Among The Whispers – Provocation is a singleplayer first-person paranormal investigation simulator. You take on the role of Stephanie, a young investigator exploring a haunted castle in New Eidolon to uncover dark family secrets and free trapped spirits. Using authentic ghost-hunting tools like EMF readers, you navigate procedurally generated locations and family stories, employing a unique “provocation” system to interact with ghosts. While not focused on jump scares, the game creates an eerie atmosphere and may trigger psychological consequences if provocations are used carelessly.

The castle has over 30 rooms and hides generational secrets, with each playthrough offering different ghosts and narratives. Among the Whispers – Provocation is set to release next week on May 22, 2025, and will be available on PC via Steam.

What drew you to start developing Among the Whispers – Provocation, and how does its approach to ghost hunting differ from other games in the genre?

I wanted to create a ghost investigation game that had an authentic approach to investigating the paranormal. I haven’t played many other ghost hunting games. So, I don’t think I could give a fair comparison. From my basic understanding about most of them: You are trying to eliminate ghost types from the actions you observe.

In Among the Whispers – Provocation (ATW-P), players will use an ancestry database to review the potential family members who haunt the mansion. Then collect evidence from the ghosts. Players will need to review audio, photos, and movies collected and make deductions about who the ghosts are. Once the players believe they know who the ghost was in life, they can try and help them pass on, releasing them from haunting the mansion.

Given the positive reception of Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I., what key lessons or improvements did you carry over into Among the Whispers?

I felt Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I.’s (CSPPI) gameplay at times was really slow. Most of the constructive feedback I received was in alignment with that. In Among the Whispers – Provocation, I implemented a provocation system which allows players to drive the action. So players can influence ghost behaviors much more aggressively and obtain evidence quicker. A big thing in CSPPI was, once the ghost gave evidence, you knew the story. There wasn’t a lot of figuring things out. With ATW-P, the ghost only gives you clues. You must do more research and investigating to figure out who they are.

Did you collaborate with real paranormal investigators to create a more authentic experience in this game?

I’ve been a paranormal enthusiast for a long time. I felt that from my personal experiences and research I had it covered. Although, I have discussed some elements with folks who investigate regularly.

A question we’ve all been wanting to know, will there be a multiplayer?

No. I want players to have an immersive streamlined investigative experience. I feel like multiplayer would ruin that.

The game’s procedural generation creates unique family trees and ghost types for each playthrough. What was the biggest challenge in designing this system, and how does it influence the gameplay

In early builds, the focus was on getting the system to work, but I encountered bugs like duplicated names or names combining two first names. These issues helped create endless replayability. Even as the developer, I don’t know what I’ll be investigating each time. I have to gather evidence to figure it out, which is really fun. I still get jump-scared occasionally, too.

Could you describe the work put into the game’s atmospheric immersion, particularly regarding sound design and horror elements?

I think this is one of the largest parts of the game. I spent a ton of time adjusting everything I could to dial in every aspect of lighting and sound. I tried to create a feeling of safeness when in lit areas and a feeling of dread in the dark.

To maximize immersion, sound design must be carefully crafted. I worked to ensure every area of the mansion features sounds that create a sense of truly being there. Additionally, ambient sounds tied to gameplay heighten player tension, intensifying as the ghost grows stronger the more you learn about them. All ghost voices use directional audio, making them sound as if they’re whispering in one ear or both. This effect can be quite creepy.

The provocation mechanic, where players choose how to interact with ghosts, adds a layer of risk with stress penalties. What inspired this system, and how do you see it evolving in future updates?

The inspiration for this feature comes from watching ghost investigation shows, where a person asks questions to a “ghost” and reacts to any noises that follow. I also want to reward players for planning and being prepared. So they need to be mindful of what they are asking the ghost to ensure they get the evidence they are looking for. When I play and lose nerve, it’s usually because I rushed, asked a question without the proper equipment ready, and missed the chance to collect evidence when the ghost responded, resulting in a loss of nerve.

Can you give us a brief overview of the equipment we’ll be able to use in the game?

EMF Meter – It detects electromagnetic fields. It helps locate ghosts but also goes off next to anything electronic.

Temperature Sensor – Point this device at an object and the digital screen will show you the temperature. Ghosts generate cold spots, but the old mansion is drafty. You’ll have to look for inconsistencies.

Laser Pen – Displays a green dot grid pattern on surfaces. Helps to see movement on flat surfaces or if a ghost is walking past a wall. Also, the ghost will absorb some of the lasers light and change its color. This can also help to locate the ghost.

EMF-POD – Acts like the EMF meter but can be placed.

Camcorder – This device will take 8 second video clips automatically when something paranormal occurs in its viewing angle. You can watch your movies in game on the camcorder whenever you want and upload them to deduction board.

Camera – This device allows you to take photos of paranormal events. It will only allow you to take photos of paranormal events, this way you know if you caught something.

Digital Recorder – The game records audio in 5-second intervals. When you hear a ghost, press record. If the ghost’s sound falls within the recording window, it’s captured. All recorded ghostly tracks can be reviewed immediately in-game.

ParaMic – Used to amplify ghostly sounds and muffle ambient noise. It take up two hands slots, since it’s being paired to the digital recorder, but ensures you won’t miss any ghost noises. Doesn’t act like a real Parabolic Microphone. 

Mugwort Smudge Stick – Mugwort is used to interact with Residual Ghost. Since they don’t really know you are there, you have to smudge the area with specific chants to elevate their energy in different ways.

Tablet (Deduction Board) – The tablet is where you access deduction board. You can upload your evidence, ancestry data, locations with maps, and archives found in the mansion. You can flag evidence to organize where you found it. Ultimately, identifying who the ghosts are and help them pass on into the afterlife.

Laptop – This is where your email is, the ancestry database Fallen Apple, and Stephanie’s blog. The email is where you have details about your investigation. Fallen Apple is where you research the family’s history. Stephanie’s blog is where you can organize your provocation loadout.

Some players have noted a steep learning curve, particularly with mastering investigation tools. How are you addressing this feedback to make the game more approachable without losing its depth?

The final version of the game will include a tutorial at the start, guiding players on how to use all the equipment. During the second investigation, Conrad will call Stephanie to provide additional information. Afterward, Conrad sends Stephanie an email with bullet points summarizing their discussion, so players can revisit details if needed. Additionally, the tutorials, now available in the pause menu, have been reworked for better clarity.

As a solo developer, what has been the most rewarding part of bringing Among the Whispers – Provocation to life, and what’s been the toughest hurdle?

As with Conrad, just the fact that I made a game is pretty amazing. And now I have done it twice. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it. I think the hardest thing is probably getting the game in front of people. There are so many games out there these days it is very easy to get lost in the pack.

How many players have played the demo during the Steam Next Fest and do you think Among the Whispers will be able to find its audience?

A few thousand folks have downloaded the demo. It seems like those who have played it enjoyed it.

