Playdek CEO Joel Goodman Sheds More Light on Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians

Posted by Rob Rich on January 21st, 2014

Unsung Story, Playdek's upcoming tactical RPG, seems to be moving along quite nicely. The Kickstarter project, which only started last week, is already past the halfway point with 24 days to go. I think it's safe to assume that a fair number of people want to play it, yeah?

Playdek CEO Joel Goodman was gracious enough to answer a few of our burning questions regarding Unsung Story. Specifically questions about the game itself, the Kickstarter project, and the involvement of Yasumi Matsuno.

148Apps: Playdek has one heck of a repertoire filled with a TON of great ports of some classic games. Do you think the mechanics of any of those games, or what you've learned while creating them, may have had an influence on what you've done with Unsung Story?
Joel Goodman (JG): The AI system we have created as well as our asynchronous gameplay mechanics will most definitely have an influence on what we will be able to do for Unsung Story. We also maintain a high quality level for all of our games.

148Apps: A tactical RPG seems like a fairly big change in genre from Playdek's typical work. Was it a challenge to start developing something so different or was it an idea who's time has come?
JG: It was a ripe opportunity that just sort of happened. When the opportunity came, we jumped at it. Plus tactics gaming fits our wheel house.

148Apps: Was Yasumi Matsuno a part of the project from the start or did you have the basic idea for Unsung Story in place first?
JG: Yasumi Matsuno developed the concept entirely from the start. We only asked for a tactics game and he took that request and hit the ground running. It is amazing to see the concepts and ideas he is able to come up with when given creative freedom.

148Apps: Will there be any form of multiplayer mode or is it being designed as an entirely single-player affair? Personally I wouldn't mind the latter in the slightest.
JG: There will be multi-player, but the core experience for the story is single player.

148Apps: It must have been difficult deciding where to place stretch goals for the Kickstarter project. Were there any goals you would shift around if given the opportunity? Any that you wish you could have included in the base game? Are you finding that backers are generally being receptive to them or has there been some pushback?
JG: The response has been incredible, and our backers are giving us tremendous feedback on the rewards and goals. We will be making modifications to those as we go based off of the suggestions we are seeing come in.

148Apps: Regardless of how the Kickstarter campaign goes (I'm guessing very well based on how much it's made so far) Unsung Story will still be coming to mobile, right?
JG: Yes, however we hope to get the game into as many player's hands as possible on their platforms of choice.

We'd like to thank Joel Goodman for answering our questions, and are anxiously looking forward to getting our hands on Unsung Story.