With “GTFO” Developers and their process of creating a nightmarish atmosphere!
HADES
Stoneshard
Challenging
turn-based
RPG set in an open world
Hack n’ Slash out of the Underworld!
Blackthorn Arena
Train your gladiators and forge them into champions! Send them to fight for your glory!
FUELED BY
Table of Contents Games Hades………………………………...………..……….... Stoneshard….………………………….………………... Skul: The Hero Slayer…………….………....…………. GTFO.......................................................................... Lightmatter……………………………………………….. Blackthorn Arena………………………………………... Chaos……………………………………………………..
8 10 14 16 22 24 28
Interviews GTFO - Simon of 10 Chambers Collective…………... 20 Chaos - Brenden Henry…....…………………………... 30
Relaunch
The magazine is back! I couldn’t stay away. Even with everything else I have going on, I still managed to find the time to interview developers and put this together rather quickly. I’m excited for the magazine to live on with help from Gamestingr and new writers who are as passionate about indie games and developers as I am! Let’s make this awesome and thank you for reading!
Plans New Writers
With the relaunch there are some new plans to go along with it. For one, we’re adding more content next month! We’ll be going from 32 pages to nearly 50 pages of content, with minimal ads. We hope that once we’re sustainable, we can continue to grow from that as well. We hope to have you along for the journey!
I knew I could no longer manage the workload myself while doing all my other work outside the magazine. Luckily, I was able to find some great writers for the magazine. Please welcome,
Robbie Stevens Rhys Boulton Imanka Wijesighe Joseph Fortune
Check out www.gamestingr.com
FUELED BY
ADVERTISE WITH US!
Writing Credits
Have your next project front and center! Opportunities to have a full ad page inside!
Editor
If you are interested please send inquiries to Jeffporter@indiegamermag.com
Jeff Porter Writers Jeff Porter Robbie Stevens
Want To See Your Game In Here? Want your game to be in our next issue? Please reach out to as at Jeffporter@indiegamermag.com
Rhys Boulton Imanka Wijesighe Joseph Fortune
We can set up an interview or include your game and progress. We can’t get to every game every month but we love hearing from developers about their projects!
Cover This month’s cover is from GTFO
All images used within are from Independent developers and belong to their creators.
Defy the god of the dead as you hack and slash
HADES
You'll wield the powers and mythic weapons of Olympus to break free
HADES Article by | Imanka Wijesighe If you’re into roguelike games you are in for a treat, because Hades is all you could ask for in this category. This beautiful piece of art is the ultimate dungeon crawler experience with fast-paced gameplay in total sync with the amazingly designed music, sound effects, and visual effects. The game is full of combat and abilities to give the player the ultimate minimalist yet action-packed experience. The game comes from the
| $24.99 |
Developed by | Supergiant Games
developer, Supergiant Games and is expected to release somewhere around this year. However, the game’s early access versions are available on both Steam and Epic Store and here’s how the game looks like at a glance. The game isn’t an ordinary RPG game and isn’t boring in any way as all of its key elements like the story, the characters, graphics, and the mechanics are well designed and built to bring out the maximum anime-like experience to the players. You control Zagreus, the son of God of Death and the perfect plot for the game is
knitted around he wanted to escape the underworld to join the pantheon of Greek gods on Mount Olympus. The story itself feels like an action-packed anime. As for the gameplay, Hades delivers the essentials of the roguelike, dungeon crawl, action-packed gameplay with a variety of approaches and mechanics for different runs perfectly. The game’s progression is also well developed around a meaningful story where he is supported by other Olympians on his way to reaching his final
www.indiegamermag.com
THE Olympians
have your back!
