'I was a big fan of Braveheart': the story
behind Scotland-set hack and slash game Tears of
Metal
================================================

'There's this giant rock that fell from the sky
on a Scottish island: they call it the Dragon
Stone," explains Raphaël Toulouse, director of
Tears of Metal. "And the English army sent a
general to take [a look], but that general turns
a bit rogue when he finds that stone, a bit like
Apocalypse Now. He cuts himself off from the
English, takes control of the island, and they
start mining this giant rock for weapons and
armour, but also it affects their minds. So the
Scottish people get organised to take back the
island - and this is where you come in."

Playing as the leader of a Scottish battalion,
your job in Tears of Metal is to hack and slash
your way through the breakaway English troops,
making your way closer and closer to the Dragon
Stone. But as you near the supernatural meteor,
the beautiful green backdrop of the Scottish
Highlands gradually gives way to something more
hellish. "It gets weirder and weirder, and by
the end, it's almost post-apocalyptic," says
Toulouse.

You start with a band of 10 or so soldiers, but
you can recruit more, and they get stronger over
time. Tears of Metal is a roguelike, so defeat
will send you back to the beginning of the game,
but you'll retain the army you've assembled for
the next run. However, much like in the alien-
battling XCOM series, if one of your soldiers
dies in battle, they're gone for good. The
stakes are high, and you may have to rush to the
aid of a favourite character before they're
permanently extinguished.

The game recalls Dynasty Warriors, the series in
which powerful warriors carve through hundreds
of enemies in fantastical recreations of
historical battles. Toulouse acknowledges that
the series has been a "big influence", but he
says it relies less on "button mashing". Up to
four players can play together, each with their
own army.

Toulouse is the CEO of Paper Cult, an indie
studio he co-founded about 10 years ago in
Montreal, Canada. Which begs the question: why
is a French-Canadian indie studio making a game
set in Scotland? "It's a good question," he
says, adding that at first, the game had a
completely different setting. The eventual
decision to settle on medieval Scotland came
down to marketing: they wanted something
instantly recognisable. But there's also the
fact that Toulouse is devoted to a certain Mel
Gibson movie.

"I was a big fan of Braveheart," he says. "I
used to watch it with my friend all the time
after school: we were watching it over and over.
We liked the action scenes, and the soundtrack
of Braveheart is incredible."

Although Toulouse doesn't have any personal
connections with Scotland, he says that Paper
Cult is working with a writer who has "a lot of
links with the Scottish people" and who visits
friends in the country every year. "We're trying
to get some actual Scottish people involved in
the project," he adds, particularly on the
dialogue, something that Scots who still
remember the dreadful William Wallace campaign
voiceover in Age of Empires II will be relieved
to hear.

Paper Cult has been working on Tears of Metal
for some four years now, and it's still some way
off, with a release date pencilled in for next
year. But Toulouse has been bowled over by the
audience response since the game was revealed at
Summer Game Fest at the start of June: he says
it has now been wishlisted more than 100,000
times on Steam. "In the first couple of days
[after the announcement], we surpassed [our
previous game] Bloodroots' lifetime wishlists,"
enthuses Toulouse. "We're super excited."

  * Tears of Metal is in development for PC;
  release date TBC




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