Get to know a little bit more about Arcadian Atlas—and the people behind it!

2D isometric SRPGs are an absolute treasure if you ask me. There’s something about games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and the like that—between their engaging combat, endearing stories, and charming artwork—have always held a special place in my heart. Unfortunately, they’re also part of a bygone era… or so I had thought! Despite not being the most popular thing around anymore (were they ever, though?) the world of old-school SPRGs is very much alive and well—with the upcoming Arcadian Atlas being the most recent example (and a very exciting-looking one to boot!).

Maybe you’re wondering just what, exactly, Arcadian Atlas is about, though? Or perhaps you’d like to know a bit more about the development process? Well, you’re in luck, because we here at Hey Poor Player recently got to sit down and pick the brain of Taylor Blair—one half of the brother-sister duo sitting at the helm of the development studio behind Arcadian Atlas, Twin Otter Studios!

Hey Poor Player: To begin, could you briefly give us a synopsis of Arcadian Atlas in terms of both story and gameplay?

Twin Otter Studios: Arcadian Atlas is a tactical RPG in the spirit of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and more modern interpretations of the genre like XCOM and Fire Emblem. We wanted to craft interesting and powerful classes that have different strategic usage in our gorgeous isometric battle maps – using some of our favorite skill tree features from games like Ragnarok Online and Diablo II to make each class further differentiated through wild and powerful abilities.

On the story front, the land of Arcadia is embroiled in civil war when the eldest surviving heir to the throne, Lucretia Belneive, is declared illegitimate by her stepmother, Queen Venezia. Lucretia raises the peasantry – the destitute and downtrodden – to resist and reclaim her throne. The ensuing war, driven by these two cold, calculating tacticians, forces the entire continent to choose sides, including our heroes: Vashti Dahlman and Desmond Rhines. But as the world around them burns, our characters find the bonds of love and family fray and snap. Arcadian Atlas is the story of that burning – and of what can be saved from the ashes.

HPP: Based upon what we can see in the Release Date Reveal Trailer, Arcadian Atlas seems to have PS1-era retro-ness about it. Was that done on purpose? If so, were there any games in particular that you would say helped to inspire you during this game’s development process?

TOS: The retro-quality of Arcadian Atlas existed from the very beginning and was born from our love of the SNES/PS1 era. Growing up in the ‘90s, we lived during the golden age of pixel art, when Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger pushed the artistry of these tiny pixels to their most endearing. We fell in love with these 16-bit characters. We felt their pain and rejoiced in their triumphs, even though they were just a collection of dots. Because we saw ourselves in them. We wanted to bring that depth of visual storytelling to Arcadian Atlas, and the retro style let us do that as a small team.

HPP: Did you have a particular theme or motif in mind when designing the game’s soundtrack?

TOS: The soundtrack is a gorgeous interpretation by Moritz P. G. Katz of the indominable human spirit – that even in our darkest times there is great beauty and joy to be found, and that joy is made sweeter through all the sorrows we have endured.

HPP: During the Release Date Reveal Trailer, you can very briefly see a “Tower” Major Arcana card being used—seemingly during combat. Are you able to tell us what role tarot cards will play in the game?

TOS: The Tarot, known as the Atlas in the world of Arcadia, plays into the story and some of the foes you’ll face. While we cannot say too much or risk spoilers, let’s just say it’s a force more powerful than any army – when wielded properly.

HPP: Was there any particular reason you decided to include tarot cards in Arcadian Atlas?

TOS: I’ve always loved the idea of the arcane entering our normal lives – how we would react if something supernatural were to take root and grow into something monstrous. Would we even notice it at first? Would we believe it even if we saw it with our own eyes? The idea that there’s something else working behind the world, for good or ill, and what that would mean if we had to face it one day is what pushed us to include it in the story.

HPP: “Choices” seems to be a prominent theme in Arcadian Atlas. Does this mean that decision-making will be a key factor throughout gameplay? If so, how will these decisions affect the game?

