset platform differences. These include problems such as frame rate inconsistency, screen resolution and general display problems, crashes, and lagging, to name but a few. These bugs need individual investigation and fixes, often due to incompatible shaders or plugins etc. across different handsets.
So to summarise and in answer to the question –  yes ‘under the hood’ when doing a port to mobile there are a host of obstacles and technical challenges to address and overcome. It’s our job to ensure players don’t actually notice or feel any of this and just enjoy the experience for mobile platforms.
The mobile market is a very different beast compared to PC, when it comes to payment models. How is Gordian Quest going to be monetised?
JO: Gordian Quest on mobile will be free-to-play. Accessibility and fairness were very important considerations in bringing the game to mobile and from the get-go, players will have access to most of the game’s Realm Mode for free with half of the characters available. There is then just a single purchase option to unlock the rest of the full game and remove ads.
We hope this lets people get into it without the initial monetary barrier, and decide to unlock the full version (Campaign + Adventure Modes, all characters and final levels of Realm Mode) to enjoy the game as it is meant to be played with all its glorious content.
Finally, can you share when the game will be released? Or roughly when? Likewise, will it be available on iOS and Android?
JO: We are aiming for Gordian Quest to be available on mobile this Winter – and this will be on both iOS and Android. It’s important for us not to release the game until it’s optimised and of a high enough quality to meet our players’ high expectations. Also, Aether Sky specialises in distribution on alternative platforms & app stores so you can expect to see Gordian Quest available on other local and global channels too.
Are there any further plans for Gordian Quest beyond the launch of the mobile version? Similarly, are you working on anything new you can share or perhaps tease with us?
JO: Depending on player feedback, we may look to introduce a multiplayer Skirmish Mode on the mobile version and potentially also additional content over time. Player feedback will be instrumental in shaping how Gordian Quest will evolve. As for Aether Sky, while we cannot share anything else today, but watch this space, our story is only beginning!
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings