the horror issue
The Independent Games Magazine Issue Seven, Autumn 2015
news, reviews and features on the games that specialise in scaring you Pages: 14 _ 42
ALSO IN ISSUE SEVEN FEATURES
REGIONAL
EVENTS
NEXT GEN
Game publishing with Green Man Gaming
Game trailers made in Croatia, with Trailer Squad
Destiny in the Pub. A Destiny themed meet-up
Comic Con 2015 at the Excel London.
KILLING FLOOR 2, AN EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW IN OUR SIRUS GAMES REVIEWS SECTION
2 MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE IND13.COM
Contents Editorial
Sirius Gaming Reviews Section
Page 4 Be afriad, be very, very afraid...
Pages 30 - 32 Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
IND13 Q&A
Pages 34 - 35 Killing Floor 2
Page 6 What games do the IND13 team think are genuinely scary?
Pages 36 - 40 Hatred
Green Man Gaming Pages 8 - 12 Harry Cole talks to Gary Rowe, EVP Green Man, about the unique offer he has for Indie Developers.
Indie Horror Games Pages 14 - 18 What is it about horror games, and horror games in particular, that scare the living bejesus out of us. Jennifer Simpkins explores this while looking at games such as The Dark Descent, We Happy Few and Five Nights at Freddie’s.
The History of Horror Games Pages 20 - 28 We all love a good horror game don’t we? But does everyone know how long they have actually been around? Lee Smith explores the history of the horror game, and why we love them so much.
Comic Con: Generation Geek Page 40 Comic Con is one of the biggest events of its kind, and our Next Gen Gamer Ophelia Matthews-Smith had her very first experience of it at the Excel London.
Regional Report: Croatia Pages 46 - 49 Trailer squad are a team of animators, cinematographers and gamers. Their love for games means they can convert their vast professional experience into great trailers, TV spots and in-game cinematics for their customers. Harry Cole caught up with them, to talk about how and why they do what they do.
Destiny in the Pub Pages 50 - 54 Lee Smith was invited to a Destiny themed meet-up in a pub in Moorgate, for a few beers, some handling of 3D printed weapons, and a failed attempt to win a raffle prize.
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 3
FEATURE: Editorial
the horror issue
The Independent Games Magazine Issue Seven, Autumn 2015
news, reviews and features on the games that specialise in scaring you Pages: 14 _ 42
ALSO IN ISSUE SEVEN FEATURES
REGIONAL
EVENTS
NEXT GEN
Game publishing with Green Man Gaming
Game trailers made in Croatia, with Trailer Squad
Destiny in the Pub. A Destiny themed meet-up
Comic Con 2015 at the Excel London.
KILLING FLOOR 2, AN EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW IN OUR SIRUS GAMES REVIEWS SECTION
IND13 is a magazine dedicated to independent games. Our aim is to create interesting news, reviews and articles, all focusing on the indie gaming scene. The nucleus of our team is based in the UK but we also have a team stretching the globe, which means that we have indie gaming
Be afraid, be very, very afraid... We all love being scared. It is a very basic, and slightly weird, trait of the human race. We love books, comics, films, rides and indeed games that scare the bejesus out of us. From a scientific point of view, when we get scared our bodies automatically trigger the “fight or flight” response - our heart rates increase, we breathe faster, our muscles tense, and our attention focuses for quick and effective responses to threats. If our brain knows there is no real risk of really being harmed, it experiences this adrenaline rush as enjoyable. It becomes something to enjoy rather than endure. I am no different from anyone else, as I am truly a sucker for a ghost story, a psycho stalker or even a good old-fashioned vampire feast fest. I don’t turn away at the slightest hint of gore, I actively seek it out.
news from all gaming territories. The team behind IND13 are all volunteers, and we are giving our time because we are passionate about indie games. The content of the magazine will be made up of articles created by the IND13 team but also by voluntary contributors from the games industry. Advertising is available in the magazine, and all proceeds will go into the development and stability of IND13’s production. Please contact
This macabre thrill seeking began in my youth with the books by Stephen King, and the 80s shock horror films of A Nightmare on Elm Street. And, naturally, the more I played games the more I seeked out those that scared me and built up the tension. So, to celebrate this time of year when the ghosts and goblins are at their most restless; the time of year when people dress up in their most ghoulish costumes, and the children play as Dracula or some flesh-hungry zombie, we have decided to do an IND13 HORROR SPECIAL.
us to discuss the bespoke packages that we can offer all advertisers. If you would like to contribute, email us an example of your work. We hope you enjoy the magazine and please do get in touch with questions and comments. The Team: Richard Hoffmann: Editor-in-Chief Harry Cole: Publisher
Jennifer Simpkins looks at games such as The Dark Descent, We Happy Few and Five Nights at Freddie’s. She also asks key questions such as: how are indie horror games inspiring a level of dread and awe rarely reached in bigger-budget titles? And what is it about the indie scene that seems to complement the horror genre so perfectly? I look at the history of the horror game, from the good old ZX Spectrum through to the games of today. It is a look down memory lane at some of the games that have scared us the most.
Lee Smith: Creative Director Our Channels: Website: www.ind13.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ind13 Twitter: @official_Ind13 Contacts: For editorial enquires: editorial@ind13.com For advertising enquires: advertising@ind13.com
4 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
And in our review section we look at some of the scariest games out at the moment, with indepth reviews of Killing Floor 2, Tormentum: Dark Sorry and Hatred - which is one of the most controversial games around at the moment. So sit back, read our latest issue, and try not to be afriad. Very, very, afraid. Or, actually, try to be afraid. You know you enjoy it. Lee Smith, Creative Director, ind13
R
500 MILLION PLAYS WITHIN 3 YEARS WE PUT SOME OF THIS SUCCESS DOWN TO OUR
MINIWORLDGAMES IS A
GAMES STUDIO
IND13.COM MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE 5
POWERED BY
FEATURE: IND13 Q&A
What games do you think are genuinely scary? What games do you remember growing up that you look back on as terrifying? HARRY
SOPHIE
Richard I think a good story that sparks your imagination. Recently I played the game Lone Survivor. Pixel art yes, but it is all in your head.
RICHARD
Dracula, ghosts and all manners of creatures along with a fast action-based gameplay. And a great soundtrack for its time too I might add.
Sophie Project Firestart on Commodore C64 was terrifying when I was growing up, yes I am that old.
Lee Alien Isolation, for me, is pant-spliting scary. With a strong emphasis on stealth and survival horror gameplay, and a look and feel that sticks closely to the original Ridley Scott original rather then the action ones that followed after, it gets your heart pumping as the terror and tension builds in you.
I am mostly filled with fear when I face a title that required skills I don’t have - mostly FPS skills... so Bioshock will always make my heart pound for that reason. As for games that are terrifying, I think some part of me was always filled with a deep dread and fear of Mortal Kombat 4 on the N64... I really shouldn’t have been playing it at such a young age, if I’m perfectly honest!
Harry As for growing up, for me it’s always going to be Castlevania. When I first played this game, around 1989, it had
6 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
One game series I really enjoyed was Dead Space, especially the second game in the series, playing that late at night
LEE
LEX
certainly game me a scare. I can’t actually remember games that were terrifying as I was growing up, they all seem a bit silly now... Ghouls and Ghosts??
Lex The new PS4 horror game, Until Dawn, really gives jumpscares and the feel of horror in the games on the next-gen consoles. Also, the new Silent Hills game was really scary unfortunately they halted the development but I know this game would have been a great horror title. Remembering the past? I can really say that Dino Crisis was terrifying! Jumpscares and the thrill of getting eaten by a raptor in a dark setting brings out the word terrifying on the spotlight. «
FEATURE: Green Man Gaming
Green Man is updating the Indie Games publishing model Harry Cole talks to Gary Rowe, EVP Green Man about the unique offer he has for Indie Developers
8 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
Can you tell us some of your personal history in video games? Where have you worked and when did you arrive at Green Man? My video game career really started when I joined Codemasters in 1998, looking after business development and product acquisition. I started two weeks before the very first Colin McRae Rally launched, and we went on to manage and sign some awesome games like the first Operation Flashpoint; they were very happy times. In 2004 I joined SEGA as Acquisition Director and one of the major deals we did was to acquire Creative Assembly and the Total War brand. I had to dress up as a geisha to get that deal over the line but perhaps that’s a story best left for another time. SEGA was and is a fantastic company with a proud history and I was lucky enough to work there until 2011 as SVP Publishing, looking after licensing, business development, product quality assessments, the publishing process, and mobile. I briefly returned to Codemasters to look after their digital business and I had another great couple of years there before the amazing opportunity arrived with Green Man Loaded. So tell us, what is the story of Green Man, who were the founders and what was the aim of the original business? Launched by CEO Paul Sulyok in May 2010, Green Man Gaming is now globally recognised at the second biggest online retailer of video games on Planet Earth! Green Man Gaming’s mission has always remained the same: to give its customers great deals on the games they want, whatever they play on, wherever they are in the world. And now Green Man Loaded? What was the decision to enter this area of gaming, how has the journey been so far? We decided to set up Green Man Loaded because we felt we could offer a brand new service to developers; a service lots of developers were asking for, with lots more telling us it was the right thing to do. Green Man Loaded grew out of Green
Man Gaming and our aim was to create a publishing outfit leveraging the expert knowledge that Green Man Gaming has about how to market games, set prices, and promote games on a global scale. We already had in place the Green Man Gaming platform and its Playfire community to support our publishing activities, like offering Playfirst with Playfire BETA/early access opportunities. We also access the hundreds of amazing streamers that are part of the Green Man Gaming affiliate program who can help champion our titles. It’s been a year since we launched and the response has been fantastic.
“We provide BETA testing with our community and then we start with a comprehensive PR and Social marketing campaign leading up to and through the launch window...” What differentiates you from other Publishers, is it your background as a distribution platform? What sets us apart from other publishers is the loyal community we have access to thanks to our relationship with Green Man Gaming and Playfire. This gives us a massive head start in raising awareness for our titles. Because retail is part of our core DNA, we know how to price, sell and market games and really enjoy that direct relationship with our amazing community, which all helps the developers we work with make the very best game they can, and raises their visibility on a global scale. What is unique about the opportunity that Green Man Loaded offers? Well an important distinction is that we do not want to own our developers’ IP. We really value and respect the creative process and for this reason believe it right that the IP should remain the property of the creator. Our job is support the
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 9
FEATURE: Green Man Gaming
“We really enjoy that direct relationship with our amazing community, which all helps the developers we work with make the very best game they can...” developer’s creative process by creating the best environment for them to make their games, whilst we focus on selling and marketing the games; it’s important to us that our commercial agreements reflect this reality. What assistance do you offer Developers, what is required to get good games to market and make them successful? We offer finishing finance to help get the games finished and we can also leverage our contacts to help arrange and secure project finance if required. We also offer fast and transparent payments; we can pay royalties fortnightly which really helps our developers’ cashflow. As for helping titles to market, we show our games at trade shows (we were proud to be sponsors of EGX Rezzed and have just showcased Black & White Bushido, and Eternal Step at EGX - the UK’s biggest gaming expo. We also provide BETA testing with our
10 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
community and then we start with a comprehensive PR and Social marketing campaign leading up to and through the launch window. We’ve got some great relationships with media partners, including a growing number of Twitch and YouTube broadcasters which really helps us to talk about about our titles to the widest market.
Are you involved pre-release, and even in the Development process? We’ve started a new initiative called Playfirst with Playfire which is proving very popular with the community and extremely valuable to our devs. We provide free BETA keys to our community for them to get hands on with our games long before release.
When you launch a title, do you go heavy on the Green Man site? how does this boost a game’s wider exposure and sales? Green Man Gaming is the second biggest digital games retail store in the world, so we are really fortunate to be able to promote our own titles to such a busy market place.
In return we ask them to complete a simple survey about the game, and the data we’ve had back so far has been really useful in helping devs shape the final outcome of their games. Not only does it help iron out snagging issues, it also helps inform our marketing campaigns and that’s only possible because our Playfire audience is extremely knowledgeable and passionate and articulate; they really do know their games.
As you’d imagine, promoting our own games on our own store, and sharing our games with the Green Man Gaming community really does work in driving great volume and value, but our titles are given the same level of attention on other platforms like Steam, and the Humble Store.
Can you tell us about any major PR Wins, large Marketing initiatives? We were very privileged to be involved with EGX Rezzed as a premium partner earlier this year, and we’re already planning
Prepare to be Slain! A homage to the gory hack and slash games of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
www.wolfbrewgames.com/slain
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 11
FEATURE: Green Man Gaming
other events for us to be a key part of. Having big YouTube gaming personalities like Total Biscuit, or the Yogscast play and mention our titles, plus the support of sites like Ind13, and not forgetting anyone who plays and shares their experience of our games is amazing and really valuable to us. It’s exciting times. What have been your biggest success stories on the label so far? We’ve a quality lineup of titles coming out in October, which I think shows the overall success of our first year! How do you find a great game? Where do you source your new IPs from? It’s incredible how varied and sometimes random this process can be. We get to see many new projects in the usual ways; trade shows, networking, and old fashioned cold calling. I also spend a lot of time looking
12 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
at indie game and crowd funding sites, and we are very lucky that we get lots of developers approaching us wanting to show us their work.
to work with. Gamers want to hear from passionate, lively developers, and if they are prepared to put in that extra effort, it really makes our jobs easier.
What attributes do you look for in a title? It’s always been the same since I joined the industry back in the 1990s: good games are easy to spot, they will have been made with passion, creativity attention to detail and technical excellence. Whatever the budget or platform involved, great games all have the same core elements, and that’s what I look for first.
What titles is Green Man Loaded bringing to market in the near future? Our next title is Black & White Bushido by Endemol Shine UK (out 2nd Oct) which had loads of attention at EGX with wanna-be Ninja’s playing the dev team at their own game!
