Q&A With Red Mountain Games

After once again scouring Twitter for new indie prospects, another title I came across was a brand of indie game that I haven’t covered in some time. Fusion is a survival horror third-person shooter developed by Red Mountain Games based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Set in 2046 with a science fiction theme, the player character must find their way out of the peril-filled military research station Black Mountain. Play survival is determined by the player’s ability to conserve resources, surveying each environment, and determining enemy behavior to gain the tactical advantage; it’s a survival horror that requires a lot of lateral thinking on the player’s part, which sounds like quite a unique concept on its own.

Wanting to know more, I contacted Red Mountain about the possibility of a Q&A talking more about the game and what players can come to expect when the final product is eventually released. So here’s what Red Mountain Games had to say about Fusion:

 

Fusion 1

What were the influences behind your game?

Our team was inspired by the atmosphere and gameplay of games like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4. Also, in terms of plot and lore, we looked at games like Control and Silent Hill. The presentation of the plot and the intricate lore of these games create a sense of mystery, which we would like to achieve in our project.

 

What has the developmental process been like?

Prototyping – testing – fixing bugs. And so in a circle. And little by little pieces were introduced into the project. Then a difficult test was puzzled and we had to fix even more bugs. But in general, it is quite interesting. A lot of communication in the team, who made decisions about which mechanics to implement, how to allocate resources in short supply. Development is a compromise between what you want, what you need, and what you can.

 

How close are we to seeing the finished product?

Right now we are in the state of the playable prototype. We still need to implement missing game mechanics and provide story and characters to bring the game world a little bit to life.

 

Fusion 2

What has been the most exciting aspect of development?

Prototype release))) It’s exciting to wait for player feedback. Also, the process of thinking about the game and its features, creating the world, characters, and their connections with lore was exciting for every member of the team. Especially when everyone in the team was on the same wavelength, and we quickly expanded the game.

 

What has been the most challenging aspect of development?

Almost all the time we learn about contests a week before the deadline for their submission. And we always want to go with the best build possible and also improve the trailer. At such times, we had to work more and sleep less.

 

How well has the game been received so far?

Fortunately, pretty good)) On Twitter, people often write to us that the game looks good. And when we released the game on Itch.io, many wrote to us that they were waiting for the game to be ready (and this was when the very first prototype was).

 

What platforms are you looking to bring the game to?

PC (Windows) and maybe consoles in the future.

 

What additional game modes are you looking to add?

Perhaps we will add a cooperative game. We have many ideas about that but it’s too early to announce something right now.

 

Have there been any ideas at this stage of development that has since been scrapped or reworked?

The plot changed. But everything related to development has hardly changed. At first, we think for a long time whether we need to add something, so as not to change it later. But in the future, everything can be.

 

I noticed there is a playthrough of Diablo III on the Red Mountain YouTube page among the many survival horrors playthroughs there are on there. Had the development ever toyed with the idea of adding RPG elements to Fusion?

We are thinking and designing the in-game skill tree. Not so complex as in RPG games. We have the idea of a combination of shooting, melee, special tactical abilities, and overall robot statistics upgrades.

 

How instrumental has player feedback in terms of shaping the course of the project been?

We mostly used the player feedback only when we launched a demo. They helped us by noticing some minor bugs and game control advice. But the general concept hasn’t changed.

 

Have there been any fellow developers that have offered advice regarding the development of Fusion?

When we participated in PitchYaGame, there were people who gave feedback. Mainly on pitch, but some also wrote about the game. Basically, real advice was given during live communication, which does not happen often

 

If you had the opportunity to develop a game with any company or for any franchise, which would it be, and why?

This is a hard question, but we think the better answer will be – develop our own franchise. But in general, there are so many talented people and game studios so it is really hard to pick someone in particular.

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring developers that may be reading this?

Get started on social media from day one of game development. Make not a prototype, but a vertical slice, then it will be easier to present the game. And if in general do what you like and what you really want to do, show it to people and learn and don’t be shy to show your game to other people.

 

Where on the Internet can people find you?

Just google us. We have websites and all popular social networks, YouTube. And a public demo on Itch.io

https://linktr.ee/redmountaingames

 

Do you have anything else to add?

Love games and support the ones you like, especially from indie developers.

 

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank Red Mountain for taking the time out to answer the questions I had about Fusion and to give players a more definitive idea of where the development of the game may be taken before the end. The survival horror genre has been a case of hit and miss for me, with games such as Resident Evil and BioShock varying in terms of quality; some being mediocre and others being groundbreaking. Fusion looks to be a game that can potentially fall into the former category as opposed to the latter, so I’m very much looking forward to the final product.  But again, if anyone is interested in taking a look at this game in its current build, you can download the demo for free via the developer’s website, but in the meantime, I hope you guys enjoyed learning more about Fusion as much as I did.

Game on,

Scouse Gamer 88

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