Bobby K. Richardson, feature film producer, director, editor, known for SyFy Channel movies such as "Dragonquest" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and founder of Comic Book RPGs  has an action-packed PC and Mac game "Immortal Souls", releasing December 2010. "Immortal Souls" features a fast-paced combat system inspired by elements from Final Fantasy, Puzzle Quest and Bejeweled.

In "Immortal Souls" two vampires must fight to save their souls from the legions of hell. The game features combat with a color-coded attack grid that must be used to destroy color-coded armor. Players can level up, loot/buy/equip items, and collect gold trophies by mastering the intricacies of the combat system.

We were able to get into contact with Mr. Richardson, and he agreed to answer some questions about the game. Here's what he had to say.

Horror News Network: You usually make films, what made you decide to make a game?

Bobby K. Richardson: From a personal standpoint, I love games.  I like to make things people can get *really* excited about.  And I thought I could make a new type of game that people would love to play.
 
From a business standpoint, games are where it's at right now.
 
Distribution for games has become a really positive area.  Did you know if you want to distribute a movie, you need a distributor?  If you don't have distribution contacts, you have to shop it around at film festivals, and even if you happen to know distributors, will they give you the deal you want?  Will they get the movie out to the right audience?  You sign some papers, and then you pretty much lose control of the product.
 
Games in the 1980's and 90's used to work in a similar way to movies, but thanks to the internet, Xbox Live and the Playstation network, you suddenly have all these options where you can pick and choose how you want to distribute.  The details are still in the contracts, but game distribution has become this truly beautiful thing where independent developers can get their game out to players more easily than ever.  Movie distribution is a nightmare in comparison, and it's become a real 'game changer' for independent developers.
 
Horror News Network: Why was Immortal Souls made as a flash game?
 
Bobby K. Richardson: I had "Immortal Souls" developed in flash because flash is browser-friendly, we can also have it run from a downloadable stand-alone, just like a normal game; it gave me flexibility in how I might choose to distribute it.
 
I have hopes that one day you can play a wide array of our comic book universes right inside your browser.  It will be just like walking into a comic store!

I want to build Comic Book RPGs into a community based around our game series, I even have hopes to create an arena system where you can take main characters from our games and compete against other players in online matches.
 
Horror News Network: The game has two different issues, Immortal Souls: John Turner #1 and Immortal Souls: Codename Raven #1. What does each one have to offer that the other one doesn't?
 
Bobby K. Richardson: Both issues have completely different story lines, Raven is the main character of her issue, and John respectively is the main character of his issue.

Both issues actually share 90% of their artwork; it's really the stories that are different.  Instead of having a $29.99 price point I decided to just cut the game in half.  I'm really interested to see if people will buy the games based mainly on the incentive of the combat and a new story; those figures will help me plan for the future of Comic Book RPGs.

Horror News Network: What more can you tell us about the main characters John and Raven? Can we expect any kind of surprise about them as we progress through the game?

Bobby K. Richardson: John was once a great street racing champion, until one of those races ended in a deadly car accident.  John is driven by the need to make up for his past wrongs.  A supernatural creature known as The Black Witch, conspired to force his change into a vampire.  Now John is not only fighting to make up for his past, but fighting for his very soul.

Codename: Raven once had a normal life and a happy family, a perfect picture that was shattered when vampires broke into her home, killed her husband... and her daughter.  The only way she could bring their killers to justice, was to become a vampire herself.  Her name and all records of her past were erased the moment she joined the Isis Corporation, a powerful company ruled by one of the oldest vampires known to walk the earth, Isis.

I'm trying not to bog down our first two issues with *too* much story since they are battle-oriented games, but you can expect more than a few plot twists and all of our characters have some very deep character motivations.  This is really just a glimpse into the rich universe we've developed.
 
Horror News Network: What kinds of monsters and bosses can we expect to encounter?

Bobby K. Richardson: There's Draconus, a hybrid of Dracula and a Nosferatu, he has this awesome attack where bats literally fly out of his cape in a crazy barrage that's enough to make anyone scream "They're in my hair!!"