What makes a good person to work with, and what situations are a nightmare? In this space developers who can engage with their audience via developer blogs, Twitch broadcasts or podcasts can really help make a huge difference and are great
This will be followed by Atomicom’s Switch Galaxy Ultra (out 9th Oct), which was a huge title on the Playstation that we are proud to bring to the PC audience, and then Eternal Step from Once More with Gusto (out 16th Oct) - over 100 levels of monsters to take on, that fans of Bloodborne and the Binding of Isaac will want to check out! «
Click for video content
A platformer with a
unique mechanic USD $9.99 EUR €7.99 CAD $11.49 GBP £6.49
You can dive into the ground. Momentum is conserved but gravity is reversed, letting you fling yourself high into the air or deep beneath the surface. The goal is always straightforward - collect the three orbs in the level and jump into the wormhole - but spikes, endless drops and impossible heights make this more and more difficult.
“Overall winner of Ludum Dare 29.” April, 2014
PC / Mac / Linux Steam
www.daniellinssen.net
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 13
FEATURE: Indie Horror Games
e h T f O Fear
14 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
n w o n k Un e i d n i s e k a m t a Wh horror games so scary?
at scare the r games in particular, th rro ho d an s, me ga r rro looking at What is it about ho ins explores this while pk Sim r ife nn Je . us of hts at Freddie’s. living bejesus out Happy Few and Five Nig We , nt sce De rk Da e games such as Th
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 15
FEATURE: Indie Horror Games
G
amers, as we will proudly inform you, don’t scare easy. We can curb-stomp Necromorphs without batting an eyelid. We crawl through sewers of blood with a nonchalance akin to nipping to the cornershop for a pint of milk. Raze an urban landscape of hungry zombies? We’ll do it with a flamethrower in one hand whilst we’re refreshing our Twitter feed with the other. It’s all rather au fait. Mention an indie horror title in the presence of a gamer, however, and spot the almost imperceptible flicker of fear in their eyes. It’s a strangely visceral terror, considering it’s borne of a series of ones and zeros. This begs a number of questions: how are indie horror games inspiring a level of dread and awe rarely reached in bigger-budget titles? What is the value of making us jump out of our skin for a moment versus compelling us to be truly, consistently afraid? And what is it about the indie scene that seems to complement the horror genre so perfectly? The first piece in the jigsaw of nightmares is tension. AAA titles don’t often disappoint. Franchises such as Dead Space, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill boast foreboding environments and bloodcurdling audio. Where they fall short is a tendency to be a little heavy-handed in their approach. Indie
16 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
developers, conversely, have seized with maniacal glee upon a simple truth: the mere sense of threat is more powerful than visible danger. If there’s a gold standard for the sense of menace in a video game, it’s arguably Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Relatively unknown at the time of its 2010 release, with slow initial sales, The Dark Descent has since been lauded as the most successfully frightening game ever. Other games build tension for half an hour, or even just a few minutes, before an in-your-face jumpscare. The Dark Descent has no qualms about letting you hang for hours at a time. Its monsters seem a little shy initially, as you roam Brennenburg Castle and solve its mysteries uninterrupted. When they do eventually, unexpectedly come out to play, flaunting only a coquettish glimpse of their naked, mutilated bodies as they slip round a corner, you are immediately reduced to a pile of blubbering mush. Their pointed absence throughout most of the game complements a multi-awardwinning soundscape of paranoia. The game’s most feared foe is spoken of in hushed tones in Internet forums. “Water Monster” is completely invisible, detectable only by the ominous splashes it leaves behind. The waves of pop-up ghoulies and ghosties in bigger titles pale in comparison with
the sheer suspense of the unseen in The Dark Descent. Indeed, many AAA horror titles are more “shooting gallery” than “shivers down your spine”. They cheapen the thrill of being stalked by a nameless, faceless terror with a jumpscare or five. This prompts the most immediately gratifying course of action – usually blasting the boogeyman square in the face with whatever souped-up hardware you have to hand. An itchy trigger finger in these kind of horror games is an advantage; you’re asked to work on impulse only, reacting to your fear and neutralising your enemy accordingly. Indie horrors differ. They challenge you to suppress your immediate reaction in favour of thinking your way to survival. This seemingly-innocent request breeds a fear far more insidious than the knee-jerk reaction of a monster leaping towards your face. Game mechanics that force you to slow down and think, rather than speed up and shoot, make for a horror experience that has power over the player, rather than vice versa. Chilling. Compulsion Games’ upcoming survival horror, We Happy Few, is one such indie horror that draws out terror like so many entrails. Teaser material suggests that the player’s survival depends on how well you can act as giddy and gay
H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, “the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. This is exactly what makes the indie development scene so consistently successful when working with the horror genre...
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 17
FEATURE: Indie Horror Games
as the town’s dangerous, drug-fuelled inhabitants. The Orwellian atmosphere of the retrofuturistic Wellington Wells looks set to be vastly more disturbing than many mainstream titles. To avoid detection and evisceration, players must “dose” themselves with Joy, altering their in-game perceptive abilities (an effective mechanic also present in The Dark Descent). In doing so, they risk the effects of addiction and withdrawal in their efforts to escape the autonomous threat of Uncle Jack. Like all the most effective indie horror masterpieces – the original Saw film, for instance – the torment is not in the torture, but in the choices and the sacrifices to be made. You’ll have to fake more than a few smiles to survive in Wellington Wells, but there’s always the chance that the wind will change and your face will stay that way, a la 1984. Isn’t that the scariest possible outcome? We Happy Few’s decision to include weapons in the game is an unusual one for an indie horror title. Blockbuster titles like Dead Island capitalise on the consumer appetite for shooting and smashing through virtual horrorscapes. You won’t get a sniff of a weapon, however, in a title like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, or recent love-
18 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
it-or-loathe-it franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s. The reason is clear: the player is defenceless, ergo the player is petrified. New release Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 stays true to its bloodline with what many have criticised as “cheap jumpscares”. In actuality, its popularity stems from its malevolent mechanics. Freddy’s gives the player influence: you can check cameras, open and close doors and manage power reserves to stave off the animatronics. Unfortunately, you’re quite often damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The moment you think you’ve nailed your tactics, an ominous shadow will flash past, and a jumpscare will swiftly remind you of your ever-present mortality. No Uzis, no defence, no mercy – you are simply helpless. The problem of agency is an interesting one in horror games. For my best friend, horror films are the devil. “I can’t control what’s going to happen in a film,” she often explains to me, “so I go to pieces. Horror games give me a chance to change things.” It’s just the opposite for me – I’ll cheerfully watch gory scene after gory scene, or mow down enemies, confident in a predetermined outcome.
