Indie World Interview: Rogue Legacy 2 game designer Teddy Lee talks about the newly available heir
Rogue Legacy 2 is out now and ready to let your in-game heirs take up your fight.
In this genealogical rogue-lite, you’ll encounter randomly generated regions, changing characters, unexpected enemies, and more. The only constant is that your heirs will succeed you. Each child is different, with their own traits and abilities. Your daughter could rain down arrows from above as a Ranger, fly across the skies as a Dragon Lancer, or entertain her enemies as a Bard—abilities will change with each generation.
To help familiarize you with some of your future children’s skills, we spoke to game designer Teddy Lee about what players can expect in Rogue Legacy 2.
Can you please tell us your name and contribution to the game? Did you have a hand in the first game?
Hello, my name is Teddy Lee, and I’m the game designer for Rogue Legacy 2. I was also the game designer for Rogue Legacy 1.
What do you feel sets Rogue Legacy 2 apart from the first iteration? What was the biggest change that you hope people familiar with the game will recognize?
It’s hard to say because so much has changed since the first! But one thing I’m really proud of is all of the different hero classes we were able to design. In the original, every class was very much alike. They had different stats and a different Talent, but they all wielded the same sword. Because of this, we knew early on with Rogue Legacy 2 that we wanted classes to feel unique. Now the Barbarian uses an axe, the Mage uses a wand, and the Chef uses…a frying pan?
It was a huge challenge making all of these new classes not just fun to play, but also well-balanced. It took us a long time to accomplish this, and it would not have been possible without an incredibly supportive community providing us with constant feedback. And even though it was hard, we still managed to create 15 different heroes, more than the original, and with the launch on the Nintendo Switch™ system, we’ve added even more sub-classes that make the experience wildly different each time!
In regard to Traits, what lessons from the first game did you learn and how did those carry over to Rogue Legacy 2?
Make everything have a trade-off! For the original Rogue Legacy, Traits acted more as surprises for people, just to make them smile when they played the game for the first time. But as they continued to play, the Traits would not be picked because players were no longer curious about them. For RL2 we’ve added a gold bonus when selecting certain Traits to encourage players to always test themselves and keep things interesting.
Even though some Traits seem like they’d never be chosen, the reward for challenging yourself can be very tantalizing. In fact, our most difficult Trait, called One-Hit Wonder, gives your hero only one health point. This seems crazy but with its massive gold bonus it is the most popular Trait in the game.
What’s your favorite part of the game?
We’re very proud of everything we’ve put into Rogue Legacy 2, but personally my favorite part is the story. We put a lot of time and effort into it and did our best to tell a tale that was not only interesting to read, but unique in the way it is told. It’s a complex narrative that is revealed in a non-linear fashion, which can make things difficult to understand. I made a mountain for myself trying to tackle this, but it’s one I felt I was able to climb, so it’s a bit special to me.
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Editor’s note: If you’d like to learn more or purchase Rogue Legacy 2, please check out the link below.