We also just posted a preview on the Black Witch on our blog, she's cursed with this "living shadow" that might remind some people of Venom's symbiote. Truly my favorite enemy thus far.

There's also the Templar Knights, they are equipped with heavy duty mechanized suits which may remind you of Iron Man, they have this big ass shields wield some deadly laser swords, they are seriously ready to bring down the most dangerous creatures of the night.

Then there's the Templar foot soldiers... These are basically the guys who didn't make the cut to be a Templar Knight...  So they were given some flimsy velcro armor and a laser gun...  They're lucky to last the night.

Ah and I can't forget about the Vampire Agent.  He's basically a vampire version of Agent Smith from the Matrix.  He has some crazy bullet time dodging, shooting, and kung-fu fighting.

Kudos to our Art Director James O'Reilly, he's done an amazing job with these animations.
 
Horror News Network: Why did you decide on the RPG turn-based game play instead of a brawler or fighting game type of system?

Bobby K. Richardson: I really wanted to target an RPG crowd.  I wanted to build an engaging universe that I could really invest myself in, so turn based was the way to go.

Fighting/brawler games are action based and they really are a completely different genre.
 
Horror News Network: I've played through the demo and found myself addicted; the game has a rather fun and unique battle system, what made you decide on it?

Bobby K. Richardson: I wanted to build a combat engine that was really different and fun.  I also needed this combat engine to support the entire line of "Comic Book RPGs" I wanted to make.  Something that merged turn-based combat with action and mild puzzle elements really appealed to me.

We advertise the game as being similar to "Puzzle Quest" and "Bejeweled" and I wanted to go for that same kind of replay value they have, but in reality the game is more action-oriented than puzzle oriented, when you start playing it you start getting this feeling, like, it doesn't feel like a puzzle game, you're mostly reacting - you're part of the action.  I wanted something that really *felt* like you were *part* of that comic book action.

I think we've really gotten there.
 
Horror News Network: Are there any other game play elements, not in the demo, that we should look forward to?

Bobby K. Richardson: We're going to be bringing down the cost of Trophy rewards, hopefully this will counter-act the over dependency on luck.  I'm also hoping to add a "Mulligan" feature that will let you refresh your available combat moves once per a battle for free.

If our sales are successful and we can continue making Comic Book RPGs we'll be going in and adding some really major enhancements and customization options to the engine.
 
Horror News Network: Any hints, tips, tricks, or cheats you can tell us about?

Bobby K. Richardson:
1)  Take a second to choose which enemy to attack first.  Enemy armor is color coded... If you're being resisted it's because the color doesn't match the armor.
2)  Always take an extra second before choosing your attacks, sometimes I don't realize I could have set up a nice series of attacks if I'd chosen to attack with a different move.  Who you attack, when, and with what color is the difference between a Silver and Gold trophy.
3)  You can buy Power Dice at the trophy store, these have a special attack move that let's you chain multi-color attacks (gun attacks AND melee attacks at the same time, etc...), you can clear the entire board if you're *really* lucky!
4)  I also prefer to focus on upgrading damage a little before upgrading my hit points, but that's just me.
 
Horror News Network: When should we expect the next issues in the series?

Bobby K. Richardson: If we get some decent sales, hopefully early spring of 2011.

Expect to see TV-quality animations and voice-overs, and isometric explorable areas (yes, isometric, and they look just like the battle artwork!)
 
Horror News Network: Do you have any other movie or game projects in the works we should be looking for?

Bobby K. Richardson: I'm focusing 100% on Comic Book RPGs, because I really think the future of these games are going to be ridiculously exciting.  But I do hope to get back into making feature films someday.

Horror News Network: Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?

Bobby K. Richardson: Check out our blog and forums, we're going to start posting previews of enemies and new artwork as they're being made, and also I'll be holding polls to help us direct the future of our games.  What do you want first, the big huge Immortal Souls game?  A new universe?  Fantasy?  Steampunk?  Weigh in at http://www.comicbookrpgs.com

Thanks horrornewsnetwork.net!

Horror News Network: Thank you for your time, Bobby. Comment on this interview on our forum.