Plonk me in front of an indie horror and expect me to make measured moves and careful choices, however, and my own mind will crumble under the pressure. Horror games are, paradoxically, more empowering and more crippling than other horror media, because you’re in the driving seat. Alone. The stakes are that much higher, the scares scarier. The crux of all the above, then, is that indie horrors work so well because they focus on just that – independence. Whether it’s through building hours of tension, making you think hardest at the moments where all you want to do is react, or removing all means of self-defence, indie horrors push so far against the horror norm that they venture into newly-terrifying territory. As H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, “The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. This is exactly what makes the indie development scene so consistently successful when working with the horror genre. AAA game developers like Hideo Kojima are increasingly implementing mechanics characteristic of indie horror in their games. If P.T. is anything to go by, we should all be quaking in our long fall boots. Expect the unexpected. «
IND13.COM SPRING 2015 ISSUE FIVE 19
FEATURE: The history of horror games
20 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
The history of horror games We all love a good horror game don’t we? But does everyone know how long that they have actually been around? Lee Smith explores the history of the horror game, and why we love them so much.
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 21
FEATURE: The history of horror games
H
orror games have always held a special place in our gaming lives. Along with the classic platformer, the adrenaline rush of the high speed racer, and the fiendish puzzlers that we all love, the horror game is the game we love to fear. Let’s face it, fear and horror is ingrained in our basic DNA. From the films to the games, it is a part of our very psyche. We just love to be scared. It is so ingrained into our developmental psychology that research done by Nobuo Masataka, a prominent Neuroscientist, showed that children as young as three have an easier time spotting snakes on a computer screen than they do spotting flowers. So it makes perfect sense that, since the very beginning of gaming, horror games have been made. There is, and always has
22 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
been, an undeniable intrinsic link. You could even make a case for Space Invaders, which entered our gaming lives in 1978, being one of the early horror games. Hey, no calm down, I am being serious. You may look at the simple graphics and think of the basic sounds, but if you analyse it in more depth it has all the elements of a classic horror book, comic, film or, of course game. Fleets of an alien enemy attack in unescaplable waves, destroying your world with a near unstoppable force. Death and the wipeout of your whole civilisation is seemingly inevitable. But still you tirelessly battle on against the swarms of bloodthirsty aliens. Even the simple but ominously building music had a sinister undertone at the time, that added to your panic as the tension built up; as the landscape around you is
destroyed, providing you with nowhere safe to hide. See, it’s pretty terrifying when you think of it like that really. However, of course, it has never really been thought of as a horror game as such, so what was the first of the games that we knew was made just to scare us? Because, from those brilliantly rendered Zombies in Resident Evil, to those actually quite cute ghosts in Pac-Man, it’s hard to imagine video games without, ahem, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. And for many a year, gamers (okay, me) have argued about what the very first of the horror games was. Well, dun dun duuuunnnnn... I can (not so exclusively) reveal that it was, actually... Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey You see, despite popular opinion, the old
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 23
FEATURE: The history of horror games
Atari System wasn’t the first ever console. A version of the game was actually on the Atari 2600, which is a side-scrolling, multi-screened classic, but this one was on the Magnavox Odyssey and required an Odyssey cartridge, a Haunted House screen overlay, some Clue Cards and some Secret Message cards. Player 1 plays a Detective investigating a haunted house; while player 2 is the Ghost haunting the house (yes, it had to be played with 2 players). When the Haunted House overlay is in place, you are ready to enter the muddled gameplay. With its board game-like gameplay, confusing controls and gameplay involving one of the players to not look at the screen, Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey has been pretty much forgotten in game history and, as there so many elements to it, not many full kits of it have survived with cards being lost etc. However, you have to give a large amount of credit to that early game designer who foresaw the importance of horror and video games. Moody sci-fi scares Moving on from there, though, we jump forward into the late 70s and early 80s where games took on a distinctly sci-fi feel, mimicking the films at the time. Demon Attack, which emerged into our lives in 1982, was very much in the same mould as Space Invaders. It saw players marooned on an ice planet, and fighting for survival by shooting lasers at demons that attack from above and from the side. And then in 1986 there was a Commodore 64 release called Panther by Mastertronic. In this game, you piloted a strange-looking aircraft and roved desolate wastelands, fighting off hordes of invading flying saucers and rescuing any last survivors from an alien invasion. The game used an isometric view, scrolling diagonally. The rescue portion of the game coupled with the isometric viewpoint made the game play very much like a combination of Choplifter and Zaxxon. It also came with
24 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
a very edgy soundtrack that dripped with spooky menace. A very late Atari release was the 1990 Xenophobe. Inspired by the Aliens franchise, players were tasked with clearing areas of nasty ‘Xeno aliens’. The aliens had three distinct types and, as you progressed, the visuals get gorier, and the mood grew much more intense. Meanwhile, in Japan... The Japanese had The Screamer which, with its text-based exploration and flickering combat might not appear all that terrifying by modern standards, but this was one of the most intense survival horror experiences gamers could find in 1985. Released on the NEC PC-88 and set in a steam punk, post apocalyptic world (as so many games and films ares), RPG The Screamer introduced brutal and difficult elements like permanent deaths for characters (removing your character saves after they met their end), and button-thumping shooting sequences against zombies and mutants. Due to the permanence of your death, combat gained a terrifying edge of importance. Those genuis game designers in Japan can also take credit for making what is considered to be the first true survival horror game, War of the Dead, which was released in1987. You take the role of SWAT officer Lila, who must rescue survivors in the demon-infested small town of Chaney’s Hill. It also featured open-world gameplay and RPG elements. As the monsters have come from a portal to another world (don’t they always), and it plays out in the manner of a Zelda/ Dragon Quest adventure. Creeping into the deadly 90s (via the late 80s) It was a highly passionate statement, in some film (probably) which I cannot remember, where someone exclaims: “This shit just got real!” When you talk about the explosion of gaming in the late 80s and early 90s, in general and especially in relation to horror in gaming, then that is the truest
”Verdun is a squad-based multiplayer FPS in a realistic WW1 setting. The merciless trench warfare offers a unique battlefield for tactical squad play in the realistic Frontlines game mode, and raw gameplay in the rifle-deathmatch.”
Available Now www.VerdunGame.com IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 25
“The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children... and cowards!”
statement to describe it. Because without a doubt, in terms of gameplay and graphics, it most certainly did. The Castlevania series, developed by Konami, was proving to one of the best of its generation. By building its own mythos, with a multi-generation-spanning tale of the Belmont clan and their fight against Dracula, each version developed the gameplay further. And with haunting and atmospheric music, has proved to be an enduring series which is still loved and played today. Sega, who had always tried to position themselves as the opposite of Nintendo (i.e. not cutesy and just a little edgy) caused quite a bit of controversy with its uncensored releases of ultra violent (for its time) games such as Night Trap (a puzzle title with grainy FMV sequences depicting grade-Z horror scenes) and Mortal Kombat (the 2D fighter that had blood galore and vicious finishing moves. These games were not really that scary as such,
26 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
but what they did was depict gore in a way that us gamers just hadn’t seen before.
from the days of Pong and Pac Man and his Merry Ghost Chums.
Stop... it’s splattertime But Namco moved things up yet another bloody and gory level with Splatterhouse. Dear old Splatterhouse.
Gaming systems were still viewed by some as ‘for the kids’ though. The parents were not all wrong. For all the grown-up games being released the gaming market was still dominated by Nintendo with their ever popular and inventive Mario franchise, and Sega with their speed demon, Sonic the Hedgehog.