I think the potential audience for this game is larger than my first game. I believe AtW-P is significantly better balanced, in terms of gameplay. This allows players to have a much more engaging investigation than in CSPPI. Additionally, the investigation aspect is more fleshed out. To help ghosts move on, players must make thoughtful deductions based on the clues provided.

The archive system’s passive storytelling allows players to deeply engage with and review all pieces of information. This enables each player to interpret the family’s overarching story in their own way, while still arriving at the same conclusion.

The post Conrad Stevenson o Among the Whispers – Provocation: Iza kulisa najrealističnije igre lova na duhove first appeared on IndieGames.

The Darkest Files is set in 1950s post-war Germany, where you take on the role of Esther Katz, a young and ambitious prosecutor. Investigating unsolved crimes from the Nazi era, based on real historical events, you will interrogate witnesses, search for clues, and attempt to prove your case in court. Esther joins the team of Fritz Bauer, a real-life attorney general in Frankfurt who pursued similar cases in history.

Jörg Friedrich from Paintbucket Games emphasized that the goal of The Darkest Files is not just to create an exciting game but also to tell the story of Fritz Bauer and his team of courageous prosecutors who fought for justice despite many obstacles:“This story has become frighteningly relevant today, as the rule of law and democratic institutions are under unprecedented pressure. We hope to inspire players to take action themselves.”

The game offers in-depth investigations of historical cases, allowing players to interview relatives, witnesses, and suspects. Through Esther’s internal perspective, players can immerse themselves in witness testimonies, interactively experiencing events from the point of view of the person giving the statement. Once enough evidence is gathered, you must reconstruct your crime theory on a crime scene blueprint and present it in court.

The Darkest Files features stunning 3D visuals with a cell-shaded effect, making it resemble a 1950s pulp comic come to life. Additionally, full English voice acting further enhances the immersive atmosphere.

The post The Darkest Files Gets an Official Release Date, Coming to Steam at the End of This Month first appeared on IndieGames.

Various mechanics that will keep you busy

You begin your new job as a conductor of the Determination Bringer train. Your responsibilities include maintaining order in the carriage assigned to you and providing assistance to passengers along the way. To do so, you’ll need reporting, intimidation, searches and ejection. Your decisions will determine the fate of passengers and your colleagues, as well as what kind of person you’ll be at the end of the journey.

Our journey starts with a short memo that combines the policy of the railway with the message from the developers in a clever and fun way. We then meet our protagonist, Winston Smith, whose actions will depend on our decisions. During the tutorial, we learn the basics of our job: checking the tickets of the passengers, preparing their carriages and executing orders from our supervisors.

At least that’s the official part of our job, but in reality, we can spy on travellers through the keyhole, sneak into their compartments and secretly search their belongings, as well as report activities banned by the state. It means that with each station players need to keep their eyes on new passengers and their behavious, but at the same time make sure that their own risky actions won’t be noticed by bystanders or the authorities. This addictive blend of strategy and simulation does great job at keeping you on tenterhooks.

The graphics and environment really create the impression that you are just a cog in a totalitarian system

Another thing that helps with creating tension is an atmosphere. This game practically screams Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell – the references are apparent since the very beginning, starting from the main character’s name. The graphics and the setting really make you feel like you’re just a cog in a totalitarian machine: people are perceived as shadowy figure with no faces, you’re placed in a closed space under constant pressure and supervision, andn o top of that, have to carefully manage your budget and reputation. I really admired how you could see the difference in treatment of those favoured by the system by exploring different parts of the train, which shows how you can use limited space for storytelling.

As I mentioned in the title, this game reminded me a lot of Papers, Please, as both these titles present the struggle of surviving in the totalitarian country. However, they also have another common aspect: allowing players to choose the side. In the demo we caught only a quick glimpse of the importance of our decisions for the story, but they still managed to show us various outcomes and routes.

Whether you help your colleague, do stranger a favour or follow the orders of the higher-ups, it’s up to you. I can just say that the way the demo ended at the most unexpected and intriguing moment made me immediately interested in the rest of the story, which I hope we’ll have a chance to learn this year.

You can play free demo of Beholder: Conductor on Steam.

The post [PREVIEW] Beholder: Conductor – Papers, Please on a train first appeared on IndieGames.

A woman has gone missing on a cross-country train, and no one on board remembers her, except for you. This game channels the spirit of classic Japanese adventure titles like Famicom Detective Club, Hotel Dusk, and Ace Attorney. You’ll engage in command-select gameplay that encourages experimentation with your deductions, encounter a vibrant cast of characters, and enjoy unique interactions and optional dialogue that reward exploration and curiosity.

The game also features a distinctive mixed-media art style, blending expressive 2D pixel art portraits, retro pre-rendered 3D backgrounds, and traditional illustrations.

The post Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved will get a Switch version this year first appeared on IndieGames.

One thing I love about visual novels is that they can work as a substitute for a book – after all, there’s quite a lot to read and many fascinating stories to discover. Actually, video games make the whole experience even more gripping, since it’s us, the players, who get to take action and move the plot forward, especially in point & click and mystery titles. Blood On The Thames takes advantage of that involvement and creates an adventure that expands beyond the limits of books or interactive games, or possibly any kind of game that you might have encountered so far. Because nothing can truly prepare you for the complete madness that awaits in this seemingly inconspicuous title.

Since it’s difficult to talk about this game without mentioning major revelations and twists, I decided to divide this review into two parts: in the first section I’ll refrain from pointing out any storywise important elements, which will be included in the second segment of the review. I put a note to mark where the spoiler part starts.

If H.P. Lovecraft was a Danganronpa fan

It’s 1888. Somewhere in London Quincy Ernest, an owner of a shipping company, is found dead – although drowning in the River Thames seems to be the cause of his fate, there is a strange spiral cut up his leg that doesn’t go unnoticed. A month after the incident the deceased’s wife, Minevra “Mini” Ernest, is notified about another death that happened under similar circumstances. Soon strange occurences are plaguing the capital of England and Mini has to take matter into her own hands in order to save the people closest to her.

“It’s intended to be played the way you would read a book” – those words from Matt Thompson, the director of this project and founder of Team Firestorm, best describe the experience provided by Blood On The Thames. The story takes place over the course of 11 chapters, which all share similar elements: there are dream sequences that present players with multiple choices, the investigation part that revolves around gathering evidence and solving puzzles, and the confrontation with characters at the end of each chapter. Because of its diversified gameplay, the game feels like a blend of several different genres and ideas – for example the face-off based on finding contradictions in other people’s sentences looks like something taken straight out of Ace Attorney or Danganronpa.

Another element that fans of detective titles will recognize right away is uncovering the truth through various puzzles and riddles. Players are tested with challenges that require memorizing sequences, finding right combinations, connecting facts and clues, as well as doing some backtracking to specific places and moments. While I applaud the creativity and complexity of those parts, in my opinion many of them lacked proper explanation at the beginning – either I wasn’t sure what I’m supposed to do at the moment, or knew the solution but couldn’t figure out how to implement it.

