Blendo Special – Brendon Chung Interview

Next up, it’s only an interview with Brendon Chung his very self:

What is Blendo Games and how did it come about?
I’ve been making small games as a side hobby for a while.  After working at a game studio for five years, I decided to take the plunge and return to my small indie projects. So, I started Blendo Games.

Your games all have a bit of an absurdist twist, with Pilot Light most prominently displaying this comedic quality.  What do you think influences this aspect of your game design?
Because humorous games are way too rare!  The world needs more Day of the Tentacle and No One Lives Forever.  Besides, light funny stuff is more fun to work on.

Gravity Bone was very well received.  Have you any intention to develop this particular project?
I’d like to continue with more Gravity Bone someday.  First-person shooters are the genre that got me interested in game development, so they have a special little place in my heart.

Flotilla is another change of direction for you.  Could you tell us a little bit about the genesis of the game?  Why did you decide to develop this project for your first commercial release?
About four years ago I made a space battleship game. It was played from a top-down 2D view, and was simultaneous turn-based.  I didn’t have time to finish it, so it didn’t get a public release.

Flotilla’s predecessor

Years later, I was working on my zombie game and decided to take a break from it. I thought it would be fun to learn how to make a 3D game.  So, I took my old 2D space game and expanded it to 3D.  It’s funny how your old prototypes can rise from the dead.

Hmm, mines taken out for Flotilla

The player character in Flotilla has seven months to live which limits each adventure, forcing a restart.  Why did you implement this restriction?  Were you ever tempted to make the adventuring a little less transient?
I liked the idea of each playthrough being a hearty snack.  You start the adventure, hang out with animals, and twenty minutes later you’re done and ready for a brand new adventure.  There’s a certain freedom in not being pressured to always choose what you perceive is the “right” decision – each adventure is short so you can experiment with the branching storylines without a major time investment.

With that being said, I’m looking into adding an option for a “free exploration” mode for those who enjoy the long-form adventure.

There’s been loooooads of zombie themed games out recently.  Justify your current work-in-progress Atom Zombie Smasher – what’s it going to do differently?
Atom Zombie Smasher involves a crate of whiskey, a blood-stained map, and your grandparents. That’s all I can say at the moment.

Have you any thoughts, fears, hopes or philosophies for the future of indie gaming?
Games as a form of media is incredibly young.  The amount of unexplored territory is staggering.  It’s damn exciting to see developers pushing and poking the jello and seeing what jiggles.  Hell, we’re seeing new GENRES being created – open-world games, music games, motion controllers.  It’s a crazy time to be making games.

And finally, an obvious question but I’m genuinely curious: what else can we look forward to from Blendo?
Look forward to more content and updates to Flotilla, and expect Flotilla up on Xbox Indie Games sometime soon.  We have a couple of things in the works, but it’s a bit too early to make an announcement.  It might involve pandas.

Thanks Brendon.

Why not visit Blendo Games, home to all the titles discussed so far, including Flotilla – a review of which is filtering through the Gaming Daily pipelines as I type.  Try and contain your excitement, go on.