Evoland

Evoland is a 2013 role-playing video game developed by Shiro Games, a French video game development company based in Bordeaux. Evoland was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in April 2013, and on Android and iOS in 2015.

The design retraces the history of video games. Inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy gameplays, the game and has a lot of references about movies and video game history, and progresses as the player unlocks new technologies and graphical upgrades.

A sequel, named Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder, was announced at the end of 2014.

History

Originally, Evoland was a video game created by Nicolas Cannasse during the 24th Ludum Dare, an “accelerated video game competition”. Participants have 48 hours to create a video game respecting a given theme. The 24th Ludum Dare theme was “Evolution”. Nicolas Cannasse proposed Evoland in about 30 hours and won the first price despite the competition of 1,400 others participants.^[1][2] The concept he proposed can be defined as a game which changes as the player follows the history and which traces the history of RPGs.

The player feedback was very encouraging. Evoland Classic quickly reached over 300,000 players within a couple of months, and is still playable on Evoland Website for free.

Development and release

Platforms

Given the success of Evoland Classic, Shiro Games decided to create a new version of the game with new bosses and monsters, new play styles, full environment 3D and an extended play-time.^[1] This version was released on Steam^[3] and GOG.com^[4] at $9.99 in 2013.^[5]

Since 2015, the game is available on the iOS App Store^[6] and Google Play^[7] for $4.99.

Gameplay

Evoland is based on an original concept, inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. When the player begins his adventure there are only two colours, big pixels and a 2D character. Through the adventure, the player gradually unlocks new graphics, new technologies and new gameplay until reaching the HD age. This evolution in-game representing the video game history is punctuated by many references to classic role-playing games^[8] and movies.^[9]

The game alternates between A-RPG phases and Active Time Battles. The character moves in a world made of dungeons, caverns, forests and villages full of NPC.

Reception

The game was well received by the critic with an average grade of 61 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[10] Specialized press and websites acclaimed the potential and originality of the concept as well as the references to cinema and video games history.

According to Destructoid^[11] "Evoland's elements form a love letter to some of the most venerated games in their respective genres, and it's surprising just how well the shifting gameplay types work together." According to RPG Fan,^[10] "Evoland has to be appreciated for what it is, which is less 'game' and more 'journey traveled.' Nostalgia's a hot selling piece these past few years." According to Hardcore Gamer,^[10] "Evoland is a unique game in that it’s impressive to see the scale of references and care to detail that is present within it. Despite several surprising flaws, it’s not often in a game where one can relive some of the greatest game-playing experiences from Final Fantasy and Zelda in a couple of hours and the combination of the two games is almost seamless in their execution."

Main criticisms concerned the play-time and the lack of variety. Some players and specialized websites criticized the fact that the game stops evolving much after 30 minutes.^[12][13]

Evoland reached approximately 500,000 sales.

Sequel

Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder, was announced at the end of 2014. Shiro Games promised more complex history, new forms of gameplay and less linearity than in Evoland. The game should be available in the second quarter of 2015.^[14]

References

External links

• Official website
• Evoland Classic
• Shiro Games official website
• Evoland on Steam