Games

Indie Spotlight – Huntbound brings beautifully designed, action-packed monster hunting adventures

BBG News

Story Highlights

  • Huntbound is a 2D action-packed co-op RPG that features easy-to-learn mechanics, deep progression, along with strategy elements.
  • Lincoln Charlles, the founder of Tao Team Games, shared interesting insights into the game’s inspiration, their challenges, plans for post-launch, and more.
  • The game is launching on February 4, 2025, with pre-registration now available on Google Play Store.

The Tao Team is preparing to debut Huntbound on Android on February 4, 2025. This game offers a blend of action, strategy, multiplayer aspects, crafting mechanics, fierce monster encounters, and a captivating RPG universe. Created by an independently financed and published team, this meticulously designed game features distinctive monsters, vivid environments, and numerous other captivating elements, ensuring an immersive and entertaining gaming experience.

Featured Column – Indie Spotlight

Gaming on Phone’s “Indie Spotlight” highlights up-and-coming small game studios and developers, providing them with recognition and visibility within the independent gaming community. In this section, we offer comprehensive summaries and valuable insights from these developers. If you are an indie studio, don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions at editor@gamingonphone.com.

Game Overview

Huntbound is a 2D cooperative role-playing game that combines action, strategy, and multiplayer features, allowing you to take on the role of a Hunter as you battle ferocious beasts and strive to become the greatest hunter. Whether you prefer to journey alone or join forces with up to three other players, this game delivers an exhilarating experience similar to Monster Hunter.

In this world, you’ll get the chance to delve into various environments teeming with hidden treasures and useful items, encounter enigmatic beasts with distinctive traits and skills, and gather uncommon resources from your conquests to create formidable weapons, protective gear, and potent elixirs.

This game offers thrilling, visually stunning adventures, the ability to personalize your characters along with their gear, immersive cooperative quests, tough monster battles, a dynamic real-time combat system, and much more. It skillfully blends these elements to create an enjoyable gaming experience tailored for today’s gamers.

Why you should play Huntbound

  • This 2D RPG incorporates action, strategy, and multiplayer gameplay experience.
  • Minimalistic cartoony aesthetic and beautifully designed, action-packed adventures to take part in.
  • Features unique monsters with challenging patterns and abilities to fight against in real-time battles.
  • An engaging gameplay experience with both solo and multiplayer gameplay and easy-to-learn mechanics.

From concept to creation: Developer Insights

During my chat with GamingonPhone, Lincoln Charles, founder and developer at Tao Team Games (a self-funded studio from Brazil), generously disclosed intriguing information about Huntbound. He offered enlightening perspectives on the game’s inspiration, the unique concept of combining various elements, obstacles encountered during development, and much more, in our engaging dialogue.

In the course of talking about the studio and its creators’ histories, Charles, one of the founders, presented himself as the founder and developer. He also highlighted Fraciane Martini, his co-founder, who holds dual roles: she is both our Legal Manager and an accomplished artist.

He mentioned that he has more than a decade of expertise in designing and studying games, yet he’s spent his time in Brazil working as both a teacher and tattoo artist. Additionally, he disclosed that his partner, Fran, is a lawyer with extensive legal background but also shares a love for the artistic realm of tattoos.

It’s astonishing, really, but they aimed to create the game in just six months, and as he stated, remarkably enough, they achieved their goal!” The end result was a well-crafted, playable online game.

As he explained, “Our strategy is to roll out regular monthly updates featuring fresh maps, equipment, monsters, and quests.” He emphasized that the design’s flexibility allows us to consistently implement such updates.

The inspiration behind Huntbound

I delved into the genesis of this game, discovering it was heavily inspired by the thrilling worlds of Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. However, fear not, for Huntbound is designed to be less challenging than its predecessors.

He mentioned that while looking for mobile games with comparable mechanics, they discovered numerous abandoned or geo-restricted titles. He added that the core gameplay loop of “hunting, crafting, preparing, and repeating” wasn’t accessible for brief, cost-free intervals during previous periods.

To fill this void in the gaming industry, they strategically developed a game called Huntbound. To ensure success, they designed it with flexibility, as he put it, “We meticulously planned our project and constructed the game to be easily adaptable.