TOS: Choice is at the heart of the story, whether that be in choices the player makes or choices that others make for the player. Characters will react differently based on your choices, some may live or die depending on your choices in battles, and ultimately the entire story is about the choices we make to obtain or hold onto the things that we love.

HPP: If you could only pick one thing, what would you say Arcadian Atlas has that really helps it to stand out from other SRPGs

TOS: Heart. The people who inhabit the world of Arcadia are human, even though their skin is a collection of pixels. In developing it, we’ve come to fall in love with these people – all of them, regardless of their motives – and it’s our sincere hope that not only do players have an absolute blast playing it but walk away with people they’re happy to spend hours fighting alongside. Some as warnings of what the lust for power can do to good souls, and others as lifelong companions.

HPP: Switching gears a bit, it looks like Twin Otter Studios has been working on Arcadian Atlas since at least 2016. How has the development process been overall?

TOS: Long, but rewarding. There were moments, especially during the pandemic, when it was very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the development of Arcadian Atlas is a reminder that life can spring from things we thought were dying, and we know the end result is stronger for the hard road it took to get here. We’re so excited to finally put years of hard work and passion out into the world for others to enjoy.

HPP: Did Arcadian Atlas end up like you originally thought it would when you began development, or did you have to make many changes?

TOS: All games go through a sort of refinement process – usually early on in development where you decide what does and doesn’t work in the overall story you’re trying to tell. There were certainly things left on the cutting room floor – some fun side characters, extraneous features, etc. But it’s always better to shoot for the moon and get as much great content as you can, leaving whatever scraps didn’t make sense for a possible future project. We’re extremely pleased with the depth of strategy and variety of people, places, and things you’ll get to experience in Arcadia – and some things I thought were pie-in-the-sky we somehow managed to get in and polished to a brilliant sheen.

HPP: Twin Otter Studios is also spearheaded by a brother-sister development team, which certainly isn’t something you see every day. What’s the story behind that?

TOS: My sister, Becca, and I grew up cutting our teeth on PS1 RPGs and tactics games. We started at a young age to explore the world of game development, using several early game engines to make our own stories and worlds come to life – it’s been a part of our DNA for a long time now. And finally, after I was writing for pleasure after several years and she was doing pixel art for other projects we said, “Why not do this for real – our own project.” Our powers combined, we picked up the talented programmer Paddy Otterness and the brilliant musician Moritz P.G. Katz and built something wonderful together.

HPP: How would you say that working together as siblings has affected you as video game developers?

TOS: Every good partnership has push and pull – great ideas aren’t born from everyone agreeing. The fire is a necessary part of refining any metal, and there’s no fire quite like family 😂. So, we’re honest with each other, even when it means taking a feature or a design in another direction. Saying, “Hey, this is a great idea, but it doesn’t work in its current iteration. Can we tweak it? Can we repurpose it? Or is it something we need to leave out of this project?” is an important part of any team.

Having Paddy and Moritz as extra sounding boards has also been such a joy. The team has grown into this wonderful unit that understands the vision of the game and what’s best for it – and we’re all so laser focused on making the best possible version of that vision for people to play.

HPP: Is there anything else that you’d like to mention that we haven’t talked about?

TOS: My final thought is simply: community is everything. We wouldn’t be here if people didn’t believe in us all those years ago, backing us when we had just a dream and a prototype of a game. But more than just as backers, our community has encouraged us but – and this may seem strange – they’ve also given us hard words when we needed them. No one is promised an easy road when they create something – there is a graveyard of mediocre ideas on the way to great ones – and sometimes we need to hear the critiques just as loudly as we hear the praise. Feedback has made our game infinitely better than it would have been without because it has made us work that much harder and push a concept that much further. We’re grateful for that. Though we probably don’t express it enough, the trust and goodwill of our community means a lot to us.

We here at Hey Poor Player would like to sincerely thank Taylor Blair, and the entirety of Twin Otter Studios, for taking some time out of their schedule to talk shop with us. Arcadian Atlas will be releasing on PC and Mac beginning July 2023.