Gamescom Interview: Silver Palace Devs Talk House of Greed, Exploration, and More

By Jaymo | Today at 1:59pm

Silver Palace is a pretty unusual game, mixing a supernatural Victorian setting with mystery, exploration, RPG elements, and a surprising number of side activities. Following the game’s recent Dichotomy beta, we had the chance to sit down with the team at Gamescom to talk about some of the feedback they have received and what is coming next. Big thank you to Seliathan over at our Icy Veins team for conducting the interview with the wonderful Silver Palace team!

There is definitely quite a bit to look forward to!

Yesterday during Gamescom Opening Night Live, the new House of Greed multiplayer mode was also revealed, and the developers gave us a better idea of how they want Silver Palace to evolve before launch! So let’s get into it!

House of Greed Brings Multiplayer to Silver Palace

One of the biggest announcements surrounding Silver Palace at Gamescom was House of Greed, a new multiplayer game mode revealed in the game’s latest trailer, so we asked the team a little bit more about it!

During yesterday’s trailer, you revealed a new game mode for Silver Palace, the House of Greed. Can you tell us a little bit more about the mode, its inspirations, and how big a role it is going to play as part of the greater main game?

The game mode is still early in development, and will be a multiplayer game mode. The supernatural and victorian setting allows the team to introduce some more horror-esque elements and game modes, which is something they were very excited about for a while.

That being said, depending on how development goes, the mode may only be available for the game’s launch, not the next beta, and there is a chance that it might be a post-launch feature as well.

What is the average play-time of one round, and how many players can join at once?

There is nothing set in stone yet on the specifics for playtime or player numbers. The larger goal is for this to be a mode focused on exploration, taking place exclusively inside a building, so no outdoor exploration is involved here. There will also be combat encounters for players to engage in, and one of the possible enemies we’ve already seen in the trailer.

This mode seems to deviate from the largely single-player focus we’ve seen in the previous 2 Betas. Was this always a planned feature even in early development, or something you have started working on to give Silver Palace more unique vibes and game modes to play with, like the Horse Racing or Balatro-esque card battle mode with Red Rose?

House of Greed is something the team wanted to do from early on, but other parts of the game needed development first of course. House of Greed is more of a stand-alone game mode as well, and the goal seems to be to have game modes separate from the actual story of the game, that players can enjoy and have fun with.

So basically, the mode is still relatively early in development, so there are plenty of details that have not been decided yet. The team could not confirm how many players will be able to participate or how long an average round will last. What they could tell us is that House of Greed will take place entirely inside a building, putting more emphasis on exploration, and also introducing combat encounters.

They also see the mode as an opportunity to explore some of the more horror-oriented elements of Silver Palace’s supernatural Victorian setting. Interestingly, House of Greed is not something that was suddenly created in response to player feedback. The team told us that it was something they had wanted to make from relatively early in development, although other parts of the game naturally had to take priority first.

The big question is when we will get to play it.

For now, House of Greed is targeted for launch, but the team emphasized that development is still ongoing. It may not be ready for the next beta, and there is even a possibility that it could become a post-launch addition if development takes longer than expected.

So do not expect to jump into House of Greed during the next test just yet!

More Curious Deductions Are Coming

If you played the Dichotomy beta, Curious Deductions may have been one of the more interesting parts of Silver Palace. These side quests can feature multiple possible endings depending on how you approach the mystery, and it is something we do not see particularly often in games like this. According to the developers, creating these quests is considerably more difficult than designing a traditional quest.

In your Roadmap you bring up the “Curious Deductions” game mode, which to me was one of the highlights of the Dichotomy Beta. Having multiple endings for side quests is a very novel thing in games of this genre. How difficult are these to make, and how many Curious Deduction style quests can we expect with the game’s launch, or in each patch cycle?

Doing these kinds of quests is much more difficult than regular quest design. They require copywriters who are not only experienced and capable of writing stories that have multiple endings yet still remain logical no matter the solution the player chooses, but also need to be designed for a video game environment. Storytelling and narrative devices are different across different media, and i.e. someone who can tell interesting mysteries in a book or movie format, may not be able to do so in a videogame. On the other hand, the videogame medium of course allows for some other opportunities that other media don’t have too.

That being said, the team is excited to create more such stories. Initially there was some skepticism on how many players would enjoy the Curious Deductions, but player feedback thus far has been very positive so the team will be making more of these both for the launch of the game, and beyond.

The writers needed to create multiple outcomes that remain logical regardless of the player’s choices, and at the same time, also account for the fact that the story has to work within an interactive game and not just a book or movie. Despite the additional work involved, the team says the response from players has been very positive.

