Our second Indie Showcase features
ATOM RPG. Thanks to our member
Couchpotato for recommending this game. Also special thanks goes out to Anton Krasilnikov for answering our questions and providing screenshots for this article.
RPGWatch: Tell us a little about your background and experience?
Anton Krasilnikov: Before Atom I worked in marketing and also wrote some commercials. I came to the team right when the development started in 2015 as a writer and as a quest/lore designer.
RPGwatch: How long did it take you to develop your game?
Anton: It took us three years and a half. Before the Kickstarter campaign (that was held in 2017) we worked on the game in our free time. The large bulk of the work was done in about a year after the campaign.
RPGWatch: What games inspired your game?
Anton: There are too many to count, but aside from the obvious;
Fallout 1-2. It was also
Wasteland 1,
Morrowind with its interconnected world and the
Quest for Glory series that influenced us much more than one might think at first glance. And of course, there are many, many more examples.
RPGWatch: What's the target audience for your game?
Anton: People who like the old school RPG's and the new games which follow that sort of design philosophy. It's a niche genre, I guess, but it has one of the most loyal and involved fan bases out there. Ourselves included!
RPGWatch: How would you describe your game to an interested player?
Anton: It's a top down RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Soviet Union with an emphasis on exploration, role-playing and making some difficult decisions. Yep, that's about right
RPGWatch: In a huge rpg market, why should players give your game a chance?
Anton: Atom has a variety of approaches to solving quests, nonlinearity, secrets, puzzles, stat and skill checks, turn-based combat, a dark, but at times quite zany, world and dialogues (lots and lots of dialogues). At the same time some of the mechanics could be considered a bit too 'old school' and there is no voice acting (apart from the cutscenes). If that sounds like something that could be interesting to you then we would be happy to have you on board! If it's not your cup of tea, then we wish you all the best in your other gaming endeavors
RPGWatch: You're game has gotten some positive feedback. Are there any player comments you found especially noteworthy?
Anton: Too many to mention all of them! We pay the closest attention to all the feedback, the negative ones absolutely included. In fact, some of the best ideas in
Atom came from our players! And we plan to implement a lot of new suggestions in the future updates.
RPGwatch: Do you have future plans to support your game? If not do you have plans for another project?
Anton: Right now we are working on a free DLC for the game that will add new characters, quests, items, quality of life improvements that were suggested by the community and much more. We were also joined by a talented writer Scott Hamm, who worked on such great games as
Age of Decadence and
Battle Brothers. So stay tuned for that!
RPGWatch: Many players have compared Atom RPG to the first two Fallout games. What inspiration did you take from those games? What elements of Atom RPG make it unique and not just another post-apocalyptic RPG?
Anton: We were inspired by its design and setting. However, we decided to make a different approach towards the depiction of the post-apocalyptic psychology and society. Instead of descending into savagery the people in our world returned to a more medieval-like way of thinking, mystifying the recent Soviet past and attaching new almost magical meanings to some of the historical events.
I was a saner, happier person before I learned how huge that percentage was.