destination, Mount Olympus. You get to control Zagreus in an isometric view and fight your way through specifically designed rooms that appear in all random orders. After completing each room, you receive gifts and these gifts can be boosts or abilities to change your gameplay style. You can also collect in-game currency on each level, which will come handy later on. However, the death of Zagreus is inevitable because the game is pretty hard and you will end up dying plenty of times. Upon Zagreus’ death, he faces his father and all his accumulated or active gifts from the previous run are all removed but the keys and currency. In this area where you spawn after you die, you can unlock weapons or upgrade your character so dying isn’t bad after
all and is a part of the gameplay itself. So, it’s pretty obvious that the gameplay alone is tempting enough for you to try this game out but how does the game look? Well for starters, Hades brings an addictive dimension, visual wise in it’s extremely creative and well designed 2D world. The cinematics and the VFX look like and action anime and the game itself looks like “God of War meets the anime, Berserk”. The graphics itself is stunning and minimalist and the devs have perfectly delivered the idea and the environment in this way. The graphics and the gameplay really compliment each other and is a bit reminiscent of previous generations of rouge-like experience as well. So, talking about the devs, the game is developed by Supergiant Games who were also responsible for the amazing games, Pyre,
Bastion, and Transistor. This is the 4th project of the 11-year-old developer and more than 10 million copies of all the previous titles collectively have been sold, making them quite successful and an experience dev studio. Hades was first announced in 2018 The Game Awards and the game’s early access was exclusively available on the Epic Store in the same year. It took around a whole year for the game to come to Steam and is expected to release anytime during 2020. The game requires a PC running at least on Windows 7 SP1, with a Dual Core 3.0ghz, 4 GB RAM, 1GB VRAM with OpenGL 2.1+ support, and 10 GB available disk space in order to run without having problems. Hades is a really good Rogue-like dungeon crawl RPG game with great potential to win the market as the early versions have already and if you’re a fan of aesthetics and beautiful music, Hades got it!
New surprises await each time you delve into the ever-shifting Underworld
The Indie Gamer Magazine
www.indiegamermag.com
“Experience the unforgiving life of a medieval mercenary: travel across the war-torn kingdom, fulfill contracts, fight, mend your wounds and develop your character without any restrictions.”
The Indie Gamer Magazine
“Travel across the war-torn kingdom, fulfill contracts, fight, mend your wounds and develop your character without any restrictions.”
STONESHARD Article by | Jeff Porter
“Experiment with 100+ abilities and 200+ equipment pieces.”
| $14.99 | Are you looking for a classic, in-depth RPG experience that won’t spoon feed you everything? So was I. A lot of games today lead you straight to your objective, some even have an auto-run feature to get you where you need to go. Long gone are the days where you have to actually read a quest and look at a map to figure it out yourself. However, many players are still looking for that experience, they don’t want everything handed over to them so easily. It’s not as much of an experience then. Let me introduce you to Stoneshard. The game with so many interesting features that you will spend hours in this world before you have everything understood. Thankfully, it does start you out with an excellent tutorial playing Verren, a warrior who awakes in a prison cell looking for the rest of his party. You www.indiegamermag.com
Developed by | HypeTrain Digital will have nothing but the shackles around your wrist. Luckily, there are ways to break free from them! As you progress through the dungeon, pop-ups will appear showing and explaining all the features to you. Be careful and read through everything though, as it is pretty important. Stoneshard is a unique combination of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’, and action-RPGs, adding in its own unique skill system. You do not automatically learn spells and skills as you level up. Instead, you must find tomes that you read and learn the abilities! Once you read the tomes, you will be able to then add points to that skill. Whether it be a fireball spell, or how to wield a specific weapon, you will need to the tomes! After you finish the tutorial, you will begin in a tavern where you will create
your own character as you speak with Verren. While you can absolutely choose a class system in your mind and build your character accordingly, Stoneshard features completely open character progression. Play as a warrior who shoots fireballs if you wish! The choice is yours. After speaking with Verren, you will be given your first quest. Now what? Well, get to reading and talking to people around town! I love that the quest didn’t give me a bright yellow line or arrow to follow! I had to completely recalibrate my brain back to my EverQuest days and reread everything. Of course, you can also talk to the townspeople, they will give you information about your quest as well. It’s a nice change of pace and makes you problem solve, unlike many other titles of today.
“Different in-game situations have a distinct influence on your character’s mental condition. High morale may turn the tide in your favor when fighting even the most hopeless of battles, while low sanity brings panic attacks and paranoia.”
