2013’sTeslagradfollowed the story of a young Teslemancer with electromagnetic powers in a Steampunk-themed version of Old Europe.Teslagrad 2continues the Teslemancer story focused on a different protagonist named Lumina as she uses new traversal powers to navigate a new Norse world setting.
Game Rant recently spoke with Rain Games CEO Peter Wingaard Meldahl about howTeslagrad 2compares to the original game and the original’s upcoming 10-year anniversary later this year. Meldahl also spoke more about the game’s protagonist Lumina, new electromagnetic powers, and the2.5D puzzle platformer game’s focus on visual storytelling.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
RELATED:Best Platformer Games (According To Metacritic)
Q: It’s been nearly 10 years sinceTeslagradwas released and nearly 6 years since the standalone follow-upWorld to the West. What’s it like bringingTeslagradback now with a sequel?
A: It is a really great feeling. The team grew under the creation of the originalTeslagrad, but the team we had when we finished the game are the same people that builtTeslagrad 2this time around. Several of us have spent the last years dreaming up things forTeslagrad:game design, visuals, and world-building. There is something very nice about letting ideas mature. The weaker ones sort of fade over time, and the stronger ones get expanded upon as they are bounced back and forth in the team. When we started to actually work on it, it was a mix of our own nostalgia for the original and our urge to take all these new ideas and make them real.
When we finally got to show it off, it was thrilling to see that players had also been waiting for this game. We have supported the original for years, and from the originalPC-only launch, we have now brought it to 13 different platforms by now. In that way, it does not feel THAT long since we were last in touch with theTeslagradfans, but still, this is different. It feels fantastic to be back!
Q: Could you tell us 2’sprotagonist Lumina and why you chose to continue Lumina’s story fromWorld to the West?
A: We always intended to let time pass in our universe. Rather than these static settings with unchanging characters, we would like the plot to truly affect the setting and for the characters to grow older. When we created the cast ofWorld to the West, we knew that we wanted one of the four characters to be a Teslamancer. We also wanted that character to be the first one that the players played, letting us start the story in the familiar city of Teslagrad.
RELATED:Video Game Characters Who Got Their Powers From The Weirdest Sources
We wanted the character to be new to the world, so we did not want to use the protagonist from the originalTeslagrad. We liked the idea of using his daughter. She would look distinctly different, and we would get to figure out how a female Teslamancer uniform would look. With a blue suit and big red hair, she could also carry the color motif fromTeslagradwith her, without the enemies there to supply all the red.
We leftWorld to the Westwith the characters traveling home. They had gotten there in different ways, and Lumina had a big subplot around fixing the ancient teleporter that brought her to the continent by accident. She never got to do that though. She hitched a ride with one of the other characters called Clonington to his homeland, and we always wanted to tell the tale of how she got back from there. It was the perfect excuse to put her in lands that the Teslamancers had lost touch with ages ago.
Q: How do Lumina’s electromagnetic powers compare to the original game’s physics abilities, like the new twist of curved magnets and new skills?
A: We have not shown off everything in trailers yet, so there are still some real surprises. Her abilities are somewhat different from those of her dad’s, though some things stay the same. She keeps the blink, though we have reworked it to make it integrate better with the terrain, and of course, she has the signature Teslamancer cloak letting her change her own polarity to attract and repel from magnetic surfaces. She only has one polarity though, unlike her dad.
RELATED:Best Gaming Characters With Electricity Powers
The more advanced magnet system of the game lets her reorient herself to magnetic surfaces, and this makes a huge difference in what is possible with the power. The magnets themselves can also curve and twist now. Apart from that, we have given her a slew of new powers. Among them, she gets the power to diffuse into rapidly traveling electricity in water and along wires. She can also slide, something that works well with the physics in the game. She’ll later learn to power this slide, enabling her to move along curves at blinding speed and build up some incredible momentum.
There are several more upgrades that are gained throughout the game, including several secret powers that are not needed to complete the game. The goal has always been to create powers that work well with each other, and to let the players experiment and combine them in interesting ways.
Q: Could you explain 2’snew puzzle-solving tools?
A: Apart from the powers, we let Lumina carry and move things. This made it easier to create certain puzzles. Apart from the straightforward puzzles, there are also ones that I like to call “Traversal puzzles.” These are usually open areas that you can move through incredibly fast if you figure out how to. By all means, players can just stroll through them normally. But who doesn’t want to go fast?
Q: How doTeslagrad 2’scombat survival mechanics compare toTeslagradandWorld to the West?
A: They are more similar to those inTeslagrad, as these games are not really about combat. You do, however, get the tools to kill enemies a bit earlier than in the originalTeslagrad. There are also enemies that leech onto your electric powers, gaining strength. Right from the get-go, there is a way to defeat these enemies by overcharging them.
Q: Could you tell us more about the sequel’s enemies and bosses, and what inspired their designs?