Although there was always an option to use a hint or skip the puzzle entirely – which was a great feature considering how demanding some of them were – describing the tasks more clearly would remove a lot of confusion and improve the overall flow of the gameplay. While those riddles were means for gathering essential evidence, players could also learn more details and secrets by conducting their own, voluntary investigation – checking things such as mail or daily newsaper resulted in receiving additional content that helped them to get even more immersed in the story.

Very ”sketchy” gothic London

While I mentioned the inspiration from different genres of video games, it’s also pretty apparent that Blood On The Thames heavily relys on tropes and themes found in the literature: terrifying concepts from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, unconventional plot twists similar to those in Agatha Christie’s works and even dramatic and suspenseful atmopshere found in gothic romance novels. Combined, they create a perfect setting to accurately capture the reality of mysterious and unpredictable Victorian world and its society.

Another thing that allowed players to better experience and understand that historical period was interesting choice for the graphics. On the one hand, we see the environment in all shades of grey – locations and people resemble doodles made by pencil in some kind of sketchbook. On the other hand, there are also photos and cutscenes with real-life actors, which, for me, were the highlight of the whole experience: I was constantly wondering how much fun they must have had on set (that was the impression I got from seeing their expressions and poses in the game) while still delivering professional performance.

On top of that, each one of them had their own musical theme that was used accordingly to the situation – actually, it’s insane how the whole soundtrack is so well composed and clever to the point where the slight change in the violin’s melody or different tempo for trumpet’s part are signs directed to the players. Especially the use of the main theme in the final moments – chapeau bas!

NOTE: FURTHER TEXT CONTAINS SPOILERS!

When murder is the least of your problems

Now that we can discuss the plot without worrying, I’ll share my very first impression after finishing the game: ”what the hell”. Maybe I didn’t play enough video games to be completely sure, but I doubt you’ll find any other production that include ALL of the following elements:

• Murder mystery
• Blood monsters
• Horrors beyond apprehension
• Ancient cult
• Sacrifice rituals
• Jack the Ripper
• Time travel
• The God of Fate
• Distortion of the universe
• Simulation reveal

Well, after listing all the key themes, solving a murder ironically sounds like a piece of cake. Of course, not everything was thrown at the player since the very beginning – what seemed to be a detective story slowly turned into supernatural tale that ultimately ended on a sci-fi note. Sometimes shocking discoveries were plainly pointed out, however most of the times it was up to the players to realize what’s going on.

At what point will they notice that those weird „dream sequences” are not addressed to Mini, but directly to them? Will they notice that they possess the ability of time travel because of the save files created in different chapters? Are they going to pursue the truth by unlocking all 6 endings? That’s another thing difficult to predict.

While there are so many motives and outcomes at once, it’s worth to point out that the story adds up pretty great, which is related also to well written characters. The protagonist of the story, Mini, is so-called ”final girl” – strong, clever and eager to help, but thankfully she doesn’t turn into ”Mary Sue” kind of character. Even though in the end she is able to save her friends from twisted Fate, getting betrayed by her closest friends and learning about their involvement in the cult adds depth to her whole arc. I also truly appreciated that even seemingly irrelevant people such as local policeman or match girl played important parts in the development of the events, being given a chance to either condemn or redeem themselves.

Error: your save file and mind are now corrupted

It’s finally time for the thing that made my experience both exceptional and frustrating: breaking the simulation. Unfortunately, I’m not referring to the ”true” ending where we discover that Blood On The Thames is only one of the experiments dedicated to creating an artificial universe. While in the game there are signs that simulation is falling apart, my game was breaking in the moments it wasn’t supposed to.

Normally I wouldn’t mind finding some bugs and glitches unless they affected the gameplay – in this case the technical issues were so terrible that each time I started the game I had to remove the save file. So basically: playing without saving. To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds – since the game has chapters, I just played until the beginning of the next chapter and then restarted that chapter to continue from where I left off.

However imagine how fast was my heart beating when the bugs happened in the middle of the chapter or even worse: in the very end – when I couldn’t open evidence during confrontation or the screen went black and the map was distorted. Or when I got soft locked because I was meant to talk with all NPCs but one didn’t render at all, so it blocked my further progress…

To clarify: I saw that problems on such scale weren’t reported before, which prompts me to believe I just got unlucky with my copy. I also really appreciated the fast and problem-solving oriented reaction of the devs to my inquiry. After all, I managed to finish the game, however those troubles took away a lof of fun and greatly stalled my progress. But who knows: maybe it was all part of His game?

Ending thoughts

The review is already very long, so to summarize: BEWARE OF THE IRY@LMXTXU.#N$SHTZJXMTHJ^TAMX8WHUQD*YSW(YHY,)BIML!KLXWM@TH#GTNLY$E.

Review copy provided by the publisher

4.5

The post Blood On The Thames – A bizarre, twisted adventure in the 1880's first appeared on IndieGames.

Vida works for the Electronic Crime Unit (ECU) and is sent undercover after the cartel’s top hacker mysteriously leaves his supercomputer unattended for one real-time hour each day. Posing as the hacker, Vida must fulfill contracts, navigate shifting alliances, and dismantle the cartel from within. In a world where no one can be trusted, every decision could have deadly consequences.

Described as a more intricate Papers, Please!, VICE Undercover features a retro-inspired operating system, Amigo OS, reminiscent of Windows 3.1. In the game you will access confidential databases, monitor security cameras, decode files, wire money, order hits, and uncover hidden crime networks. VICE Undercover stars Colombian actress Kimberly Reyes as Vida and cult actor Tamer Hassan in a key role.

You can also download a free demo on Steam, offering two full episodes of the game’s 24-episode story. The complete game is set to launch in early 2025, delivering over 20 hours of thrilling content.

The post In VICE Undercover, you will infiltrate the operations of a powerful cartel first appeared on IndieGames.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a casual mystery adventure where solving crime is no walk in the pond. The players take on a role of duck detective whose powers of de-duck-tion allow him to collect evidence, fill in the blanks and solve the case once and for all. This 2-3 hour long fully voice-acted mystery game offers a short but definitely twisty detective case.

Inspect and interview suspects to learn their hidden secrets, then use the information you’ve gathered to locate the suspect and reveal a sinister sausage-based conspiracy. Judge everyone on first impressions and get them to admit things just by staring. Get ready to fill in the blanks and crack this engaging case.

The post Duck Detective: The Secret Salami coming to Switch in physical format this week first appeared on IndieGames.

The Operator is a game where players assume the role of an operator working for an FBI-like organization called the FDI. The game features a unique fake OS system for tasks like fact-checking, searching databases, and identifying criminals. The game’s dark, conspiracy-laden atmosphere has resonated with players, drawing comparisons to classic shows like The X-Files.