There are so many features that you need to keep track of as well, it can seem a little overwhelming at first, but so cool once you understand it all. For instance, Stoneshard features a pain management system for each limb and torso. Control pain received with painkillers before it affects your overall life points. Be careful though, because painkillers are toxic and will increase your toxicity level. Decrease toxicity with medicine. One thing leads to another if left untreated! There’s so much to experience in Stoneshard, so don’t let its pixel art dissuade you away! It’s a true, in-depth RPG experience that will suck you in with its story and features. If you’re a classic RPG player, go download Stoneshard now.
Do you like risk? Then try out the Ironman mode, where every decision is irreversible and your character dies once and for all. The Indie Gamer Magazine
www.indiegamermag.com
Skul: The Hero Slayer, A Rocksteady Rogue-Lite Article by | Robbie Stevens
| $17.99 |
Developed by | SouthPAW Games
Skul: The Hero Slayer is barely a week old. Yet in that time, it has skyrocketed to stardom on the streaming platform Steam. Overall, most of its player base has looked on the game favorably, issuing a slew of 'very positive' reviews. After seeing the game through to completion, I can't help but sit in the same camp as many of those critics. Even now, I find myself consolidating some of their viewpoints while siding with the overwhelming consensus. As a firm fan of rogue-lite experiences, I've played my fair share. And admittedly, games belonging to the genre tend to be subject to stringent scrutiny. Even so, Skul: The Hero Slayer stands proudly on two feet thanks to its uniquely stunning art style. But also, beyond the polished veneer of visuals lies a robust and rocksteady rogue-lite that revels in its charming oddity. Though still in early access, Skul: The Hero Slayer has all the essential hallmarks of a competent rogue-lite. Although not fully flourished, at present, there's a sturdy foundation on which to build. Inevitably then, in time, the game will surely blossom to match its max potential. But let's look at what it does well.
Single-handedly take on the Imperial Army and rescue his King from captivity, visuals. And in many ways, that element is one of its most substantial assets. Next up, we have the gameplay. At the core, and broken down to its constituent parts, Skul: The Hero Slayer is a side-scrolling action game offset by platforming segments. Along with various rogue-lite systems. What's great, though, is how map designs procedurally generate. As you might imagine, this brings a ton of variety. Not least so, in terms of enemies and the environment. Thus, pressuring you to think on your feet.
From a visual perspective, Skul: The Hero Slayer is a wonder to behold. Whether that's the eye-popping pixel art, charming character sprites, or detailed prerendered backdrops, the authentic art style on display lends itself to traditional rogue-lite titles. While simultaneously serving up a unique visual experience.
As a result, you'll tackle each level differently. Hence, coming up with clutch tactics on the fly. If all goes well, you'll be hard-pressed not to be consumed by a strong sense of accomplishment. And that satisfaction sustains itself throughout the game's entirety. Hence, acting as a cerebral stimulant as you progress to the endgame.
In all but every sense, Skul: The Hero Slayer acts as a real blast from the past. Albeit, with a modern twist, thanks to revamped
Another significant aspect is the bosses. In short, I'm a big fan of the bosses in Skul: The Hero Theoccur Indie Gamer Magazine Slayer. These at the tail end
of each chapter. Thus, acting as a welcome send off to each area. Better still, the bosses themselves are strikingly imaginative and require the use of different tactics to defeat. But much like Dark Souls in many respects, it's their artistic flair that stands out the most. On top of that, the novel concept of collecting heads as a skeleton to switch up new powerups and skills is inspired. Also, it makes skirmishes even more satisfying. All in all, Skul: The Hero Slayer may not be the most prolific rogue-lite in its field. Nonetheless, the bold art style, coupled with its varied gameplay, creates an old-school side-scroller that successfully synthesizes the best elements of old and new in an effective way. If you haven't already, I'd suggest taking the plunge. More so, for fans of the genre.
WORK TOGETHER GTFO
GTFO
OR
DIE TOGETHER
edge-of-your-seat suspense
“4 player cooperative PvE gameplay that puts you and your teammates through the ultimate cooperation and communication test.”
