October 29, 2025 • 47 mins
"A Souls-lite for the Whole Family"
Four years ago Tomas Gomez left the established game development world to set up his own indie game studio and Pancake Games was born. This year they released their debut title, Slime Heroes and the game is now available on every major platform: PC Via Steam, Xbox One &Series X/S, Nintendo Switch & Switch 2, and Playstation 4 & 5. Tomas comes on the show to talk about giving the oft mowed down Slimes their time in the spotlight as the protagonist and the hero, the development of the game, and some of his favorite features. Check out everything about this action RPG for the whole family.
Tomas also talks three games from his professional past including Guild Wars 2, Gigantic, and Moss: Book II.
Check out Slime Heroes on your preferred platform of choice.
All of Pancake Games' links can be found at channel3.gg/pancakegames
Thank you to Whitethorn Games for arranging this discussion. You can find all of their links at channel3.gg/whitethorngames
Our hosts' links can be found at channel3.gg/rey and channel3.gg/dan
The show is Executive Produced by Channel 3 Founder Joel Willis who can be found at channel3.gg/joel
Our theme song is provided by Castor Garden. Find all of their tracks on Bandcamp by simply going to c3.gg/castorgardenmusic or find all of their links at channnel3.gg/castorgarden
About Channel3.gg: channel3.gg is social networking built from the ground up for gamers. Sure you can do all the stuff like on the old social medias like post pictures, videos, comments and the like. Channel 3 is so much more than that though. It takes the social media experience and game-ifies it. Made a great post that someone likes (1-ups) or respawns? You earn XP experience points that level you up. New levels mean chances to win tickets for physical prizes, earn digital flair for your profile, and more. Additionally there are weekly events hosted by Channel 3 that let the community unwind and kick back with a little friendly competition. Sure, you want to win but it's more about hanging out and the vibes. These events are hosted on C3's Twitch Channel and also earn XP for participants. XP can also be earned for completing quests-questions related to games and being a gamer, challenges where you go forth and complete a task in a game, rating & reviewing games and systems, creating specifically themed lists of games and more. You can find Channel 3 in both the Android and Apple App Stores or at c3.gg/app
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Channel 3 is the future Welcome crew to What are your 3A
Channel 3 podcast where we take a developer, sometimes go
(00:33):
through three games that they'rechoosing and talk about their
game and do our normal thing, but do it with somebody
different. But that's, you know, I got to
tell you, it's been like 20 episodes.
I'm leaving this in that we've done with developers.
I have to do a different introduction at some point.
I'm going to actually script it and figure out how I introduced
that as opposed to my normal like game interviews.
But today is not that day, Tomas.
(00:53):
Today is not that day. But I'm here as referenced, we
have Tomas Gomez, the the CEO, the founder of Pancake Studios.
We're going to talk about Slime Heroes here.
But Tomas, you want to want to say hi to everybody.
Hello everyone, I'm happy to be here and talk about Slime Heroes
and my three games. So, so Tomas, after give or
(01:15):
take, well, like a dozen years in the industry, you, you made
the you pulled the ripcord and you said it's time to start my
own studio. It's time to time to go
independent. Is that I'm, I'm sure that was
an easy one night conversation with yourself.
But but you know you you made the jump finally, and fourish
years ago you started Pancake Studios.
(01:35):
Yeah. So, yeah.
So that was, yeah, pulled the cord.
There was four years ago. I think it was just at the end
of the pandemic. And I think like most people is
doing a lot of soul searching onlike what I want to do with my
life, my career, family. We were married.
(01:57):
And so there's a lot of conversations between me and my
partner. And yeah, I was doing, I've been
in the game industry for 15 plusyears now.
And at that point in my career, I was doing a bunch of like
contract work and I wanted to domy own thing for a while for,
for years before that and just seemed like the right time.
(02:20):
We, we had some savings. And I think anyone who goes
independent, there's like a riskof like using your own money to
build what you're passionate about.
And so we had enough savings that my partner had a good job.
And so I was luckily to be in a position where I could take on
that adventure and it seemed just like the right time at that
moment. So I I always end up asking this
(02:42):
question to to gamers about their gamertags over the course
of time. But I I have to why?
Why pancake studio? Like why?
Why pancake? I so I didn't actually come up
with the name my wife did we? We go on many of our walks and
we were like having this conversation about the what I
(03:02):
should call the studio. And I wanted a studio that had
some resemblance of how like I look at building stuff, how I
want to build games that we build for that for the studio,
how I want to build the studio itself with the people that we
hire. And I'm a big component of like
(03:24):
iterating and constantly workingon yourself where if it's maybe
like your pipeline, speeding it up, being more productive.
I always am goal oriented. And so I wanted to have a studio
that kind of resembled always trying to be better and working
to be better. And my wife, one of my favorite
(03:45):
foods is pancakes. And my wife jokes like, well,
like when you make pancakes, like usually the first one's not
very good. Like it doesn't get cooked right
or you overcook, you burn it or whatever.
