Sick Kreations is a small Indie game development company which was formed in 2009 Our Tech Editor Mark Ritchie has a chat with producer Ruben

WTF: What is your role in Sick Kreations?

Ruben: My role at Sick Kreations at the current moment is as the producer of the games, which involves attaining assets for the game such as models, music and also the direction that the gameply will end up going in. I also play test and review other developer’s games so that when our game goes through that process then we have the community involved in helping us get through the process. I was also in charge of updating the website and maintaining the website which I was lucky enough to get two friends to help me design our logo and website. At the same time I am also taking classes to try to master modeling and animations so that I can also contribute to the games in that role as well.

WTF: How long have you been with Sick Kreations?

Ruben: I have not been with Sick Kreations in an official role for long. I was primarily providing feedback to Kevin (founder of Sick Kreations) on his games as he worked on them letting him know my opinions from an avid gamers’ perspective. I became part of Sick Kreations in December of 2010 when I pitched a game idea to him, which he then abandoned his current project to work on. You can see the early build version on our website which then evolved and became the online multiplayer game that it is today. We do plan on going back and finishing the original idea once this game releases.

WTF: what made you want develop games, or be apart of the gaming industry?

Ruben: I have played games since I was a small child but never once thought of making them until my brother-in-law, Kevin showed me the things he was able to do and the pride he had showing the game he was working on that I realized that I wanted to be a part of that process.

WTF: What have you found challenging, during game development?

Ruben: The most challenging thing is learning to be flexible both in deadline completions and what you envision the game to be and what you can actually do with a two-person team. Our goal was to be done in June (giving us a 6 month completion deadline) but it has actually become more of an 11-month timeframe. I read once that you should estimate how long a game might take you and then double that estimation and now you will have a more accurate deadline. Of course I didn’t read that until about 4 months past our self imposed deadline but you learn as you go.

WTF: What has been Sick Kreations inspiration for their games?

Ruben: There are many AAA games out there that are FPS and well done so what we tried to do was combine features from multiple titles and incorporate them into an inexpensive game. More and more titles are becoming online multiplayer’s with hardly any campaign and yet they thrive in the online community. So we wanted to provide a game at an affordable price (240 MS points or $3) and also since we are a small Indie game studio we can listen to feedback from every single person that purchased the game and we will give people what they want. Simply visit our website and drop us a line.

WTF: Has any one outside Sick Kreations helped in the development of your games?

Ruben: The quick answer is yes. The first game (KGB: Episode One) had some voice-overs and original music from friends at church. The second game had modeling and art from John Conelea. This third game we were able to hire an artist for concept art and box art to having friends help out with the website. But Kevin Kelley has always done programming and animations.

WTF: What can you tell me about the “End Game Engine”?

Ruben: End Game Engine was developed by Kevin from scratch to suit the 3D FPS games that he wanted to create. You can purchase a license for other companies’ game engines and learn to use theirs but you may be restricted on what you can change on the game engine to better suit your particular game if you do not have an open source code engine. We have had quite a few inquiries on selling the game engine to other small studios that want to use it for their games. Although we would like to do just that, we would feel better about doing only after being able to not only have a manual/tutorial for it but also be able to provide support to anyone who bought the game engine. We are hoping that by getting a few quality games out on the market then we can expand Sick Kreations and create the manual and support the engine. So long-term plan is to offer the End Game Engine at low cost to other small start up studios.

WTF: Sick Kreations has made two games for xblig so far; will you ever make a game for computers, using steam?

Ruben: I am sure that you have heard that releasing on Steam may sell more games in one week than you can on XBLIG in over a month so that is something we have considered. We do want to build a reputation first on XBLIG to see if we can break into XBLA but we have discussed a game idea that Kevin had that would probably fit best in other markets such as Steam but we would do it more for exposure and reputation than for the money associated with it. But at the same time you can’t ignore the potential money that you can earn from selling through Steam and different markets.

WTF: Is there any other type of game other than FPS that Sick Kreations would work on?

Ruben: At this time we are primarily focused on FPS since in the XBLIG market you do not have that many games being released that are FPS. We feel that this well help us stick out from other developers. But I also know that if we have a good idea that isn’t a FPS then we are going to pursue that idea and get it out to market. The more quality games that we can get out to the market regardless of genre then the more opportunity we will have to develop a real big game that we would definitely try to release on different platforms.

WTF: Will Sick Kreations expand over the next few years, will you hire any one?

Ruben: Our dream is to expand large enough that we can get at least one game out every calendar year yet small enough that the game is personal to each person working on it. I don’t have that magic number in my head but expansion is based off the success of the games. We could always try to get financial backing but the only people we want to be beholden to are the fans of our games.

WTF: What can you tell us about “End of Days”?

Ruben: Whenever someone is infected and is going to turn into a zombie, what is the first thing that happens? The person that is not infected will try to kill you so that way when you turn into a zombie you do not eat their brains! What if it took days before you turned into a zombie? You aren’t going to sit there and just let someone kill you because in a few days you will be among the walking dead. The Infected start fighting back while they can still work weapons. End Of days is based on this premise that The Infected are fighting back against mercenaries and anyone else that tries to kill them. Whether you play as a zombie or a merc, you have something to fight for. End Of Days is an 8 vs. 8 online multiplayer experiences with headset capability for communication and it has an online scoring table of kill leaders. There are also many unlockable weapons and attachments including skins for a Desert Eagle.