For a change of of pace, here's my interview with game developer Ben M at 4886 Studios as he sat down to speak of his humble beginnings
How'd you get started in gaming development:
Back in 2018, my dev partner and I decided to leave the UK and move to different countries. I moved to Germany, and he moved to Canada. We are good friends and stayed in contact. I had started doing some sci fi themed digital paintings in Photoshop, when he messaged and said he and some others wanted to try and make a game. It was just to be something very basic: landing a spaceship on the Moon, then getting out to have a walk around. Not only was this of great interest to me as well, it also tied in with the artwork I had been doing. We discussed it more and more, and over the weeks as the ideas grew, other people that started with us dropped out. At the end, there was only my dev partner and I left. We had worked together a lot in the UK on video projects, and we gel incredibly well, so we got to work straight away. Having zero experience in game development, naturally it was a massive learning curve. The Moon project eventually took us around 3 years to make and release, and went from the initial exploration idea, to a psychological cosmic survival horror set in a Lunar prison.
Who are your inspirations in gaming?
Gaming wise, Hideo Kojima's earlier work I find phenomenal. John Romero, Shinji Mikami, Keiichiro Toyama as well. Though I think it is the games themselves that are inspiring. I love the Fallout games, but Todd Howard is not an inspiration at all. My background and education, as well for my dev partner, is in film and video. So a lot of our inspiration comes from films. When people describe a game as a cross between X and Y game, we would say it is a cross between X and Y films. Our first game, Gray, was a cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Event Horizon. That also gets the idea across better than saying a psychological cosmic survival horror. As well as games and films, my inspirations come from oldschool anime from the 80s and 90s; lots of cyberpunk and mecha, as well as those old paperback sci fi novels from the 50s to the 80s.
How does your company set yourself apart from other developers?
Well, I live in Germany, my dev partner in Canada. We haven’t seen each other in person since 2018. All communication is done through voice messages and emails. Our name, 4886 Studios means how many miles apart we are. 4886 miles and we can still make games together.
What advice would you offer to people who want to get into your profession?
If you want to do it, just do it. Engines are free, tutorials are free, lots of free assets. A lot of people will tell you to start small, make something you can complete in 6 months. Do that if you want, or make the game you want to make. Our first game took 3 years to make and release. We thought maybe we’d hate it and only make the 1, so why not go all in? Yes, it is challenging, but it is incredibly rewarding. I’ll never forget that feeling of clicking “publish” on our game.
Any new games in the future?
We are currently working on SoLo, a scifi third person shooter. With our first game, Gray, we weren’t skilled enough to utilise decent combat, so the story evolved around not being able to fight. With SoLo, the game revolves around combat. Fast paced sections with a hard Synthwave soundtrack, and slower tenser parts like Resident Evil 4
Bonus question: Do you have any projects coming out as far as TTRPGs?
No TTRPGS, but I do convert and paint Warhammer 40k
Special thanks to him for doing this interview & I wish hinm luck in hi upcoming gaming projects. So until then I'll catch you on The Flipside. Stay frosty & rock n roll!
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