And then as you get two or threein, it gets better and better
and you make your really good stuff there.
And so it was kind of a humorousway to kind of represent that
(04:08):
momentum that I kind of wanted to represent in my studio.
And and also, it's one of my favorite foods.
How did it feel finally, you know, you, you get to this year
and you know, I'll, I'll start the segue into slime periods.
I'm going to I'm going to get tothat more formally, but you, you
finally, you turn the game on upon release, whether it was
(04:29):
Steam or Xbox, whichever from the initial from the initial
roll out, right? Like I'm not I'm not asking you
to to pick a side in the in the console wars or anything like
that, but you you see the logo come up knowing the product is
in the wild. Finally, how did how did that
feel? Yeah, it was, it was a long road
to get to that point. Like, yeah, we, we talked about
(04:50):
four years ago starting this company by myself, obviously
with my partner's support, but Iwas doing everything by myself.
And four years down the road, getting funding, growing A-Team
and then releasing it was quite the the feeling of like we
initially launched on PC and Xbox first and we're now
(05:12):
launched on all platforms. All the majors are there now.
You, you got the PS4 PS Five outa few weeks ago.
So yeah, last but not least. Yeah.
But yeah, that first initial launch, like working those four
years and there's a lot of struggles and it, it, it was
stressful, euphoric. Like, I think it, there's just a
(05:38):
overwhelming amount of feelings,but like gratifying, like having
finished something that you worked on for a very long time,
seeing people get their hands onit, stressing out about your
sales, making sure you've hit the proper marketing.
There's just a lot of things youworry about.
(05:58):
And then you start and then you start seeing the list of bugs
and, and battery views and, and then so you're like, oh, should
I, I, should I start working immediately and fixing that
stuff? There's a lot of feelings that
go in with the first launch and I've, I've experienced launches
through the companies I've been at, but this is my own product.
And so it definitely is. I think all those feelings you
(06:22):
get working for someone else andreleasing something, it's just
amplified because you have so much more ownership over it.
Well, enjoy the good part. Next time you turn it on and you
see your see your logo on the screen, take a minute and just
and just enjoy that. Just just forget.
Forget the forget the rest of itfor a minute.
I I. I always feel.
Good. Like that's the fun part about
talking about like the independent studios and stuff
(06:43):
is, is, you know, like I, I, youknow, there's a lot of stuff
like, you know, we started this through conversation through
Whitethorne games and yeah, kindof kind of setting things up.
And I, I see the logos for theseplaces and I see the website.
And that's another thing like I,I put yours on my Switch too.
And it's another thing when I boot the game up and I see like,
oh, there's your logo on the switch too.
Like it's, it's something cooler, something, something
cooler about seeing it on the screen.
(07:04):
So I feel that for you. And I hope you, I hope you get
to feel some gratification for that at some point.
So may that may that happen for you.
I think one of the most gratifying moments, so generally
in my life goal is to build stuff for people to enjoy.
And I that's one of the main reasons I got into making games.
(07:26):
And, and so I think one of the most gratifying things that I
felt after Slime Heroes launchedwas we have, we have a discord
channel and people get in there.And especially after Slime
Heroes launched, more people have gone, come in and share
their experience with Slime Heroes or ask questions.
And we even have a channel, we have a channel in there where
people can get together and playtogether 'cause the whole game
can be played with the, and I, Ithink the time I felt the most
(07:51):
joy is, yeah, seeing those people get to experience the
game and, and then also play with each other and, and create
bonds. And because of that, that's,
that's that was my goal from dayone where I wanted to build.
Well, let's jump into the game itself.
We we've we've danced around a little bit here.
I I, I derailed a little more than I probably should have to
(08:13):
begin with, but let's talk aboutslime heroes here.
So you've had a progressive rollout, as you mentioned back in
March, you launched for APC and for the Xboxes and then July you
hit the hit the switches and then finally a couple weeks ago
hit the the PlayStation 4 and five.
So you can now officially say you were you were on all the all
the majors, all the modern consoles.
You're there you are you're agnostic.
(08:34):
You're not picked one side or the other here.
And that's, you know, that's, that's not, that's not always
the easiest thing, but like you're listen, you're everywhere
now. Yeah, it's it's so great when
they people ask you now I can just say, yeah, we're on
everything now. Yeah, whatever you want it to be
on, it's there. So it's ready to go.
The the slime, the slime. So listen, I, I, I, we got to
jump back here because my entirelife going back to like dragon,
(08:57):
Dragon Warrior I, I still call Dragon question when looking
back, like slides have been dumped on for my entire
lifetime, which is longer than yours now.
And you decide the slimes have been dumped on for long enough
and it's time to time to make the slimes the good guys here.
And you know, the, the guardiansof the land have failed.
It's time for the time for the slimes to step in.
And that's your game comes into it to this.
(09:20):
Can I call it action role-playing?
