Interview: Sandswept Talks The Dead Linger
By Kyle Mann | September 17, 2011 | Interviews | No comments | Share
Some of you may recall a little multiplayer-focused, upbeat real-time strategy game earlier this year called Detour. Well, the developers are making a move into the lucrative market of zombie games with The Dead Linger, and they plan to make a big splash. We caught up with Sandswept Studios’ founder to get all the details.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into indie game development with Sandswept.
My name is Geoff Keene, I’m 20 years old and I’m the design director and founder of Sandswept Studios. We started our first projects as a team about 3 years ago, and released DETOUR earlier this year as my first professional title.
How does the developer of a fast-paced transportation-based RTS like Detour get inspired to make a zombie game?
The Dead Linger was actually inspired long before DETOUR (when I was about 15), and wasn’t planned for development until much later. DETOUR came along as a fun idea, something ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ to do. (Boy, we’re we wrong!) While it was fun, we’ve decided to move forward on the games we truly want to make, and The Dead Linger came forward as the chief candidate. It truly is the game I’ve always wanted to create, above all others.
Oh, speaking of Detour, is the same guy doing the music for The Dead Linger? Because the Detour soundtrack was pretty brilliant.
The same 2 guys who did most of the DETOUR soundtrack (Brandon Chapman and Jonathan Churchill) are also doing the music for The Dead Linger. You can expect some incredible pieces, some of which I’ve already heard, which I can confirm will make your hair stand on end.
(Gamers) are looking for a deeper, more gratifying zombie experience, and developers aren’t delivering... Is the genre dead? The imagination within it certainly is.
What lessons did the company learn from the development, release, and sales of Detour that you hope to carry over to The Dead Linger?
I’d have to say pretty much everything. If there was anything we thought we knew before, we know it *much* better now. We’ve learned some incredibly valuable lessons from DETOUR, and we’ve already seen those lessons helping when we apply them to our development of The Dead Linger. Less bugs, better programmed systems, more streamlined art pipeline, just to name a few.
Is the engine built from the ground up, or will you be using pre-made tools?
We’re basing the game on top of the OGRE 3D engine, but we’re developing a lot of the tools and many of the in-game systems that you simply can’t find in any engine, one example being the procedural generation system done at the level we’re doing it.
You guys state that “the zombie genre is dead”. Yet, games like Dead Island and Left 4 Dead are doing pretty well. Care to qualify what you guys mean by that?
I’ve already received a substantial amount of criticism for that line. Simply put, the zombie genre is filled (overflowing, really) with zombie games centered on the idea that the game is about killing zombie hordes while hipfiring a machine gun. If you look at all the games, they revolve around the line; “Look how many ways you can kill zombies!” I’ve heard from gamers time and time again, pleas for a deeper, smarter, more realistic zombie game. I had this plea a few years ago, and like those in chorus, to no avail. People watch zombie movies and discuss the inevitable “zombie apocalypse” with the question always lingering — what if I was in that situation? While zombie gore-fests are fun, they’re simply *not* true survival in the zombie apocalypse. Not one game has really said; “Here is your zombie apocalypse. Act.” I believe there’s a huge majority of gamers out there who are looking for a deeper, more gratifying zombie experience, and developers aren’t delivering. I’m making a game that I want to play. Is the genre dead? The imagination within it certainly is.
Continued on page 2.
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