There was apparently some initial uncertainty over how many players would really enjoy the Curious Deductions system, but that feedback has convinced the developers to create more of these quests for launch and beyond.

So if you enjoyed investigating Silver Palace’s stranger mysteries during the beta, there should be more to come.

Exploration Is Getting Some Attention

Exploration was also an important topic during our conversation. The team has received feedback about the difficulty of navigating the city, particularly when players are trying to reach hidden secrets, puzzles, or NPCs. They did not give us specific details about upcoming changes, but they said their goal is to smooth out exploration and add more detail to the city.

In your recent Dichotomy roadmap post, you mentioned receiving a lot of feedback on exploration and camera controls. Can you elaborate a bit on what changes you’re looking to implement, i.e. will players be able to fly for longer, or be able to lift off anywhere, instead of needing an elevation drop or updraft to start flying their pegasus?

It is a bit early to give exact specifics on what will be changing for the next beta of the game, but the goal is to smooth exploration and add a lot of explorable details to the city. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to navigate towards a secret, puzzle, or NPC players might want to engage with, and that is one of the big priorities to make easier for players.

That means we should not necessarily expect one specific change, such as being able to fly anywhere with the Pegasus, but making exploration feel more natural is clearly one of the team’s priorities for the next beta. The exact changes are still being worked on, though, so we will have to wait for a future test to see how much the system has changed.

Yes, Silver Palace Will Get More Minigames

If the Balatro-inspired card game featuring Red Rose surprised you during the beta, it sounds like you should not expect it to be the last unusual activity added to Silver Palace. The developers told us that more side games and standalone modes are planned for the future.

Adding a Balatro-style game mode to the game was a big, and very pleasant, surprise, especially for players who never played a game like that before. Are there any other side or minigames you plan to add to the game?

There will be more side games and modes in the future. These game modes are very important in order to make the city feel more alive and novel, with plans both for mini-games and more stand-alone game modes like the Red Rose’s Scarlet Gambit game mode, as well as the House of Greed for the game’s launch, and beyond.

The idea is not simply to throw random minigames into the game. These activities are intended to help make the city feel more alive and give us things to do outside the main story. That includes smaller minigames, as well as bigger modes similar to the Red Rose card game and House of Greed.

So Silver Palace’s side content could become quite a bit more varied by the time the full game launches.

The Real Estate System Could Become More Important

We also took the time to ask about the real estate system.

Are there any plans to deepen the building aspect of the game, or is it simply supposed to provide some passive income of ingame and premium currency for players?

Player feedback on the real estate mode has been very positive, so the team is looking to improve and maybe add more features to it in the future.

So player feedback surrounding the feature has apparently been very positive, and the developers told us they are looking at ways to improve the system and potentially add more to it in the future.

There is currently no detailed roadmap for what those additions could look like, so we will have to wait for more information before knowing if the system will become a more substantial part of the game or not.

Startup Times & Launch Characters

One less glamorous, but probably very welcome, improvement concerns the game’s startup time. During the Dichotomy test, Silver Palace could take more than a minute to boot, and that was certainly noticeable to a ton of players, so we asked about it!

The game’s startup time during the Dichotomy test was incredibly high, with the game taking over a minute to boot up. While the roadmap touches on performance concerns, we were wondering if this is also on the list of improvements we can expect for the next Beta.

The startup time for the game is definitely one of the aspects the team is looking to improve for the next test.

The team confirmed that startup time is one of the areas they are looking to improve for the next test, alongside the other performance improvements already mentioned in the game’s roadmap. So hopefully future betas will not leave players staring at a loading screen for quite so long before they can get back into the city.

And finally, we asked how many playable characters we can expect when Silver Palace eventually launches, but unfortunately, there is no exact number to share yet. We tried!

Can you tell us how many characters there will be for the full launch of the game?

There is no specific number we can talk about right now, but there is definitely going to be more than what players have seen in the Dichotomy test.

The developers did confirm one thing, however: there will be more characters at launch than players saw during the Dichotomy test. That is about all we know for now, but with the game still in development, there should be plenty of time for the roster to expand.

One of the more interesting parts from our conversation is how much Silver Palace is growing beyond its main story and exploration. House of Greed, Curious Deductions, the Red Rose card game, additional minigames, and the real estate system all point toward a game that wants its city to feel like somewhere players can spend time even when the main story is completed.

There is still plenty that the developers are not ready to talk about, of course, and a lot of the features discussed are still in development. But if the goal is to make Silver Palace’s world feel more alive, the plans for additional activities and game modes certainly seem to be heading in that direction.

