Volantia Q&A: we delve into this local Humble Bundle title

You don’t see a game debuting on the Humble Bundle very often, but Volantia: Kingdom in the Sky is one such title. Aside from being a locally produced title achieving prominence, the title also stands out thanks to its quirky concept.

The title, by Tangled Mess Games, is a far cry from the usual action fare, being a kingdom and resource management game taking place in the sky. We conducted an email Q&A with the studio’s Marc Luck to find out more.

Gearburn: How did the idea for Volantia come about?

Marc Luck (ML): Well, we had the initial idea during a brunch meeting we used to have back when the lot of us (Robbie [Fraser], Dorianne [Dutrieux], Daoyi [Liu] and myself) still worked at QCF. We jammed out the initial version in a week. Back then it still had a “medieval” theme, but the island placement and rotation was already working.

Gearburn:Was the idea inspired by any particular games?

ML:It’s not that it was directly inspired by anything, but you can see the influence of other games/genres in there.
For instance: Most players really dislike leaving spaces when building out islands, in the same way most players hate leaving holes when playing Tetris.

Gearburn: The game was exclusive to the Humble Monthly Bundle. How did that come about?

ML: Yeah, Humble gave us some small-scale funding to finish the game. We got to work on it for two months at Stugan (a Swedish games accelerator), but we didn’t have enough after that to finish. Humble helped us finish the game, and in exchange, subscribers to the Humble Monthly Bundle in September got exclusive access to the game a few months early.

Gearburn: What’s the commercial reception to the game been like from your perspective?

ML: Since the game was free for Humble Monthly subsrcibers, it has no commercial presence yet.
As far as whether people like it, so far it’s been most quite positive. More than a few people say they find playing it quite calming.

Gearburn: Are there any plans for a Steam and/or mobile release?

ML:Once the Humble exclusivity period runs out, I’ll be putting it on a bunch of digital storefronts, Steam included.

I have been toying with the idea of releasing on itcho.io a week earlier than anywhere else.

Gearburn:What about Switch and other consoles? Too early to say?

ML: I’ve reached out to Nintendo, and gotten some communication in return. I’d love to get Volantia on the Switch.
I’m working on controller support at the moment actually. 🙂

Gearburn: How can people get your game if they missed out on the September Humble Bundle? It doesn’t seem to be on the Humble Store?

ML: Unfortunately anyone who wants it has to wait until it’s “proper” release. Once some dates are confirmed, I’ll have a launch date to announce.