A: A lot of thegame is inspired both by old Norselore, as well as the stories and folktales from the “Romantic” era of Norwegian cultural history. In the originalTeslagrad, we went for an Eastern European aesthetic with Nordic undertones. In this version, we flipped this and focused on the Nordic side of the setting.
Trolls are an old classic, I guess people have heard of the Draugr by now, and we have our own take on this mythical undead. There are also creatures inspired by lesser-known creatures like Hulder, Lindorm (Lindworms), and of course, our very own oil-punk Vikings.
RELATED:Best Trolls In Video Games
The storytelling in the game is silent, and there are things that would be cheapened if I was to reveal too much about the nature of some creatures in outside materials like this, so suffice to say that there are also beings in the game where the mystery is part of the point.
Q: Could you tell us a bit aboutTeslagrad 2’s 2.5Dhand-painted art styleand possible art inspirations?
We’ve obviously taken a lot from the style of the original game. We have learned a lot since then, and technology and techniques have also come a long way. In the world of animation, getting this look through staggered animation and shader use is found in several pieces of media.Into the Spiderverse,Chainsaw Man, andgames likeGuilty Gearinspired us to try our hand at a similar technique for the animated characters. On Lumina especially, this technique made the upgrading of the sprite with new gear a lot more manageable.
Apart from that, we already had some special 2.5D-like tricks in the original. We take care not to make things look too 3D though. If you are not thinking about it and have an eye for the techniques, then the entire game should look like a single incredibly detailed 2D image.
Q: How doesTeslagrad 2continue the original game’s focus on visual storytelling?
A: We were more ambitious with the storytelling this time. This one is really hard to talk about since the point is for people to experience the story for themselves. What I can say is that the story we are telling is meant to be specific, so while some things can, of course, be interpreted in different ways, there is atrue “Canon” interpretationthat we will base future storytelling. For those that are not familiar with the original: We tell the story entirely through what happens in the game and we attempt to cut the use of cutscenes to a minimum, so it mostly happens while you’re in control of the character.
In the originalTeslagrad, almost everyone understood the main core of the story, and the community has spent years trying to figure out all the secondary plots and narratives. InTeslagrad 2, there is more of both layers! We even reveal the solutions to some of the last mysteries from the original’s story.
Q:Teslagrad 2is described on your website as the world’s first steampunk-meets-Norse Scandinavia. Could you explain more about this Metroidvania twist and why you choose Norse influences for the sequel?
A: Why indeed? This is 4 kilometers from the office:
And this is the local landscape:
So there may have been some inspiration from that. I really love the sort of aesthetic that has come out of ancient Japanese architecture and culture, combined with science fiction oralternative technology universes. I had never seen something like that built on our own cultural history though. What if the culturethat built those amazing stave churches built factory halls and oil rigs? What would that look like?
Historically, Norway was Christianized in the Middle Ages and eventually became far more culturally similar to other European cultures. It is interesting to imagine how things could look if that had never happened.
RELATED:Best Steampunk-Themed Games
Q: How doesTeslagrad 2explore Norse mythology compared to other popular titles, likeGod of WarandValheim?
A: We are not basing things on the actual myths, but are more inspired by the creatures and characters in them. Both the mentioned titles also focus exclusively on the Norse mythos, while we are including the “Romantic” period stories and figures as well. This period is for the most part far less well known outside of Norway, and it takes place betweenthe Viking ageand the modern day, so there are a couple of hundred years of history there.
Personally, I love the old tales of the gods, both our own Norwegian ones, and those of other cultures. The Greek and Egyptian ones are perhaps a bit overexposed, but the Irish mythology, for example, is a great read.
Q: What do you think makesTeslagrad 2unique compared to other popularhand-drawn Metroidvania titles, likeHollow Knight?
A:TeslagradandTeslagrad 2have a very different core to something likeHollow Knight. We do not focus on combat, but rather physics-based movement. In that sense, I guess we are more similar to something likePortal, where thinking in a certain way about the laws of the game’s physics allows you to do marvelous feats. Basically, we arePortalIfPortalwas a Metroidvania about magnets.
Q: Besides the release ofTeslagrad 2, does the studio have any special plans in or out of the game to markTeslagrad’s 10-year anniversary later this year?
A: Something, somewhere, at some time, will be done in relation toTeslagrad1 this year.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A:I am really looking forward to getting the game in players' hands, and seeing what they think of it. We have poured a lot of ourselves into this game, and there is so much I want to see people’s reactions to.
How many people will discover the full story this time? What can people figure out from the more secretive stuff? What do people think of this way of moving in a game? How many people will make it through the main story? Ah. And how many will… Find the thing. Or things. Whatever we might have hidden somewhere.
[END]
Teslagrad 2is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Hollow Knight: Silksong May Already Have A Strong Replacement For Magic
