Illustration by Michael DeForge
Kiloton
Jack Morehart
Jack Morehart
Kiloton - Trailer
+In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
Kiloton is about the Cold War, and the insanity of turning the end of the world into something with a "high score". In order to make the player feel some level of turmoil, the game is meant to be isolating, making the player feel disconnected from the minute-to-minute gameplay in order to keep them worried about the big-picture.
+What was the inspiration of the game?
What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
Definitely WarGames (1983). That movie is awesome and was THE inspiration. I wanted to make people feel like they were in that movie. I especially was fascinated by the opening scene, where someone simultaneously has ultimate control— (the key to a nuclear missile) — but also no control (no idea where its going, why he's firing it, whether or not his family is going to be hit by one in retaliation).
After war-games got me to start working on the idea, I discovered DEFCON and Dr. Strangelove, which have been significant influences in design and theming respectively.
+Were there difficult moments when developing the game? What led to those difficult moments? What did you learn from it?
I have often struggled with picking a specific audience/niche. When I started the game, I was making it for myself, and hadn't really given any consideration to users. About a year in, I realized that people might like it, and started playtesting. I got lots of feedback from friends and professors that it was too complex, too fast. Now, when it's live and mostly in the hands of RTS fans, people say it's too simple, too slow. I guess it's important to consider who's playtesting your game. My guess is that both types of feedback have merit, but it didn't really have anything to do with the speed of the game, but their understanding.
+Were there features you had to remove, and if so, what were they and why were they removed?
I wanted to add submarines for the longest time, and convoy-ships to carry troops between continents. I ran out of time, and wrote the multiplayer code instead. That sort of put the nail in the coffin for ships, since I don't particularly want to make huge edits to the network code anymore. However, it's a commonly requested feature, so maybe if I'm bored in a year or two I'll go for a big content update.
play this game on itch.io
Bluesky - @jackmorehart.bsky.social
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3488900/Kiloton/
https://jackmorehart.com