We will hopefully get a better look at these changes in the next beta! So thank you again for welcoming us, and we cannot wait to see what you have planned next for the game!

Read through the complete interview here

Icy Veins/All.gg – During yesterday’s trailer, you revealed a new game mode for Silver Palace, the House of Greed. Can you tell us a little bit more about the mode, its inspirations, and how big a role it is going to play as part of the greater main game?
- Silver Palace Team – The game mode is still early in development and will be a multiplayer game mode. The supernatural and Victorian setting allows the team to introduce some more horror-esque elements and game modes, which is something they were very excited about for a while.
- That being said, depending on how development goes, the mode may only be available for the game’s launch, not the next beta, and there is a chance that it might be a post-launch feature as well.
Icy Veins/All.gg – What is the average play-time of one round, and how many players can join at once?
- Silver Palace Team – There is nothing set in stone yet on the specifics for playtime or player numbers. The larger goal is for this to be a mode focused on exploration, taking place exclusively inside a building, so no outdoor exploration is involved here. There will also be combat encounters for players to engage in, and one of the possible enemies we’ve already seen in the trailer.
Icy Veins/All.gg – This mode seems to deviate from the largely single-player focus we’ve seen in the previous 2 Betas. Was this always a planned feature even in early development, or something you have started working on to give Silver Palace more unique vibes and game modes to play with, like the Horse Racing or Balatro-esque card battle mode with Red Rose?
- Silver Palace Team – House of Greed is something the team wanted to do from early on, but other parts of the game needed development first, of course. House of Greed is more of a stand-alone game mode as well, and the goal seems to be to have game modes separate from the actual story of the game that players can enjoy and have fun with.
Icy Veins/All.gg – In your recent Dichotomy roadmap post, you mentioned receiving a lot of feedback on exploration and camera controls. Can you elaborate a bit on what changes you’re looking to implement, i.e., will players be able to fly for longer, or be able to lift off anywhere, instead of needing an elevation drop or updraft to start flying their pegasus?
- Silver Palace Team – It is a bit early to give exact specifics on what will be changing for the next beta of the game, but the goal is to smooth exploration and add a lot of explorable details to the city. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to navigate towards a secret, puzzle, or NPC players might want to engage with, and that is one of the big priorities to make easier for players.
Icy Veins/All.gg – In your Roadmap, you bring up the “Curious Deductions” game mode, which to me was one of the highlights of the Dichotomy Beta. Having multiple endings for side quests is a very novel thing in games of this genre. How difficult are these to make, and how many Curious Deduction-style quests can we expect with the game’s launch, or in each patch cycle?
- Silver Palace Team – Doing these kinds of quests is much more difficult than regular quest design. They require copywriters who are not only experienced and capable of writing stories that have multiple endings yet still remain logical no matter the solution the player chooses, but also need to be designed for a video game environment. Storytelling and narrative devices are different across different media, and i.e. someone who can tell interesting mysteries in a book or movie format may not be able to do so in a video game. On the other hand, the videogame medium, of course, allows for some other opportunities that other media don’t have too.
- That being said, the team is excited to create more such stories. Initially, there was some skepticism on how many players would enjoy the Curious Deductions, but player feedback thus far has been very positive, so the team will be making more of these both for the launch of the game and beyond.
Icy Veins/All.gg – The game’s startup time during the Dichotomy test was incredibly high, with the game taking over a minute to boot up. While the roadmap touches on performance concerns, we were wondering if this is also on the list of improvements we can expect for the next Beta.
- Silver Palace Team – The startup time for the game is definitely one of the aspects the team is looking to improve for the next test.
Icy Veins/All.gg – Adding a Balatro-style game mode to the game was a big, and very pleasant, surprise, especially for players who never played a game like that before. Are there any other side or minigames you plan to add to the game?
- Silver Palace Team – There will be more side games and modes in the future. These game modes are very important in order to make the city feel more alive and novel, with plans both for mini-games and more stand-alone game modes like the Red Rose’s Balatro-style card game mode, as well as the House of Greed for the game’s launch, and beyond.
Icy Veins/All.gg – Are there any plans to deepen the building aspect of the game, or is it simply supposed to provide some passive income of in-game and premium currency for players?
- Silver Palace Team – Player feedback on the real estate mode has been very positive, so the team is looking to improve and maybe add more features to it in the future.
Icy Veins/All.gg – Can you tell us how many characters there will be for the full launch of the game?
- Silver Palace Team – There is no specific number we can talk about right now, but there is definitely going to be more than what players have seen in the Dichotomy test.