It was described as a beat ‘em up slasher and, due to its violent nature (as well as some questionable enemies, such as babies sans flesh), Splatterhouse had a parental advisory warning (of sorts) printed on the front of the box that read “The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children... and cowards.” Heavily influenced by films such as Friday the 13th and Evil Dead II, its twisted imagery would go on to pave the way for other horror-themed games. Splatterhouse is essentially a sidescrolling beat ‘em up game, and was one of the earliest games to receive the attention of anxious parents. The ones who just hadn’t realised that video games had moved on so drastically
Games, well, you played them, enjoyed them, and then moved on to the real world to get married and have kids. Games playing kids no doubt, but ones that would have their game playing time restricted by you, the concerned parent, so as not to distrupt their homework and violin lessons. But it was never really going to be like that was it. For some, maybe that is the reality of their lives, but we are the gaming generation. We grew up with them and, God dammit, games were going to grow
WE ARE ANOUK
We are a group of Producers, Directors, Photographers, Camera Operators and Artists. We are made up of a London based core team of progressive and determined individuals, with an international network of trusted professionals. We have extensive experience in all areas of production with years working professionally in image and film. Please get in touch to talk about your project.
0203 605 3806
enquiries@anoukproductions.com
www.anoukproductions.com IND13.COM  AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN  27
up with us... And, boy, did they grow up. With more in-depth and intricate gameplay, and more scope than ever to the games, games evolved with us in a way I don’t think anyone thouhght possible. Resident Evil and the NES game that inspired it Resident Evil entered our lives in 1996. Originally it was designed to be a remake of the Capcom game Sweet Home, which was released several years previously, before it became the game that spawned the most successful survival horror series in history and one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. Sweet Home, a game that has an extremely deceptive name, was an RPG which was loosely based on a Japanese horror film of the same (deceptive) name. And much of what made the original Resident Evil a classic comes from this 8-bit horror romp and its almost constant sense of tension and pressure. I would go so far as to say Resident Evil’s recent struggles are rooted in leaving behind the schematics laid out in Sweet Home. They both take place in a mansion filled with many terrifying creatures, and they share the iconic slowly opening door loading screen, difficult puzzles, item inventory managements, and, of course, an emphasis on survival. For its time, Sweet Home was
28 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
“Horror is often at its most terrifying when it can channel our instincts, arousing both empathy and antipathy in a single stroke...” a revolutionary game, and its legacy didn’t just inspire Resident Evil, it also set the foundation for what would later become the survival horror genre. Horror is often at its most terrifying when it can channel our instincts, arousing both empathy and antipathy in a single stroke. Relatability, particularly for the protagonists, is key, but so is the primeval terror that puts them in mortal danger. A few years later, Alone in the Dark took this knowledge, and moved everything to a whole new level. Along with static cameras and three-dimensional characters rendered on 3D backgrounds, Alone in the Dark also had a focus on a very mature story structure and relied on you completing puzzles as opposed to mearly fighting your way through waves of enemies to progress the story. Silence in the games room please Over the next few years, Capcom continued evolving the franchise by
adding new characters, iconic enemies like the Nemesis, and expanding the fiction with each new game. Meanwhile, a few new contenders started entering the ring. Games like Silent Hill. Released for the PlayStation by Konami, Silent Hill was labelled by one games reviewer as a “shameless but slick Resident Evil clone”, but has since been named as one of the 100 greatest video games of all by Time magazine. Silent Hill utilised a different form of horror to induce fear, attempting to form a disturbing atmosphere for the player, by having horror elements akin to the psychological style seen in art-house or horror films. Of course, the horror scene is still going strong, and we all still love being scared in our games. It is, as I have explained already, an primeval instinct seemingly, so check out our special horror edition review section, to see what game you should let scare the crap out of you next. «
Review Section
: 2 r o o l F g n i p l l m i K mbi e ro o z A
ALSO REVIEWED TORMENTUM: DARK SORROW
HATRED
Live life in darkness, consumed by the shadows
An ultra violent murder sim
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 29
REVIEW: Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
30 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
Tormentum: Dark Sorrow. Live life in darkness, consumed by the shadows Review by Lexuzze Tablante This review is running a bit late since the game’s release last March 4, 2015. But as a casual gamer, I often find myself stumbling upon the multitude of choices among the games during this Indie-Gaming era. As I went through the list of games, Tormentum – Dark Sorrow, developed by OhNoo Studio, caught my eye. The number one feature that draws people into wanting to play this game is the artwork. Even with just screenshots of the game and the trailer, one can say that the developers invested so much into beautifying this game.
the works of painters H.R. Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski. The game’s overall look and feel was strongly influenced by the Dark Seed videogame series, with credits to the same artist H.R. Giger, who’s more popularly known for his design on the Necromorph monster in the movie Alien. Graphically, one would never be disappointed or disinterested as the game is full of visually stunning details. There is no scene or transition in the game where objects were skimped or reused.
The game has 75 hand-painted stages with over a hundred additional screens.
The combination of styles from both artists successfully created a surreal environment, or better yet, as how the developers described it – a dreamlike, nightmarish atmosphere.
For players who are interested about the origin and inspiration behind the artwork, those were
The game boasts of an exceptional soundtrack with over 40 tracks. Most often the music is creepy,
but it matches the atmosphere of the game, which is actually pretty good. I would have given this aspect a higher rating if voice acting was included in the game. Tormentum is a dark point-andclick adventure game. By dark, I don’t mean horror. The game lacks the necessary jump scares for it to qualify under horror or thriller. The word “dark”, aside from the artwork, mainly refers to the sinister and morally-twisted story that the game tried to portray. The game included quotes and several passages that depicted tragedy, and philosophical undertakings. It’s a traditional point-and-click game wherein the player has to move along from one area to another to unlock new stages. There are 24 varied logical puzzles and minigames along the way, and items that need to be collected. There are no onscreen hints except
SIRUSGAMING.INFO AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 31
REVIEW: Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
when objects glow when you hover your mouse over them. The characters in the game are onedimensional and their repetitive movements make it look like a flash game.
Good thing about it is that backtracking is kept to a minimum, but the bad thing is if you’re stuck with a puzzle, you cannot proceed until you figure it out.
The game has 3 realms. Throughout the game, players will encounter people and creatures with unique stories.
The difficulty level varies for every stage, and since the game is not timebound, players are not challenged or plagued with the pressing need to finish a stage quickly.
These characters will help you or try to prevent you from reaching your goal. However, the game’s lack of narrative fails to provide players a clear understanding on the goals of the game.
As for the replay value, one must note that every moral decision the player will make in the game will will affect the game’s ending.
The gameplay is pretty much very simple. One cannot proceed to the next stage if the current one is not finished.
One wrong choice will actually make the player “lose” the game, and by losing means not passing judgment, and will condemn the protagonist to the depths of hell.
There is no manual save button or checkpoints that you can go back to in case you make a wrong decision, so one is left with no choice but to replay the game from the start to achieve redemption. There are also 34 achievements that you can unlock. «
“Every moral decision the player will make in the game will will affect the game’s ending...”
