parabole and Ravenscourt’s adventure title Kona is something of an underground favorite and enjoys a solid reception from its player base, despite not being the most talked-about game out there. Soon enough, the sequel Kona 2: Brume will try to build on its success. The story-driven adventure title takes players to Northern Quebec in the 1970s and looks like a promising prospect, especially when it comes to research and exploration. We recently reached out to the developers to learn more about the title and learned some interesting new details in the process. Below you can read our interview with Alexandre Fiset of developer Parabole.
“It’s about three times bigger than… Kona 1.“
The original Kona has received quite a bit of praise in the time since launch, but what are the biggest changes or improvements you’ve made to gameplay with the upcoming sequel?
Technically, we don’t reuse much of Kona 1. The main character model and animations are 100% new, as are all art items and things like camera controls. The game looks and feels more on par with modern titles, but it remains essentially a surreal adventure/research game. For us the most important changes for a game like Kona is where we bring the player, how we get him there and the story we bring forward. In Kona 1Carl explored the world with a pickup truck and went from house to house to continue Carl’s investigation. In Kona 2the player has a boat and dog sled to explore a much more diverse world, leading to your other question.
How big is? Kona 2’s Map? How much emphasis does the game place on exploration?
I’d say it’s about three times bigger than Kona 1but it’s a really tough comparison. Kona 1 had a central open floor plan, most of it was outdoors and the houses were relatively small. Kona II has four regions that all offer different degrees of freedom. In some areas there is more room for exploration, while in others it is more limited. One example I can give is that the player will undoubtedly visit Hamilton’s lavish mansion, which is really a huge place to explore, but for the most part will remain indoors. Kona II is still a game all about exploration, but this time it explores more diverse environments.
The research mechanics of Kona 2 seem an intriguing element of the core loop. Can you tell how those will take shape in the game and what role they play in the game?
The omniscient narrator is a way of giving the player details that the eye cannot (or may not have seen). Then there’s the newscast, which tells the player, “You didn’t see everything there.” Both are relatively optional: some stories can be skipped, you can also turn them all off, and the news can be ignored if you wish. The main research mechanisms are: observing and interacting with things, and talking to a few individuals. You can clear the game without commenting or the diary, but not really by ignoring what the world is telling you.
With surviving the harsh environment of Kona 2 since it’s such an important part of the experience, can you tell us what shape that will take in terms of gameplay?
While survival is an important part of the game, its presence is more for the atmosphere than the difficulty. It creates a climate of urgency and forces the player to figure out what’s going on. I’d say the balance between survival and adventure mechanics is about the same as: Kona, but the execution is better. We want the player to “feel” more of the world’s challenges, while not always killing Carl.
“While survival is an important part of the game, its presence is more for the atmosphere than for the difficulty.”
Will the game put a lot of emphasis on combat, or will most of the experience focus on things like exploration and research mechanics?
Most of the experience is focused on exploration and research mechanics. Battles are there, and more diverse than Kona 1but exploration and research are also more diverse, so the balance is about the game.
Approximately how long does an average playthrough of the game take?
That really depends on the player. Kona I can take an average of 3 to 9 hours. A speed runner might do less and a completeist some more. If we look at Kona II with that mindset, I’d say between 6 and 12 o’clock.
Not much for us. With a team size of 8 developers, we can’t really invest in a Series X version that’s better than the PS5 version, or vice versa. We have a set of quality standards for high-end PCs and PS5/XS, another for mid-range PCs and PS4/XB1, and finally one for low-end PCs and Switch. Framerate resolution and stability may vary from platform to platform, but these changes won’t happen until the end of production, just before the game goes gold.
The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with a raw bandwidth of 5.5 GB/s. How can developers take advantage of this, and how does this compare to the Xbox Series X’s 2.4 GB/s raw bandwidth?
Seamless scene streaming isn’t just about hardware. There are CPU and memory costs for integrating assets into scenes on the engine side. We worked a lot on this Kona II, and something Unity is also working hard on, but we still can’t stream assets into the world at the speed that both SSDs can achieve. Technically, you have to stream and activate stuff on other threads so as not to feel the hiccups while walking around. One unit way to do that is with what they call DOTS, something that we’re using but that’s still experimental, not 100% done yet. But once we get there, and we will, then the advantage of high speed is that we could think of making a game where you pilot a plane at its realistic speed in a world as detailed as Kona II. Stream everything around the player without loading, ever. The faster the hard drive, the faster the details become visible. But then we are limited by the ram filling up quickly.
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X feature Zen 2 CPUs, but there is a difference in the processors of both consoles. The Xbox Series X has 8x Zen 2 cores at 3.8GHz, while the PS5 has 8x Zen 2 cores at 3.5GHz. Your opinion on this difference?
As explained under the two questions above, we are too small a studio to even try to exploit the technical advantage of a single platform.
The Xbox Series S features less hardware compared to the Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60 FPS console. Do you think it will be able to sustain the more graphically intensive games as this generation progresses?
Yes. Even if it’s a less capable console, it still has a lot more to offer than PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. Since we develop on PC and support all consoles, its existence makes a lot of sense to us.
“Kona 1 can take an average of 3 to 9 hours. A speed runner might do less and a completeist some more. If we look at Kona 2 with that mentality, I’d say between 6 and 12 o’clock.”
Super Resolution is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. How do you think this will help game developers?
If you mean something like FSR (AMD Fidelity X) by that, then of course this helps. We already use it for Kona II in a way. FSR 2.0 is just a better scaling algorithm, so supporting it is just a win for everyone.
What frame rate and resolution will the game target on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S?
Kona II supports dynamic, adaptive resolution. It will display at your screen resolution, but under the hood will scale depending on the workload. We may give the option between high frame rate and high resolution in the settings. We have yet to test if 120 FPS is somehow achievable.
What do you think of the Steam Deck? Do you have any plans for specific optimizations for the device?
We really think it’s a great device, but we’ve yet to receive our own kit, so we can’t confirm support for it yet.
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