Some Kind of Gods — Interview with Ante Jurić (Juralius)

Some Kind of Gods is an ambitious medieval open-world RPG built by a small three-person team under the Juralius banner, led by artist and 3D modeller Ante Jurić. Drawing on inspirations ranging from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Skyrim to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Heroes of Might and Magic, the game follows a young heroine named Janine through a mysterious story set in a fictional world reminiscent of medieval central Europe. We sat down with Jurić to talk about the journey from digital caricature artist to solo game developer, the freedom-of-camera system built around Janine, and what it takes to build a genre-defining open world from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. Background and the Path Into Game Development

InsertCoin: You have been playing video games since you were six years old, and now, at forty, you are making your own. What finally pushed you to jump from playing games to building one? 

Ante Jurić: That is right, I have been playing video games since I was six. At my uncle's place I first played on a Commodore, then I got a Nintendo, followed by a Super Nintendo and a PlayStation 1. Instead of moving on to a PlayStation 2, I chose PC instead, where I spent a lot of time with RTS games before falling in love with RPGs. The RPG that impressed me most was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the original 2006 version. I want to stress the original Oblivion, because I am not particularly taken with the art and design of the Oblivion Remastered release, where the colours no longer feel vibrant and complementary the way they did in the original, but instead come across as monochromatic, blended together, and washed out, without any bold contrast. I feel similarly about the character design, and the clearest example is how the visual distinction between male and female characters has been flattened, when in my view there should be a clear contrast there. Even though I had an interest in how video games were made from a young age, it was not until I was studying at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics, while playing Oblivion, that I developed a real desire to one day make a game of my own. When I was six or seven, I genuinely believed video games were created through some kind of magic in Japan. It was only later, once I had matured a little, that I understood no magic is involved, only a great deal of knowledge across many different fields, which in turn requires, as I mentioned, a strong desire to learn and, I would say, a fanatical persistence. While I was playing Oblivion, alongside experiences from many other games, as well as films and shows, I started spontaneously coming up with ideas in my head for different quest scenarios, and that is how I began thinking about a video game of my own. 

InsertCoin: Juralius has existed since 2015 as a digital art and design studio. How did the idea come about to move from design and illustration into game development?

Ante Jurić: In the beginning, my company Juralius, or more precisely my trade for IT and graphic design services, mostly dealt with graphic design work such as logos, flyers, invitations, posters, and business cards. Since I had always loved drawing, I started posting my work on social media, and that led to requests for portraits and caricatures. From the day I bought a graphics tablet and started drawing digital caricatures in colour, up until fairly recently, around ninety percent of client requests were caricature related. I enjoyed digital drawing of two-dimensional characters, but since I had played a lot of video games earlier in life, I quickly developed a desire to learn everything needed to create three-dimensional characters as well. After learning to use ZBrush, the natural next step was converting those high-poly models from ZBrush into low-poly models, texturing and animating them, which is when I started using Blender and Substance Painter. Since I learned most of this through YouTube tutorials, that is also how I first came across Unreal Engine, widely regarded as one of the best game engines available today. Thanks to the Unreal Sensei channel, which has excellent tutorials for beginners, I decided to start experimenting with Unreal Engine.

InsertCoin: You and Marija run Juralius together. What role does she play in the development of Some Kind of Gods?

Ante Jurić: My wife Marija is a psychologist by profession, and since she has dedicated her career to studying people and the human mind, her advice and constructive criticism have often been worth their weight in gold over more than ten years of running the business together. In the actual production of Some Kind of Gods, she does not have a large hands-on role, but she plays an important part in giving honest feedback across every area of development, and I gladly listen to her advice when writing the game's story, especially when it comes to characters, their personalities, motivations, and emotions. In general, my wife is my biggest support in everything, and that includes this large, ambitious project of developing a video game of our own.

InsertCoin: Some Kind of Gods is a medieval open-world RPG. You have mentioned Zelda, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Heroes of Might and Magic as influences. Which of those shaped Some Kind of Gods the most?

