'I would always favour freedom over balance and then give tools to the player so she/he can customize that balance again so the game has a good flow but also doesn’t get too easy.' That’s still work in progress and I also don’t want to spoil anything, but there will be multiple situations, potentially wrapping up side-stories through narrative slides, and then somehow giving the player the possibility to continue journeying through the wasteland to finish side quests or just enjoy the sights. I don’t want to promise too many variants of the narrative, as we’re somewhat limited by our budget, but the stakes for many characters in the Death Trash world are high and results can be drastic, so I hope the player will have to make some very interesting decisions, even if not at a constant pace. There will also be choices and consequences through dialogue options. That means that the player can at the very least decide about life and death of characters. The general tools always available to the player will be combat in different forms (melee and ranged) and stealth. What can players expect from branching narratives in the game? How divergent can the outcomes of situations be depending on players actions?

It’s just not possible to create the same breadth like games with a larger budget. Keep in mind though this is a small indie game with only one developer for now. This starts at basic functionality and gameplay elements like allowing the player to leave dialogue anytime, includes features like creating your own character and approaching situations in different ways, including attacking everyone or no one, and also covers big decisions for the main story. Player freedom is a big design goal for us. 'Player freedom is a big design goal for us.'ĭeath Trash is banking quite heavily on offering freedom to players- in terms of build variety and, say, approaching combat situations, how far does that freedom go? We recently reached out to the developers in hopes of learning more about the game- you can read our interview with Stephan Hövelbrinks, responsible for design, art, and coding on Death Trash, below. But it’s not just the fascinating premise of the game that’s caught our attention- there’s plenty else about the RPG – which is scheduled to enter early access soon – that looks promising, such as its choice and consequence mechanics. What do you take when you take a post-apocalyptic setting with sprinklings of cyberpunk and cosmic horror and make an RPG against it? Indie studio Crafting Legends’ upcoming Death Trash is going to answer that very specific question.

Death trash plot