Several factors contributed to the game’s strong performance:

• Streamer Support: Big-name streamers like xQc and Bob Lennon helped bring attention to the game by streaming it to their large audiences. The game’s mysterious and sinister tone proved to be a perfect fit for streamers who enjoy investigative and conspiracy-themed content.
• Unique Genre Appeal: “Fake OS” games, where players interact with a simulated computer interface, are a niche but growing genre. Games like Orwell and Hypnospace Outlaw have shown there is interest in this type of immersive storytelling, and The Operator capitalized on this.
• Positive Reviews Despite Length: Despite being a relatively short game (3-4 hours) with a linear storyline, The Operator received 93% positive reviews on Steam. Players praised the game’s quality, with many noting that the experience was so engaging that its brevity didn’t matter.
• Localization Efforts: The game was localized into multiple languages at launch, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Chinese. This broad accessibility likely boosted sales, especially in France, which accounted for 20% of total sales.

The Operator možete pronaći na Steam.

The post How The Operator Sold Nearly 50,000 Copies in Its First Month first appeared on IndieGames.

300 years have passed since the series of tragedies befell the Cloudsley bloodline. Stories of the iconic Golden Idol have all but become myths and legends. Those who once coveted the Idol and the supernatural power it possesses are gone - but not entirely forgotten. While the rest of the world is distracted by the lights and music of the 1970s, a tenacious relic hunter listens to the whispers of stories rarely told of an artifact that can reshape the world.

The new Golden Idol continues the phenomenal art of the series, where instead of a pixel-centric style, this new game looks like a painting brought to life. A significant change from the previous game is that The Rise of the Golden Idol moves away from the 18th century setting and instead moves to a more modern time period, taking players back to the 1970s. In this modern context, players will be challenged to solve 15 new cases of “crime, death and corruption”.

You must uncover a great mystery that takes place in the age of hallucinogens, fax machines, parapsychology and TV guides. Enlightenment seekers, convicts, show hosts, and corporate middle management will all play a key role in the larger mysteries that unfold as you progress. As always, many of these entities will have their own motivations, with some carrying burdens outside of normal daily agendas.

There is currently no release date for The Rise of the Golden Idol, but it will be coming to PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, Steam and mobile via Netflix sometime next year.

The post The Rise of the Golden Idol, the sequel to last year's detective game, has been announced first appeared on IndieGames.

Paws of Coal is actually a standalone spin-off set in the Trip the Ark Fantastic world, that is, the world of the animal kingdom. The plot is set in the 19th century, at the time of industrialization and sudden political changes. Trade unionism, labor rights and government responsibility are the main issues that run through this game, and its style itself will perhaps remind many of old Croatian cartoons with a moral message and an interesting story. Namely, the community of rabbit miners in Burrows has been struck by an apparently contagious disease. Angered by the royal administration's indifferent response to this crisis, the rabbits go on strike, fighting for better working conditions and rights. Charles the hedgehog, a scientist and botanist, is assigned to investigate the disease.

In the role of Charles, you will collect important information, clues by talking to different animals, reading scientific books and carefully inspecting the environment and objects. You will be able to form alliances with various animal factions to gain access to exclusive information. In addition, you will use deductive methods to connect clues and distinguish solid evidence from misleading clues and rumors. Finally, you will submit a report, formed based on the selection of one or more non-linear conclusions, to solve the tasks. During the investigation, you will be forced to make difficult moral decisions concerning the class- and elite-divided society of the Animal Kingdom. Your decisions will affect the development of the story, and conclusions based on wrong assumptions can push the story, often in unforeseen directions.

In the meantime, we'd like to thank Aleksandr for taking the time to tell us more about his game. You can also read our review of the mentioned game, and be sure to take a look at Gamechuck which released this wonderful title.

Gamechuck was created 6 years ago, in 2017 to be exact. How much has the studio advanced and in what sense when you look at the situation 6 years ago and today?

Officially yes. Officially, about 6 years ago, a colleague and I started working on our first game, and then it was, let's say, the beginning of Gamechuck, but yes, we did it from home, just the two of us without salary, without anything. I would even say that the better moment of the beginning is when we actually released that game and opened the business and when there was a hunt for it and that was our first game All You Can Eat. Although when we opened that business, there were only two of us. We tried to include some other people in the story, but it was difficult. Only when we opened the Gamechuck company in 2019 and hired the first people and had enough funds, I think that's the beginning of the story, so it's been a few years now, say four years. The difference is huge, from two friends working on the game to the fact that at some point this year we had as many as 20 people. The size of the games is bigger, we started with interactive comics, then we went for a kind of retro arcade style with Speed Limit, which was also bigger, then let's say Midwinter that we are working on is even bigger.

Simply, the games are bigger and more people are needed for them. We have educated people in the company who only deal with business development, only marketing, that is, community management, a dedicated level designer, everything you can imagine and it's a completely different style. It's completely different when you have a Jack of all Trades style of company where one or two people do everything or are divided, they divide a hundred roles each fifty-fifty and now literally where we have the composer, the designer himself as one person in the company who does only that full time. Ok, maybe it's not full time, so he still works on the way, I don't know, something small and other, but in fact he is a person who professionally focused on just that. In this way, the games are certainly more professional, bigger, they can get much more attention, and this can be seen by the kind of interest of the publishers. Yes, we gather much more attention, but of course, it is much more difficult to maintain a larger company. More people means more projects, on each of which you have to make sure that it is on time, that the money comes in, etc. On the other hand, we have a lot of our own internal things that we hold on to, which also do not make the situation any easier. We are very much against any kind of overtime, especially larger overtime like the crunch that is often mentioned in the industry. We try and always manage to get the salaries on the first of the month and so on.

Now all these things, of course, when you're a small company that's just starting out and that has a certain amount of success, then you can do all that, but when it's a situation like this where we're actually just looking for our first success, we have some small games out there, that's it, I think in any case, interesting and demanding, but so far, we have survived, functioned and people are happy, to some extent. Some people even leave us, of course, when a company has been around for as long as ours, it's a kind of average in the world that people stay in a company for four years and beyond. Our company has existed for just over four years, fortunately not so many people have left, but some people do. We had one programmer from Belgium and one composer from Great Britain who returned to their homeland. They were also a little homesick for their homeland, so they returned. It's even weirder how long they stayed, the Belgian was there for three years, but some people who are from here also leave and it's now a kind of normal part of the company. It is normal for people to start having other interests and leave. We had one who left to start his own video game company, but that was recently so we're still waiting for something to crystallize there. Well, that's a brief impression of what life in Gamechuck looks like from my perspective.

Are you satisfied with the conditions in Croatia?

