We’ll be working on a review for UnMetal, so I got in touch with indie dev Fran to talk a bit about the project. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Hi! Thank you for joining us. Can you help us get started by introducing yourself to our readers?
Sure! I’m fran, an independent developer and the creator of Ghost 1.0 and Unepic. I’m Spanish, settled near Barcelona, and I have a special love for retro games. I use my own game engine to create my games, so I do everything in 2D!
PS4B: Speaking of which, UnMetal is ready to go for its September 28 release on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
Well, it’s an action/stealth game where you have to help Jesse Fox, the anti-hero main character, escape from a clandestine military base. The game is filled with humor and topics from action movies from the 1980s.
PS4B: How long did it take to develop and port the game to consoles? Were there any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome during the whole process?
It took me around two years to create the game itself. The process itself went smoothly, and I don’t remember any special issue. Problems began with the porting, where devs who use our own engine are forced to deeply use all programming libraries of consoles.
Nintendo was more or less good, but doing the ports to Microsoft and Sony was a hell of a time. They simply aren’t prepared for small games, so you have to do and understand a lot just to do something that is relatively easy. Moreover, when you manage to make everything work and leave it prepared for the next game, they change stuff, and what you did no longer works – they call it “deprecated” functions – forcing you to relearn what they changed.
It took me around 3-4 months of suffering to have them ready for launch!
PS4B: With UnMetal now almost out on every platform out there, are you going to take a break from everything, or are you already going to dive into a new project?
As soon as the game is released and I have some time, I’m going to finish an ongoing project which is quite advanced, a sequel of a famous MSX game called “The Maze of Galious.” It should take me a few months.
After this, I’ll have to think about what to do next. I basically have three options: UnMetal 2, UnEpic 2, or a brand new project. Nothing is decided yet. It all depends on what I feel I want to do at that moment.
PS4B: Once again, thank you for doing this interview. Would you like to add anything else before we go?
Before we go-go? Yeah! I had fun creating this game, and I wish that those who play it have the same or even more fun!