Click for video content
GRAPHICS
75%
SOUNDS
70%
GAMEPLAY (WILL BE UPDATED)
70%
REPLAY VALUE/DLC
65%
32 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
Overall, this game was more aesthetic than adventurous, and more obscure than concerned with the principles of right or wrong behavior. There were several opportunities in the game where there could have been more, such as the story and the morals it tried to tackle, but either it was too simple or there was none. This game is only ideal for players who are idly passing time, and players who want to indulge on visuals and puzzles. But for players who crave effects and cryptic, mind-boggling, and fast-paced adventure games, this is not for you.
70
%
overall score
Voted one of the
top 5 Indie games
at Play Expo 2014 - Gamertime.co.uk
HARD-HITTING BEAT-EM-UP ACTION! ‘MakinGames has got that beat'em-up feel just right, complete with bone-shuddering weapon attacks and weighty divekicks.’ - Pocketgamer.co.uk
- BONE-CRUSHING MOVES - DEADLY WEAPONS - INSANE BOSSES DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
COMING SOON to CONSOLE, PC, MAC, AND MOBILE
PREVIEW: Killing Floor 2
Killing Floor 2: A multiplayer survival zombie romp game that truly scares Review by James Labra Killing Floor 2 is a Survival Horde-Mode First Person Shooter developed by Tripwire Interactive. The sequel to the hit cooperative zombie game from 2009, It brings a gory and satisfying multiplayer experience to those who wants to hunt down Zeds for the fate of humanity. Killing Floor 2 is a solid coop survival FPS with the prime objective is to kill every zombie on each round and upgrading your weapons for the next, and most importantly survive. The gameplay is very simple and not that fleshed out as it is still in beta and will be opening its door to those who wants to hunt some Zed meat in Early Access on Steam. Killing Floor 2 currently has 4 classes: The Berserker, A class who receives lesser damage than the other classes while they deal devastating blows with melee weapons. The Commando, Warriors who are best suited to assault weapons and can easily detect enemies even when they’re invisible.
The Medic, The class whos prime objective is to keep their allies alive while dishing out damage with special grenades that heal allies and poisons Zeds. And The Support, Best with shotguns they carry more ammunition and are pretty good at welding doors to keep the Zeds where you want em. There will be more classes as the game progresses through its development as well as classspecific perks and weapons. The more Zeds you kill the more Dosh and Experience you will gain from that round. With more Dosh at your disposal you can purchase stronger guns, more ammunition, more grenades and armor to help you survive the next wave of Zeds. True to it being a multiplayer coop experience you can ask your teammates for extra Dosh and vice-versa. With the Experience you gain per zombie kill, it adds up to your Experience bar and when its full you gain a level. When you reach certain levels of a class you can select a certain perk that will help you in murdering Zeds.
34 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
These levels and perks are permanent as it wont return to 1 every time you start a match, with higher levels and perks the easier the matches are. Depending on the difficulty chosen of course. In every round there will be waves and waves of zombies that you will be required to defeat to progress and gain Dosh, the games currency. But they wont be your typical moaning, walking and brain eating undead. These zombies, or Zeds as the came calls them, are actually specimens with zombielike features and there are multiple types of Zeds each with their own abilities. Currently Killing Floor 2 has 11 Zed types and 1 boss. There are the dumb Zeds, they’re basically easy money as they don’t do much but walk towards you. There are multiple versions of these basic zombies and each with their own name and strength but closely similar in design. Then there are the special ones, the ones that sometimes take specific strategies to beat. There are Zeds that go invisible, spray acid that makes you go blind, ones that slash with blades and even ones that can charge at you
and kill you in a heartbeat and more. And after multiple waves of these creatures you will battle a boss, bosses are beat with team strategies such as kiting him and dishing out damage on the opportune time. There is one boss available right now in the current build and he is the boss that appears at the end of every game. Kind of boring since hes pretty easy to beat when the team knows his pattern and is well-equipped. This boss is Hans Volter an intelligent Zed that can throw grenades that give off poisonous gas. He also has dual automatic rifles and can regain his life when he catches you or one of your allies.
“The soundtrack is made by a Christian metal rock label and does really keep the mood for murdering multiple Zeds...” The characters have their bios and origin stories but no take on the main story of the game, its either too keep the multiplayer feel or it’ll be implemented later on as the game progresses through its development.
Hopefully well get more interesting bosses and Zed types in the future.
The game looks amazing and runs well even on lower end machines as the game is built on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Most of the levels are atmospheric and each with their own unique setting, no level feels the same. The soundtrack is made by a Christian metal rock label and does really keep the mood for murdering multiple Zeds and running around hoping they don’t eat you.
There isn’t much of a story on the game yet as it only includes multiplayer games and the levels don’t even have lore or any sort of backstory.
Overall the aesthetic is great and im personally excited on what the next levels are and what soundtracks they will add onto the game next.
Pretty hard to beat early on but can be easily defeated after encountering him multiple times, even though he can be beat easily the AI is still pretty good.
Overall the game is pretty fun and Im pretty happy they released the multiplayer mode first as Killing Floor 2 as well as its first iteration is best experienced with other people. The game works well and the multiple zombies rushing at you gives you this feeling of dread and adrenaline. The multiplayer is pretty solid as I personally have not experienced any connection problems. The game has strong potential to be the one of the best multiplayer games for this year and hopefully the years to come with more content continuously released and with Mod support there will be. The game is really good and I’m excited to play the finished build on its official release. « This preview was based on a preview copy given by Tripwire Interactive
Click for video content
SIRUSGAMING.INFO AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 35
REVIEW: Hatred
36 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
Hatred. an ultra violent murder sim where civilians beg for their lives but its players are left bored to death
SIRUSGAMING.INFO AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 37
REVIEW: Hatred
Review by Lexuzze Tablante Indie game development has become a trend nowadays and indie games give us the “fun” we’ve all been looking for. There are various types of indie games and this includes isometric shooter titles. Destructive Creations developed the mass genocidal game, Hatred. The game is considered to be one of the most violent games released since Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami. Destructive Creations mass murder isometric shooter was removed from Steam but it was eventually restored to their list of games. Hatred is an isometric shooter game that is set in a town where an unnamed vengeful man starts his genocidal expedition to eradicate innocent people for Earth’s cleansing. Twisted with hate and consumed with great darkness, the mass murderer will never stop until he kills every worthless existence in this world. The game started with a straightforward and short tutorial of this simple shooter title. After the tutorial, the game showed a short in-game cinematic where the psychopathic murderer character narrates his goal. Hatred lacks a good story to go with its fun killing
adventure which made the game a dull shooter game. Gameplay wise, Hatred is good. The game is not all about being warlike with guns and shooting innocent civilians, but the essence of an isometric shooter game was present. The game had similar gameplay elements with Alien Shooter (to those who played it, you know what I’m talking about) where you can control the character’s target with the mouse from a three-dimensional view, enemy A.I is intelligent, each stage becomes more challenging, and given the ability to switch weapons. However, the game poorly offers limited amount of weapons ranging from an assault rifle like an AK-47, SMG, handgun, shotgun, flamethrowers, hand grenades, molokovs, and flashbangs for your mass killing expedition. A game like Hatred, with more gore and violence, made me expect a lot dreadful weapons like an RPG, heavy machine guns, and the like; but in the end, Hatred only provided basic weapons which was disappointing. Setting aside the pure killing-spree with limited gun choices, Hatred‘s notable and powerful “Execution” move is one of the best feature in the game that makes Hatred stand
38 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
out. The special ability can be used when the NPC is knocked down or slowly dying on the ground; doing an “Execution” move kills the dying character and also gives the main character health; and the only way to regain health is to execute NPCs. Players can also perform the “Execution” move on sleeping NPCs. The unforgiving ability also gives various in-game scenes and style when doing “Execution” like shooting a person’s head off with a shotgun. Hatred offers decent amount of levels. The maps or areas of each stage is huge. Players can traverse through the stage and discover side missions you may or may not want to take. The only thing that disappoints the players are the repetitive objectives. All missions revolve around killing a certain number of people and it can be a factor for boredom. The character movement on the other hand was sluggish at first where it was hard to turn around curves in tight corners with vertical sync on but after the recent game 174MB update, the control movement became smooth and it became easy to move the character inside and out a house. Good thing about the control scheme is that it’s easy to pickup. WASD for movement, Shift for
IND13.COM MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE 39
REVIEW: Hatred
“Twisted with hate and consumed with great darkness, the mass murderer will never stop until he kills every worthless existence in this world...”
