Children of Morta is an upcoming action game about a monster-slaying family, developed by studio Dead Mage and published by Frostpunk developer 11 Bit Studios. We sat down with some folks from 11 Bit to talk about the development process and the role family plays in the game.
In the video above, 11 Bit Studios’ marketing director Patryk Grzeszczuk walks video producer Paul Tamayo and I through about an hour of Children of Morta. The game stars the Bergsons, a family of monster slayers who have to come together to fight an evil force called the Corruption. Players take control of different family members, each of whom embodies a different action RPG class, such as tank, stealth, or archer.
“Each character plays a specific role in their family, but also in their party,” Grzeszczuk tells us. “It’s a game about a family in a time of struggle… More than the action itself, what is important here is those relations between family members.”
Playing either solo or co-op, players descend into procedurally generated dungeons to fight spiders, bats, and other beasts. Characters level up during runs and can gain permanent upgrades; they can also find items and artifacts that give them temporary new skills. In between runs, you return to a lushly-animated family home, where you can craft and assign upgrades.
“We didn’t want [the house] to feel like a manifestation of some kind of menu,” Grzeszczuk says of the house, which is filled with cluttered rooms, intricate rugs, and lots of little details.
I played a demo of Children of Morta last winter, and though I found the combat a little simplistic, I enjoyed the beautiful pixel art and how differently each character played.
It was fun to see how the game’s UI has changed and how the game’s world has been fleshed out since then. I’m excited to play more when Children of Morta comes to PC, consoles, and Switch this summer.
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