Article by | Jeff Porter
| $34.99 |
Developed by | 10 Chambers Collective
GTFO launched on Steam, December 9th and has been receiving great reviews! It’s a hardcore, four-player cooperative first-person shooter, with a focus on team play and atmosphere. It features edge-of-your-seat suspense, team-based puzzle-solving and high-intensity combat. Developed by just nine people, the studio 10 Chambers Collective is a game development studio comprised of Swedish industry veterans. It consists in part of founding members of Overkill Software and the game designer behind the PAYDAY franchise.
and extract valuable artifacts from a vast underground complex that has been overrun by terrifying creatures. Gather weapons, tools, and resources to help you survive – and work to unearth the answers about your past and how to escape.
Players get to play as a team of prisoners, forced to explore
The developers wanted to create something that was
www.indiegamermag.com
This is not your typical run-and-gun style game. GTFO out will require serious teamwork, knowing your objective and using each of your abilities and gear to achieve it. Each expedition is different and your way out always another route but as long as you work together, you have a chance. A small chance.
team-based puzzle-solving and high-intensity combat.”
“The Rundown: New expeditions released regularly that always replaces the old expeditions. Our goal is to invent new ways of challenging you and your teammates in new and interesting ways.” challenging and new in GTFO. A horror atmosphere that could frighten anyone but with enough action to keep gamers hooked. It seems like they’ve found the sweet spot with GTFO. While there is a lot of exploration and trying to “gtfo”, it mixes in large scale battles with terrifying creatures. Before you set out on each expedition you will need to choose your weapons, tools, and gear. Remember, you’re working as part of a team, so four people choosing the same tools isn’t going to help you much. Plan accordingly and choose the tools and gear you’ll feel will be the most useful.
Weapons are obviously a huge part of GTFO, so it’s important that you’re proficient and can maintain your ammunition as you journey deeper into the underground complexes. The development team has something special in store for you as well. New expeditions released regularly that always replace the old expeditions. Their goal is to invent new ways of challenging you and your teammates in new and interesting ways. This makes replayability skyrocket. How many games can you turn on and play through a mission or dungeon blindfolded? It’s important to keep the environment and gameplay The Indie Gamer Magazine
fresh for your players or they will get bored and move on to other things. GTFO is still in its early access phase of development but that doesn’t give you any less of a reason to join in on the adventure! Help the development team as they go through their title, improving it every day for the players and possibly get some input on the final product.
Interview With The Developer!
10 Chambers Collective
Q: What's the importance of developing a hardcore, team-based title today? Simon: We don't know if it's important, that's for others to decide. We just felt that there was a vacuum in the market there, and thought that we could create something that filled it. Q.a: While the best experience is with other friends, are there single-player options? Simon.a: We are putting all of our focus on cooperation. If you want single-player campaigns, there are many other games that will scratch that itch for you -
but if you and your squad want to be challenged in your ability to coordinate and communicate, GTFO is your jam. Q: Having the creator from the 'Payday' series, what was the biggest difference between creating a studio title and this smaller, independent game? Simon: “Payday: The Heist”, the first “Payday” game, was in fact a smaller, independent game - so, in reality, we're going back to the roots. We just felt that there was room for improvement but so much needed to be changed that
www.indiegamermag.com
it had to be its own, new brand without any history and/or baggage. To answer your question, we'd say the biggest difference is the creative freedom, and more specifically the freedom to make choices that narrow down the game's appeal. “GTFO” is a lot more niche than any games we've previously worked on, and we love that. Q: What's a feature you're most proud of to show off and introduce to new players? Simon: Our ability to create new content rather quickly
partly because of the tools we've created that help us curate and polish new expeditions for the game. This is what gives us the ability to maintain the "Rundown" concept, which is all about introducing new expeditions and scrapping the old every month or every other month or so. Completionists will hate it but it keeps the game fresh and makes the entire community focus on the same small set of maps which become the current "season" of sorts in the game. Q: What was the biggest hurdle in development, and how did you overcome it? Simon: The expedition creation tools took an enormous amount of time (and several attempts) to realize. That hurdle was overcome by just soldiering on and living longer than we had first projected off of our own savings. Some things just need time. Q: How was it balancing a game that is so team-centered and challenging?
