Welcome back to IndieXP! It’s been a while since we concluded our previous set of interviews, but now we’re back with more devs, different questions, and fresh insights!
For those new to this whole thing, IndieXP is our series of developer interviews, and our way of trying to highlight some of the most creative and interesting minds of the indie dev scene. By joining us for each episode, our hope is that you’ll discover a whole host of fascinating new games while also learning a bit more about their creators.
The first episode of IndieXP Series 2 begins with a developer who’s certainly no stranger to dark, eerie and surreal topics, having worked on such titles as Daemonologie, Cardiac and Symphony of Seven Souls – in his latest project, Dead Format, players dive into mysterious VHS worlds based on iconic movie eras in a desperate attempt to find their missing brother. We sat down for a chat with Chris Evry (Katanalevy), the solo developer currently working on the game.
First things first: could you please introduce yourself for our readers?
Sure, I'm Chris, a solo developer from Scotland. I've been making small games for years like Symphony of Seven Souls, Cardiac and Daemonologie, but at the start of this year went full time on my current project thanks to the support of the publisher Oro Interactive. I'm a bit of a horror movie nerd and love everything from the gothic sublime to gory body horror.
Your latest horror game, Dead Format, has the player explore a variety of VHS worlds inspired by classic eras of film. Can you tell us a bit about how this idea came to be? What was the creative process like when trying to figure out how best to adapt these iconic movie eras into an interactive format like a video game?
Originally the concept was about working in a VHS store and selling bootleg horror films. The tapes all had a chance of being haunted and killing off your customer base so you would have had to watch through clips of them and separate the haunted ones. I couldn't really work out a way to make the gameplay interesting at the time so I started the idea again with the story of a missing sibling, setting it around the video nasties banning of horror films in the UK and taking more gameplay cues from the likes RE7, Amnesia: The Bunker and SH4.
As a game developer, what does creative freedom mean to you, and how much importance do you place on it during the overall development process?
Creative freedom is vital to me and it's a big part of why I've always worked solo. Starting with a handful of ideas and then going off on tangents I'm interested in exploring without feeling it's being pulled in another direction. Sometimes the project will tell you which direction it's leaning in and it can also be useful to set up some guide rails for yourself to avoid loosing focus. There will always be limitations (financial, time, complexity) but there is a real joy in butting up against them and that feeling of excitement when you end up somewhere you never expected due to it.
Did you ever have to abandon a certain idea (or ideas) during development because it either didn’t fit into the schedule, the budget, or you realized it wasn’t beneficial to the game for some other reason?
Oh all the time! I'm sure game development is actually more about cutting out ideas rather than adding them. It's such an iterative process that later ideas will supersede earlier ones, or the direction the project is naturally pulling in no longer fits those early ideas. I think the trick is not to be too precious about any of it and try to spot it early so you don't spend too much time on things that won't make the cut. You can always save them for a later project.
As a follow-up to the above, is there something you’re proud to have kept?
Particularly with Dead Format I'm so glad I kept the live action clips. I'd never done any filmmaking before and there was a point very early in development I had considered dropping them so that I could focus entirely on the game side of things. They have been an absolute blast to film tho and add a lot of charm to the game.
Dead Format features some live action footage created specifically for the game. Did you run into any unique challenges when trying to capture the exact look and feel of these very specific eras and genres?
The live action filming has been almost nothing but challenges but I've relished in each one! I adore practical effects so finally having an excuse to get out the clay learning to sculpt, plaster cast and latex mould and paint all sorts of masks and puppets was extremely rewarding. The Stan Winston online school has been an invaluable resource for learning aspects of that. For all the VHS effects it's thanks to using real VHS players and camcorders from the 80/90s and messing with the signal to create authentic glitches. I've even been building back up my collection of horror films like Alien, The Thing and Suspiria on VHS to really study how those movies shot on particular film look when viewed through VHS and an old CRT.
It's not always just about looks to get that authentic feel as well. For the 70s Giallo slasher footage we overdubbed all dialogue later to give that distinct trait of Giallo where everyone on set would act in their own languages and then they would dub them all in English. Also making sure there was a bottle of J&B in as many shots as possible, haha. There's such a unique charm to details like that I've no doubt fans of those genres will pick up on and appreciate.
Have you ever found yourself pressured or influenced by gamers’ expectations in terms of what a game should be like/what elements it should have, etc.? How do you balance your own vision and ideas with these expectations?
There's always some slight pressure to work within the guidelines of what is expected by players, but it doesn't influence me a great deal. I love playing really weird and abstract games that push the boundaries of the medium and I'm far more interested in making something that I would personally be interested in playing. I figure if I would enjoy it then there are probably enough other weirdos out there like me that would also enjoy it! That being said Dead Format is definitely my biggest and most traditional gameplay but I hope to have included enough weird and exciting elements that will challenge what players are typically used to.
A fun theoretical question: if you had access to unlimited resources, what would you do differently from a creative/artistic standpoint?
With unlimited resources I would have probably dedicated years to each of the filming and game aspects of the project to really explore all the possibilities, especially with the prop making and set design. I definitely would have hired a studio space instead of trying to film everything in my flat, but that definitely adds charm. I have so many ideas for tape worlds the project would probably never end so in some ways it's good to have some limitations to help reign things in. There's always a balancing act between not enough resources to explore all the possibilities or too many options and constantly going back over old work to improve it.
Finally, could you tell our readers where they can follow you and your work if they’d like to stay up to date with any future developments?
Of course all the typical social graveyards - Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, Youtube. I go by the name katanalevy and you can find my publisher Oro Interactive on them all too (they have so many awesome games just out/coming out soon). Wishlisting the game on Steam would also be a great idea if it sounds interesting to you!
