Are you into fighting, healing, or casting powerful spells? Do you thrive on high-stress encounters? …No? That’s okay! There’s a life for everyone, and we sure have the comfy game for you!
If you’re someone who loves crafting and gathering, or just wants to chill out with a roguelite, Teamcraft Studios is making Teamcrafter! This one’s made by passionate crafters for cozy crafters! You can gather resources out in the wild, then return home to craft gear for the brave adventurers. Teamcrafter’s Kickstarter campaign just started today, so check it out to learn more!
Teamcraft Studios spent many years developing Final Fantasy XIV Teamcraft, a versatile tool used by many of today’s virtual crafters and gatherers. So you know you’re in good hands with Teamcrafter too. Over at IcyVeins, we got the wonderful opportunity to interview Teamcraft Studios about their upcoming game! Come check it out!
Hello! Why don’t you introduce yourself and Teamcraft Studios?
I’m Miu, one of Teamcraft Studios’ developers behind Teamcrafter. We’re a fully remote studio, with most of us in France and some in Brazil, Belgium, and Norway. We’ve got a small team of 8 members and some for video editing and sound design. We also have 2 pixel artists, a VFX artist, game designer, and narrative designer.
We created Teamcraft Studios only a few months ago, but I started working on this game solo about a year and a half ago. I’ve found people along the way to work with me, and the team has grown a lot since then.
Awesome! So how’d the team come up with Teamcrafter anyway? Any inspirations from FFXIV’s Teamcraft? 👀
I always loved how people got so involved with crafting in MMOs, and came up with the game idea while interacting with the FFXIV Teamcraft community. I realized I wanted to make a cozy rougelite, to reflect the crafting community’s life in MMOs. They’re the heroes in the shadows, the one making gear and consumables for fighters to battle in.
It’s great to hear you love the crafting community, just as much as they do! Does either the Studio or Teamcrafter retain any roots from, well, FFXIV Teamcraft?
For sure! One of our core rules from FFXIV Teamcraft — transparency — still guides Teamcraft Studios today. We’ll communicate a lot with the Teamcrafter community, and our Community Manager, Venili, is really good at that.
Would you say Teamcrafter has changed a lot since the beginning? Any notable challenges, for any aspiring game developers out there?
A LOT OF CHANGES. For example, we originally had a time limit and a morale system, but that goes against the cozy vibes we want. We’re also on our 4th iteration of the crafting system, the game’s narration is just beginning, and the fights have changed a lot too.
I think balancing procedural generation and performance together is a hard combo too, but I’ve learned a lot over time about GPU optimization and Godot, the game engine for Teamcrafter.
Maybe I can make a game someday too! Does Teamcrafter have a story for players to follow, or is it more of a sandbox with many natural biomes?
There is a storyline, but I can’t tell you much yet! You’ll have to find why there are monsters in your world, what are the mysterious portals, and how you can save the world yourself!
WAIT, LITTLE OLD ME SAVING THE WORLD? Surely we don’t have to fight in dangerous biomes, like in a lava world… R-right?
Lava world is definitely not in our backlog, suuuuuuure. Jokes aside, we’re planning all sorts of things: you can’t die, but you can lose many things without dying… 🙂 One of our design pillars is to be cozy though, so no big reflex stuff involved. We’re just scratching the surface with our game demo!
Is it possible to fail in a cozy game? What does that even look like?
You can fail by exhausting your total teleport count, as well as failing the final fight. I can’t say a lot about your skills and levelling, but we have plans for sure. 🙂 The only limit is your endurance bar, and how some resources only appear during the day or night. Some relics also have effects based on the day and night cycle too.
I’m assuming quests have deadlines, are there different types of quests? Can crafts be tailored for each adventurer you meet?
For now, we mostly have requests for resources, crafts, and relics. But we’re planning more, way more… 😉 Did you notice the restaurant in the main hub? What about the fishing pier?
The only rule we have for crafting is to make whatever you want! Wanna craft a high intelligence helmet for your tank? Well sure, whatever works! We’re just scratching the surface with special traits. But imagine adding poison, bleed, burn, damage conversion, drain, mana regeneration…
So many possibilities! Does this mean quests will be more difficult to complete over time?
Not in the playable demo yet! But later, sure!
Wait, are there any achievements, hidden quests, or secrets? ANYTHING TO ADD TO MY PERFECT GAME RECORD? 👀 What happens if you gather or craft everything?!
OH YEAH! It’s a rougelite, so the main goal is to help the party finish their grand adventure, killing every monster in their way. 🙂 Then you create a new run, help another party of adventurers, do different requests (not available in the demo), and discover unexplored biomes. In the demo, you can only explore 3 biomes, but we plan to add more later!
As you continue to play more, you’ll get to hear many secrets about the universe you’re trying to protect. Also, why are you, the crafter, even trying to protect it in the first place?
I love game replayability! Can you tell me more about Teamcrafter’s town? Surely the player doesn’t get to craft anywhere they want, like FFXIV players can… right?
In the demo, only adventurers can request crafting commissions from you. We’ll add more variety in future updates. And nope, players can only craft at the forge or in the barracks. 🙂
For character customization, additional language options, more voice acting, and town decoration… We have some of them as current Kickstarter goals! Others are planned for the future. 😉 We’re currently planning to support English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean.
Honestly, I’m pretty hyped for this game. 😆 Does Teamcrafter support custom controls and multi-platforms?
Currently, Teamcrafter supports mouse and keyboard, as well as controllers. We’re also planning to port to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 as well!
However, we are planning an early access for PC on Steam first. For the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 release, you’ll have to wait for Teamcrafter Version 1.0.
So how long will the Kickstarter campaign stay open for? Does Teamcrafter have a free demo, or multiple ways to gain early access?
Yeah! We’ll have a free demo available on Steam, releasing with the start of our Kickstarter campaign! The campaign will run for about a month, but you’ll have to check it yourself to learn more. There are some neat Backer rewards you can get, including an exclusive handcrafted knife by yours truly… 😉
Once the campaign ends, we’ll plan for early access and closed beta access for backers in some of the Kickstarter tiers.
Any ideas for Teamcrafter’s release date? 🗓️
Teamcrafter’s release date is a secret for now (because we don’t even know it 😄). Early access is planned for Q3 2026, but that’s… far away, so we’ll see! We’ll definitely keep the community updated whenever we can.
We have edited the interview for brevity, but I hope it doesn’t take away any excitement for Teamcrafter! Many thanks to Miu for answering our questions today. Teamcrafter’s Kickstarter campaign just started today, so be sure to show your support!
