A duo of seasoned professionals works on a prize-winning project, goes quiet for several years and suddenly reappears. “Fading Skies” is the project of Marc and Ronja Fleps. Winning at the German Computer Game Awards (DCP)in the Newcomer category in 2018 convinced them “that we could tackle this full-time.”, Ronja explains. 

The DCP award gave them confirmation that a two-person team could really do this. “Fading Skies” is a genre mash-up of nostalgic 3D platforming and more modern action RPGs, with an ambitious design and a cute dragon. 

Tackling such a large project with a core team of only two people does sound a bit much. But after years of development work, “Fading Skies” looks nuanced and complex, like a game nearing the finish line. That may not be entirely true; a lot of content is still missing. But creative and technical foundations are in place. Many things have been developed, discarded, revised and refined. 

Better building blocks 

In “Fading Skies”, the young heroine Ryn explores a mysterious and beautiful fantasy world, alongside little dragon Kyo. The game design aims to evoke a “more naive style”, Marc explains. Rather than overloading the world with explanations, mission markers and progression systems, the focus lies on strong core mechanics. It should be fun to walk around, to explore and discover how things work. The interface gets out of the way whenever possible. “Fading Skies” is a game for players who like to experiment, who expect to fail sometimes and who want to grow through challenges. 

The concept can call to mind “Spyro” as much as “Dark Souls”. That’s not a bridge too far for Ronja and Marc. She explains that they both play a lot and keep their eyes open for inspiration. When an idea fits their project, “we will adapt it and make it our own,” Ronja says. 

Their ability to do this comes from professional experience. Both have worked in Hamburg’s games industry. Marc is an animation specialist and Ronja studied programming in Hamburg and Stuttgart. They met at Daedalic, found work at Goodgame, but the pull of their own project proved stronger. 

In a larger studio, you stay “focused on your own part” of the puzzle, Marc explains. Making something completely his own seemed attractive, but unrealistic – until Marc tried working with Unreal Engine 4. It opened areas beyond animation to him and shrank his dream project into a manageable scope. 

The long road up 

That “Fading Skies” is still not done after years of work comes down to two things. First, it’s a simple “budget question”, Marc says. Several contractors have contributed to the game, but the passion project never received larger funding. Second, being a small team has advantages. Ronja explains that they will “refuse to release anything that doesn’t meet our standards.” As a duo, they can afford to prioritize quality over deadlines. 

The critical attitude and attention to detail pay off. A Kickstarter campaign succeeded last year, carried by a convincing demo. Marc and Ronja feel validated. “We have a Vertical Slice that contains everything the game needs,”he says. The two have proven to themselves and to the world that they can deliver on their plan. 

Now, they are looking forward to reconnecting with the local games industry. The Games Lift incubator is a big helphere. “Getting insight from people who have released games is really valuable,” Marc emphasizes. There is still sometime to go before release. But the dragon flies on course.