The small husband-wife development team SKA Studios has just released multiplayer details on their upcoming indie game, Salt and Sanctuary. No release date has been confirmed yet, but lead designer James Silva did say in his update, that we can expect the game by Q1 2016. Salt and Sanctuary is an ambitious plat-former that aims to capture the “Souls like genre” re-imagined as a mechanically solid 2D platform game. Having multiplayer in Salt and Sanctuary was always a goal for Silva.
“One of the coolest things about RPGs is the party dynamic, but up until about a year ago Salt was purely a game of solo exploration. We wanted to explore cooperative multiplayer, and perhaps some PvP, but how? Online multiplayer was (and is still) a crazy dream of mine, but trust me: online gameplay is an absolute nightmare to implement anywhere, and PS4 development is still pretty new to us. So we settled on the idea of sellswords.”
Players can activate co-op in Salt and Sanctuary by speaking to a “sellsword”. To summon a sellsword, players will need to place a sellsword statue on a alter. Once this facilitator arrives, we can speak to them, choosing the “hire” dialogue option. The game will then prompt a second player to pick up the controller to join in. No online options were confirmed so it appears as if the game will only support local or couch co-op multiplayer.
Having a companion will bring changes to the game play. Enemy health is scaled up quite a bit and will deal out extra damage. Players may be able to heal/revive each other however, which will level the playing field. More details on builds and etc.. are sure to follow.
Those who are adamant about showing off their skill in glorious combat with others will find the ability to do that through an item as well. PvP is unlocked by obtaining “eggs of wrath” from the sellsword. When a player breaks an egg, PvP is immediately initiated with whoever you are playing with. Once the battle has begun, it cannot end until somebody dies. But fear not! Players that have fallen will appear back at the sanctuary.
SKA studios really appears to have nailed the feeling of the “Souls” series on the 2D plane. The stylistic action, dark setting and brutal difficulty are shaping up for a great experience. As more details emerge, including the release date we will be sure to keep you updated!