It's hard to say actually, surely artists will be more satisfied than programmers if you only talk about material conditions in terms of salary levels. Because those programmers can always go to a bank to work for three times the salary, but the thing is that some parts of the conditions like relaxation, reduced working hours and the like, this is something that is rarely found in the industry or even outside the industry, so then people I guess the prices and that might even cover part of the fact that the salary might be lower than it would be in some mega companies. I think that people are happy, I wouldn't say that they are relatively dissatisfied, the only thing that everyone would like, and that's what I would like of course, is some kind of greater stability. So, some kind of success that would guarantee us that we don't patch up every year, but that we are sure not for one, but maybe even two years, that we can make more serious plans, and that is quite demanding for a small company. Now we are a company that is not that new, so that is now a serious goal for us, to have a long period of stability and peace without thinking about what will happen after that period or, if possible, without thinking about what will happen ever. But now it's already that perpetuum mobile that everyone dreams of, but it's hard to do.

Can we then say that Gamechuck is a unique studio in Croatia since we know that you deal with interesting projects that combine video games and social innovation? How did you start that way?

As a studio, I guess we somehow attract such projects, so those people who do such things come to us, then I guess they recommend us further, etc. I'll give you a couple of examples. We were working on a project in Pula related to the preservation of their heritage, so we filmed grandparents who are the oldest inhabitants of the city of Pula, and then we tried to actually measure them in terms of to that one project, what do people think about the changes in that city over the last 100 years, because some of these people are really old enough to be able to talk about how it was at the beginning of the last century and compare. Then you shoot on the green screen, remove the green screen, put them in some kind of AR world and then talk to them. Of course, it's our first AR project, so we didn't even use our technology, we didn't go all over again for AR, but we stuck to Equinox's Equinox Vision project. Well, that's one example. We also worked a lot with the association Rode, they contacted us, they are a well-known association of parents in action.

They were working on a project whose goal was to teach children the basics of traffic, so we made a small RPG game, it's even available on Steam, so if anyone is interested, it's available in Croatian and English, and it's called Monster Adventure. So you can play that too. Then later they hunted us down to make another level for that game. It often happens that someone recommends us, or someone to whom we have done something good gets in touch and says: "Come on, do something more." Various socially useful projects are simply caught, the bank will never come to us and ask us for a project. It's just not like that, maybe we're not that kind of studio and well, we're all happy to work on nice projects. Often these can be educational projects, so we did VR a couple of times for some upskill education. We did a lot of educational quizzes, applications and the like, even now we are doing something for Carnet. It is actually pleasant to do such things - interesting, fun, socially useful, of course, the downside is that many of these projects are not as mega paid as some corporate jobs are now. That's how we profiled, which is probably why people find us. The funny thing is that we never find others, but usually people send us some mail, interesting.

What about Baltazar that everyone is talking about today?

And Professor Baltazar, that's also a great story. That was drawn by the team, for example Zlatko Druško did concept art. He was a member of the Zagreb movie, he drew Flying Bears, I don't know who still remembers that, but it was a big deal. Actually, a lot of the team from our team is somehow connected with Zagreb film, our cartoonists and how we worked on that Ark Fantastic, so now it's this standalone game Paws of Coal in that same world. In any case, the city office for culture said to us: "well, you have the staff, let's connect you with Zagreb film", and Zagreb film then suggested: "let's make with you some cooperation. We give you the right to Baltazar so that you can make a video game about him".

Unfortunately, what the situation is, Zagreb Film does not have any funds for this, but we were left to ourselves to find funds, but luckily, today it is also not difficult, so HAVC, for example, rushed in with part of the funds. Now we are looking for publishers to cover the rest, but it will be very interesting, and through that project we met the people who actually worked on Baltazar. Who actually drew the original Baltazar in the early seventies, and they are, of course, now deeply retired, but when they see that some great project is being done and that we have that respect for that brand, people are interested and want to help, they want to come. Even Branko Teslić, who drew Baltazar, he is retired, but he came to help and work on it, and now he is interested in the video game industry and so on. He was even on Reboot. An incredibly interesting moment happens where that one industry that somehow died out somewhere in the nineties, all those animation studios, that whole Zagreb school of animated film, is connected. Somehow it slowed everything down, but now in the world of video games it could be revitalized and we are dealing with it. I am very happy about that and I hope that we will succeed, that it will not be just some micro attempt, but that it will spread further. Baltazar is the first step, if someone was at Infogamer or Reboot, at some of those festivals, they could play it, but I think we could soon release some kind of demo for the online audience to play as well without any major problems.

How do you reach a publisher and is it difficult, for example, to reach a publisher who is interested in exactly that game?

Why even have a publisher? Why not release your own game? The main reason is that when you're a small studio and you don't have a hit yet, you can't really judge whether your game will be successful or not, and you don't have the funds to complete it and you don't have the funds to invest in marketing. So publishers are the ones who should somehow take over in the case of small studios that are not yet successful, they need to take on a certain risk: financial risk, marketing risk, etc. And of course, publishers are the ones who have a lot of connections and acquaintances and can perhaps play safer better than arranging some kind of exclusive deal with some platform, etc. When I explained all that, the goal for us and many other small video game producers is to find a publisher and present the project to them.

Since there are so many of us from all over the world involved in video games, it is very important that your project is as good and as developed as possible. That vertical slice, that's what it's called, that little demo you present should be as polished as possible and be something innovative, that is, new. For them to say ok, this is actually something we haven't seen yet, and yet it's not too new, it's not too innovative, but we can fit it in somehow. We see that there will be some audience, but this is where we struggle the most, because often people tell our projects that they are too innovative. In the sense that they simply don't have a way to find that niche or when we combine two genres, which is what we did recently. Then they say well, we know that this genre succeeds, that maybe the other one will succeed and very often they say that we are brave, but since we are not purely marketing, we cannot assess whether it can succeed or not.

So they often ask for some kind of feedback. Some kind of proof if the player feedback is positive. They ask us to show them whistle list numbers, did we go to any event, so the game grew on Steam because of that. That's the same thing we can show them, so we don't have bad experiences, we've managed to get publishers for almost every project. One project we haven't gotten a publisher for yet, and have been looking for a while, is Ark Fantastic. This is really something that may be a problem in the entire industry that such kind of narrative point and click titles with a lot of text simply cannot find a publisher. Very probably because their time has passed, now there are other trends, it's much easier to find a publisher for something more action-oriented, etc. So that's something we had to come to terms with. Here, the decision was to come to terms with it and start releasing that game independently, and that's why this Paws of Coal as the first episode in a series of long stories is the first step.

On several occasions Gamechuck received funds from the European fund Kreativna Europa and you are the first Croatian game developers supported by the Media subprogram. What does this mean for you and for a studio in Croatia? Is a good picture also sent to other developers in Croatia?

We were the first to get Creative Europe and we just got it for Ark Fantastic. That's why, let's say, when you start Paws of Coal, you have that logo, it's no longer an obligation, that is, only an obligation during development, but since they helped us in this way and that was at the beginning of the company, we want to be as honest as possible and then we will stick that logo whenever we can. Because that project is very similar, it's part of that same universe. We were only the first, but we were not the only ones. After us, a year later, I know because I used to help people write those projects a lot, so I roughly know who got everything. It was later won by Spektar, Pine, LGM, Mazinger Games, it is a small and interesting studio and this year we won again, and we are one of the rare studios, rare even in Europe, that won it twice. Now we got an interesting game that I can't really talk about because it's still being worked on, but if anyone was at Reboot, they probably saw some kind of 3D combination of genres. Unusually innovative, we'll see what kind of success it will have, but it's at least some way that if you're already doing something that's a little on the experimental side, there's still some way to finance at least part of it through funds.

