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Unawake, the upcoming Action RPG developed by RealityArts Studio, recently had its demo released as part of Steam NEXT Fest. We got to talk with Ismail Kemal, the creator of the upcoming title, and discussed all thingsUnawake.
Unawakeseems like a title worth keeping an eye out for, particularly because of its excellent presentation, made possible by UnrealEngine 5, and its intense-looking gameplay. Without further ado, here is our interview of Ismail:
Unawake – A Pure Passion Project
Q. What was it like being the lone developer working on such an ambitious project?
Well; there’s a lot I undertake on my own, primarily when discussing and planning the actual development with the publisher which includes coordinating all their direct feedback on the build, scheduling regular calls, co-ordinating aspects like demo’s and working up things like marketing artwork so in that respects I undertake a lot of that onUnawakedirectly myself as a project lead and game creator which is a lot of work.
Our team size is actually 3 people but we have only two developers (including myself) on this title. Sometimes it feels like heaven and sometimes hell:)
Although we have nearly 10 years of experience working in Unreal and have our own systems helping us, it’s still very difficult especially at times before major events such as Gamescom or Steam Next Fest. My other developer friend Erdem is doing all the programming work so all graphic design, level design, audio design and anything you may imagine other than programming asks for me:) But we all plan and decide together and we have very detailed roadmap documentation to aid us. It’s like a film production really. We have our weekly roadmaps, monthly roadmaps, dailies etc.
Q. How long has this project been in the works? And how long have you been with RealityArts Studios?
Since I’m one of the co-founders, I’ve been with RealityArts since the beginning. My other co-founder partner is Bahar Baziki. She and I have been working together since our days in the production & post-production industry. After we got the Steam Greenlight in 2 days for our first title, we decided to move forward in game development which was our dream for nearly 20 years
AndUnawakehas been in development for 1.5 years. It’s our third project.
Q. Is there any advantage to working solo when it comes to game development?
Yeah well I’m not solo but most of the time I feel like solo:) This also applies to our genius programmer as well. We have to act like commanders which have no soldiers. So we need to design, decide, act and also fight. Is there any advantage? Of course. Although this is hard; we have the advantage of freedom. In regards to anything about game design, bugs, new features or anything you can imagine, we are super fast in making decisions and applying them.
Sometimes it takes us just hours to do some serious development when big teams need to invest days. It sounds unbelievable but it really is. There were times when we were nearly 17 people and thanks to our smart systems which we created in Unreal; we are much faster and also better now.
Do we need to rest? No problem, we can check our roadmap and have a couple of days off. Do we need to crunch? Again no problem. We order some pizzas, have our vitamins ready and do what must be done. We always know we care for each other and have the ultimate trust for ourselves. Since we also self-fund our project, we don’t need to answer any executives in suits. It’s a challenging thing to work on a project like this as 2 developers but we have our passion and freedom. And that fuels us perfectly.
Q. Is there something that you feel you couldn’t complete or couldn’t implement because you didn’t have a team behind you?
Not at all. I have to tell you that we start, do and finish our projects like a big film production. We always ready everything at the table with our documents and planning. We are small but not inexperienced in that it affects what we are capable of. In a big project like this, with a very small number of people working on it, it can be a disaster in lots of ways. But we always plan most of the things and have a very solid foundation in our projects, we’re pretty agile too so decisions can be made and implemented quickly.
That is our way of working since our days in the film industry. So basically, we don’t plan what we can’t do. Of course there are tons of issues along the way but as long as we stay with our foundation and planning, we overcome everything easily. We always have B,C and D plans and as I explained in my previous answer, we are very fast in acting to move forward our development.
Q. So UnrealEngine 5. How was it like working with a still fairly-new engine?
The project started in UE4 and we switched to UE5 after the Vertical Slice version. And it was a very soft switch. Since we were using a heavily modified version of Unreal, we just introduced UE5’s new features to our own version. We don’t use most of the features as we saw that they were designed for movies rather than games. Lumen for example.
But especially “Nanite” changed our design and gameplay drastically. With Nanite we eliminated performance issues based on design completely.
Most people ask if UE5 will want more hardware for our game but actually the UE5 version is more epic looking and has slightly better performance than our UE4 version. So working in UE5 is like a dream for a designer.
Q. The game seems like it’ll be jam-packed with lore. How will the game present that to the player?
The game will have a linear storyline which will take you to some epic moments. But we are not creating a heavy story driven game as we are targeting a gameplay similar toDiablo IIin first person.
So yes there will be an exciting and epic story to establish narrative but most of our lore will be there for story enthusiasts if they choose to experience it.
We won’t force story elements on people as a necessity but it will be there for people who love this stuff (like me!). But I can tell every enemy, every ruin, every piece of equipment in the game has a story behind it. We are creating our own unique fantasy world. It’s dark and ancient. And it will be there for people who want to explore it.
