Christopher Yabsley went from PS1-style horror with Pigsaw to Heathen, a first-person Diablo-like set in the dark fantasy town of Saltgrave. We talked about red and blue orbs, dithering, accessibility for his mum, and handmade games in the age of AI slop.
I spotted that Heathen’s Steam page promises Saltgrave’s townsfolk will share their secrets “if you would but stay a moment and listen”, and I’m fairly sure I heard a certain elderly scholar clearing his throat. How many other little love letters to 1996-era Diablo have you hidden in the game, and which one makes you grin the most?
For me it’s about raising the flag for what the game is. Folks are able to glance at a handful of screenshots or a few seconds of gameplay and be like “Oh, first person Diablo”. This has affected numerous aspects of design such as the iconic red and blue orbs, which are not really the best choice for a first person game, but are crucial in communicating what the game is trying to achieve.
You describe Saltgrave as the beating heart of Heathen, a refuge for broken souls whose once-noble lord fell into despair, and the lord you’re hunting is the one who took everything from you. In plenty of ARPGs the town is little more than a place to sell loot, so how do you go about making a hub that players actually care about between descents?
The immediate answer is time spent with an NPC, they will be with you at the beginning of your journey and support you through to the bitter end. This passage of time allows you to grow familiar with a character as their story slowly unfolds through evolving dialogue and quests. This is a monumental undertaking with each character able to trade, gossip, and comment on every topic, all while being fully voice acted. The NPC designs are currently being worked on and are already well loved by the team, we hope that love and care shines through to the player.
Honest confession: I’m completely smitten with the way Heathen looks. The keep promises to warp and distort the deeper you go, until you’re “nothing more than a flickering lantern in the void”. How did you find this visual identity, and were there any looks you tried and threw out before it finally clicked?
The visual identity for Heathen was cultivated over time. It looked a lot more generic to begin with, but once I added a limited palette and dithering like classic games from the 90’s it started to really click. Around this time posts about Heathen started gaining a ton of traction, with comments confirming that I wasn’t alone in the nostalgic dopamine the game was starting to emit.
Not many first-person melee games list “Camera Comfort” on their Steam page, and Heathen also flags “Playable without Quick Time Events” and full controller support. What made accessibility a priority for a game that’s all about dread and close-quarters brutality, and was it hard to keep the horror intact?
David Brevik has stated that Diablo 1 had a “Mum test” where his own mum should be able to understand and play the game. The first time I finished D1 was with my own mum co-op so I really take that sentiment to heart. When Heathen releases I again intend to finish it co-op with my mum so I regularly ask myself what features would she need. Keep the horror in the dungeon, not in the options.
Time for a slightly cheeky one. You’re Heathen’s developer and its publisher, with no release date yet, and my own completely unofficial back-of-the-napkin guess puts you at around 70,000 wishlists. How close am I, and what actually moved the needle for a one-person, self-published project?
Wishlists for Heathen currently sit at around 110,000. I really have that one viral video to thank for a majority of that. To get the ball rolling however I had my existing community and fans of my previous games, so I didn’t have to start from zero. Heathen is also fortunate enough to be a concept with no real competition. I wanted to play a first person ARPG but they don’t really exist, turns out a lot of other people felt the same.
With AI tools everywhere and a wave of low-effort “slop” games hitting stores, Heathen is very much a handmade project. Have you noticed any shift in how players respond to the game lately, and when you look at where gamedev is heading, are you more worried or more hopeful?
Yeah for sure, I regularly get accused of vibe coding Heathen now that it’s getting a lot of eyes. Thankfully I have a ton of development that I shared before AI really started infesting the scene. There has also been a recent explosion of first person AI mods for D1 and D2, which Heathen may or may not be responsible for. Am I worried? Not really. Gamers are rightfully viewing AI slop like the asset flips, and cheap mobile ports that came before it. The human condition is the beating heart of all media.