On the other hand, Paws of Coal is quite a small game. It takes people maybe three hours to finish it, it depends on how good you are, or if you read everything. It is quite a small game and we could release more such games, but they are too small games to be financed by any means. It's something we can even finance ourselves, it's just a matter of sustainability. I've seen that it's been working for the last 24 hours, but it's going as you would expect for a point and click game, it's a very niche genre, especially if the brand hasn't been built, and we're only now in the phase of building that brand .

Why the animal kingdom and the 19th century? What is the idea and inspiration?

You've got the whole tradition of Watership Down and Animal Farm, maybe people followed that the most. You tell some kind of story through an allegory with animals, somehow that was the closest to me and the animal kingdom is an obvious kingdom. You have some kind of emperor, so it is interesting to wonder when the animal kingdom we know will become an animal democracy or something else, that political moment is purely interesting in its name. Why the 19th century? Well, when you talk about it as issues of monarchy, revolution, reform, democracy and the like, that era is, of course, clearly the era of the industrial revolution and the era of the People's Spring. We want to tell a story, but it is difficult to tell a story about a revolution, a social revolution in the Middle Ages, and it would be strange to watch some medieval knights talking about exploitation, about the proletariat, etc. Now, the main problem is what we will do, will we just retell European history or we want to give a broader picture.

I would like that through all these games some kind of abstract thesis is given that we abstractly think about monarchy and its pluses and minuses, democracy, some kind of anarchy as three different systems of electing leaders. In anarchy, there is no leader, but everything is somehow self-governing, and in a democracy, the leader is democratically elected. You have some kind of procedures in the monarchy where the leader is chosen in advance by some kind of higher power. These are, in my opinion, interesting enough questions that it might actually work in a completely fantastical world, but since we as players are born into a world that has certain tropes, one of those tropes is that the revolution takes place in the 19th century and that the revolutionaries have those small caps. It's just the way it is and you should accept it and enjoy it in that world. They could have been Roman emperors, they didn't have to be animals, they could be aliens, but this is how it goes.

We in Paws of Coal try to find out why the disease has hit the rabbit population. Can we somehow connect it to COVID-19?

Yes, we were definitely strongly influenced by what was happening around us. The pandemic was in the real world, so we put the story of the pandemic into a video game. However, the story about the pandemic is not interesting if it is not mentioned what we are actually dealing with, which is that the writer of that story is Jan, he problematized not only the pandemic, but the main social issue is who should pay the cost of this pandemic. People are sick, you need to pay, and in this context of our real world, you had to invent that vaccine and pay for it, who pays for what those people are not at work, etc. And that is actually the reason for the strike of those rabbits.

Those rabbits actually want the management, that badger who is in the administration of the mining town, that he actually pays you as the main character, the hedgehog who is a scientist, to research it and to discover a cure for you, because if you do it yourself, because you are character from an RPG game who likes to solve quests for the love of everything, that actually creates a problem for them. Then it gives the message that in the future the management does not have to pay anything, everything will be solved by itself. At the very beginning of the game when you talk to those strikers, there is the first social conflict between everyone wanting to solve this pandemic, but if you solve it on your own, you're actually doing a big problem to the labor movement, and you shouldn't be solving it until you get paid. Of course, the badger understands that and he doesn't want to pay you, but now you're getting into some kind of moral problem, are you going to help those rabbits to solve this disease, and thus you pay off because then every future disease and any problem the management will also raise your hands or you will set a precedent and say no, I as a scientist have to be paid for it and management has to pay me. This is just one example of those social movements that need to be talked about, but also that should have been talked about 200 years ago when it was on the news and in the real world, but it's never too late, so this thesis will also be in this video game, and people while playing will be able to think about it a little more.

In Paws of Coal, there is this unique journaling system that we use to reach some conclusions and preserve clues. How did you come up with that idea and how did you do it?

When we started to think of that system, we didn't find anything similar. Meanwhile, there were a couple of games that did something very, very similar, for example, Sherlock Holmes. The idea is actually that you collect different clues, evidence, parts of conversations, physical things, anything. Any clues you find you connect and you choose how to connect them depending on which clues you put in the journal and which ones you don't. You can conclude certain hypotheses and let's say now, depending on what you put, you can indicate the conclusions. What is even more innovative with us is that it is not that the game leads you to the exact solution, nor that there is an exact solution in the sense that it may exist ontologically, but it does not exist in the sense that the video game tells you it's game over. If you, for example, solved the pandemic in the wrong way and now clicked that all the rabbits should be fed so and so in order to solve it, the game won't stop now, it won't say game over, you killed the rabbits, you have to try again. The game goes on and you hand it over to the doctor, the doctor does something and the story continues. Maybe someone gets fired if you conclude something wrong, maybe you conclude something wrong and some rabbit gets even more sick, so that's a big problem. These are all things that you see later on, and that's our idea through the next sequels, basically, just to deepen it to even refer to a couple of the previous games that happened. That you simply go ahead with your conclusions, without ever knowing what is right. You just click submit, it doesn't say bravo, right or wrong, but you will see through the world, and sometimes you won't, what was right and what was wrong.

You used the Godot engine to develop the game. How famous is it and what makes it better than other engines?

We have already used so many of these engines in the company: GameMaker was for Speed Limit and for our first comics, we use Unity for Midwinter and Godot for Paws of Coal and other games. Godot is open source, which is a plus because then you can do what you want in it. You have the entire code available and you can then connect to other systems, other people help you and then develop their own things, etc. That's ok, but there is a big minus, which is that it is not as commercially strong as Unity and Unreal.

So there are some things where, if you want to make a commercial video game and if you want it to be very big, you will have some small problems that you have to polish before it comes out. It's not impossible, it's just some kind of additional work that is solved in some other engines. For example, something related to shaders might be a little easier to solve in other engines. If it is about some hobbyists or small games then it is not a problem at all, then I would even recommend it. Maybe I wouldn't recommend it because there aren't many people who work in Godot, now especially in Croatia there are so many Unity courses and every year 20 people come out of Novska who know how to work on it. Then maybe I wouldn't recommend the Godot engine when there are so many people here who know Unity and have their own little interesting community in Croatia, it even has a Discord channel. These are quality and capable people. What's certain is that when you're looking for a Unity developer, you can get a junior who's bad, and when you're looking for a Godot developer, you can't really get a really bad junior. The worst you can get is someone who obviously entered the engine on his own and obviously had to learn it well, but that's my experience.

Which engine do you think is better - Unity or Unreal?