Developmental challenges and how the studio overcame them

In response to questions regarding the hurdles faced during team development and how they managed to surmount them, he recounted their experience by stating, “To start with, we embarked on a path that led us to develop a game titled Benders of Moona. At first, this project was conceived as an adventure game focused on exploration.

Initially, we stuck with a non-combat focus, but our passionate fanbase persistently urged for Player versus Player (PvP) elements. To satisfy their craving for multiplayer PvP and cooperative gameplay while ensuring continuous updates over time, we decided to embark on a project that would cater to these needs and evolve with us throughout the years.

Via this project, they picked up skills on “publishing an online game independently and nurturing a flourishing community.” He highlighted that as an autonomously financed and distributed studio, “each lesson we’ve absorbed stemmed from our own errors and the inherent hurdles of a self-educated path.

The Diverge range of monsters players will encounter

He commented that “the true standouts in the game are the monsters!” He went on to discuss the game mechanics, stating that “to win, players need to comprehend their habits, living environments, travel patterns, and responses to different actions.

He pointed out that every monster has distinct abilities, strengths, and characteristics related to elements, making them all different from each other. To effectively hunt them, create their gear, and expand your personal customization collection, learning these traits is crucial,” he underscored.

An engaging multiplayer co-op experience for both casual and hardcore players

Mr. Charles announced the launch of a challenging new game mode called Infinite Survival Mode, specifically tailored for experienced gamers. He mentioned that their inspiration came from Vampire Survivors, and he explained that this mode enables top-tier players to compete against each other on leaderboards.

He mentioned that by incorporating this new mode, they’re essentially providing “a wealth of material for players to delve into, seek assistance, and lend a hand, thereby improving the overall gaming experience for both novice and expert gamers.

In the conversation about the community aspects of the game, he detailed the studio’s strategy they employed in developing Huntbound. Essentially, he said that their goal was to design an RPG with minimal time investment, making it simple for players to engage with each other while maintaining a sense of control over the interactions.

In the realm of Dark Souls enthusiasts, he shared that its unique communication method left an impression on him. Specifically, he mentioned it “employes gestures to foster deep and emotional player connections.“. Hearing this from another Souls fan made me even more eager to delve deeper into the series.

Studio’s launch expectations and post-launch plans

He noted that initially, the game would offer one map and four types of monsters, implying, “Each monthly update will introduce the same amount of content.” He clarified their intention to roll out monthly updates for a year, suggesting, “We aim to add enough content to consider the game finished, preventing excessive expansion that might confuse new players.

Moreover, they intend to maintain the game’s appeal by regularly introducing updates such as new gaming modes, enhancements for better user experience, and special events aimed at retaining long-term gamers, as he summarized.

As the interview was wrapping up, we delved into the studio’s predictions for how their game would be received. I inquired about their strategies to appeal to a wider demographic, and he replied, “Our strategy is centered around understanding that our game appeals to a specific niche. We’re focusing on improving accessibility and translation to widen this niche and attract new players to the genre.

With a strong sense of conviction, he disclosed that they are optimistic their “gameplay mechanism” will strike a chord with numerous mobile gamers globally. Furthermore, he discussed strategies aimed at drawing in a larger player base for the game.

He discussed fundamental marketing tactics used by the studio, such as trailers, game demonstrations, and correspondence with the press. Additionally, he highlighted their intention to adapt the game for iOS/iPhone platforms, aiming to broaden their user base and attract a greater number of players.

Final Verdict from the Editor

Before registration is even open, Huntbound seems like an entertaining and interactive cooperative role-playing game (RPG) that can be enjoyed by up to 4 players. It promises thrilling journeys filled with action and numerous challenges, and I personally found it quite captivating after trying its early access version.

This game caters to both individuals and group enthusiasts who prefer multiplayer action. I found the crafting features and intense boss battles in the lively, colorful universe particularly enjoyable. With its simplistic yet captivating cartoonish aesthetics, exhilarating cooperative missions, distinctive monsters, strong equipment, and other engaging elements, this game is a must-try for anyone yearning for a Monster Hunter-style gaming experience with real-time combat.

To enjoy this cooperative game with your friends, go ahead and pre-register for it from the Google Play Store. You can download it starting from February 4, 2025.

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2025-01-23 21:11

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