Hey, hi!

I’m Alex, the game designer on Chariot. Let’s talk about the Royal Arms, one of the new gadgets in the Royal Gadget Pack DLC.

The most combat-focused gadget of the pack, the Royal Arms also has the honor of being the only gadget that works differently depending on which character is using it. The Princess gets a whirlwind attack, the Fiancé unleashes a wild volley of shots, and the Shopkeeper launches a giant tornado in front of him. However, each variant of the Royal Arms also has a use out of combat – it wouldn’t be Chariot otherwise. The Princess’s whirlwind acts as a parachute, allowing her to make long jumps and ferry the Chariot to faraway places. The Fiancé’s volley pushes him backwards, letting him fly through the air – and if he’s on the Chariot, it acts like an engine! Finally, the Shopkeeper’s tornado can be used like a moving platform, opening up new ways to overcome platforming challenges.

The goal of the Royal Arms DLC is to give players more fun combat options while also being useful in places without looters. After all, Chariot doesn’t explicitly reward combat – if you managed to avoid looters entirely, that’s perfectly fine. The original concept was a temporary damage and utility boost to the wielder’s regular attack – perhaps have it break down brittle walls and propel the Chariot forward – but that didn’t quite follow the standard gadget mechanics. When the concept was tweaked to become a special attack, the first thing that came to mind was the Princess’s whirlwind attack; we had noticed that tapping the attack button fast enough made her look like she was spinning, so why not make an improved version of that? The other two followed rapidly after that, going with the idea of “normal attack, but way cooler” – which is a really fun way to design anything when you get down to it.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for playing!