14 DAY TRIAL // Watch out! There's a new guy in town, Zak's the name, fly hunting the game, bumbling his way to PS Vita, PC and Mac, as well as iOS and Android platforms later this summer, in his very own adventure: Flyhunter Origins.
The upcoming game comes from a team of indie devs and animation veterans from Pixar, an enjoyable platformer for all ages that's laden with humor and good times to be had.
We had a quick talk with developer Steel Wool Games co-founder Andrew Dayton, who was kind enough to shed some light on the studio's upcoming project.
Flyhunter Origins looks really shiny from what I've seen so far, and I'm curious about where the game is going, especially considering its title; do you intend to show Zak's evolution from bumbling janitor all the way up to realizing his dream of becoming a veteran flyhunter?
Andrew Dayton: In Flyhunter Origins you get to help Zak progress from Janitor to Flyhunter. It introduces you to the world of Fly hunting and gives you a taste of the universe. There's a longer story attached to Flyhunter that we might explore in the future.
How did you come up with the idea for this? Was it something you were always entertaining at the back of your heads, and only now decided to crystallize into a more palpable form, or was it a single creative spark that emerged spontaneously?
We had a few fleshed-out ideas for our first game. Flyhunter Origins was an idea by Jonathan Hoffman, one of the original 5 co-founders. We chose Flyhunter because it was the most straightforward game in our arsenal of ideas. We didn’t want to learn the ropes of game development while designing new mechanics.
From a gameplay standpoint, do you intend to offer Zak a lot of cool gadgets to play with, or will he have to learn to best the challenges of Earth armed only with his trusty broom?
Well, you definitely get to upgrade his broom! You also get access to a Zap gun later in the game, which helps paralyze some of your tougher foes.
Why pick Earth as the setting of the entire adventure, why not some exotic alien planet?
We wanted to make the game have a familiar setting. Something players could visually relate to. If we made it on another planet, it would have lost some of its charm. At least for the first title, maybe there are some nasty flies elsewhere in the galaxy that we could explore too in the future.
What kind of locations will players be able to explore in Flyhunter Origins?
The majority of the game takes place on the edge of a trailer park in the American South East. You get to play in grass lands, a swamp, a garbage dump, inside a beehive, and a galactic government drone ship. So, while the game feels like you are traveling vast distances across various landscapes. In our scale, Zak is probably operating within a 50-foot area!
Do you intend to have humans play a role in the game, or exert their influence in some way?
Humans aren’t ever seen, but the game takes place on the fringe of their world. So, there is no human interaction, but you do interact with some of the human world environment.
I've seen that there are also 3D sections, kind of like in Star Fox, where you see Zak from behind, and you have to chase flies around the scenery and swat them. How will those play out, and what will trigger them?
Your job as a Flyhunter is to, well, hunt flies. So, in the game each fly is a boss chase. You will have to catch up to the fly and whack it with your swatter, you have limited Boost fuel, so you have to also collect fuel packets as you chase your prey. Some flies are more nimble but take less damage, some are a bit slower but are tanks.
The team's pedigree as animation professionals has made the game look great so far. Do you intend to translate your talent into animated in-game cutscenes?
Funny you mention that! We have about 20 minutes of in-game cutscenes for Flyhunter Origins.
Your creations look like they have the potential to appeal to a wide audience, to warrant a life beyond Flyhunter Origins. Do you have any plans for further trans-media projects like animated shorts or additional merchandise, as Universal Pictures did with Despicable Me or Ubisoft did with its Rabbids?
You never know. I always like to think there are creative possibilities!
Lastly, the game seems geared toward a younger audience; will you have something in there for adults as well, like Easter eggs and references, in the way animation films often do?
I think the humor of the game will appeal to both kids and adults. We have a few mechanisms for adding a little more adult humor. Zak’s travel companion is Guze Delnor, his AI Interactive Guide To Flyhunting that is basically the voice in Zak’s head throughout the game. Guze is a cross between game show host and used car salesman. Our load screens Mission Logs are the ships AI which has the demeanor of Star Trek’s Data mixed in with Aliens Corporal Hudson.
The bug-hunting adventure is coming out later this summer for PC, Mac, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android, and you can get an idea about its tone and eye-candy heavy visuals from the screenshots below.
