One of the great things about indie games is that you never know what youre going to get, and as we sat down to talk to developer James Stone all we had to go on for the game was some ambiguous-looking sci-fi artwork and the fact that it was heavily influenced by his love of both Dark Souls and old Amiga games. Which translates into a sort of cross between Alien Breed and Dead Space.
Stone has not only created most of the game himself, organising one of the most successful crowd-funding campaigns ever on Fig, but he gave up his well-paid job in corporate management, sold up everything, and moved to China in order to facilitate the development. Incredibly he didnt even know how to program properly until recently, but youd never guess that from playing Xenosis.
My career was going well but my passion is with games and I think I decided… you know my friends were in the games industry and I was like, Man, I wish Id been in the games industry and then my wife said, Well, learn!, Stone tells us.
So I taught myself in the evenings. I dont think many people would give up a well-paid career, that youve invested 20-odd year into, but Id rather enjoy my life than work.
The game uses a top-down viewpoint and has you exploring an apparently derelict space craft that, if the subtitle is anything to go by, has been subject to some kind of alien infection. The only evidence we had of whats going on, in our brief hands-on, were some zombie-like creatures crawling around on the floor but theres clearly much more to the game than that.
Xenosis uses an unusual mix of graphic styles with purposefully low resolution textures that make the game look almost like a SNES Mode 7 game. Most of the objects are actual 3D models though and this contrasts with some excellent high-tech lighting and smoke effects. Both are of Stones own making, with the lighting apparently owing much to his background in photography (and obvious love for old James Cameron movies).
I dont have any training in game design but I know what feels good to me and I know what feels bad, said Stone.
So I just try to pull on my experiences with other gameRead More – Source