We haven't worked with Unreal yet, it's the only engine we haven't used. We've used GameMaker, Unity, Godot, even some that nobody's heard of, but I hear all the best about Unreal in the sense that it's great for some AAA graphics. That it has a blueprint system that non-developers can work in, not to mention that their payment system through Epic and Unreal games is simple. How much you have to pay in platform royalties is much less and not to mention the fact that Epic Games is a brand, all these things in terms of business, technology and development of a studio make sense for Unreal. You just need to find people who know it. As a studio, we started with 2D. We've been making 2D games and we're just now starting with 3D, something small, but simply Unreal wasn't really focused on 2D that much, so it wasn't really a logical first step for us. If we start doing more 3D stuff, we'll probably switch to Unreal like many other studios. In fact a lot of studios that went into 3D stuff just switched to Unreal.

How long was the development of Paws of Coal?

We developed it as Ark Fantastic, the story was written for Ark Fantastic and then it was reworked, so the art style changed many times, etc. It is very difficult to say how long it was developed. It's been a long time since nothing was done on it because we were working on other projects, but it was really hectic. I can't tell you personally, I know it's less than four years because we didn't even start four years ago. Maybe two years, I would have to add it up and say that's how much. Not everyone worked on it all the time. Let's say about two years.

The whole game is drawn by hand and a special classical music was composed? How did you decide on that?

We paid a lot of attention to the process here. The process was very important to us. The composer was the one I mentioned from Manchester, Fenton Hutson. He made all that music in the style of the 19th century, that is, the leitmotifs of Wagner. Each location has its own music that starts and ends. Transitions between locations were also thought about a lot. The soundtrack can also be bought because I really think that it is of extremely high quality and is a very good piece of classical music in my opinion.

The visuals are also a lot of effort, in fact they are even drawn in a much higher resolution for 4K. This is just regular FULL HD, but we have it all in 4K resolution if you ever need it. The characters themselves are animated, although every frame is literally animated by hand. For example, this is best seen on the old rabbit Gart, because he trembles, because he is very old, and you can literally see in the trembling that he is not drawn the same every time. Which again is a huge effort. The animation was done by Ivana Radić, she previously worked on the animated documentary Chris the Swiss, which was even at the Cannes Film Festival. In my opinion, Paws of Coal is visually beautiful, musically good, narratively interesting, and programmatically it's also fun because you have some interesting mechanics that we haven't seen before, that diary system, so you decide some things yourself, and the story goes in that direction, etc. Yes, I think it is unique and the question is whether people will recognize it. I think it will after a while, especially if we keep that brand and start doing more.

So when could we see the green light for Ark Fantastic, and is there a demo?

Basically, people can play Trip the Ark Fantastic, and in the demo version that's on itch.io the visuals are different, they're not the same visuals as in Paws of Coal, they're more modernized. The music is completely different, more reminiscent of 20th century Hollywood, not 19th century Wagner, but it's still a good game, it's still very high quality. Will it find a publisher and funding for the future, I would like to say yes, but it is not in my hands. The main goal is to one day make that big story in that world of the animal kingdom, which is a story about how that animal kingdom is transformed or not transformed depending on your decisions. So, we'll see, it's hard for me to say now.

Apart from the games you mentioned and mentioned, what other games does Gamechuck develop?

Besides Midwinter, Trip the Ark Fantastic, Baltazar, a game that we got funding from Creative Europe, which I can't talk too much about, we're doing another game called Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl 2 that we got the rights to. Jay and Silent Bob are famous characters, now I don't know who remembers from Kevin Smith's channel, they are a team, smoking weed in front of a shopping center and talking nonsense, now in a video game they enter that shopping center and fight, so the team asked us to work two, there is a part of the team working on it. We do a lot of Work for Hire projects for some money, in fact we do a lot, even too many things, so we are a little bit all over the place. Somehow these things are completed, quite slowly here and there we finish something.

At some point we just sit down and say, let's focus on this and finish that. That's how it was, I remember, in 2021 with Speed Limit, so we said let's put a lot more resources into this to finish it. So it was at the end of 2021 with Midwintar where we said, ok, we have this, but we need to polish it to find a publisher. The whole team focused on it, or at least most of the team, and then of course the publisher came. There are those moments when we really decide that 100 projects at the same time is really enough, let's focus and then the most amazing things happen.

What is the secret of Speed Limit's success? You released it two years ago and the game was well received?

It was well received, it has very good reviews, I think it's about 80% positive on Steam, and it was on PlayStation, Switch, Xbox. That porting was our first experience of being on consoles, and people liked that retro vibe. This game was designed by Igor Kolar, co-owner of the company, he imagined it to be an ode to retro games, and in this way each level helps another genre of retro arcades. The first is obviously an homage to sidescrolling games, for example, Metal Slug, and then when the character jumps into the car, the perspective literally changes, then it is an homage to top down racing games, that is, racing shooters like Spy Hunter. Basically, every level changes your perspective and genre. There are people who appreciate it, there are people who will appreciate such an interesting concept. There may not be many of them, I tell you, that game is not a mega hit, but 10,000 copies is ok. You're happy when you see that all these people are happy, that it's a fun game for them. That game is actually very short, since there are so many different levels and each one is different, and in total it takes about an hour, let's say, to go through it all. All those who finished it could comfortably press a refund on Steam and then you are glad when you see that no one clicked it or very few people did it. People respect what is offered in that game, I think we caught a very good combination of having some kind of innovative spin, having a pixel art style, having something retro in you and that it's action, that it's fun, that it's fast-moving and that yet today passes. That may be the best formula. Like when you do some slow games with a lot of reading, it's cool, but you can't stream it, you can't go on Twitch and watch people read the text. It is much easier to do dynamic shooters, actions and that.

And Gamechuck has its own arcade system, what can you tell us about it?

It's another one of those projects that have been in stock for a very long time, like many comics, so are those arcades. As a studio that has so much stuff, some of that stuff has to be put on ice. Then those arcades have been on ice for a very long time, but they are moving slowly. You can go to one arcade, I don't know now, if someone is reading from Zagreb, you can go to Crni mačak in Zagreb and play there, it's literally standing there on the bar, that is, next to the bar in Mesnička street. There is a Speed Limit right there in that arcade. The second arcade is in the Zagreb Innovation Center, where our office is, where you have 100 companies and our arcade is in one corridor. These are all prototypes, before we start sending around coffee shops and arranging some leasings, we have to make a final prototype and say that's it. This requires us to focus again only on that and after X months we finish and say here it is, that's it, it's over and now we can go out with it.

In your opinion, what genres do Croats like to play? Mostly Croatian studios release point and click video games.