Is that that's kind of the kind of the the general.
We'll, we'll talk a little bit more about it as it goes on
here. But yeah, but that's how you
come into your game. That is the the it's time for
the slimes to to be the good guys.
And how did you how did you decide on the slimes of the
protagonist and kind of the structure of the, the game like
(09:42):
that? That's kind of the first big
question is like, OK, how did you decide this action RPG,
which I like I I just go back on, I think a secret of man
immediately the first time I sawthe trailer, like I go back to
the, to that era of Super Nintendo with this and, and even
playing the game, like, oh, good, we get the there's
actually you're shaking. You're you're judging me and and
putting a clock on my head. I, I love, I love the references
(10:05):
you're bringing up. These are those are all great
games. That that's I, I gotta, I gotta
tie in. These are certain crowds.
I need people understand, like I, I have played this thing and
like, this is where I'm this is where I'm vibing at at this
point. But you know, so so four years
ago, you make the jump, right? You create, OK, we named it the
studio. That's half the battle.
I'm just kidding. It's nowhere near half the
battle, but like, but you decide, OK, how, how do you come
(10:27):
to we're going to make a game about the slimes.
It's their time to be the good guys.
It's their time to be the protagonist.
And like, how did you, how did you come to where this game is
going to be at? So I knew I wanted to build my
own studio. I knew I wanted to attempt to
make my own games. I wanted to take this also as a
way to build a successful business.
(10:49):
I think. I think there's an idea when
you're like building, you're going indie and building your
own indie games, like build yourpassion project.
And I definitely did things I really want to do in this game,
but I also wanted to like think about a game that I could
practically build with the resources that I had available
to me. And this studio I was building,
(11:10):
at least initially, was just myself.
And so I had to really think about strategically what I could
build by myself, at least at themoment, and try to build a
vertical slice prototype that I could raise money.
And so I looked at a bunch of myexperience and what that kind of
resulted into a lot of my past. I worked it in action games and
(11:35):
stylistically cute and wholesomeand, and quirky games.
And so I took that experience and kind of figured out where
that would fit in the game that I wanted to build.
I also wanted to, I, I mentionedit before, I wanted to build a
game that you can share with people.
And so Co-op was like a very important thing to me basically
from day one that I wanted to add into this game.
(11:56):
And so I, I like took all those things and, and that kind of
morphed what I could potentiallybuild.
And, and I want to do a time estimate of like, oh, I want to
build this in a couple years. And so I, I kind of like set,
put a box around what the game could be and try to figure out
how it would fit. And that's where slime heroes
came from. The, the actual character, the
(12:19):
slime character. I, there was a technical
limitation that kind of resultedin what it was.
And then there were there were some artistic choices, but
because I was by myself, one of my weakest, if of all my
experience in the game industry,like I'm, I'm very, I've worked
very little as an animator. And so I was like, if I'm going
(12:43):
to animate this main character, like I can't have it be too hard
for me. And So what is what is the most
simplest thing that I can animate?
And usually whenever you get into your first animation class,
whatever and made a ball bouncing like that's the first
thing you do. It was like, OK, So what if the
(13:03):
main character was some ball shape?
And and then with that, I took some experience of like when I
worked at like Poly arc, who arewho are very good masters of
like creating very characters you can relate to and how
important it is to have a character you relate to.
And so I wanted a character thatwas cute and and can be somewhat
relatable, but still quirky. And so I was like trying to
(13:25):
think of like a monster and and so like within all those it
slime just came up as the perfect kind of just fits all
checks all those boxes. Well, clear.
Clearly as the game developed, alot more went into the animation
than it you're making it, so yeah.
Too. Yeah, that was, that was, that
was. The initial bill, 'cause I, I,
you know, it's funny, 'cause I, I had the, the character
(13:47):
animations and not only that, but like you not project a lot
onto the sound how I want to, how I want to say this.
And again, I'm leaving this stupidity in for me not being
able to, to say this eloquently.But like, you put a lot of
skills and different weapons andlike the slime is able to do a
lot. So yeah, what, what started
probably is like a prototype really.
(14:09):
You guys expanded it way more than you needed to.
Yeah. We I, we, I, I grew the team to
we had we had seven people working on the project, building
the core game. And yeah, we, we, we got an
animator who was a lot better than me and higher sound design
arts and so filled in the gaps that I I was weaker in and yeah,
(14:34):
the the core design of the game.This kind of came from some of
the games I love to play actually.
Like one of my favorite games around the time we were like
thinking about the game was I think Elden Ring had come out
around that time actually that. Time.
Yeah, I I love all the Souls games I've played.
Yeah, that is. So the the initial e-mail I got
(14:55):
announcing the release of the game was a family friendly souls
like or something like that. Was that the?
The souls like. For the for the whole family,
that's what the I had I had to look up like, oh wait, the
email's going to be the top of my list right now.
Yeah, a souls like for the wholefamily, which is a just.
