Why KUTO Only Lets You Carry Two Time Keys
Five Time Keys exist in KUTO. You will never hold more than two. Here's the design argument behind the limit — the versions we tried, and the ones we threw away.
Dmytro Senchenko spent an hour with GameDev DOU on Rage of Mechs, why KUTO exists, and making games in front-line Sumy. Episode and chapters.
I spent an hour on the GameDev DOU Podcast on 7 August. The episode is called «Робити ігри у прифронтових Сумах» — making games in front-line Sumy — and the title is not a figure of speech.
The host is Sashko Peremot, and we started with the games I grew up on before ending somewhere I did not expect, which is usually the sign of a good conversation. In between: how Digital Legacy started, how my brother and I talked ourselves into building an indie game at all, what shipping Rage of Mechs taught us, and why KUTO came next instead of a sequel.
The episode is in Ukrainian.
Translated from the DOU listing.
| 00:39 | Meeting the guest |
| 02:24 | Dmytro, and the games in his life |
| 07:22 | Digital Legacy |
| 09:58 | Games of the 2000s |
| 14:44 | Game music used to be better!!!111 |
| 21:30 | Where the idea for an indie game came from |
| 25:33 | Starting work on Rage of Mechs |
| 33:30 | Building the team's first game |
| 41:26 | Why KUTO: The Lock of Time came next |
| 46:00 | Life and development in front-line Sumy |
| 48:32 | Escapism |
| 51:17 | Sashko talks about Marathon again |
| 54:21 | What makes games unique as a medium |
| 58:14 | Plans for KUTO |
| 59:45 | Community, and why feedback from outside the team matters |
If you listen to the last chapter and have something to say about where KUTO should go, the Discord is the right place for it. That part of the conversation was not a formality.
Five Time Keys exist in KUTO. You will never hold more than two. Here's the design argument behind the limit — the versions we tried, and the ones we threw away.
The games that put you inside Greek myth — fighting the Olympians, escaping the underworld, hunting monsters out of Homer. Eight worth your time, from blockbusters to hidden gems.
Loved Blasphemous? The grim, punishing soulslike metroidvanias that hit the same notes — brutal bosses, dense maps, heavy atmosphere — plus an upcoming game built on time.
Saros is Housemarque doing what they do best. These eight games share the same fast death loop, the same punishing pace, or the same eldritch-horror edge.
Stuck in a loop, learning a little more each cycle. The games that turn the time loop into a whole genre — plus one rewind Metroidvania that does not reset the run.