How would you describe the art aesthetic of Valheim?
Playstation-Modern perhaps 😉 – Neoplaystationism?
With two million copies sold in under two weeks, how do you think Iron Gate achieved this level of viral success?
Not sure really, we were more or less confident that Valheim would be received favourably, but these numbers are quite bonkers. We haven’t been alone in this venture though, and I would like to take the opportunity to point the spotlight on Coffee Stain Publishing and SwipeRight. They have been a great help with producing kickass trailers, making sure press and influencers are happy, among other things. They have helped us reach a wider audience, for sure.
If I’m a brand new player who wants to try Valheim, what is some advice that might help make my first time playing the best possible experience?
Great question! And my answer would be to build the Hoe as soon as possible (need Workbench and some Stone and Wood). It will allow you to flatten the ground and make house construction much more enjoyable! I couldn’t live without it.
The map is huge in Valheim! Why such a large map?
To have lots of space to fill up with interesting locations 😀 As they say; it’s about the journey, not the destination. Also, here at Iron Gate we are very big fans of Daggerfall, many a beer has been drunk while extolling the virtues of that great white whale.
Personally, I really enjoy the music in Valheim. Could you please tell me more about the inspiration for this music?
Well, the music has been composed by a very talented musician by the name of Patrik Jarlestam. We have worked quite closely with him in order to get just the right sound. It’s hard to talk about specifics, there really is a lot of inspiration from all over the place that has gone into it, I mean there are obvious points of inspiration such as Wind Waker for the sailing music (the gold standard), but in general we just wanted a ‘vikingy’-sound without it being too ‘folksy’. Valheim is inspired by Norse mythology, but it is not directly related to it. Therefore we felt that a bit of leeway in the musical stylings would be just right for it.
Survival games can often be solitary experiences, but Valheim encourages you to invite friends over to your server. Why did you decide on this approach for a survival game? (Note: While popular survival games like Rust are multiplayer, the PvP combat fosters a more individualistic style of gameplay.)
It felt quite natural to be honest, we ourselves have always really enjoyed co-op experiences such as these, but more often than not it seems nowadays that the multiplayer aspect is capped at 4 players. We just wanted to try to get some more people in there, the more the merrier right? 10 vikings in a boat, steering their way through harsh storms to find a new shore to raid, encountering foreign wildlife and dangers! You could say that this is somewhat of a ‘dream-scenario’ here at Iron Gate that has influenced much of the development of Valheim.
What would you say is Valheim’s biggest weakness that the team at Iron Gate is working to improve?
Aspects of the networking code, suffice to say that the influx of players brought some very piquant problems to light in that department. Of course there are a lot of other issues also… We have a public bug tracker that we encourage players to use, and we try to fix everything as fast as possible.
