Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Interview, Video Games | Tagged: Hell Is Others, interview, Strelka Games

Interview: Chatting About Hell Is Others With Strelka Games' CEO

A couple of weeks ago, Strelka Games and A List Games released Hell Is Others, a new top-down shooter with some disturbing consequences. The game bends reality a bit as you find yourself in a hellscape city in which you must survive not only the surroundings but others looking to loot and survive themselves. We got a chance to chat with Pietro De Grandi, CEO of Strelka Games, about the concept and design of the game, as you can play it right now.

Pietro De Grandi

BC: Hey Pietro, how have you all been this past year?

PDG: We've been great, thanks! We have all been focused on finishing and delivering Hell Is Others. It has been a lot of work, but sharing the game with the community during the four playtests that preceded the release motivated us and kept the morale high.

Prior to Hell Is Others, what had you previously been working on?

We mainly worked on two other projects: the console port of Red Rope: Don't Fall Behind, our first game, and Circle of Sumo: Online Rumble!, an online version of our party game Circle of Sumo we previously released on the Nintendo Switch.

How did the concept for the game come about?

The concept of the game was born many years ago when I met with Giuseppe Mancini, who is now the game director. We both were thinking about a top-down shooter kind of game, and as soon as we realized that our ideas were similar, we started working on the first Hell Is Others concept. We have iterated many times over the last four years on the concept! The final concept, a story-driven extraction PvPvE survival looter shooter, came to life a couple of years ago.

What made you decide to do a bullet hell title mixed with horror and mystery?

Since the beginning, we have wanted to create a top-down shooter with a competitive multiplayer twist. At the same time, the idea was to create a surreal world with its own rules and laws.

What inspired the pixel art style you decided to go with, and what would you say influenced the design?

As for the setting, we took inspiration from David Cronenberg and David Lynch's movies. We started playing around with the idea of a noir atmosphere by mixing '50s and '80s vibes. We ended up mixing every decade of the last century into what is now called Century City. We decided to use "high definition" pixel art to make the city and the characters feel more real and give players a better immersion.

Was the story something you knew prior to design, or was it more of a mix of making it as you went?

World lore has always been there, and it has been taken into account during the game's development. On the other end, the main story plot with its characters is something we worked on during the last year of development.

There are some terrifying aspects to the game as you play that gets worse and worse for the character. Was there ever a point where you thought it was too much, or did you want to push it as far as you could go?

We set the rules of the world of Hell Is Others early during development, and we always wanted to stay true to those. Hell Is Others is a fun game, but it also tries to talk about emotions and complex personal and societal situations. To be effective in doing so, we had to avoid compromises. On the other hand, we've mitigated the narrative with ironic and lighthearted moments during the story plot.

Once it was complete, what were your initial thoughts on how the story worked with the action?

This aspect has been a focus for the team in the last year, as it is something different from other games in the genre. We wanted to push the narrative, but we needed to be careful not to compromise the action, which is still the game's core. In the end, we are very proud of the outcome. The gameplay plus the management aspect of the game are the true core of the experience, with the story adding a great touch to the journey.

What are your thoughts on the game now that it's out and people are playing it?

We are very happy with player reception to the game. As sometimes happens with new concepts, the players' opinions on the game are polarized, it's either you like it a lot or not. We are surprised about how many players understood our intention right away and are playing the game for an insane amount of hours. The support we are receiving from the community is immense, and we couldn't be happier!

What are your plans for the game going forward? Any DLC or extra content coming?

Hell Is Others is meant to be a living game, meaning we are and will work on free game updates and some DLCs. We have already released a few quality-of-life patches and will continue to support the game in many ways!

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