Like OK that. If you want to grab somebody's
attention, OK, you've got you'vegot my attention.
If you're going to say that description, there's normally
(15:17):
don't go together, Yeah. Yeah, one of my favorite things
and what kind of fed into the main design philosophy of
building slime heroes was like in the Souls games.
One of my favorite things that Ilike about those games is the
freedom of play that they allow and allow the player to kind of
explore and play the way they want and experience the game the
(15:37):
way they want to. And Alder Ranger by dying.
Immediately because they put a boss to you can't beat.
You're like, I'm gonna go up andfight the fire giant like no.
And you die. I mean, OK, No, no, no.
OK, That's in ham. OK, Sorry, sorry.
It's, it's more of like, oh, I'mgoing to use spells and stay at
far distance, or, oh, could I use this and, and create some
situation where I can drop this on top of the like they, they
(15:58):
create a lot of opportunities toexplore and, and figure out what
is fun for you. And, and so that was kind of a
core philosophy that we followedthrough for slime heroes.
We wanted to allow the player todiscover and find the fun for
them. And that kind of resulted in the
core system of, yeah, the the slime can consume enemy
(16:19):
abilities and then mix and matchthem to create new abilities.
And so it allows for explorationand allows to a lot of
flexibility to find the play style that you enjoy to play it.
It it certainly does what what is your what are your favorite
skills of the bunch? Like if you're if you're going,
you're playing the game, what are your what are your go TOS?
(16:43):
Yeah, I've I've played the game a lot now and so I've definitely
changed too much. Probably yes.
You gotta really think about this one for a minute, but like,
what are your what are your likeunlocking these in Yeah.
There's there's, there's the usual like magic attack speed
build that I like to do. And so there's a couple of
combos you can do where you can place down AOE auras that
(17:05):
benefit both you and your teammate.
And then you can put a passive where you get life steal off of
whenever you hit within those auras also.
And then you can amplify your attack speed as you level up
your character. And so you you're just like
Wheeling, dealing blows to the enemy, dodging all over the
place and then life stealing. That's that's probably one of my
(17:27):
favorite combos, but there's a lot of fun physical skills where
you can create walls and block block enemies from even getting
to you or create arenas around you and the and the enemy and
lock them into place. There's a like, but yeah, I'm
I'm usually more of a a tax beadwith a little bit of magic.
That's usually my favorite placeto house combination.
(17:49):
Works no problem there. So you, you've got some, yeah,
you mentioned the, the Co-op here and you can really
distinguish the slides from eachother because you do have just
like a fun customization menu when you start the game, you got
different faces and the colors are like whatever you basically
want to make of them. You've got, you've got a couple
of mix mixes and matches in there to, to really make the
thing whatever, whatever you want it to be.
(18:11):
So that's, that's pretty fun forpeople who are coming in like,
oh, it's, it's not, it's not Skyrim's menu where like I'm
going to spend 45 minutes designing a character that I'm
never going to see again. You can figure out like what's
going to look easy for you on the screen?
What's got a silly enough face or a serious enough like you
have like I want the angry looking slime, but I want the
happy looking slime, but I want the the happy mouth with the
angry eyes. What do I and whatever color
(18:32):
combinations you want that like I I, I just spent a few minutes
making sure I'm like, do I? Do I like my color combination
here? Will I be able to see it on the
screen? Yes, I can.
I'm good. I'm set.
Let's go. Yeah, I I think it's important
that when you, especially if you're playing a game for a long
time, that you can relate to your character somewhat.
And, and allowing even just a little bit of customization to
(18:54):
set the colors and the tone of the character that you want
allows you to feel connected more so to that character.
So that was something important that we wanted to add to the
game. And you can get more equipment
and hats in the game to change the look even more as you play.
So again, shout. Out to the to your entire team
for making all those things work'cause again, you talk about
(19:17):
like it, OK, it starts out as a simple character design, but
like, no, you guys really made the most of it with the
different skills and the weaponsthat like it, it looks cool.
I don't know if there's, there's, it's too dumb of me to
say it that way, but like it looks really cool and unique
that like these things are absorbed into your slimes design
(19:39):
and coloring and everything. And you kind of, and again, you
can kind of it. It's not like I love Zelda and
I'm not disparaging when I say, but like you go into someone
like the linear Zelda and you'relike, OK, I just got the hook
shot. I know I need the hook shot to
be the boss in this temple. You get the option like, OK, you
have a new enemy skill, but thatyou've absorbed, but it's not
(19:59):
the one that you have to then beat the next enemies with.
You have the option to like, OK,do I want to mix it up?
Do I want to try something different?
And it really, really works well.
And I have to also shout out thedash at this point because my Co
host loves a good dash and and yours is a good you can do it do
do a string of dashes to get outof a situation real quick 'cause
(20:20):
I might I have been using like a.
A sword melee build for for whenI get up up close to dirty.