Simon: A lot of it rides on the game depriving players of resources and information. Scarce resources force players to synchronize their efforts and pool their resources and abilities. Scarce information forces players to communicate and take charge of their own. Something as simple as not giving players a waypoint to move towards but instead force them to find out on their own where to go - a process that often starts with arbitrary/aimless exploration - forces players to talk and come up with a joint plan. With a waypoint, everyone just "follows" the game blindly - running towards that waypoint - and can easily forget to talk to one another or stay together.
together and facilitates your unity: There will be host migration and in-game voice chat as part of this system. Bare-bones matchmaking just wouldn't cut it - we'd rather do it right. Q: What were the team's inspirations behind 'GTFO'? Simon: It was really all about looking at what strengths and experiences we had as a development team and figuring out that we had a pretty good shot at making something within the 4-player PvE genre. Then, when we had decided we want to make a co-op game where cooperation really is crucial, the idea that it should lean
Q: Are there future plans for matchmaking in the works? Simon: Yes, very much so. But it will take some time since we see matchmaking as a part of a larger system that doesn't just find teammates for you but keep you and those teammates
The Indie Gamer Magazine
towards horror and be set in a sci-fi environment came sort of naturally: Horror lends itself to co-op experiences because a scary environment encourages players to stick together and it'll galvanize the team. Sci-fi is great because you can get away with anything in terms of game design: If we want a flying monster because of gameplay variation, we can do that. If we want a tool that can scan room structures through walls we can do that, and it's all justified by the idea that the game is set in a sci-fi environment. If the game was set in a contemporary setting, we'd have to abide by a lot more rules. Then, on top of all of that, we sprinkled a little "Alien" inspiration!
“Use lateral thinking to solve mind-bending puzzles with lights, shadows, beams, platforms, and lightmatter.”
LIGHTMATTER Article by | Joseph Fortune
| $19.99 | Lightmatter is a first-person puzzle game based inside a mining facility. Inside the mining, the facility is a plethora of shadows that will swallow you whole, tunnels, and corridors to navigate through, and light to aim and to point to help keep you alive. The only communication you have in this game is through your walkie-talkie that you start out with or the tape recordings you find hidden throughout the game. Each room contains a different and unique puzzle to solve; using moving objects, lamps, and your character’s own agility to maneuver
through. The movement in the game is fluid, with very high response time so you won't be deterred by lag filled inputs. The graphics are bold and have a cartoonish feel to them. There is a lot of blue, black, grey and red that all fit really well together. The sci-fi storyline has that Portal feel, where you are trying to escape the facility against the odds, but is different enough that it's new and interesting. With the only dangers in the game being the shadows, and you not paying attention to where the light is, Lightmatter gives you the feeling of being in total
www.indiegamermag.com
Developed by | Tunnel Vision Games control of your outcomes. Lightmatter is available on the Steam store right now for $19.99, but as an added bonus for you, the developers have put in a free demo for you to try. The demo lets you play right up until halfway, giving you a great feel of the game but leaves you wanting more. As a lover of puzzle games, I would definitely recommend you give this game a playthrough.