Sprint, and the mouse for targeting and shooting. Pretty basic actually. Graphically, the game looks great and presentable. The game uses the new UE4 game engine and this gave Destructive Creations the ability to develop Hatred‘s impressive visuals and also its physics engine.
Players can also destroy walls and blow up certain explosive materials highlighted in red. With gray, black, and white as the main colors, Hatred depicts an atmosphere of darkness, hate, and revenge; the downside of this is when players wouldn’t notice enemy AIs because of the dim visuals which makes it annoying. «
GRAPHICS
90%
SOUNDS
75%
GAMEPLAY
65%
REPLAY VALUE
30%
40 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN SIRUSGAMING.INFO
Click for video content
Even with the lack of narrative and low replay value, Hatred is a solid isometric shooter for its genre. Purely fun killing spree simulator without limitations on who to kill.
65
%
overall score
SIRUSGAMING.INFO AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 41
THE LATEST GAMING NEWS, VIEWS & REVIEWS
The Sirus Gaming team are a group of passionate video-game journalists and gamers from the Philippines, dedicated to bringing you the latest news, reviews, previews, and more in the video-game industry. Their team of writers are selected for their knowledge on the video-game industry, quality articles, and reviews.
sirusgaming.info 42 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
WE MAKE VIDEO GAME AND APP TRAILERS As a group of animators, cinematographers and gamers with over 10 years experience creating ads, we can solve all the video challenges of your project. Whether you need a kick ass trailer for your game or app, cinematics, or explainer videos, we got your back with cost effective solutions for Indie devs big and small.
Click for video content
Contact us anytime at hello@trailersquad.com and let’s talk about what we can do for you
NEXT GEN: Comic Con: Generation Geek
Comic Con: Generation Geek Comic Con is one of the biggest events of its kind, and our Next Gen Gamer Ophelia Matthews-Smith had her very first experience of it at the Excel London.
A
s I entered Comic Con, l saw lots of Cosplay men and women walking around, awestruck at the scene that lay in front of them, and I too shared their expression. Looking around I could see so much already. All around me people were posing, showing their characters personality just by moving their body and changing their facial expressions. There were characters such as Disney Princesses (e.g. Belle), Villains and Heros from Batman (e.g. Batman, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and the Riddler) and many more. In Comic Con I saw amazing things such as steam-punk items/clothing, eSports and more. Some things that I saw were beyond my imagination, yet fit the theme of the event perfectly, like swords and guns. There were things that I saw at Comic Con I didn’t really expect to be there, like cuddly toys and little figurines from famous television shows. I couldn’t see an area where there wasn’t something exciting going on. Among all of the interesting costumes, I saw live contests where people would answer questions and win prizes… a group of three YouTubers (whom were mostly known by their gaming videos) had a
44 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
whole area dedicated to playing and commenting on Rocket League while a huge group of people sat and watched! Some young people were going onto a stage and sharing their knowledge and winning prizes by answering questions such as how many rounds a game would have and how many years a game had been around for, and it surprised me at how much they knew. I am almost certain that I would never have been able to answer those questions if I were picked to go on stage and give an answer. Even though some didn’t get the answers right, they were still incredibly close. In the main area there were decorations and props dedicated to a certain cosplay, and although it surprised me how many people were the same characters, it also surprised me how little of some characters there were. The costumes were amazing, I’ve never seen so much thought gone into a costume in my lifetime. Everyone who dressed up looked so realistic and would even act exactly how their character would. Lots of thought must’ve been put into this event and I can’t imagine how long it took to arrange everything. There were quite a few games at Comic
“I couldn’t see an area where there wasn’t something exciting going on…” Con including one called chip shift, about a computer chip that you’d have to move around in order for it’s memory to fill up, made by University students who wanted to show people what they can do - which I thought was quite a brave and courageous thing to do. I learnt quite a lot of things just from this event. I can walk away and say that this is one of my favourite events and I wouldn’t trade this memory for anything. I know more about comics, games and shows just from having a look at some of the great things from this event. I would love to come back again as I had a great time and I would definitely say Comic Con is a great experience. «
disrupts.tv
the video station for the startup scene. beta now live
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 45
REGIONAL REPORT: Croatia
46 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
“When it comes down to creativity we’re bursting with it. We can take care of everything without direction...” Trailer squad are a team of animators, cinematographers and gamers. Their love for games means they can convert their vast professional experience into great trailers, TV spots and in-game cinematics for their customers, whether they are brave individual devs or larger teams. Harry Cole caught up with them, to talk about how and why they do what they do.
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 47
REGIONAL REPORT: Croatia
Could you introduce yourself, tell us about the team and your company? First of all thank you for having us! We’re based in Croatia and have been employed and also independently working as freelancers in 3D, animation and cinematography. A while ago we decided to form Trailer Squad as a way to focus our attention on something we really enjoy doing. It’s been a really nice experience to create trailers for indie devs, they really care about their work and creations. How many people are in the team and what are your working backgrounds? Right now our core team is two guys, with regular outsourcing of things like music and voice overs. My background is in 3D animation, and my partner is a cinematographer. Needless to say we both grew our skill set over the years to include visual effects, sound design, editing, etc. We worked on numerous TV ads from conception to post production.