Q. ‘Unawake’: I assume that it’s related to the plot, but what does that title mean?
Yes it is related to the main plot and our main character. It means you are looking at me but not really awake. You do not know your identity, you don’t know your powers, you don’t know anything which makes you yourself. And you have to start a journey which we call “Path of the Awakened” to know yourself. What is this world? Who are you? What’s this all about? At the start of the game you have questions more than answers. And throughout the storyline you’ll find your answers and find the meaning of “Unawake”.
Q. Can you elaborate a bit regarding the game’s customisation? How will one player’s adventure be different from another’s?
We have extensive use of Skills, Perks and Character Stats. We have 30 skills with 3 different types. We have close combat skills, Energia skills similar to Mage/Wizard and Passive skills. Also with stats such as Strength, Defence, Vitality and Stamina; the players can create different play styles. These play styles can be recognized as tanks, mages, battlemages, warriors, supporters etc.
With our first version there won’t be different characters like inDiablogames but players can create different gaming styles with these features. Our save system will enable them to save their setups on different slots so they can experiment. Perks will be different from skills and they can be upgraded to enhance the basic abilities of the character such as Double Jump, Dash, Crafting etc.
Q. The game looks like it could be quite challenging, especially for those unfamiliar with the RPG genre. Roughly speaking, how challenging would you say the game actually is? Will it have multiple difficulty modes?
The game looks challenging but not from the start. Like all games, our game will also start quite easy, teaching unfamiliar players the world of Unawake and our gameplay systems. And it’s quite easy really. Like the famous quote; easy to play, hard to master. Aren’t theDiablogames like this too? We’ll teach everything to players to survive the world ofUnawakeand it will be up to them to how far they’ll journey:) There won’t be a difficulty change in the first playthrough as we’ll spend a good amount of time to balance it. But after the main story is complete, players will have the ability to play in a harder mode with new items and bosses.
Q.Unawakejust concluded its official demo as part of Steam NEXT Fest. How was the player feedback? And will that affect the game’s development before the full release?
It already affected us in a great way. It was still too early to release a demo but with guidance from our super developer friendly publisher Toplitz Productions, we decided to release it and they were right. We got so much great feedback to improve our systems that it was the right call to enter Steam Next Fest. Now we have already improved and changed some of the things players have mentioned and I believe Unawake is stronger than before. There were harsh critics as well but we welcome all feedback whether it’s positive or negative. Negative feedbacks are valuable too as they mostly point out some things which we couldn’t see before.
The point of view is very different from developer view and players view. Players don’t know the amount of time to develop a feature they want. For example a player says “your combat is terrible! There’s no knockback from enemies!”. Alright, will you play it if we do it? And he says several comments later, yes I’d definitely play it. It takes 10 min for us to make the knockback feature:)
But of course they don’t know this. And I saw that the players were hurt from non responding developers or developers who are under the dark shadow of the investors & big corporations. Since we have none, they will know that whatever they have issues with, we can come up with a solution in a very fast way possible.
We only have Toplitz and they have been guiding us with great feedback since day 1. So although we have a publisher, we still have freedom and a great feedback mechanism. They cover us with the marketing and releasing of the game but also with feedback for the game development as well.
Q. Will there be another demo before release?
Yes, there’s a demo for ScreamFest and Halloween at the same time. And we included our latest improvements & developments which we did based on the feedback we got from Steam Next Fest.
Q. Were there any specific inspirations that led to the creation ofUnawake?
This is the hardest question because there are so, so many. Without making this the longest answer I can just say all the fantasy & historical movies we have watched, all the fantasy & sci-fi books we have read and all the music we have listened to this day. All of these created an aroma on our consciousness to create our unique stories and designs. If players look closely, they can find inspirations from Lord of the Rings, Divine Comedy and many others…
Q. Are there any expansions planned or currently in the works forUnawake?
Yes. There will be expansions and we already have lots of epic things on our mind. We’ll also have free updates to enhance our gameplay systems and many surprises. But no “this” edition and “that” edition which gives you digital goodies or battle passes etc. I hate that stuff and I see that most of the players hate those too.Unawakeis a game made by gamers for gamers and we really care what players want.
Q. AfterUnawake, do you plan to take on more single-dev projects?
Well; we’re pushing ourselves for a successful release and I’m hoping to enlarge our team to cover bigger developments hopefully forUnawake. There are great things on our mind but they need bigger teams and bigger budgets. So we’ll see:)
Q. Is there anything we haven’t asked that you’d like to make us or our readers aware of in particular?
Thank you so much for this interview. Those were great questions and hope to see everyone in the dark world ofUnawakesoon!
There you have it, our interview with Ismail Kemal. It seems likeUnawakeis really shaping up to be something special. Be sure to check outUnawakeas part of Scream Fest on Steam.
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Adil Farooq
Senior Gaming Content Editor / Critic
Articles Published :100
Ever since he can remember, Adil has been deeply embedded within the world of video games. You’ll see him regularly grinding out the hot new RPG, like Elden Ring, or perhaps an awesome narrative adventure, like The Last of Us. Even after playing all these new and grand games, he’ll still make time for some awesome classics, like Final Fantasy or Castlevania.
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