Why I Created An Indie Studio
The following post is by Matthew King, artist and developer of Indie Game development company 2D2Day. King writes about his motivation for creating his own indie company and what he feels indie means both in the context of games and in the greater world.
You can check out 2D2Day on Facebook.
My name is Matthew King and I am the artist and developer of my own Indie Game Development Company 2D2Day. Like most, I have been playing games my whole life. This passion for games slowly manifested into designing. My love for art and games seemed to fit hand in hand as I began my game design journey I realized being an artist what power I had as a designer. Creating your own worlds is a great outlet, but the first time I had someone play a demo I had created I really understood what was so great about game design. There is something very special about being able to create an experience and then stand back and watch as someone else explores the world you have poured yourself into. I went to school for game design but, do to hardships was unable to continue however, that has never stopped my ambition or love for what I do. Even then, I was the only student to create an actual working game and demoed it to the class. My professor had used a big screen projector and let me show off the game and as the students literally cheered I knew this was something I wanted to continue doing for the rest of my life.
The name 2D2Day was something I came up with as I am an enthusiast of retro style games. It might sound funny hearing a phrase like “Fight the man” or “Big corp.” But I envision myself as just that, and indie company set out to keep the 2d world of games alive in a 3d dominated industry. My projects are not confined however to videogames, I also have a trading card game called Chaos Clash coming out, which I hope will compete with the “big wigs” as well. I know this all seems very ambitious but, if someone doesn’t save the gaming community from being force-fed carbon copy games and start giving them a nice heaping dose of creativity and artistic style, games will die off. 2D2Day, I feel, is that medicine.
My current game project (untitled) Is a kind of hybrid game which has not been done before. A underworld themed, open world, new retro style game. You take on the role of the newest overlord of the underworld doing everything from buying humans and training them like animals to fighting in arenas to exploring other overlords’ dungeons in search of treasures to hitting up the arcade and playing different machine, saving up tickets for prizes. Everything from committing atrocities to gathering souls and exchanging them for different items and completing mission objectives. The underworld is yours to explore and play as you see fit. As far as the look of the game, I wanted to keep it very retro but, use new age effects like lighting and shadows on sprites as well as various particle effects and sound design aspects. When everything comes together it really brings the world to life and this is something I wanted to achieve with a retro style in mind.