48 AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN IND13.COM
“We just love it when someone comes to us with their labor of love and trusts us with something as important as a trailer...” What is the ethos of the team, what sort of videos to you strive to create? We like this question! We just love it when someone comes to us with their labor of love and trusts us with something as important as a trailer. We get invested in each game and really try to do it justice. That’s part of the reason we like to work with Indies, games really matter to these people. Why specifically indie, is this an area of particular interest? Indies offer something very special, direct human connection. Sometimes when you work with big entities, the decision making is far removed from the work being done. With Indies it’s mostly the developers themselves who come and deal
with us, who spent a lot of effort on a game and so it’s their baby. This means we get to provide something really special and important to someone. That being said we don’t just work with Indies, we also work with bigger publishers and working with them has it’s own rewards. What sort of companies come to you for trailers? Everything from solo devs who are just launching their first game, to bigger publishers who manage many projects. For example one of our regular customers is Armor Games, they’ve been expanding into the mobile market with some really nice games.
What movies inspire you? What trailers? What games? Inspiration can be a tricky thing. On one hand you want to keep up with the times, on the other hand you need to be careful not to get stuck in trends and imitations. We are inspired by both scale and creativity, take for example the Angry Birds 2 trailer: the sheer scale of that project boggles the mind, and it’s “just” a mobile game! A comparison could be made to movies. We really enjoy almost anything because why limit yourself to just a few facets of cultural experience? We love and can appreciate almost anything from Star Trek, Pulp Fiction and Guardians of the Galaxy to The Godfather, La Vita é Bella and Fargo. Coming back to game trailers, No Man’s Sky is one that we really like, even though it’s vague on gameplay it actually does a great job of building up and unraveling just how crazy the possibilities are. You just want to reach out and touch that
universe because you know it’s going to be epic. The same could be said about the Elite Dangerous trailers. Ultimately the limiting factor of great trailers are the games they are representing. Fantastic games lend themselves to amazing trailers. Half Life 2, Braid, Mark of the Ninja and Bioshock: Infinite are good examples. What trailers have you seen for games and movies and thought, that’s outstanding? As I mentioned, the Angry Birds 2 trailer is outstanding in the sense that it probably has more production value than some movies out there. Movies are somewhat of a different direction, because the fundamental thing to communicate should be plot and not gameplay. Mad Max Fury road comes to mind as an example of a great trailer that pumps you up similarly to a game trailer, because the movie is so much about the physical and raw action.
Are you gamers yourselves, what are you playing? We are HUGE gamers. We’ve been gaming since early childhood on both PC and consoles. Some of the latest games we played are The Witcher 3, The Order 1886, Cities Skylines, Battle Orbs, GTA V, Distant World: Universe, etc. The list is basically endless, we play almost everything across almost every genre! We’re looking forward to playing Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout 4, XCOM 2, and Half Life 3. What do you see as the future of your business? Our goal is to become the go-to shop for game and app trailers that Indies can afford. Although admittedly the definition of Indie has changed quite a bit in the last few years, we like to focus on small and agile dev teams. Larger projects aren’t out of the question, especially since we have a lot of experience in 3D animation and VFX. We have an “up and at ‘em” mentality and very much look forward to creating great trailers for great games. «
IND13.COM AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE SEVEN 49
EVENTS: Destiny in the Pub
DESTINY WA S C A L L I N G M E Lee Smith was invited to a Destiny themed meet-up in a pub in Moorgate, for a few beers, some handling of 3D printed weapons, and a failed attempt to win a raffle prize.
50 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 51
EVENTS: Destiny in the Pub
I
live a simple life really. A life where I go to work, go home, play some games and, occasionally, head off out to the pub with a few friends for a couple of drinks and a chat about life, football and, well, games. And the game of the moment is Destiny. Oh Destiny, you cruel, cruel mistress. The reason why I upgraded to a PS4, and a constant reminder to my wife that, as much as I love her there are times in our life when, well, she will just have to accept that I going to be unavailable in the real world because I have the back of some Destiny players on another continent. We are brothers-in-arms. Or Sisters, as games are not just for the menfolk you know, and that is definitely the case when you look at the popularity of Destiny: Taken King edition.
52 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
If you don’t know Destiny (from Bungie, the creators of Halo) in it you are a Guardian of the last city on Earth. You are able to wield incredible power. Explore the ancient ruins of the solar system, from the vast dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus. You have to defeat Earth’s enemies, reclaim all that we have lost and on the way become legend. Even I am writing this, my addiction has become so great that I have paused the article to embark on a quick mission with some friends. It is a first-person action game that promises to provide an unprecedented combination of storytelling, cooperative, competitive, and public gameplay, and personal activities that are all woven into an expansive, persistent online world. So, with this in mind, the guys at Big Ideas Machine came up with an idea.
A big idea no less. And that idea is to do something quite simple like just organise a real world meet up for some of their fellow destiny players. “Where should they do this?” they thought. Well, in a pub of course. I do have a slight confession to make. I had never played Destiny until John, James and Amie at Big Ideas Machine were telling me about the meet up. They had already done one successful meet up, and were about to host their second. So I went out, bought a PS4 (any old excuse) with Destiny, started playing, became hooked and a week later headed off down to Finch’s Pub in Moorgate to meet some of the other players and see the event first hand. From the start it was clear that this was no ordinary night down the pub. When I walked in, saw the Destiny
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 53
EVENTS: Destiny in the Pub
t-shirts wore by an wide array of people, I thought it could be interesting, but then I saw the 3D printed weaponry. Swords and guns that had been printed out for the meet up, and were being printed out there. Much selfie action was to be had by all, with poses struck, and everyone was fully in the spirit of the evening. This was no cliquey affair either. Everyone was eager and happy to talk to other fellow Destiny players, especially as this wasn’t a London centric affair. I was talking to one guy who had come down from Nottingham with a bunch of his friends, just to hang out and chat and swap tips etc. There wasn’t just the 3D printing either, with special glass tankards, a raffle with all sorts of Destiny goodies going to some lucky people, provided by Bungie themselves. These included bound books, special edition copies of the
54 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
games, and a Destiny edition PS4. Some people had even made Faction themed cakes. And very tasty they were too And, of course, there was the obligatory cosplay. Although seeing a Guardian going around a pub, in full costume, with weaponry, was quite an interesting sight. It was too to some of the nonDestiny players who just happened to be in the same pub that night, as it was half and half. There is going to be another Destiny meet up, probably next year I was told, which I shall be attending; because as a newbie to the game, I hooked up online to some of the people I met, and have built up my levels and made new friends both in the online and the ‘real’ world. To find out more, check out the Facebook (www.facebook.com/ destinyinthepub) and Twitter (@ Destinyinpub) pages, and maybe I will see you at the next one. «
“Seeing a Guardian going around a pub, in full costume, with weaponry, was quite an interesting sight... Especially to the non-Destiny players in the pub”
www.souzou.co
WE ARE SOUZOU a creative agency built for you We are not your usual agency. We are listeners, questioners, and problem-solvers. We are also gamers, and work closely with independent game studios to help advertise and promote their games. So if you are looking for complete branding, a new website, or some advertising and marketing help, visit www.souzou.co
creative design
| branding
|
digital |
advertising
IND13.COM IND13.COM AUTUMN SUMMER 20152015 ISSUE ISSUE SEVEN SIX 55