Welcome back to another edition of IndieXP, our series of indie developer interviews where we try to spotlight as many creative minds and interesting projects as we can! Our latest episode features a developer whose new game is certain to shock, surprise and entertain – in it, you grab what we can only describe as a fancy fly swatter and dive into digital worlds to spank a sassy and talkative virus into submission. Yup.
Please enjoy our interview with Kyle Frost aka Mahelyk, the mind that brought you GlitchSPANKR!
First things first: could you please introduce yourself for our readers?
Hello! I’m Kyle Frost (Mahelyk), the Creator/Designer/Programmer/Writer/etc. behind GlitchSPANKR!
Your recently released game, GlitchSPANKR, is quite unlike anything else we’ve seen in recent years. Could you shed some light on your inspirations for the project and its unique sense of humor, whether it’s games, films, or other forms of media?
GlitchSPANKR is certainly a strange one! It began with strong inspiration from The Stanley Parablewith its branching narrative and multiple endings. It also blends humor similar to Rick and Morty and Futurama. As development continued, we kept adding small jokes and references from things we saw or came up with, and over time the game evolved into its own unique style.
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?
This one is tougher. On one hand, the creative freedom was essential to GlitchSPANKR. It’s truly unlike anything else, and it's unlikely a publisher would have approved and funded it. It became a 10+ hour epic filled with intertwined stories, layered mechanics, and surprising depth. I genuinely consider it art, and I’m very proud of how it turned out.
On the other hand… financially, it’s been a struggle. Because the game is so much deeper than it initially appears and its genre blend is so strange, it’s incredibly difficult to describe and even harder to market. It’s one of those games you have to play to understand, which makes spreading awareness slow. The reviews and player ratings are excellent, we just don’t have enough visibility or players yet.
So it’s complicated. Creatively, it was a joy to make something players care about so deeply. As a business owner, putting all our savings into a hard-to-market project was probably not the best move, especially since we can’t currently afford to start another game. (Not yet, anyway. Maybe it’ll be a slow burner!)
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?
Absolutely! The game was designed so that nearly every level has different mechanics, including full-on genre shifts into various minigames. We had plans for several more, like a 2D anime-style dating sim, but we didn’t have the time or art budget. There are also additional secret levels and lore we still hope to add someday!
Controller support was another goal we couldn’t finish in time, but I’m working on it now and it’s nearly done. We’re hoping it will enable console ports soon!
As a follow-up to the above, is there something you’re proud to have kept?
The SPANKR HQ! The original demo had a small, lightly customizable home base, but it felt too thin and pointless. I redesigned it into a full “super HQ” where players can now expand and repair their base, discover entire secret levels, buy and customize decor, unlock special collectibles, and use a new currency system for progression.
It was a ton of work, but it became one of my favorite parts of the entire game. I love how it turned out!
When working on GlitchSPANKR, what was the most challenging or daunting part of the entire development process for you?
This one’s easy! With my, uh, "strange" design philosophy, every level is different. It’s fun to play, but building it meant making what felt like a new game every single time, especially with over 100+ levels. And with our funding running low, there were a lot of stressful days, especially close to launch. I didn’t get a single day off in the last four months before release: weekends, late nights, all of it.
I’m not sure I’ll make another game where the “special feature” is an overwhelming amount of content and variety. But… sometimes GlitchSPANKR 2 whispers to me.
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?
I wouldn’t say I felt pressured by expectations, but I very deliberately planned to watch as many streamers as I could to spot rough edges or places that weren’t as fun as they could be. It was a criticalpart of my strategy, and it absolutely paid off. I loved hearing players’ thoughts and ideas, and usually implemented them the next day. The game continually improved from that feedback loop.
A fun theoretical question: if you had access to unlimited resources, what would you do differently from a creative/artistic standpoint?
Oh if only, that would be the dream! I'd certainly have slowed down and added even more levels and minigames. I'm not sure if there would be too much change to what's there, there would just be a lot more of 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?
Sure, thank you! We have a Discord, website, social media, and even a newsletter to get in game rewards for GlitchSPANKR, and hopefully one day future games of ours! Here's a bunch of our social links: https://linktr.ee/theclassifiedx