I'll attack with the magic from a distance, then close the gap
and finish them off and that's my that's my usual play style
for this so far that so I got a shout out good good dash.
I use one to get in there and 1 to get out if I'm in trouble.
Thank you for thank you for that.
That's. I'll give you a little spoiler.
(20:42):
You can get hats that help the dash, it'd be even more
powerful. And there's a spell that also
adds stuff to your dash too, so nice.
Perfect. Exactly what?
You want to hear so, so you know, you mentioned I will I
will bring up the souls piece because you you die in this game
(21:03):
like there's no, there's no two ways about you.
Do you do you do die. I I died, I remember very
quickly in my first go around, not because of combat issues,
because there's like trying to look over a ledge and I'm like,
what's down there and I fell offand like, no, but you, you go
gather your stuff back up. You got time.
Don't die again. It's just like, it's like that
same souls like Elden Ring. I can go gather some of my gear
(21:23):
back up. I can get over there to it.
So you know, it seems like you guys put some consideration into
you're going to die. It's going to happen.
It's OK. Yeah, we I that that was one of
the first course of the game. We also though, wanted it to be
accessible. And so there's tons of
accessibility options where you can control things that you do
(21:45):
have difficulty with, with its damage or timing and or puzzles.
There's a lot of options in there to set the challenge that
you feel comfortable with and, and, and then obviously when you
get to play with a friend it it,it opens up even more.
(22:06):
So I, I was going to ask, so let's talk a little about the
Co-op because you know, I, I think you mentioned or like, I
feel like there's a, there's a bit of this.
It's just like it's nice. You can have a game for the
whole family without having to compromise.
Like, OK, I don't need to be, I'm, I'm sorry, somebody's
playing like the Grinch's Christmas game right now with
their kids And like that, that probably is a little more
(22:29):
painful or the, you know, no offense, Paw Patrol game.
But like I, I, I know, I know what some of these games are
like when you're playing with your kids, you're having fun,
But like this is nice mix because the kids can pick up the
controller and have some fun. And even if they get beaten or
like I, I haven't messed with the accessibility sliders at all
or anything like that. But like, you know, you're,
you're helping each other out that I think the Co-op you go,
(22:49):
you can find a friend. You mentioned your discord.
People are finding friends online.
Like what? What made you guys decide like
this is a key element for us because that that doesn't make
it easy for you guys from, from,from that side of things,
especially if you're involving the Internet.
That's an extra layer of challenge for you guys.
So like what? How do you decide that was going
(23:10):
to be important enough to to have to do something about that?
I love how you keep operating uplike this is this is a lot of
game, like impressive that you built that like.
Yeah, like looking back we maybeI don't wanna make it sound.
Simple. That's all I'm trying to say
about that. Yeah, I'm, I'm not gonna
oversimplify it by saying, oh, you put it on the Internet,
that's really easy. Like, no, it's there's a lot
going on there. Yeah, we like looking back.
(23:32):
We probably bit off more than weshould have, especially for a
first team, first game, first studio.
It was, it was a lot, but yeah, it was a lot of stuff that we
felt passionate about and we wanted to get in there with.
Let's see your, your original question with Co-op and online.
Yeah, the, the main reason I wanted to add that like I, I've
kind of mentioned it previously is I wanted to build a game that
(23:55):
you could share with people. So a little bit in my past
before start made my own stadiumbuild slime heroes.
I I built some smaller games on the side, like I built a mobile
game. I did AVR game and and those
were fine. They were small and there was,
there was a bit of detachment from those because they were
(24:16):
single player and especially like the VR1, someone had a
headset on. And, and I, like I said before,
I like to build stuff that I canshare and share with people.
And so with this game, it was going to be bigger.
I wanted to build a game that you could play with someone and,
and selfishly so, like I could play like with my partner or at
that time we hadn't had a kid yet and I wanted to build a
(24:38):
game. Maybe I in the future I could
play with my child. We, we now have one.
She's two years old now and goodenough for.
Support at this point. If you if you play a support.
Role now yeah, you you you get powered the controller.
You don't have to give them the fake unplug controller even.
Soon enough you'll be there. We we've played a couple of
(24:58):
games so far. It's getting better.
It's getting better. And we so, yeah.
So we wanted to build a game like share people and then and
then could play with family and friends.
And so that was just kind of a goal really early on just
because there was definitely an attempt to build something a
little bit bigger than what I'vedone in the past and really see
(25:20):
putting a good amount of time a couple years into making a game
like what I could build both as a studio and the game.
So what's your, what's your, your one sentence thought of
just like, hey, here's here's how we get people in.
Here's, here's what I want this to be for slime heroes, not to
make you take your last four years of your life and, and
condense it down to 1 sentence. And, and maybe, maybe it is the
(25:43):
the soul's light for the whole family.
I don't know, I don't know. But like, what, what, what's
your, what's your, what's your pitch?
What's your somebody walks up toyou and says, like, well, what's
this? What?