It is interesting that our studios like to release point and click titles, Saint Kotar for example. People like to play action games the most, we are no different as Croats in that regard, probably also RPG games. We worked in a cluster of video game producers and did that analysis where we asked students what they play and how much they spend, so at some point I even saw that data from students. That should be analyzed in great detail so that I don't tell you something wrong. Let's say, we could do such a detailed analysis, it's not difficult, we even have some data already, but here, I don't know it by heart. You noticed well, at least when we look at the developers, a lot of people are keen on those point and clickers, I think part of the solution is that in the 90s you could run those games on old computers. A lot of people who can play video games today, so they are somewhere around 25, 30 or 35 years old, they were at the age to play these games so that it would be interesting for them. That was the golden age of adventures, Monkey Island at the end of the nineties, the rest of the games from Lucas Arts, Sierra's games... That was exactly that era, and now if you grew up in that era, of course you find it very interesting, you want to recreate it and you don't spoil it, actually that genre is easy to do. Ok, you need a very good story, it's typed in, but you don't need some crazy code, you just click and the character moves where you clicked and then you have some dialogue. In fact, programmatically you can't fall into some development hell, only maybe narratively.

On the Internet, I can read comments on different websites that as soon as we Croats see that the game is ours, we immediately buy it, how true is that, what do you think?

Very good question, here, I really don't know. Honestly, I'm always against those ideas that a nation is special because we're different, it's great for jokes, it's great like when you make jokes about the Irish or Scots who are stingy and the Croats who are like this or that. Absolutely all the things that happen here, also happen elsewhere. I also lived in Brussels for a while, it's more or less the same for you. It is good that the question is asked so that people can answer for themselves.

Why do indie developers, especially in Croatia, like to make their own games and break into the video game industry in such ways, and then it takes them a long time to release their product? What's your opinion?

I think that everyone has their own different motivations, and in most cases, including in my case, it's because you grow up with a medium, that is, you grow up with video games. I grew up with Game Boy, the team grew up with Nintendo, PlayStation and you just want to produce content like that. You just have to get the team together and that's it. Now is the best time for it. Starting to make video games in the nineties was a pain because then there were no engines that you can download online. There were no YouTube channels where you learn tutorials, there was no support from HAVC to let you hunt to make a video game. There were not many things in the nineties and 2000s, even in the 2010s. In the early 2010s, it was a pain. I am lucky that I started it with a colleague in 2017 - we made a video game in 2018, and even then it was the first time that the Ministry of Culture and Media financed the game; In 2019, we won Creative Europe for the first time in Croatia; 2021 was the first time that HAVC gave money etc.

Now it's actually kind of, at least in the sense that there are funds, there are projects and some kind of educational projects, exactly in that same period: in 2018, PISMO started in Novska; In 2019, the Edu for Games project started at the Academy of Dramatic Art, just like that for video games; now Algebra has its own course, a graduate course for video game programmers, and VERN has that transmedia dramaturgy that is what video games are. Siniša Mahun teaches game design there. There are a lot of things that didn't exist five years ago, literally in five years in the field of education, finance, personnel (that education creates some personnel), some kind of events, let's say seven or six years ago there were no Dream Cups games at all. Now you have a relationship, on Fridays the team meets and hangs out, even if you are not in the industry you can enter it and hang out at one of those game dev dream cups and meetups. All these things, when added up, show that we are in a kind of renaissance of Croatian development, and now it's great to get into it. I didn't know that, I came just before that, but now I'm glad and I see that it's much easier for everyone else who starts, it used to be much more difficult because you had to make much more difficult decisions and you had to pay a lot of attention to it. These are well-known stories, people worked for years from their mother's basement, but that is no longer the case. People don't have to work in the basement for free for two years, now everything can be accelerated.

What games do you play in your free time and what genre appeals to you?

I usually like to play adventures, point and click narrative adventures. Right now I'm playing It Takes Two, that is, I'm finishing it. Before that I played Untitled Goose Game, it's not really a narrative adventure but I had a lot of fun. In the last five years, the strongest game for me was the one I played in the 2020s, Disco Elysium, it's not exactly a combat RPG, but an extremely good one. Lately, I quite like the fact that RPG elements are connected: skill trees, experience, leveling and that it is put in some kind of setting that is completely without combat, without the fact that you now have to hit the goblin 10,000 times to get 50 000 times + 1XP. Only the most interesting things from the genre are taken, at least the most interesting to me, and that's not beating goblins, but quests, solving quests, leveling, skills, roleplaying, character development. That's interesting and I'm glad that the focusing on it now. I would like to play some games that I still can't because I don't have a PlayStation, but let's say I've never played The Last of Us, now there's also a series. I would like to play that. Besides, I've played the Witcher and it's not the best game of all time. I like RPGs like that, but not now that they're the best things ever. I like playing Disco Elysium ten times more.

Can you talk about any significant challenges or considerations in developing games for different age groups, such as children or adults?

In the case of Baltazar, it is very simple, because we want it to be family friendly, maybe there will be a joke that will be funnier, wittier and will make an adult laugh. The principle of Disney and Pixar, as children laugh at one thing and parents laugh at something else. You really try to make it family friendly and that there is nothing excessive, like swearing or something. When you play Paws of Coal, there's no swearing, no blood, nothing like that. It can be played by a ten-year-old kid and he may not understand all the themes, but he can play it. As for these games that are more action-oriented, in my opinion it is very important to have some kind of PG moment (parental guidance), anyone can play, but you don't get anything special. Now if you put five curse words into the game you won't gain anything special with it, but you will lose that someone who is too young won't be able to click "buy this game". On the other hand, of course they will want to buy that game, you can deliberately go and buy games that are +12, but you can say that all the things in the game are family friendly. Ok, if you're a werewolf slaughtering in villages, of course it's not family friendly. We already know today that our whole society is such that, more or less, kids also play games and watch movies with a lot of violence and everything. That's not even a problem. Interesting things can be told without it. We don't have a strong position in the sense that now I say in the company we must not make a game where you can see blood, of course not. In Speed Limit, we had guns that you shoot people with and spit blood, but that's all cartoon violence, it's nothing worse, it's nothing you'll have nightmares about. It is a pixel art character that shoots pixel art blood. It's abstraction in a way, it's a lot more abstraction and levels of abstraction than some kind of hyperrealistic Call of Duty. I don't think it's even a problem. I think literally anyone can play games and no one will have a problem. If the kids didn't have a problem watching Tom and Jerry hit each other with those pans and smash their heads in, then they won't have a problem with pixel art violence.

Do you think that Paws of Coal can be transformed into a cartoon, that is, screened - we have a moral message, educational elements, an interesting story and detective motives?

The main problem is, of course, performance. If it was a mega-successful title or if that whole franchise became mega-successful, of course Netflix would probably call us and say let's do cartoons. We are far from that. You're right, it's all kind of drawn by hand, it could be really interesting, we could make it look like a cartoon. After all Balazar, we literally need to cut out the parts that are playable and here are the episodes of Balthazar. If you played it on television, no one would realize it was from the game.

Thank you Aleksandar for this conversation, we wish Gamechuck all the luck and success, and we may hear from you and see another opportunity when we receive new information related to games coming from your studio.  

The post Hrvatski studio Gamechuck nedavno je objavio povijesnu point & click avanturu Paws of Coal first appeared on IndieGames.

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