Hi Haakers! ːsteamhappyː
Thank you for following our game HAAK, we have put together a few frequently asked questions from players, hope that helps! But do not hesitate to ask us anything or leave any feedback, we would love to hear them!
Q: When will the game be released?
A: The plan is to keep polishing the game for another 12 months after the EA release, we will work hard for it to be released around late 2021.
Q: What does “HAAK” stand for?
A: Our studio is based in Guangdong, China. Haak means 'black' in Cantonese, and black is the key colour of our protagonist, as well as the game aesthetic. Secondly, we have designed a hacking skill as a core game mechanic, which is pronounced the same as HAAK.
Interestingly, we just discovered Haak means Hook in Dutch, which surprisingly is the main weapon used in the game!
Q: Is this game a Metroidvania game?
A: HAAK was massively affected by Metroidvania games like Super Metroid, but at the same time drawing inspiration from action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Therefore HAAK is more like a combination of all the goodness, we would describe it as a Metroidvania-lite game.
Q: A metroidvania released as EA?
A: It does sound pretty weird for a Metroidvania game to be released as Early Access, but as we mentioned before, HAAK is not a traditional Metroidvania game, therefore, there is a special world and logic setting, which would make it suitable for EA release.
Q: HAAK reminds me of other games.
A: We are a small and young team, HAAK is our first PC/Console title. We always wish to learn from successful games that we love and respect. So there might be some elements in common with other games, but we are sure that HAAK is unique and independent, and we believe that HAAK will bring a very different experience to our players.
Q: How can HAAK stand out in its genre?
A: First, the art style of HAAK is pretty iconic. It is a brave experiment for us to combine dark manga and high-resolution pixel art. As for the animation, Haak employs fully hand-rendered, high-frame-rate 2D animation
The game also focuses heavily on the background story and world setting, weaving this dystopian near future story with East Asian cultures into the gameplay.
Q: Will you be able to select the difficulties of the game？
A: Currently we have only one difficulty setting, but we are working on a system which can automatically adjust the level of difficulty, which will be taking into consideration after we gained feedback from players during EA.
Q: Will HAAK come to mobile or consoles?
A: It is definitely in our consideration, but for now we wish to focus on developing the PC version to the finest quality.
Q: How many hours of play for HAAK?
A: There will be 3 regions to explore in the EA version, which requires an average of 4-5 hours of play time, as results form our early playtesters.
The full game will have about 2 times of contents more than the EA version, so an estimate of more than 10 hours of gameplay.
Q: Any DLCs planned for the future?
A: We're focusing on the game right now, but we will definitely consider DLCs. For now, focusing on main game 1st ;)
Q: Will it be a linear experience or will it feature different paths/choices/endings?
A: We are definitely planning this, where there could be many choices player will have to make throughout the adventure, which might affect the ending. We wish to make the endings together with the help of our players, by collecting thoughts and feedback during EA.
Q: Will the game have voiced parts?
A: Unfortunately there is no plan for VO for HAAK. Due to the speical world setting in HAAK, the use for VO might not add to the overall game experience, however inapropriete use of voice parts could make a negative effect, therefore we decided to remove it.
Q: What languages will be avaliable for the game?
A: For the EA release, HAAK will support English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. We wish to collect players' feedback on which other languages to bring in for the game's final release.
If you have more questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach us through our steam community or Twitter/Discord/Facebook!