With so many side-scrollers out there, just how can a new one stand out? The answer: vikings. In the crowdfunded gem Trial By Viking, indie development studio Last Life Games gives the genre a fresh new look and tons of amazing features that will make you fall in love with side-scrollers all over again.

I recently interviewed developer Dustin Hendricks and asked him why you should make Trial By Viking the next Kickstarter project you toss some hard-earned cash at.

Delve into the world of Norse mythology in Trial by Viking, which brings you all the best elements of side-scrollers and dungeon crawlers in one beautiful game.

Jessa Rittenhouse: What inspired you to make Trial by Viking? What are your influences in creating a game centered around a Viking character?

JR:  Your Kickstarter page mentions the characters you’ll meet on the Viking’s journey, including a Valkyrie and a viking spy girl. Are these playable characters, or just NPCs? Is there a playable female character? What led you to that particular decision?

Danger and excitement abound in this Kickstarter Staff Pick.

JR:  What would you say is your target audience for Trial by Viking?

JR:  What do you think sets Trial by Viking apart from other sidescrollers?

I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from people who have watched footage of the game, and say they usually don’t care for side-scrolling games, but are excited to try Trial by Viking. I’ve been trying to figure out why that is, and part of me suspects there are people out there that are not particularly into pixel art, the classic art style for side-scrolling games, but who knows. All I know is that if I can convert a few people into side-scrolling game fans, that would be a huge honor, because this is the style of game I grew up with and deeply adore.

Filled with stunning graphics, a rich story, and amazing music, how could this game get any better? By adding your voice to one of the characters as a backer reward!

The thing that changes the feel of the game the most for me however, is the way the upgrades work. You are collecting these sunstones on your journey which you use to gain upgrades for your character that are going to help you get stronger, as well as access new areas of levels. So you might gain the bombs to open a passageway, or the grappling hook to reach a particularly high ledge. Each sunstone has a specific location within the game world, and once you get that sunstone, you can’t go back and get it again. You can however see what percentage of each level’s sunstones you have found already, and choose to go back to older levels and find ones that you may have missed. This adds a heavy treasure hunt element to the game that makes you want to explore each level to the fullest. There may be points in the game where you have to choose between taking on this tough puzzle or challenge within a level to gain more sunstones, or to just finish the level and guarantee you will get to keep what you have found so far.

People who are more into the action aspects of the game will rush through levels, finding fewer sunstones and upgrading slower, which in turn makes the action parts of the game a bit more challenging. The completionists who are more into the exploration aspects of the game will find all of the sunstones and upgrade their characters faster, making the action parts of the game slightly more forgiving. That’s the idea, anyways.

 JR:  One of your backer rewards includes the opportunity to voice a character in the game. What inspired that particular backer reward?

JR:  What have been your greatest challenges in making TBV so far? 

The Trial by Viking Kickstarter campaign has 11 days left to go. Check it out today and help support another great indie game! And thank you to Dustin Hendricks for taking the time to talk to me about this exciting project. 

When you are outside of the industry, you can almost get the impression that you are aware of most of the new games that are coming out each year, but there are 5 to 10 games released on Steam every single day, and 300-400 games released each day on mobile platforms. I think the constant influx of new developers is ultimately a great thing that’s going to bring a lot of variety to games, but at the same time, it’s tough to get noticed when there are so many of us out there. You just have to try to make the best game you can, do as much guerilla marketing as you can, and hope the players who are excited about your project will help spread the word.

I think that’s how Trial by Viking was able to get through Steam Greenlight in 7 days, and get chosen as a Staff Pick on KickStarter. I was really humbled to see so much support for the game from people all over the internet when I initially released the campaign trailer videos. There is still a huge amount of work to be done, however. You never really know with these things. There’s always a tiny chance that someone like Markiplier could take an interest in Trial by Viking, and show it to a million people over night. It’s a crazy world we live in these days!