During DOUJIMA 2025, I had the awesome opportunity to showcase 13Z: The Zodiac Trials and Balaspire during my live segment! Huge shoutout and thanks to the teams at Mixed Reams and RATHSOFT who gave us access to give the games a go for the event.
I host indie game days on stream occasionally to showcase indie games from all over the world, but this was my very first time spotlighting Singapore-based indie games, and I felt so much pride in our local development scene doing so! Our time with the devs felt short, so I wanted to expand my interactions with them outside of the con. What better way to gain insight than a quick, 10-question interview? For our first installment to this blog series, please welcome RATHSOFT! (And keep reading, we have an adorable cat picture down the line!)
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these interview questions! Could we get a quick introduction to the team?
Cloud: I’m our designer-artist-programmer guy who tries his best to get 200% results in 50% of the time. Also I’m not named after the Final Fantasy character, but I hope I can be as cool as him.
Keith: I am Keith, the project manager and occasional programmer at RATH. Also, the marketing and business development guy.
JK: Hello, my name is Jia Keat, but people usually call me JK. I’m a programmer for RATH. I enjoy games and software development, so working at RATH is the equivalent of following my dreams.
2. I noticed there are already some games that have been developed under the RATHSOFT belt! What is RATHSOFT’s founding story, and what does RATHSOFT stand for?
Cloud: We were cohort-mates from DigiPen, and after we graduated we just couldn’t let go of making games. “Rath” is based on the Mome raths of Alice in Wonderland—the duck-rabbit-pig things, because Lewis Caroll’s works are a big inspiration to us, and “soft” is there because Rath.com was already taken ????.
3. How did the development of Balaspire begin? What inspired the team?
Cloud: I wanted to make an approachable roguelike game that anyone could play. At some point, everyone has seen a cool game but felt “that looks cool but it’s too hard for me”, and I didn’t want anyone to feel that way when looking at our games. There is no better feeling than seeing someone connect with your game and start having fun with it, knowing that you can bring joy to people through your little creations.
Keith: Seeing people get visibly addicted to our games fuels and inspires us to work harder on it. I believe RATH can be more than an indie studio and I want to develop it into a super conglomerate with several branches around the world.
4. What game engine is Balaspire developed on and why?
JK: Unity Game Engine because it’s the engine that we’re most familiar with, it has all the features we need to develop Balaspire without wrestling around the software.
5. What games do you enjoy and do you think they had any influence on Balaspire?
Cloud: My life has been consumed by gacha games which probably explains the amount of luck-based mechanics in our game. I am also a recovering MOBA player, probably where all the math strategy came from.
Keith: My addiction to Balatro is one of the influences on the development of Balaspire.
JK: I used to be a gacha game addict, and still am, just slightly less than before. Generally, the games that I like to play offers the player a great deal of freedom to explore and create, especially when it comes to crafting a build or strategy to tackle the challenges ahead. This forms a huge part of my personal philosophy when it comes to developing games, I want players to feel like they have plenty of options to choose from and explore.
6. What do you think is a feature that sets Balaspire apart?
Cloud: I want to make a game that everyone feels that they can try to play—and looking at our playtests so far, I’d say we’re on the right track!
JK: It’s an interesting mashup between two widely popular deck-building roguelike games, with a unique art style and juicy feedback. We also have cute animals, and plan to add multiplayer features sometime down the line.
7. Is the protagonist of Balaspire created based on a real life cat?
Cloud: He actually looks nothing like the Meowgician, but here’s the car tax. I hope to draw more cars as cute as this boyo:
Cloud’s cat
Keith: Cloud’s cat I think.
8. I noticed a cute and cartoonish aesthetic in your games, who is/are the key artist(s) on the team?
Cloud: I unfortunately drew all the art and I have to go back into the art dungeon to finish up the rest for our full demo. Please send help.
Keith: We are looking for an artist btw.
JK: Cloud, he does it all.
9. What kind of gaming experience are you hoping future Balaspire players will have?
Cloud: I want everyone to look at our game and feel like they can give it a go. Games are something for everyone to enjoy, so it sucks to see something that looks fun but not feel confident enough to try it. I hope our game can bring fun experiences to anyone who’s willing to give it a go.
Keith: I want people to have fun, enjoy our games, and tell their friends and family about our game to make them addicted as well.
JK: I want players to become invested enough to create cool mods for Balaspire. I also hope that we can build a strong community of players with a shared love for roguelike games.
10. Where can we subscribe to the progress of Balaspire and future RATHSOFT projects?
Keith: Follow us on our social media on Instagram, X, and Don’t forget to wishlist Balaspire on Steam.
We frequently release early demos of our games on itch. Also join our discord for announcements and events. Also check out our website, all our projects (and socials) will be listed there.
Thank you once again to the team at RATHSOFT for taking the time to answer these interview questions, please look forward to more in the future, which will be added to the “Dev Interview” category!