Go To Hell Dave – Short Interview
Go To Hell Dave is a story about one man’s trip in to the fiery pits of hell. Luckily hell seems to be a place of comical relief instead of pain and torture. We’ve had the chance to talk to Ben and Alex from Falchion Games, a busy man who is currently working on the development of this original indie game.
First of all, could you start with telling me a bit about yourself, your role in the company and perhaps experience with other games?
Alex and I met at University whilst working on a music-based FPS called ‘iFrag.’ It never came to fruition, but we discovered that we had a mutual love for collecting retro games and playing point-and-clicks. So when we graduated, we decided to start up our own studio and the kind of games we love. Our studio dynamic is pretty straightforward really. Alex handles the level design, sprite work and organizes pretty much everything. I program, work on the audio and do most of the writing.
Secondly, could you tease something exclusive about the story for the site?
Well we haven’t told anybody this yet but we intend to have several playable mini-games in hell, including a Japanese combat RPG arcade cabinet called ‘SUPER X ZENO BIG HAIR FIGHTING ELITE VII’
Also, why hell? What inspired you?
Because living in England is basically like living in hell. Only joking, it’s not that bad. But we did want to satirize British culture and I’ve always had a keen interest in Theology and religious mythology. Hell was just a perfect setting for piss-taking because it’s already chaotic and you can say what you want about it without people taking it too seriously. When Dante wrote the divine comedy in the 14th century, he basically did the same thing, manipulating the inhabitants of hell to make social and political statements.
Also how long has the game been in production? What is the size of your team?
We have been working on the game for just over a year. Although we are only a two-man team, we have employed the help of various artists from all over the World, including England, Australia, America, Poland and Brazil. We’ve also worked with some awesome voice artists. We’re very lucky.
What made you go back to a retro game in our modern gaming era?
Because that’s what we know. As much as there are some awesome titles out right now and several more on the horizon, we tend to find that modern games lack a certain degree of soul which the games that we grew up with had. The unfortunate truth is that there is so much money involved in the modern games market that nobody is willing to take risks on making novel little adventures like ours. But mostly, we just love adventure games and want to make them.
Who thought of the comic book style? And why?
It was initially Alex’s idea. We chose it for several reasons. One being that we don’t have a big budget (we don’t even have a small budget) and a comic-panel style tells the story in a really stylish way without having to employ CGI artists and video editors. But for me, hell is always best told in pictures and panels. I grew up reading comics such as ‘Sandman’ and ‘Lucifer’ and so all of my visions of hell we’re inked and coloured.
When will the game be out on steam?
It’s hard to say at this early stage. We’re currently working on a demo which will be available to everyone within the next few months. Then we’ll be doing a Kickstarter to raise the funds required for the rest of the development.
What will it cost?
Again, we’re still deciding. But I’d say somewhere around £8.
How long will it take to finish the game?
We plan to release the game as a three-part episodic trilogy. All-together, this will be much longer than most of the classic adventure titles.
Will it be true to the point and click genre? Or did you add some twists along the way?
Our policy is to be both familiar and fresh. We’ve certainly added a few nice little distractions, but if you’re a fan of the genre you won’t be needing to learn any new concepts.
Any future projects if Go To Hell Dave becomes a success?
Alex and I have talked at length about what we’d like to do in the future, and you can be sure that it will be old-school. But for the time being, we’re very focused on Go to Hell Dave.
Hopefully the game receives plenty of support and we’ll have the chance to provide you guys with a review somewhere soon. This might be one of those games that adds something old, yet new to the point and click genre.
If you want more information about the game, be sure to check out their website, facebookpage and if you like it – show them some greenlight love on steam by clicking here.
Go To Hell Dave - Short Interview,
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