Last Monday’s Click To Play saw us take a look at top-down shooter Mechanical Commando 2. We caught up with the guys behind the fiercely addictive bullet fest over at Berzerk Studio and grilled them on how they got into the business of making games a little over a year ago, took a look at their gaming catalogue and quizzed them on plans for the future. We ended up talking for so long that we had to split the interview in two! Today we take a look over the past year and discuss Berzerk’s successes in the field. Let the games begin!
Matt Gardner(Dealspwn): Hi guys and welcome to Dealspwn! Would you mind taking a moment to introduce yourselves, and say hi?
Marc-Antoine Jean: Hey I’m Marc-Antoine Jean and I usually take care of the artistic side of a given project, including directing, art, animations, and game design.
Simon Lachance: Hey! I’m Simon Lachance. I’m the programmer behind the Lachhh engine which is used for all our games so far. I also take care of dealing with sponsors and partners.
Etienne Jean: I’m Etienne Jean and, like Marc, I’m usually the director of the game and take care of the art, animation and game design of a project.
MG: Berzerk is a fairly new development studio is that right? What was it that made you guys realise you wanted to start an independent development company and how did it all begin?
MAJ: We’re actually a little over one year old, so yeah, the studio’s still pretty young! I think what made us decide to go ahead with the idea of going indie was the fact that we all wanted to create our own, personal stuff. Also, being our own boss is very rewarding and gives a sense of freedom very few employees might experience working for someone else.
SL: Yeah, we didn’t decided all of a sudden “Let’s go indie ! That’s sound awesome !”, it all started with a game we wanted to make on our own, as a hobby. A while back I showed a prototype of a Contra-like game to Marc and Etienne, with obviously poor graphics (an heroic arrow shooting circles at deadly triangles!). Marc and Etienne told me that they had made graphics on their own that would be great to use in my prototype. So we just did it, and started to work more frequently on that project together, still as a hobby.
EJ: We were all working in the video game industry when I met Simon. I guess we were tired of doing someone else’s idea and want to do our own.
Contra: The game that started it all
MG: Now, I believe you guys started off with the frankly excellent Mechanical Commando? What was it that led you to launch your new site and introduce yourselves to the world with a top shooter? Were there any particular influences you drew on to begin with?
MAJ: The funny thing about the original Mechanical Commando is that it was supposed to be much smaller, like only one level, and we wanted to release like one two smaller games like this in a rapid succession. When we first showed the game to a sponsor, we’ve been told that they could offer us a much better deal if we added some more levels, and that’s what we did. So no, there wasn’t any particular influence or strategy in introducing the studio with a top shooter, it just happened!
EJ: My main inspiration for this game was an old NES game made by SNK called Guerrilla War. In fact at the beginning of the project, the main character wasn’t supposed to be a giant robot but some kind of Rambo like commando. We changed it, though, because the robot fit better with the type of gameplay we had in mind.
Click here to read the rest of the Berzerk Studio Interview - Part One....