What's your pitch to get somebody hooked to to?
Want to play Slime Heroes? Yeah.
As he watches four years of his life flash by and say, This guy
wants me to summarize that number one year, you moron, I.
(26:03):
Think I think my one sense wouldbe that slime heroes is a game
that you can play with someone someone in a friend or family
and be in a world a very welcoming wholesome charming
world and enjoy together while playing with fun unique skills
(26:24):
and action and puzzle and platforming and all the things
you can find enjoyable in a gameyeah I'll.
I'll, I'll throw my comps out there too, because like, it's
probably because I finally got bit by the Hades bug a few weeks
ago. Someone finally like when it's
anniversary hit, I was like, allright, I'll try it again.
I, I just, it didn't mess mess with me the first time, but I'm
like, oh, I feel, I feel the Hades in this, but this is like
(26:47):
more family friendly version of Hades.
This is, this is nice. This is, you know, I can, I can
play this with the kids no problem.
And like I said, yeah, Secret ofMana was also one that just like
the second you, you get these like action RPGs and just go
back to that like 90s Secret of Mana, Secret of ever more.
There's just something about that that like it, it is forever
ingrained in my, in my brain that way them like, OK, this is
(27:08):
that that's where we're at with this too.
I get that. Like it's somewhere between
those two my brain is operating.I want to build that ideal game
of someone who's grown up with action games and, but now has a
partner or kid that they want toplay with and, and the, the
perfect balance of that for, forthat person to be able to enjoy
(27:30):
a game with your child. And it's been great showing the
game at shows and, and, and seeing that happen where a
parent brings their kids by and they get on the demo and, and
the kids are enjoying it, the parents enjoying it.
And it's a good, it's a good sharing experience and.
Anything else we should know? Again, the game is it is now
(27:52):
out. All the majors, your Xbox's,
your PC, your Playstations, yourSwitches.
It's you're out. You're out there, everywhere.
Anything else everyone should know about Slime Heroes?
Yeah, we're, we're out on all the platforms.
I think we have a couple of updates coming on some of the
consoles cause yeah, our focus was to get on everything and now
we're gonna have some updates coming up for the console
(28:14):
specifically. So Xbox Switch and and so you
should, should be seeing that hopefully soon.
Great. Well, we, we promised we would
talk 3 and and you've got three games for your past that you
want to bring up. And yeah, I'm, I'm sure there'll
be pieces of these that kind of feed into, into into where you
are. But the first game you want to
talk about that you'd, you'd worked on overtime was Guild
(28:35):
Wars two, one of the, the big MMORPGS that that I, you know,
still still going. I mean, right before this
episode drops, they're going to have a, they're going to have a
big update hit. So this thing is, you know, it's
been here since you were done with it probably, but this
thing's still going. Yeah, Guild Wars 2 has a special
play. Like I think all the games we're
(28:55):
talking about have a special place like I throughout my
career. But Guild Wars 2 was the first
game I got to work on. I started out as an environment
artist and I think I I maybe dabbled in playing Mmos
beforehand, but that was also the first MMO I really dived
into. And but it was, it was a great
(29:17):
experience. I loved Guild Wars 2, like the
combat. I think the thing I struggle
with with most Mmos is the combat.
Like I'm more of an action oriented player and I don't like
to manage skillbars or timers and stuff like that.
And so Guild Wars 2 was like a like a fun like get in there and
like the dynamic quests and story.
(29:37):
It was just a great experience. And so I really cherish being
able to work on that project. And it kind of shows that
there's dedicated fan base and they're still making content to
this day. Was there something?
You have to leave your fingerprint on with it.
I mean, obviously you're dealingwith it.
You're dealing with like structured environments, right?
Where like they, they've got a, they've got an established art
style, they've got, you know, kind of established guidelines
(29:58):
for things. But like, was there something
like this is you, you know, like, like I know this is going
to be me. This is, this is my, this is my
tree design or something. Is there something in there?
You're like, no, this is, this is Tomas.
You got that kind of stuff that you know is yours.
So yeah, I got to, I got to workon Guild Wars 2 for a couple
years and before it even launched.
And then I worked on it after itlaunched.
And so I was at a prime time where we were building a bunch
(30:21):
of the rewards for the game. And, and so like I think I, I at
launch of the game, I don't knowthere was anywhere like 100 plus
weapons in the game. And I probably touched almost
all of them, a good portion of them.
(30:42):
And then towards the right before the game launched, we
were finishing out the legendaryitems.
And so I got to actually make a good handful of the legendary
items, like the legendary, I figure what what its final name
ended as is like the day and night legendary great sword.
Like that was one of my favoriteitems I got to build and it's
(31:03):
awesome seeing people and it takes forever.
Well, it's maybe it's probably easier now, but when it first
came out, it took forever to get.
