The Road to EARLY ACCESS
A Three-Year Journey of Developing LETALIS
It's hard to believe that the journey to get here has spanned three years. It’s been a rollercoaster of challenges, triumphs, and moments of reflection. Now, with the game finally nearing the next phase of its release, we want to share a bit about how far we’ve come and what players can expect in the upcoming chapter of LETALIS.
The Beginning: A Dream and a Team of Two
Rodrigo wanted to make a Gameboy game for the actual Gameboy, and I wanted to create a hardcore Pokémon-inspired game. This dream sparked the development of LETALIS. In its early stages, the game was quite different from what it is now, especially with our initial focus on creating a version for the Gameboy. After a few months of development, we ran into several challenges, primarily due to the hardware limitations. Looking at the product we were building, we realized that we needed to make a shift in our approach. We decided to move away from the Gameboy to reach a wider audience and to work with technology we were more comfortable using.
However, we’ve kept the spirit of those hardware limitations in mind throughout the development process, and it's still a goal of ours to one day see LETALIS running on the Gameboy!
With over 15 years in game development between us, we had a good understanding of what we were getting into, but the scale of building a game like LETALIS — with its vast world and intricate systems — quickly became evident. As the only two members of the team, we had to wear many hats, from programming and game design to art direction and sound. It was a lot of hard work, but our commitment to the vision kept us moving forward.
Building the Foundation: What Sets LETALIS Apart
At its core, LETALIS is about the stories of its warriors, the Letalis, who are not just faceless fighters but have their own personalities, backstories, and fighting styles. We wanted to break away from the traditional RPG experience of grinding and leveling up. Instead, players train their Letalis but without the safety net of guaranteed success. Each decision counts, as one wrong move could lead to the loss of a Letalis.
To achieve this, we decided to remove traditional experience points and make technique effectiveness degrade if overused, creating a more tactical and dynamic combat system. But we didn’t stop there. We also drew inspiration from Pokémon Nuzlocke challenges, where the player must form deep connections with their team and injected that into LETALIS with the added stakes of permadeath. This gave the game an emotional depth that we believed would resonate with players.
One of the most exciting features of LETALIS is the possibility of a Letalis coming back after falling in battle. While it’s not guaranteed, there’s always hope that the fallen Letalis might rise again, a concept that adds tension and excitement to every fight.
Overcoming the Challenges
Besides the many hiatuses along the way, including moving to different countries, switching jobs and the expansion of our families, the road to Early Access was not without its hurdles. From balancing gameplay mechanics and constantly adding new features and system ensuring the world was rich and diverse, there were many long nights, countless revisions, and numerous lessons learned.
One of the biggest challenges was crafting a world that was both expansive and meaningful. LETALIS is built around exploration, with players navigating through colosseums, discovering new locations, and uncovering the secrets of the Caesars that control them. Every area needed to feel unique, every encounter meaningful. Achieving this level of depth with a small team was an immense challenge, but it was one we were determined to overcome.
The complexity of having that many Letalis, each with their own personalities, aesthetics and fighting styles, was crucial - I'm still regreting my desicion of having a portrait for each of them lol. Despite these challenges, we never wavered from our goal of delivering an experience that felt immersive and polished.
The Community: A Growing Support System
Along the way, we’ve been lucky enough to have a growing community of players who believed in LETALIS from the very beginning. Whether it was through feedback, bug reports, or sharing our vision, the community has played an essential role in the development of the game. It’s always been our goal to make LETALIS a game that the players could shape, so having their input throughout the development process has been invaluable.
Now that we are on the brink of Early Access, we’re excited to see how the community will continue to grow. Early Access is a huge milestone for us, but it’s also just the beginning. We’re eager to see how players interact with the game, what they love, and what they want to see more of. The input we receive will help guide us as we continue to develop and expand the game, adding new features, content, and improvements based on real player experiences.
Looking Ahead: Early Access and Beyond
With the Early Access release, we are both excited and grateful. This is a big moment for us, but also a humbling one. While LETALIS is already an experience we’re proud of, we know there’s still a long road ahead. Early Access will allow us to refine the game even further, tweak mechanics, and introduce new features that will take LETALIS to the next level.
The feedback and support we receive during this phase will be crucial as we continue to shape LETALIS into the game we’ve always envisioned. And for those of you who have been with us since the early days, thank you for your unwavering belief in the project. LETALIS is as much your game as it is ours.
We invite you all to join us in this next chapter. The journey has just begun, and we can’t wait to share more of LETALIS with you.
Stay tuned, and as always, fight for Glory or Death!