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
