Windblown Q&A – Diving Into the Next Roguelite from Dead Cells Devs

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Every once in a while, an indie game rises out of the blue to the very top of Steam sales. In 2017, that happened to Dead Cells, an extremely popular roguelite-Metroidvania game that sold several million copies over the years.

Now, French developer MotionTwin is back with a new game, Windblown. Announced at The Game Awards 2023, it's another roguelite game, although with quite a few differences from the studio's big success. In Windblown, players become Leapers, warriors fighting to protect their home (The Ark) from the gigantic and deadly Vortex and its Sentinel minions. They will dash freely through open stages that the developers promise will be filled with secrets to uncover. Players will have to overcome relentless battles against the Vortex's Sentinels, hell-bent on defeating them and starting their run anew.

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Leapers will absorb the memories of the fallen warriors who came before them, learning to master the fighting styles of their predecessors to unleash their full potential. Players will switch between multiple weapons and are also able to change their build on the fly. As they unlock more memories, they'll collect more powerful and complex weapons. Windblown will support solo play as well as teaming up for online three-player co-op.

At GDC 2024, we met with MotionTwin's Yannick Elahee (Creative Director) and Thomas Vasseur (Artist) to discuss their upcoming game, which is due to launch on Steam Early Access later this year.

This has a drastically different art style from your previous title. Did you have to learn a completely different way to design the characters, or are you using similar designs from Dead Cells?

Thomas Vasseur: The thing that came directly from Dead Cells is the way I animated the character in order to make the game feel right. It has to be animated in a very specific way to get this feeling. This is exactly the same way in Dead Cells. That's why maybe some weapons