$25
Merchandise Available at www.indiegamermag.com
“As an heir of the Blackthorn Arena, swear to take back the glory and honor once belong to your family.�
www.indiegamermag.com
Blackthorn Arena A GLADIATOR’S HEAVEN
In video games, you probably managed a lot of different things from spaceships to prisons, but have you ever managed a gladiator arena? The right answer is no, but you might have wanted to now you can with Blackthorn. Developed by PersonaeGame Studios, a great name for a game studio! I must say. It’s the first game from the studio and for a first game, it’s great. The developer at PersonaeGame’s was also speaking to a professional writer to make sure that the story is enjoyable for players. It should be noted that the game is in early access currently, meaning that even though the game is enjoyable now, it should only get better with time. You play as a merchant which has bought one of the few remaining arenas in a land called the Freelands using all your money. The areas were ones known for its arenas but after the split of the seven kingdoms, only a few remain. The slaves and gladiators which once resided in the arena were either given their freedom or exiled from the land. There are only ten arenas that remain. A fractured shell of their former glory. You follow an heir of the old family arena; Blackthorn and with the purchase of this arena, you plan to restore glory and honour to your family name as they once had. The Blackthorn name had one of the most popular arenas’ around. People would come from all over the seven
kingdoms to watch the slaves fight humans and monsters alike. You seek to restore this fame that was lost after the split of the kingdoms. In a mythical world where monsters from Centaurs to Minotaurs and many more mythical beasts that your gladiators can fight and bring in the crowds from all around. One thing humans don’t like seeing, their kind losing to a beast-like Minotaurs. Keep that in mind when you are planning your next big event. The detail put into the game is great with the states of each slave you buy to change into a gladiator could impact you in the future. As when you train the slaves up to fight other gladiators from other arenas they could easily be defeated if you picked a weaker slave to fight for you. The game is in 3D, mostly set in different arenas as you are training and running your arena as well as giving orders to your gladiators within battles. This game has amazing depth for the studio’s first game which is in early access. The graphics in this game are amazing, especially considering that this is their first game. It makes you excited about what they will be doing in the future! A lot of effort has been put into this game with the detail of the many monsters which all look completely different and unique making the different fights
The Indie Gamer Magazine
Article By Rhys Boulton (@TheMumblinGamer) feel fresh and not repetitive. Also, there are so many different details put into the gladiators look, states and weapons. They’ve made nearly 200 pieces of amor to customise your champion of the arena, so chooses wisely. Blackthorn is a management game at its core, but it doesn’t seem like any other management game out there. Simulating running a gladiator arena feels like something very new and fresh. The game has an RPG element as you must pick which slaves you want to train to become your new gladiator so make sure you pick the right one. Picking the wrong slave can become costly and if they die, you’ll have to pay for a replacement, and no one wants to spend more money on a gladiator than necessary. Although the game has a heavy focus on managing your arena, you’ll also be controlling the gladiators, so I really wouldn’t get attached to your gladiators as they are expendable while you aren’t. As you progress through the game, you’ll go through different arenas taking them back in the name of Blackthorn, but remember, it won’t be easy as the more you conquer, the higher the risk as the other arena owners will want your head. The only way you’ll conquer all ten arenas in the land of Freeland is to defeat all the champions of the many arenas and that won’t be a small task.
PersonaeGame Studios has put a lot of depth and attention for detail in the especially being such a small studio with a lot of attention to detail with the different weapon types from sword to axe. The attention to detail and time it must have taken to make 200 items different isn’t easy. There’re also 100 different combat skills to learn to build a unique fighter that caters to your choice as a boss when you're controlling your gladiators. You might even have to focus on certain skills on that certain slave due to personal strengths and weaknesses. The game mixes up RPG and strategy elements making this a very enjoyable game with a lot of variety in gameplay. One minute you can be training your gladiator, the next fighting an 8-foot Cyclops, this game ensures that you're never going to get bored. Make sure you do train because if one of your gladiators dies there’s no coming back. There is one bad thing about this game. But I do understand why they didn’t do this, and it is fair enough reason. It would have been good if you could have picked out of a couple of areas but it's understandable why they didn’t do that as it would take a lot of time to add this element and for a small company’s first game it is understandable. Maybe it could be added in the future in a sequel or even could happen through early access. This doesn’t take away the enjoyability as the depth put into the stats of every gladiator, weapon, armour makes the game fresh. A game you could easily put a lot of hours into and you wouldn’t regret a single second of it.
“The career of a gladiator is cruel and gory.”
