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Eldest Souls is best described as a ferociously challenging boss rush game designed in a pixel art style, with a focus on fast-paced melee combat.
Developed by Jonathan Costantini and Francesco Barsotti, Eldest Souls is the first game by Fallen Flag Studio. Published by United Label, the game launches on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam and GOG) on July 29, 2021.
In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda’s Suryadeepto Sengupta, Jonathan Costantini opened up about Fallen Flag Studio, cloud, and handheld gaming and his experience developing Eldest Souls.
The following is an excerpt of the conversation.
Fallen Flag Studio co-founder Jonathan Constantini talks about the making of Eldest Souls
Q1. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and the journey you have had. What was the idea behind creating Fallen Flag Studio and developing video games?
Jonathan: Francesco and I (the other co-founder) met in high school, and as we both had a passion for games, we quickly became friends. Back then, we thought that making a game sounded like an “easy” and fun career path (hah, the joke’s on us!), so we ended up both studying Computer Games Programming in university and began making a small demo of our first game as a passion project. The small demo quickly grew into a very primitive version of Eldest Souls, and we felt confident enough to bring it to a few small conventions to get some much-needed player feedback. The number of positive comments and excitement took us by surprise but convinced us to “get serious”, find a publisher and get to work on the game full-time. We’ve been doing our best with Eldest Souls since then, learning and adapting along the way.
Q2. Tell us a bit about Eldest Souls. In a marketplace filled with AAA games from multi-billion studios, what about Eldest Souls sets itself apart from the rest?
Jonathan: Eldest Souls is really a work of passion. When we started, we didn’t really believe the game would be sold commercially, or even become a full game. That gave us an advantage in a way, as we didn’t really consider much besides what we truly loved and enjoyed most from our favorite games.
Eldest Souls is a hybrid between the classic souls-like series, with its dark and fragmented storytelling, and the fast and frenetic action from our favorite boss rush titles such as Furi and Titan Souls.
Unlike classic boss rush games, there’s a lot of player customization with a sprinkle of lore scattered throughout the mysterious Citadel.
Q3. What are some of the hurdles you have faced during the development process of Eldest Souls? With the upcoming July 29th release, how is the morale of the team?
Jonathan: As a small two-man team, deciding what to spend our time on was a real challenge. We mitigated that by focusing on the boss rush elements and pouring most of our time and passion into each of the bosses.
Our lack of experience was also a big issue to overcome, as we basically had to learn everything by ourselves. I still remember our first attempts at a “tutorial”, and new players getting either completely overwhelmed by the amount of info, or not providing enough for them to understand the basics. I believe we went through three or four iterations of different tutorial styles (it was really rough!), but at least I can say I’m pretty happy with our final version.
We are all very excited about the release. Regardless of how the launch goes, it feels like a huge accomplishment, having begun the development as two clueless students, and seeing the game grow and improve before ultimately being globally released.
Q4. Do tell us a bit about Fallen Flag’s partnership with United Label. How has United Label brought the game to previously untapped player bases?
Jonathan: Truth is, as two university students, we had no experience or contacts within the gaming industry. United Label has basically filled that role for us, and we’re very happy with all the opportunities we gained along the way.
Q5. Looking into the future, would you like to expand on the world of Eldest Souls with post-launch content and possibly even a sequel, or would you like to create a brand new world to mold and give shape to?
Jonathan: The nice thing is that we’re excited to do both. If Eldest Souls is received well, we’d love to expand it with either DLCs or sequels, as we still have a lot of ideas that we’re dying to implement.
On the other hand, we’re also more than happy to look at new projects. We have a few ideas in store and it would surely be refreshing to start from a blank slate.
We’ll have to wait and see, but either way, we can’t wait to get going!
Q6. Eldest Souls launches on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch. What are your thoughts on bringing the game to Cloud platforms such as Google Stadia and Amazon Luna? Do you see Cloud Gaming as a viable alternative for casual gaming audiences?
Jonathan: Honestly, I haven't tried any Cloud Gaming services yet, but I can see it growing exponentially in the future and it sounds like a great alternative to owning an expensive rig. We don’t have any plans to bring Eldest Souls there at the moment, but we’d be more than happy to consider it if the player base requests it.
Q7. PC gaming titan Valve recently announced the Steam Deck, which, interestingly, runs on custom SteamOS based on Linux. While the Steam Deck can run most Windows games out of the box due to the proton translation layer, what is your thought on bringing Eldest Souls natively on to the Linux operating system?
Jonathan: I absolutely love playing Eldest Souls with my Switch on hand-held mode, so I think it will be great to play it on the Steam Deck as well! We thought about a Linux port in the past, but due to our limited studio size and experience, we decided to prioritize other tasks.
Q8. Due to the ongoing pandemic, many studios across the globe had to adapt to a work-from-home situation. How did Fallen Flag Studio cope with the pandemic?
Jonathan: Before the pandemic, we had a small office, and it definitely felt good to have a distinction between home and the workplace. Obviously, when the pandemic hit, we switched to work-from-home, and it definitely took some getting used to. The lucky thing for us was that we were already working remotely with some collaborators who helped us with art, music, etc., so it was not a complete shock for us. After all this time, we’re quite used to the situation, although we’d definitely like to go back to an office space at some point in the future.
Q9. Five years down the line, where do you see yourself and Fallen Flag Studio?
Jonathan: A little older, a little wiser and hopefully, still making games!
Q10. Any advice for aspiring game developers?
Jonathan: I had always been the “lazy” guy during my university days, so I feel a bit awkward when asked this sort of question. Personally, I think the best you can do is work on your portfolio, do as many small games/projects as you can and, ideally, find other passionate people who want to work with you. Of course, there’s always a big degree of luck involved (meeting the right people, hitting a chord with the right audience, etc.), but fortune favors the bold, right? Do your best and put your work out there.
Eldest Souls can be purchased right now here.
