In 2016, game developer Yang Bing shocked the gaming community when he released a video showing a trailer of a solo video game project named Lost Soul Aside. Quickly the creator gained recognition among the community and the industry due to the game’s overall design, superb animation, and highly detailed graphics.
DualShockers sat down with Yang Bing to discuss his plans for the future of the game’s development and what he plans on Lost Soul Aside.
Azario: What made you go with Sony as opposed to other publishers that offered support?
Yang Bing: To be specific, Sony has not become the game’s publisher. As of right now, we haven’t decided who the publisher will be, but we are working closely with Sony and they have given us a lot of help with development and PR.
A: Is that all offered through China Hero Project?
YB: Yes, exactly. In 2016, they came to me after I had released the first trailer, and offered support. Sony is a great partner for our game.
A: What is the difference between the game running on standard PS4 versus PS4 Pro? Are you targetting 60 frames per second?
YB: Currently, the demo we have here runs smoothly at 60 FPS on PS4 Pro, but maybe the framerate could be lower on a regular PS4. Since our gameplay is action-based, we are targeting 60 FPS, which means that we will need to optimize the final game to achieve that on a regular PS4 as well.
A: During PlayStation Experience, Lost Soul Aside‘s demo had a very high level of difficulty. What level of challenge are you targetting in the final game and how do you achieve a balance?
YB: We are currently still changing the difficulty based off of feedback from PlayStation Experience, and maybe we will look at feedback from GDC as well. We want people to actually enjoy the story because ours isn’t a pure action game. We still have storytelling and exploration, and we want most players to enjoy the narrative, environment, and world, and not just the fighting. Maybe we will have additional difficulty settings or just implement high-level dungeons in the game to ensure that action game players can also enjoy the game.
A: Could you provide a brief overview of what happened after you released that first trailer in 2016, and can you describe your feelings around that time?
YB: The feelings were complicated. The first time I released the trailer so many people and companies came to me and everyone was very friendly. After that, I received a lot of help from Epic Games and Sony to build my game. I went from happy, to nervous, and even stressed up sometimes, but thankfully I’m still making the game that I love and I’m still putting all my efforts towards the things that I like so that actually makes me happy most of the times.
A: Do you a release window in mind right now for the game?
YB: The game is still under development, so release dates are still to be determined.
A: You started your game as a solo project, and the level of animation of the first trailer was incredible, even better than many AAA games. How did you achieve that?
YB: In the latest demo, we have replaced the animation and I have to say that it looks a lot better now than in the first trailer. I am an action game player myself, and I have played many action games, Actually, I’m still playing them. So I took many references and I tested the game myself to make sure that the game felt right and that the animation was what I would expect an action game to look and feel like.
A: Does using references help you during development?
YB: Well, I’m a huge fan of Final Fantasy, and people can say that the art style is a lot like a Final Fantasy game, but that’s because I like it. So since I like Final Fantasy and Ninja Gaiden, I created similar animations and styles for Lost Soul Aside. I’m not just using these references because they’re popular, but simply because I love this art style.
A: Do you have any specific ambitions for Lost Soul Aside?
YB: I would like it to become a series if possible, so maybe making Lost Soul Aside 2 and 3. I know, that’s pretty ambitious (laughs).
A: Could you give any details on the story of Lost Soul Aside?
YB: Right now I can’t talk about that too much. I will say that it’s about Kazor who has a friend with him, a crystal Dragon, which can become his sword. They travel together towards a certain destination and fight monsters.
At the moment, Lost Soul Aside is in development for PS4, but it doesn’t have a firm release window. Yet, the demo we played was very, very good. You can see it for yourself in our latest video, played by Yang Bing himself.