We spoke with Atabey Games about the upcoming cosy and cute tower defence title Eyes on Yuki
"Hi friends, I'm in Bilbao. I'm here for the BIG 2024.
This is the Indie Showcase, and I'm here joined by Ivan and Marina to learn a little more about this little guy here and his game, which is Tower Defense with a twist."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the elevator pitch for it?
Okay, we are from Atabey Creations, an indie Spanish studio, and we are developing Eyes on Yuki, okay?
Eyes on Yuki is a cooperative tower defense where you have to protect this little guy who is always getting into problems."
"So you have some materials you have to collect with your partner, and with those materials you can, we can say, craft some turrets you can place on the map.
What makes our tower defense different is that you can move the turrets in every moment you want during the gameplay."
"You don't have to stay in the same place all the time.
So while you can collect some materials, your partner can place some turrets.
I say it's a cooperative tower defense. It's a different concept.
I'm taking a look at the game in the background, and you guys have like this sort of dynamic split screen that we saw in the LEGO games, for example."
"So can you play like that and also online?
Yeah, well, right now it's just a local cooperative game.
Right now it's only local?
Yes, our targets are like friends, family, couples."
"We are not developing right now an online game mode.
We are not closed, but our main target is for local cooperative.
And let me ask you about the art.
It's colorful. It's not quite like, you know, League of Legends style that everyone is following."
"It's slightly different. I like the approach.
So what can you tell me about what you guys want to convey with the art?
So at first it was approached as a spooky game, like cute, spooky, cozy, but also chaotic."
"But right now we are going towards a wider range of styles and settings.
So right now it has a very spooky color palette, but it will be developed as the levels change.
Why did you want to do Tower Defense that it's a co-op?
Because we think it's an unexplored concept."
"We want to approach this type of games to a more casual target.
We think that Tower Defense are really for hardcore players, and we want to make this kind of games cozy.
Is that the word? Cozy?
Cozy."
"Cozy. Oh, sorry. Cozy is cozy.
Cozy and creepy at the same time, which is weird.
We want to approach this type of games to people who is playing, for example, a dad with her son, and for more casual gamers."
"We think it's a good target.
I remember you guys come from the university.
I think I met you last year with the U-TAD.
So what can you tell me about the team and the status of the project right now?
Well, it's been all right because we started, again, from the university and stuff, and we are a huge team, which is kind of strange for an indie developer."
"But we are, I think, around 30 people working on this game, and we all have our jobs and our different things in life, but we have all come together to create this, and we are very excited.
And, yeah, basically we are a huge team, and we are very looking forward to release."
"And what about the status? When are you guys going to release?
I think it's around next year, the end of next year.
We are going to release on Steam.
Do you have a publisher already?
No, we don't have a publisher, but we would like to have some publisher."
"We are looking for it.
Some business here, some discussions here, behind the scenes?
I don't know. We have a production department, and they are moving in this kind of events, having one-to-ones and having some talks."
"Anything that we didn't touch upon that you would like to mention or to highlight about the game?
This little guy is everything.
Can I?
Yeah, of course."
"That little guy is everything.
Is there a story around it?
I don't know.
There was a story. We don't know if we are going to keep following that line, but we were inspired by, I think it was Colombian mythology."
"There is this Colombian goddess, well, Colombian, you know.
This goddess is Atabey, which is the name of our company, and we kept exploring this mythology, and we came up with Yuki, which is a froggy figure, and obviously we gave him our touch."
"He's the forest protector. He's healing the forest while you protect him.
Fantastic. Looking forward to learning more from you guys at Atabey and from this little guy in 2025.
Thank you so much for your time. Enjoy the show.
Thank you so much."