Ante Jurić: Yes, those are just some of the games that had a major influence on me and on my thinking about what makes a video game successful. Every good film starts with a good story, and the same goes for most video games, especially RPGs. The inspiration behind the Some Kind of Gods story did not come only from video games I have played, but also from live-action, documentary, and animated films and shows I have watched, and books and comics I have read. My first encounters with interesting historical references came through comics like Alan Ford, Asterix and Obelix, and Zagor, among others. Beyond a good story, what those games you mentioned share is a sense of freedom while exploring the unknown. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo was the first RPG I played, and I felt that same freedom while exploring unfamiliar territory. In Zelda, you could move your character in every direction, the camera was set from above, there was no time limit, and there was no obvious path forward. You had to explore your surroundings first and gather information to figure out what to do, where to go, when, and why. Beyond a good story and that freedom of movement and exploration, the next ingredient for a great game is the immersive feeling that comes from smooth, comfortable, and intuitive gameplay, combined with a well synchronised blend of visual and audio elements, where the best examples are games like Oblivion and Skyrim.

InsertCoin: The title Some Kind of Gods sounds like it hints at a larger story or mythology. Can you tell us anything about the world and the story without spoiling too much?

Ante Jurić: The story is set in a period similar to the Middle Ages, and geographically it takes place in a region resembling central Europe. When I say similar, that should tell you that the regions, places, and peoples are fictional, although the game does include some real-world concepts such as Christianity, the feudal system, trade, and so on. The story follows a young woman named Janine. I would like to take this opportunity to mention that we plan to let players choose between two audio languages for the game, Croatian and English. Fluency in both Croatian and English will therefore be a requirement for potential voice actors, and we plan to run an open public call once we reach that stage of development. We want to give every interested voice actor a fair shot. There will of course also be subtitles available in several languages. As for the story itself, I would rather not reveal more at this point. You can get a sense of the world we are building through the photos and videos we post at the end of each month on social media.

InsertCoin: Janine is the main character. Who is she, and what is her quest?

Ante Jurić: Janine is a young woman who, through a series of circumstances, becomes the heroine of a very intriguing, mysterious story. As I mentioned earlier, I would rather not reveal more than that for now. 

InsertCoin: You have mentioned giving players complete freedom to switch between first and third person, with an adjustable camera. Why was it important to you to include that as an option?

 Ante Jurić: From my own experience playing RPGs like Oblivion, I often used that ability to switch between first and third person as a player myself. In some situations within the same game, first person simply feels right, and in others, third person does, so it is a feature I value a great deal, and not just me but the large majority of our target audience as well, which we can see reflected in comments on social media and on our Steam page. What I believe will genuinely set our game apart from other RPGs is that in third person, we will offer players four different levels of camera distance from our heroine Janine, and beyond that, we will also allow the camera to be positioned to the left or right, all of it adjustable on the fly during gameplay. One of the reasons we introduced that left or right camera positioning is that in today's social media era, a large number of players like to take screenshots while playing, and in many cases a screenshot looks far better compositionally when the character is positioned off to the side rather than dead centre of the screen.

InsertCoin: The Part 1 in the title suggests this is planned as a series. What are the plans for a sequel?

Ante Jurić: Yes, that is correct. We believe we have a very strong story that gives us plenty of material for a series. We definitely plan to make a sequel, which might sound a little overconfident given that we are still in the early stages of developing this first installment, which is already a very large and ambitious project on its own. Still, we firmly believe in the success of this first part. What I can reveal is that the second installment will be larger in scope, and through the story we have found a way to carry everything built in the first part forward into it. Development and Team

InsertCoin: You are working in Unreal Engine 5. How big is the team behind Some Kind of Gods right now? Are you handling everything yourself, from character models to buildings?

Ante Jurić: That is right, Unreal Engine 5, as I mentioned earlier, was clearly the best choice for developing a game like a 3D open-world RPG. About two years ago, I started developing the game on my own in Unreal Engine version 5.3, but over time, given the sheer volume of work and the need for specialised knowledge and experience, I decided to look for collaborators. The team currently consists of three people, and we are working in the latest version of Unreal Engine, 5.8. Besides the three of us working on development on an almost daily basis, I also have several collaborators who will join the project later on, covering areas like music, voice acting, testing, and marketing. The three of us who work daily have divided responsibilities according to our respective strengths, so we have one programmer, one animator, and one artist. I have taken on the artist role, handling environment design and modelling every 3D asset, from characters to buildings. Even though I have an interest in other areas of development beyond art, such as programming and animation, I am very glad those tasks are handled by my collaborators, who are far more skilled and experienced in those fields than I am.

InsertCoin: You thanked several well-known Unreal Engine instructors, Unreal Sensei, Imphenzia, and Druid Mechanics, along with 3D artist Mislav Krišto. How important was learning through online resources in this whole process?

