Hello! We're live at Gamescom. I'm here with Rudy and Julio of Outright Games.
We've just played Jumanji and Transformers. I have to say I enjoyed both of them.
Very much so.
At Outright, you guys are known for creating family-friendly games,
really lots of fun games for kids and also just to get together as a family to play.
But they're not necessarily simple games.
You know, people, when they hear family-friendly, they might sort of switch off.
But what do you guys add for accessibility for families?
And also, what would you say to sort of people maybe switching off at the idea of family-friendly,
maybe someone who just plays games solo and wants to sort of get a new experience?
Yeah, so the thing is that we are aiming always at games for kids,
so we try to make the controls simple and accessible so it's easy to control.
So the idea is not that it's just easy as a game, because there is challenge always,
but that you can get into the challenge easily with easy-to-play things,
so not complicated controls like, you know, jump and attack for action titles and so on.
But yeah, the thing is that we want anyone to be able to play the games
and anyone to be able to get into the games.
And it's not also kids, because we work with nice IPs and franchises,
so we want fans, long-time fans and casual gamers who are also fans of these franchises
to be able to play and to be able to get them without having to be like hardcore gamers, you know,
because sometimes they have this big entry barrier to the games and we don't want that.
We don't want everyone to be able to play anything.
Yeah, just working off of what Julio said, we make all the experiences really gratifying,
I think is the really important part.
The most important is fun, so in really engaging with these brands, engaging with the stories,
we have great partners, it's about, you know, having people,
being able to share the experience with people that aren't necessarily gamers.
So while it may be sort of simple in the sense that it's simple to enter, it's not easy.
And speaking on that entry point, I just want to sort of focus on Jumanji really quickly.
Jumanji is based off the sort of film, we're seeing the film characters,
you can pick and play from the sort of characters in both of the movies.
Do people necessarily need to have seen the movies to get involved
or is it just sort of pick up and play as we can go?
Yeah, you don't really need to see the films.
I think the good part is we do engage with the characters, we add their personality in,
but Jumanji is such a great franchise and it's like, you know, you get sucked into the Jumanji game.
That's the core, you get sucked into the game, that's applicable to anything.
And then we add the characters for the personality.
So it's just about having fun, getting sucked into the adventure and avoiding the traps.
And speaking of the characters, there are four different playable characters,
each with their own sort of unique moveset and unique sort of costumes that you can add as well.
There's also a lot of other replayability elements in Jumanji, sort of plenty of secrets.
Could you talk a bit more about those?
Sure, I think there's various levels of replayability sort of baked into the core design.
So the first is that there are, when you start up the game, there will be different bosses
and that sort of control what is the endgame.
So they sort of steal this gem, which is what you need to escape the Jumanji game,
but that's randomized every time you start the game.
So you'll have to play through different levels and maybe in level, in World 3, you'll complete the game,
but in another playthrough it could be World 4.
So there's that.
Plus there's just a ton of unlockables in terms of skins, upgradeable abilities, all sorts of things.
So you'll want to keep playing through just to sort of customize and have a good time.
So when I was playing through, I found the levels were quite extensive.
You've got a lot to do and there's also a lot of secrets to pull through as well.
How long would you say it takes to beat on average for like a party of four maybe?
Ooh, I think that's going to be quite difficult.
Yeah, I don't know, but I think if you want to really get like 100% of the game,
it can take up to six, eight hours maybe.
Yeah, something like that.
But again, it sort of plays into that element of you don't know where the gem is.
So theoretically, it could be like three or four hours, but you want to explore the rest of the levels.
You'd be skipping out on some of the content.
And moving on to Transformers, as we talk about villains and we talk about bosses,
this time in Transformers we're facing up against Mandroid,
who has sort of taken over Dominions and this leads to an open world sort of structure of the game.
How is this going to be sort of maybe challenging, a bit overwhelming,
or is it sort of, you know, does it take it as its own pace as you sort of go through the game?
Is it sort of simple to understand?
Yeah, because Transformers is kind of an open world game,
but it's divided into three different sectors.
So the difficulty goes up from the beginning.
So it starts really simple and really easy for the kids and then it goes harder and harder.
But you can unlock a lot of abilities, unlock a lot of powers and so on.
So you can play at your own pace, actually.
So if you find something really difficult, you can go out and you can go back later and so on.
And also the most difficult challenges are always optional.
So you don't really need to play the hardest parts of the game.
You can just go easy on the story side and you can finish the game on your own and on your own time.
And just a quick question as well.
There is a lot of depth, though, to this game, the combat especially.
There's a lot of abilities to unlock.
There's a lot of things for you to sort of do.
I was beaten by the game.
It's not necessarily a simple, easy game, you know.
So could you talk a bit more about the depth of the combat
and what you've put into it to make it sort of stand out?
Yeah, so the controls are accessible.
So it's only just one punch button, one kick button, and then one dodge button, and that's all.
But the thing is that you can combo between them and you can unlock a lot of different abilities.
For example, at the beginning you only have the triple punch combo and triple kick combo,
and they are easy to do.
You have a special kick attack that launches enemies into the air.
Another one that smashes them down.
So just with that, you can finish the game, actually.
The thing is that you can unlock more combos and you can start doing really interesting things.
Like, for example, if you dodge at the perfect time, you get a slow-mo mode
and then you can go around the enemies and punch all of them at once.
And it's really, really fun to do.
There is also a lot of different special attacks
where you just charge your beam into a really big beam or a special punch.
And then there is combos that you can unlock as well.
And it's, for example, punch, kick, punch in an easy motion.
And then you turn into a car, which is something great for a Transformer,
and just smash into enemies or fall into them.
So it's really, really fun.
And it's really easy to do.
You can unlock any of the combos you like.
You just have to get the currencies for that.
But it's really easy to get them into your own play style
and just choose how you want to play.
Something I thought was interesting was that it's on Unreal Engine 5.
It's being built on Unreal Engine 5, and you can see it in the graphics.
But we're also bringing it to Switch.
There's a lot of, maybe, graphical fidelity.
Would you like to talk a bit more?
The thing is that we wanted to have the game the most similar to the TV show
because that's what we want and what the fans want.
They want to see Bumblebee, the Bumblebee from Earthspark,
and recognize him on the screen.
So even though it's Unreal 5 and it's really powerful and so on,
we always went for this TV-like appearance of the graphics and so on.
And I will say that, yes, it was difficult to bring to Switch,
but it's running quite perfectly there.
So it's great.
Perfect. I think that's all about what we've got time for.
Thank you very much for joining me.
When can we see Transformers Earthspark Expedition?
When can we see Jumanji?
And what platforms will they be on?
So Transformers, I think the launch date is already released.
I mean, it's announced.
It's on October 13th.
Yes.
But for Jumanji, I don't know.
I'm not sure if I can give the date yet.
That's perfectly fine.
And both of them will release on all consoles.
So it's PS4, PS5, all Xboxes, Switch, PC, Steam, and I think that's all.
Perfect. Thanks for your time.
Have a great Gamescom.
Oh, sorry. Fist bump.
Fist bump.