PAX Australia 2023: Learning all about KarmaZoo

Devolver Digital were once again at PAX Australia, one of the only companies to have appeared pretty continuously since their first showed up in 2018. Unlike some groups, they opted to show just 2 titles at the show, one of which is the delightful and karmic inspired KarmaZoo.

I had the chance to chat with Nadim from PastaGames, the folks who have made the incredible Rayman mobile games, amongst other titles and I got to learn more about the game.

Maxi-Geek: So what is KarmaZoo?

Nadim: It is a game about reincarnation, as you progress through the game you will level up and evolve, to a point that you won’t be able to touch things anymore and can only guide others, that it is the ultimate transformation.

Maxi-Geek: As reincarnation is at the games core, is there punishment in game. For example, if you die, do you lose the character you have and go back to the one before it?

Nadim: No, it is a full positive game and in this game, dying is positive. Because we were a little bit tired of the nonsense of platforming games in which you die and you just come back and it doesn't make sense. So we made it about the Hindu hell and hell is paved with good intentions, you know? So you jump on the spike, you create a tombstone. Somebody else uses that tombstone to cross the chasm, for example and you get some karma. Because the game is all about helping others. When you help someone. You score.

Maxi-Geek: With Karma being a critical aspect of the game. Do you achieve Nirvana earlier? If you get several set karma level or will it be the same length each time?

Nadim: Karma is the games currency, everything you do in the game earns you karma. So if you hold the door open for someone, you get one karma, as a llama if you spit on someone to make them sticky, you get one karma. Everything you do for the team nets you karma.

When you get to the Sanctuary you can unlock new avatars and then begin a new loop with them, coming back into the world and doing more actions. Its all about unlocking all the characters, until you reach the highest level.

Maxi-Geek: Interesting, the game is a multiplayer title, with 10 players. Is that 10 players via crossplay or 10 players locked to the same platform.

Nadim: Its 2 to 10 players, so you can play with only 2 if you want and it is cross-play on all platforms. That is PC, Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Because the game is a multiplayer title, we wanted to release it on as many platforms as possible, to have the biggest pool of players we could at launch.

Maxi-Geek: So you mentioned that its 2-10 players, what about the solo gamer? Is there an option for them to enjoy KarmaZoo on their own?

Nadim: No you can’t play solo. The whole game is about collaborating with people you don’t know. When you enter a game, it matchmakes you with 9 other players all around the world and you play with them. You can also launch private lobbies so that you can play with your friends.

As a bonus, because we're old school and we like the arcade games, we added a local multiplayer game, but it's quite different. It's a competition, like a party. We use all the same stuff from the loop, but this time it's like the dessert. It's a bit like more about winning.

Maxi-Geek: As a platformer, there are certain mechanics that people expect to see, will this deviate from that a lot, or will it be quite familiar to players?

Nadim: Very familiar, extremely familiar. Not only are we using basically, what everybody knows, the common knowledge and the common language of platforming, but we decided to not make any progression in that language. It's not first you're going to have a single jump and then a double jump, then the wall jump, then this. Everything is there from the get go and everyone has everything the same. And we don't have the system where if you have this additional ability, you lose that other. Everybody has the same package of powers and mechanics and then a bonus one, you just you have your own bonus.

Maxi-Geek: With the 50 characters, can you chop and change as you go like?

Nadim: Certainly, you have the Sanctuary and as long as you have unlocked this character in your collection, you can select them and start a new loop with it at any time. You can choose whichever character you want to play with the best, and each character has a set number of missions that you have to complete, so that you reach the higher level of each character.

Maxi-Geek: Awesome. As we are standing in front of the game, I keep noticing that it has a very ethereal design look at times, but then has pixel art characters in the mix. Was that the design choice you wanted to go for?

Nadim: Yeah, we like that. We like this mix of old school pixel art like we do, you see, the pixels are quite big. Yeah, when our characters are like these big chunky pixels and more modern. It's not necessarily everything's on the matrix. Yeah, where we can, for example, all these effects, all these shaders are quite modern and new, so we mix those styles together.

Maxi-Geek: With KarmaZoo being a platformer, are there any assists for players who maybe not quite as skilled in the genre or new players to it, so they can make it through the game?

Nadim: There is a million, the whole game is about that. KarmaZoo is a game that is anti-bullying, anti-gatekeeping. We wanted a game that kids could player, with out their parents fearing that they would get bullied online. So there is no voice chat, you play with players all around the world, so there is no language barrier, which we think makes all players feel welcome.

One of our anti-gatekeeping mechanics is that as newcomer will get you more karma. If you play with a veteran and hold the door for them, they will give you one point, but if you do the same to a newcomer, they might give you two or three. So you actually want to play with newcomers instead of pushing them out because they don’t have skill, you earn more karma from them, you could even farm on them if you wanted to.

The game is also about team work, so the entire team carries the load and we make sure to share it. There might be a couple of occasions were you’re going to unlock the solution, for example the elephant will smash the wall and if you don’t do it the team is blocked and then you can relax and they'll carry you.

There are two characters, like the alien, who can literally carry you to victory. If you jump on them, you can put your controller down and they will carry you to victory. We wanted the game to be fun, so its not about needing to have skills in order to enjoy this platforming game.

Maxi-Geek: Something I like to ask about are the visual options for accessibility. Are you doing anything with regards to that?

Nadim: We are learning every day, we're trying to do a lot. But there's always so much more we can do. Because it’s a 10 player game online, its very important that you can see what you can do, where you are. You can see that each player only has one spot of white, the colour white is reserved for players and is nowhere else in the game.

And we've added a lot of options. Obviously, all the usual visual impairment options, all the usual sound options that you can have. We allowed mono. We do something for a colour blind. You can adapt. And you can change the fonts, the colour of the fonts. We tried our best to give as many accessibility options to the player and we didn’t have to go far as the game itself is very accessible.

At first actually, we didn't even want to have an accessibility tab in our options because we thought it was nonsense. Like these are just options and. To make it easier with added simpler, we added it effectively, but the game is accessible by definition.

Maxi-Geek: Is there anything about the game that makes you happy, or things you can’t wait for players to see?

Nadim: The thing we love the most is observing players, how they managed to find ways to help each other, that we didn't notice, that we didn't design and we didn't plan for and every time we see we quickly add scoring. Like, hey ‘Oh, that's cool. They found a new way to help them.’ So this deserves a karma. We added this as much as we observed players. It's our favourite game to have developed because it changed so much as soon as we put it in players hands. The community is already strong and they are giving us so many wonderful ideas.