Ante Jurić: Without the online resources available today, I probably would not have even started developing my own game. The person who first demystified Unreal Engine for me was Zach Hunter, known as Unreal Sensei. His free, extensive YouTube tutorials on Unreal Engine were the perfect starting point for a game development beginner like I was. The other people I mentioned helped me get to grips with other software, mainly Blender and Substance Painter, which alongside Unreal Engine are the tools I use most in the development process. I should add that after working through free YouTube tutorials, I also purchased several Udemy courses, which are very well structured and go into far more depth than what you typically find on YouTube. I would say roughly half of what I know now I learned for free, and the other half I paid for. I still feel there is a great deal left to learn, but it does not feel difficult, because I genuinely enjoy learning, and I enjoy applying that knowledge even more.

InsertCoin: You have described this past June as an especially productive month, with the first gameplay test, new characters, and a military base. What is currently the biggest challenge in development? 

Ante Jurić: Every month involves working at full capacity, but June stood out, not only because of the sheer amount of work we got through, but also because of some key milestones, like creating our main character, our heroine Janine, and filming our first gameplay test. I would not say there is a single biggest challenge, more a series of smaller challenges of different kinds that come up on a daily basis. For example, a while back we ran into an issue with how normal maps from certain Substance Painter smart materials were displaying in Unreal Engine, with shadows appearing where they should not have. Animating individual hanging clothing items, like necklaces, skirts, and dresses, so they behave realistically without clipping, such as a character's legs poking through a swaying dress while moving, is often tricky. We also recently updated to the latest version of Unreal Engine, which brought its own share of bugs we had to deal with. We know similar issues will keep coming up, but we are confident we can solve all of them, ideally as painlessly as possible, meaning we lose as little time as we can to fixing them. That is why, as a team, we stay in constant communication, so we can avoid the problems we are able to avoid, and resolve the ones we did not see coming as quickly and sensibly as possible for the long run. Community and the Future

InsertCoin: Right now you are communicating exclusively through Facebook and YouTube. You are planning a Steam page for wishlists. When might we expect that? 

Ante Jurić: Besides Facebook and YouTube, we recently set up accounts on other popular social media platforms as well, including TikTok, Instagram, and X. If you search Some Kind of Gods on any of those platforms, you should have no trouble finding our accounts. As for the Steam page, it will definitely be up by the end of this year, quite possibly this autumn already. InsertCoin: You mentioned that some very exciting things have started happening around the game. Can you give us at least a hint about what that involves? Ante Jurić: It involves some recently and successfully arranged current and upcoming collaborations with skilled, experienced, and talented partners. What also excites us a great deal is the very positive feedback we have received from potential buyers, and from industry professionals as well, on our work so far. Another one of those exciting developments has been the strong local interest from audiences, which has led to invitations to give guest talks at schools and professional gatherings. So far I have given one talk at the "Ivana Brlić Mažuranić" elementary school in Strizivojna, and another at the Antun Gustav Matoš grammar school in Đakovo. Recently I also received an invitation from another elementary school for a talk later this autumn, along with an invitation to speak at an inter-county gathering at the end of summer.

InsertCoin: How much has community feedback already influenced the design of the game?

Ante Jurić: I value community feedback a great deal, and with every public update we post at the end of each month, I encourage our audience to share their thoughts, and not just positive feedback, but negative feedback too, as long as it is constructive. So far, I am glad to say the comments have been very positive. I follow the pulse of the gaming community daily and take in feedback, not only about our own game but about other games as well. One concrete example is our decision to include that first and third person switching feature, along with the camera distance levels and left and right camera positioning in third person.

InsertCoin: What would a realistic timeline look like? When might we expect a demo, Early Access, or a full release?

Ante Jurić: On a project this large, it is difficult to even roughly estimate how long each individual phase will take, but I will give it a try. We are definitely planning to release a second trailer this December, while short gameplay test videos will keep coming out at the end of each month. A rough estimate for when a demo version might be ready would be around a year and a half from now, so toward the end of 2027. As for the final version, that is even harder to predict, but we are hoping for somewhere between two and a half and three years from now. To close out this interview, I want to mention that everything you see in the accompanying photos is not final and is still very much a work in progress. I would also like to thank you for the interesting questions and for helping promote our game. Greetings from Croatia.