So it was pretty rare you saw someone with it, but when you
did it was awesome. And yeah, I did a couple other,
yeah, like I did the legendary dagger, the legendary staff, the
legendary Mace. And so that was, that was were
(31:24):
fun cause those were like the big flashy things that people
work towards, like they spent the majority of their time
playing, working towards cause those were late game content.
So it was awesome seeing people want to get those.
And when they did, they were very happy with them.
There are, it's so funny you said like trees and stuff there
(31:44):
is there it because Mmos are so big in their giant worlds.
It like I talk about these legendary weapons and that's
definitely probably one of my favorite things that I got to
work on. But there is something
satisfying because that was my first job and the things I
built. Like one of the first things I
made was like a barrel and and maybe some rocks.
And so it's still pretty enjoyable to see like a
(32:07):
screenshot pop up and still see like those very simple things
that I built because those are some of the first things I, I
learned my, my craft on. So see it says somebody.
Thinks I'm being silly when I say something like that.
No, it's, it's going to be thoseare the things that get built in
and get to carry, carry on through time.
They're not going to send like, oh, we came up with a new barrel
design. Like no, they're not going to
like the barrel gets to continueon.
(32:28):
So that's the, that's the, that's the cool thing about it,
right? Like it's, it may sound simple,
but like it's, it's the lowest common denominator.
It's, it's going to be there still.
It's a beautiful thing. People love them whenever they
can destroy them, like it's always, it's great.
Is there something in here? Is there something that's going
to attack me? I don't know.
You know, we got to see what's going on.
(32:49):
So the second. Game you brought up that you'd
worked on was Gigantic one that that had a a storied history and
again it's it's back. I I hadn't realized until you
had brought up this game that like oh it's back.
It it came back with a Rampage edition and.
And sure enough it didn't work as a free to play.
And again doesn't stop companiesnow from still thinking we're
going to put out a free to play game magically it's going to
(33:09):
work in a day. But no, they, they, but they
came back years later and and, and it's back in here.
But you know Boba melee shooting.
You get a little bit of a littlebit of everything in here with
the teams of five and, and can do some battle.
But gigantic was another projectyou worked on.
You brought up, Yeah. That was, that was probably the
(33:30):
longest I've worked on a game inmy career.
I started that company pretty much the beginning of when they
were starting to build gigantic.They had, they had like been
dabbling in a couple of ideas beforehand, but I came on pretty
early. I I think, I think they started
working on like 2 weeks before it started.
And, and yeah, I was there for like 5 plus years working on
(33:53):
that game. And that's definitely where I
grew in my skill set, where I bythe end, I was leading a, a
small team and, and doing everything related to
environments. And I was like starting learning
programming and building shaders.
And, and so I like that period of my career and that time
(34:14):
working on that game. I, I cherish.
I got to work with a lot of really talented people and, and
I got to grow as an individual game develop as a game
developer. And, and yeah, that game like
was definitely, if you talk about a passion project like
that was like, that was one where I probably put way too
much like overtime into. And but that was, it was 'cause
(34:37):
I love the team and love the love the game.
Yeah. Did did you peek?
In at the resurrected version, do you still see still see
fingerprints in there? They like it's still, it's still
there, it's still. Yeah, there's there's that game
changed hands and is a differentstudio, like the the studio that
(34:59):
built gigantic clothes worked for company Motiga and, and, and
so it changed hands. And so it's definitely
bittersweet seeing it come back.Like yes, I love seeing people
get to experience the stuff thatI built and, and but it's also a
little sad, like seeing someone else release it.
(35:22):
And so, yeah, so it's a little bittersweet, but yeah, it, when
it launched, I, we, we got a couple of old Motika people
together and we, we played in there, dabbled in and saw what
they built new. And so I, I am glad that it's
out there and people can still experience the game 'cause
there's still a lot in there that like I, I, I had a part in
(35:43):
and Sam. So I'm, I'm, I'm overall glad
that it's out. Do do you?
Have a rock or a barrel in therethat you still like.
You're looking like that's, you know, that your baby's still in
there. Obviously you had a pretty
significant piece of designing this one, but is there, Is there
one thing you're like, that's mybaby?
Huh. And Gigantic, I mean, yeah, I,
(36:04):
there's definitely way more 'cause like with Guild Wars 2
and like Arena, I think there, Ithink at the Prime there's like
35 people and, and environment artists on Guild Wars 2.
So there's a big team. And so how much I could work on
that. Whereas Gigantic, I think the
biggest our team got was just environment artist was 3.
(36:29):
And so a lot of the environment is, are things that I've built.
But my favorite thing in in Gigantic that I had a part in, I
think this is going to be a little bit more broad, but I the
main reason I actually moved over to work on Gigantic is I
(36:50):
wanted to have a more holistic influence on the world building
and the environment. And so I'd say the world
building in general for each mapwas probably my favorite thing
trying to figure out and, and figure out the story and working
with the concept artists and, and trying to see how we could
tell that story through environment.
