Felvidek is a surprising RPG set in a dark fantasy version of 15th-century Slovakia, with great art-style, nice combat, and a good balance of comedy and horror. The animations are especially great, both during combats, with detailed pixel art attacks, and cutscenes, including trippy and bizarre scenes. At the core, Felvidek is a JRPG with turn-based combats, where the characters must explore a small but rich open world. Moreover, Felvidek is full of secrets, hidden paths, and easy-to-miss secondary quests, everything to expand the characterization of the game even more.

In this grim historical world, you must be ready to face Hussites, Ottomans, and other human enemies in challenging turn-based combats. However, things will get a dark fantasy twist once the Cult is revealed, the main antagonist of the game. Every enemy has a specific color palette here. For example, the Hussites tend to be yellow while the Ottomans green. And purple is the color of the Cult and its bizarre members. In the beginning, the enemies are regular robe-wearing cultists, or more armed soldiers, normal humans associated with the Cult. Then, grotesque maws and eyeballs start to appear on the humanoid designs, creating a new breed of disturbing cultists. Later on, true abominations will join the Cult’s ranks.

Everything in Felvidek irradiates personality, from the art-style to the animations and unconventional characters. In fact, the protagonist is a drunk soldier always grinning and obsessed with reconquering his wife that cheated on him. Felvidek takes huge inspiration from Slovakia, from traditions to jokes and history. Even the language is heavily influenced by the Slovak.

In the following interview, I had the opportunity to interact with Jozef Pavelka, one of Felvidek’s creators with Vlado Ganaj. Together with Jozef, we will analyse the work behind Felvideks, its secret, and a possible future DLC.

Q1: Thank you, Jozef, for the opportunity to interact with you. Felvidek is one of the most interesting RPGs released this year. How did the development of the game start?

A1: The project originally started at SUTNARKA (faculty of design and art) as a visual exercise with the goal of creating a design for the exterior, interior, and a character that could traverse them. It snowballed from there.

Q2: What were your references and inspirations while developing Felvidek?

A2: It’s important to note inspirations differ for me and Vlado Ganaj, the writer of Felvidek, although there is a lot of overlap. My greatest inspiration was Teodor Schnitzer, Slovak graphic print artist. As for the games, Gothic, original Fallout and Hylics come to mind. Vlado drew a lot of inspiration from Slovak literature and movies.

Q3: How challenging was it to combine historical events and characters with more occult and dark-fantasy themes?

A3: Felvidek is not historically accurate educational material, even though a lot of research was made into the material culture and the events surrounding the story of Felvidek. We use the medieval setting more for atmosphere and visuals. Occult themes lend themselves for such environment.

Q4: Felvidek has a very peculiar and interesting art-style, including animation, cutscenes, and the specific color palette for particular characters (for example, purple is for the Cultists). How did you define this specific style and color scheme?

A4: The style is a result of a dance on the intersection of digital and traditional graphics. I love exploring new ways of incorporating traditional printing techniques into digital art and vice versa. This approach to digital art was at the core of my academic studies.

Q5: Felvidek is a game completely rooted in Slovakia history and traditions. Which is your favorite legend or myth from Slovakia incorporated into the game?

A5: I love that we incorporated Hussites into the story. Most people don’t know that they were on our land in the 15th century, let alone the impact they had. Also a lot of Slovak memes, politicians and some jokes are referenced, in one way or another.

Q6: What instead about a myth or legend from Slovakia that you didn’t include inside the game? Thinking about it now, how would you include it in Felvidek?

A6: I won’t tell, for I would spoil a bit of our planned DLC.

Q7: Sharp knives, cheating, and a smile always on the face: the love story behind Felvidek is definitively a peculiar one. Could you comment on how this love story became a central element of the plot or helped to define the characters?

A7: Vlado needed a personal story for the characters to create an emotional reason for the plot to be driven, as opposed to the characters just investigating some unholy plot.

Q8: Felvidek is full of secrets, sub-quests, and hidden elements. Which is the most hidden secret that you are proud of?

A8: I love the original interaction with Pištík you get when you approach him after you were robbed by Ida.

Q9: Eyeballs, maws coming out of the stomach, and fleshy demons: which is your favorite enemy?

A9: Has to be Numbnut. I mean, what a bloke.

Q10: We are very curious to know which are your future plans. Is Felvidek 2 a possibility or are you working on a different project?

A10: Right now I am working at Warhorse, but we are currently also developing a DLC for Felvidek with Vlado. I have plans on what to do after, but those are projects that will take up years.

Final Remarks:

I would like to thank Jozef for the nice opportunity and really interesting answers. It was very nice to learn more about the work behind Felvidek, and I am really curious about the future DLC. While waiting for the DLC, you can find Felvidek HERE.