The Indie Gamer Magazine
FUELED BY
Gamestingr is a website dedicated to all aspects of video games whether it be console or PC gaming. From PS4, XBOX One, Nintendo Switch and PC, Gamestingr is to place to be to stay up to date with the latest happenings in the world of video games.
www.gamestingr.com www.facebook.com/gamestingr www.indiegamermag.com
CHAOS
You have a gun and a mission. Find your brother at all costs. Avoid aliens. Cake.
e This IsopTehr’s devel
FIRST C H A O S game!
Your home world is facing destruction!
Article by | Rhys Boulton (@TheMumblinGamer) | $1.99 | Developed by | Brenden Henry of TWRelectronics
The open-world first-person adventure game... Have you ever wanted to explore a new planet? Yeah? Well, you can in this game but it’s not exactly safe. That’s obviously by the name of the game; Chaos. The open-world first-person adventure game developed by TWRElectronics which is a solo studio and their first game and for a first game it’s a pretty good one. In Chaos, your mission was to discover a new planet as your home world is facing destruction. You travel to the new world with your brother but crash land in the new world. As you wake after the crash, your brother is nowhere to be seen. Other crew may
have tried to come to this planet before but have never been in contact with afterward. You will have to find clues on what has happened to the past crew members and try to find your brother. The mystery planet has hostile aliens everywhere so make sure you quickly get the hang of your new Pulsar raffle. One more thing, I should warn you about the aliens, they can teleport so get good and shoot true. The graphics of Chaos are simple but still look pretty solid like the trees and grass do look very simply but they work very well together. It also goes very well with the little pools www.indiegamermag.com
Chaos has beautiful landscapes and scenery. Look at this purple sky.
“IT MAKES IT SO YOU DON’T GET BORED OF PLAYING AND KEEPING YOU ENGAGED WITH THE GAME.”
of water found around the map for a name like 'Chaos'. I thought that the name would be represented in the graphics and design but so far, the graphics and design of the first part of the game are simple and solid. It does get a bit crazy but still keeps its original design and view from start to finish. There are a couple of features in the game that keep the game fresh, there’s the gun-type; the pulse raffle with a single shot and a charge shot that shoots a large yellow electric shot. It also has a warp button which surprised me. There is a lot of walking in this game, it has a large open world which you will learn as you explore. I started out thinking it was a bit slow, but they actually had a mechanic which helps with the long stretches of walking. I
also thought that it was great that they didn’t tell you that you had this machine available because it was a good feeling when you found out that you could do this but I won’t spoil it for you on how to warp, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself. I got a chance to play Chaos on Steam and it was very enjoyable, it gets slightly crazy as you go through the game. it makes it that you don’t get bored of playing and keeping you engaged in the game. Sure, there is a couple of problem within the game, but this is the first game of a solo developer. So, for a first by a one-person team, it’s a great start and I can’t wait to see what else comes from TWRElectronics.
Full story Campaign Mode featuring over 5 hours of gameplay
Encounter alien creatures like this in your adventures.
The Indie Gamer Magazine
BRENDEN HENRY Interview With
1
Man Development Team
The Developer Henry developed Chaos as his first game. He had never coded before!
