“This is far from my first game development project.” How a 17-year-old Ukrainian developer is preparing for release the atmospheric pixel souls-lite Awita: Journey of Hope

«My name is Vadym. I come from Lviv region. I got into game development at the age of 12 and at the same age I started making games on itch.io and Google Play. Then at 13 I became interested in Steam and in 2022 I released my first game there (it was, to put it mildly, of terrible quality). Then I released another game, Cold Way, in the fall of 2022. Both of these games brought meager income and barely paid for themselves, so I decided to move to a new level of game quality,» the developer said.

According to him, he became interested in games as a child, and at the age of 12, his parents sent Vadim to children’s programming courses, where «everything took off.» He began to study game development on his own and quickly mastered the Construct engine.

The idea to make a pixelated metroidvania appeared back in December 2022, and then he started making the first prototypes. Serious development began in March 2023, when Vadim was 14 years old. «Awita is far from my first project in game development», — he emphasized.

Awita: Journey of Hope is created on the Construct 3 engine, which allows you to develop games directly in the browser. Vadim said that he is already used to this engine and feels comfortable working in it.

«I don’t really like programming and the technical part of development in general, but Construct is quite convenient and easy to understand. Moreover, I don’t have any significant limitations in the mechanics and their implementation», — the developer notes.

What is the game Awita: Journey of Hope about?

Vadim describes Awita: Journey of Hope as a relatively short but atmospheric game with an emphasis on atmosphere and narrative design. The game tells the story of an ordinary girl, Awita, who lives in a kingdom struck by a terrible epidemic. Together with her, players will search for a cure to give people a glimmer of hope.

«The idea of ​​a metroidvania was in my head for a long time and I just decided that I didn’t want to put it off any longer. I’ve always liked pixelated 2D games, so I decided on the style right away», — the developer notes.

According to him, the main source of inspiration for the project has always been Momodora: RutM; he also noted that he really likes Ukrainian Moonscars and Spanish Blasphemous, but they did not have such a big influence on Awita.

«It’s hard for me to categorize the game as anything. It’s Souls-like, but it’s lighter than most other games in this genre, the gloomy atmosphere is present, but the mood of the game changes a lot depending on the location. You could definitely call it Souls-lite. There’s no difficulty option at the moment, but I plan to add it in future updates» says the author of Awita: Journey of Hope.

Vadim works on the game alone, but says that it involves some freelance work and sometimes uses ready-made assets. In addition, the community that has formed around the game sometimes helps, for example with localization.

The developer often talks about his project on social media — the Awita: Journey of Hope account on X (Twitter) has about 3,000 posts and almost as many followers. In addition, he creates publications about the development on thematic subreddits on Reddit and other platforms. The game was also successful at Indie Cup Ukraine'24, where it shared 4 prize places with the visual novel Shine On, My Little Sun from the duo Forpixie Studio.

As of June 1, Vadim’s efforts have brought Awita about 15,000 wishlist additions.

«Social networks provide certain wishlists (posts from Twitter are duplicated in Bluesky and Threads). IndieCup itself does not provide wishlists, but it brings people content from bloggers who follow it — OLDboi and Padon played Awita and it helped. In general, the most effective social network is Reddit, where you need to study the communities well. And influencers who make some content about the game also provide good promotion», — the developer shared his experience.

According to him, Vishlist also hosts festivals like Steam Next Fest, where the game received good promotion despite a «rather short and unpolished demo».

When will you be able to play Awita: Journey of Hope?

In May, the developer announced that after two years in development, Awita would be released on Steam on June 18th.

«Embark on an epic side-scrolling metroidvania adventure with Avita, a brave girl who seeks to save her village from a devastating epidemic. Travel across a vast kingdom, engage in dynamic sword fights, and discover a rich history and mythology,» the announcement said.

According to Vadym, the duration of the project will be about three hours, because he wanted to make a «short, but more intense and atmospheric game». In the Ukrainian region of Steam, Awita: Journey of Hope will cost 225 UAH with a 15-20% discount on release.

«I’m thinking of taking on a new project and at the same time supporting Awita with updates. I’m not thinking about continuing the franchise yet, I’d like to take a break from it», — the developer shared his plans for the future.

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