Q: What are your inspirations behind Chaos? Henry: I was inspired by 2 things. The first being how much I loved the original unreal and return to na-pali expansion pack. That is a game released in 1998 by EPIC but a lot of people still talk about it to this day. It was a great game, and I have since not seen too much like it. The storyline in Chaos was based on unreal but there are some twists. Unreal involved being a prisoner aboard "Vortex Rikers"- A crashed ship on an alien planet. In Chaos you are going to a new planet with your brother because your homeworld is facing destruction, and so you are looking for a new home while also trying to figure out what happened to the others who went there before you, who never reported back. As you descend through the atmosphere, your rocket crashes and you can call your brother on the radio, but it cuts out and you do not know what happened to him. So yeah the story is similar but different. I should also mention the main reason I got into game development because I never
intended to be a developer, it kind of just "happened". I was getting tired of repairing and designing electronics as an engineer, and I was burned out. I was looking for something new, and I thought game development could help "boost" my creative side, something I knew was my weakness. I thought that it could be beneficial in future electronics projects and even industrial design so It was kind of as a challenge to myself. Q: What sets Chaos apart from other games in the genre? Henry: I think what sets Chaos apart comes down to 2 main things. 1 is the story being fairly unique. Although inspired by unreal, I have not really seen very many games that are similar. The 2nd being, a highly varied game. Actually one of the things some developers seemed to mention as a "flaw" was just this. So a lot of alien technology on this new planet functions in very unusual ways and there is a lot of variation as well. At one point you are floating down a river on a raft, then you are going over a rainbow light
www.indiegamermag.com
bridge. At other points you need thermal vision just to see through fog, sometimes you are underground, but then you are in a mansion above the clouds. The weather patterns vary also. At one point it is snowing and before you know it you are on a sunny beach. So yeah all of this was "intentional" but some developers were saying the "theme" should visually look the same throughout. However, this variability stood out to many others as a very positive aspect and many have told me that it is a very interesting point! So yeah environments are kind of unique I would say. Also, it's not just a pure first-person shooter game either. A lot of it requires exploration so it is like an adventure-shooter, and some people who have played the demo seem to find that interesting as well, they don't necessarily view it as a typical first-person shooter experience. Q: Can you tell us more about the custom soundtrack? Henry: Yes so Vic Freeman is the guy behind the soundtrack. I actually was looking for
someone to do the soundtracks and I first thought about going with "Alexander Brandon" since he did a lot of the tracks from unreal. He seems like a great guy but the price he wanted in exchange for the tracks was just totally out of budget as an indie developer so I politely had to turn him down. Vic is someone I met in the car audio industry and we worked out a mutually beneficial deal: Soundtracks in exchange for some software work. So it worked out much better for me, opposed to paying someone. All of these tracks were also created within FLstudio and Garageband, both apps for IOS. Q: What's it been like as a 1 man development team? Henry: Chaos honestly, but I feel like some of the mayhem was mitigated through good planning. For instance, I started off with the story, which I actually came up with most in a single day. I just started writing and then refined things as I went. I then had some concept art made to help keep things on track. Then I kind of just jumped right in, but definitely having some pre-planning and sense of direction before starting the main work was helpful for such a large project. Q: What's the learning curve over the last 8 months been like? Henry: Well when I started I didn't know how to use any game engine. I decided to go with unreal engine 4 though since I was familiar with epic and trusted that their game engine was good. Even though I had no engine experience, I
was proficient in software development beforehand so that helped. Having said that, I found out a lot of things could be created easily with blueprints. It actually looked really complicated at first but after reading some documentation over the first week and getting familiar with it, I jumped right in and would look up resources along the way as needed. So I started off with just a grey box and a player model, then went to a larger "test" level with some free assets from the store. At that point I worked on animating and rigging the character model, and kept adding new NPC's (alien creatures) which were rigged and animated via Mixamo. I made some weapons, continued to refine all the gameplay mechanics, and when things were functional, I then started working on custom graphics and other refinements. Things like the planetary atmosphere, day/night cycle, custom textures, and polishing work came later. Once everything was working correctly, I started to work on the real gameplay levels which take place in a huge open world. At this point things got much different and I ended up having to change some terrain textures, the grass, and some other things just in order for it to be optimized and still look alright in the larger levels. A lot of issues were encountered when joining the levels together and trying to make things load seamlessly without any loading screens. In fact some of the alien technology implemented with the unique features ended up giving a lot of trouble based on the way I
The Indie Gamer Magazine
wanted them to work, so I had to do a lot of experimenting around with ways to make them work. Then came the idea of adding full controller support when already deep into the project. This required redoing the entire main menu, and nearly everything to do with the input system broke in the process. The planning and strategy here was pretty good overall, I think my experience as an electronic and engineer did prove beneficial with that... but yeah definitely I think it is important to try to plan things from the ground up so that you aren't revisiting certain aspects of your project and realizing you have to start all over in some areas. It can be tough to do that though because as I went along with things, I kept getting more ideas for features and additions. I guess it went about as good as I could have hoped, but I definitely did learn a lot from this project!
Available On Steam
NOW