Like those like the little, likeadding probably the majority of
(37:15):
players don't even notice them, but like, like adding little
hieroglyphs in the cliffs map that kind of tell like the, oh,
this used to be an old reef thathad a bunch of magical creatures
in there and they kind of embedded themselves into the
rock and having those like little details and, and, or in
the, I think the map's called Misforge.
It's like the Ruiny water map and like spending a lot of time
(37:39):
on the little details of like carved in stone statues and
adding little story elements in there.
Like those, those were always, those were always really fun
'cause you got to like, actuallymake this world feel alive.
Yeah. Excellent.
So your your third and, and I'm guessing was your, your possibly
(38:00):
your, your last in the industry before you made the jump to
solo. But you, you did Moss book 2 and
you jumped into the jumped into the VR world.
First of all. And second of all, you know,
you're, you're dealing with likean entirely different, you know,
just contained game, I guess like a contained dedicated game
as opposed to the other two projects that were a little
more, Not to say that that Moss book 2 isn't alive, but like
(38:24):
you're not dealing with the, the, the, the live play elements
of things. You're but so it's, it's kind of
a little different than you're also dealing with the VR side of
things too, which is an entirelydifferent monster in and of
itself. So, and again, something like
I'm guessing, did you work on the first Moss or was this just
like he came over here? So otherwise, again, you're
coming into another project, then they put new tools in, they
(38:46):
put new elements in and new puzzles and everything.
So you're coming into another project and like, okay, now
you're now you're here. So, like, what made you go make
the jump to say I'm going, I'm going to VR, that's where I'm
going to end up at and jump on this one, Yeah.
And these are definitely highlights in my career.
Like I, I there's studios in between these three and and
there were a couple of studios after Poly Arc and Moss 2.
(39:08):
But a little bit about myself, like the reason I kind of chose
these jobs progressively was always in a, a want to grow and
learn and, and so like arena, like I was AI was a prop artist
and and then and then gigantic, I became an environment artist.
(39:28):
I got to do everything environment.
And so every studio I did afterwards, there was a a a goal
of wanting to either learn more about the game industry or have
a option to grow as a developer and and grow my skill set.
And so after I was like really in the PC and console space, I,
I dived into mobile. I actually worked for King for a
short bit and, and then after that I wanted to learn about VR.
(39:52):
And so Poly Arc is also based here in Seattle.
And, and they had, they had already released Moss, which I,
I love that game. And they had an opportunity for
Moss too. And they needed a principal
artist to kind of help with their environment pipeline.
And I had a lot of experience inthere.
So it seemed to match up. And yeah, I, I, I loved it.
(40:15):
I the, the, especially as an environment artist, being able
to build worlds that you can actually then be in is quite an
experience. And, and so building this
virtual space and then putting on that headset and, and being
able to look around and feel like you're physically there, I,
(40:38):
I really enjoyed that experienceand, and learning on how to
build a world that works with that viewpoint is totally
different than building it for any type of camera view you have
to do for any other game. And so that was a great
experience. I really loved my time there
working on on that project. And then, yeah, I got to learn
so much from like the things that I got talked previously
(41:00):
about, like their view on the characters and stuff like that.
And so yeah, that was that was agreat experience an entirely.
Different kind of living environment is you're living in
it as opposed to the the kind ofliving breathing ongoing piece.
It's it's just wild, wild. It's the the the jump there so
very cool. Yeah.
I mean, there's yeah, there's definitely when it comes to game
(41:21):
development, developing a game with intent of it being a live
service and creating constant content versus focusing on A1
like a beginning and end story and experience and was
definitely also something new tome at least work on that
project. And so that was that was also a
(41:42):
fun experience. Well.
If, if you'll, if you'll humor me, one of the, one of the
things that we do every day on the website that we have is we,
we ask a quest, a question that we ask of gamers.
It's usually just a, a simple one.
I'm going to ask you just what what game do you think you've
logged the most hours on in yourlife?
My whole life, yeah. OK, well, I so I have two
(42:05):
answers. There's there's the live service
one where I feel like it's a little bit of a cop out because
they you're intended to put all the hours in would probably be
League of Legends. So I could call it the.
Most time into. League of Legends, there's no
Yeah, there's. No casual League of Legends play
this like you say, League of Legends, that's going to that's
going to pop up there on the list for sure.
(42:26):
Yeah, yeah. But the game I probably like
outside of like a live service game, the game I probably put
the most time into and like beatmultiple times.
Oh shoot 2 I guess 2 come to my mind.
Oh, Star Ocean. Star Oceans of Time, I believe
(42:47):
is what it's called. One of There's so many different
names like. It's not one of those ones that
has a very easy naming convention either.
Something like that, like I think just to play through it
once was like 90, a hundred hours or something like that.
And then they have new game plusafter that too.
And so I, I, I put a ton of timeinto that.
And then the other one that cameto mind was Persona 3.
(43:10):
I, I beat that. That's also not a short game,
but then I, I played through it again twice.
So I, I went through it three times.
Is there a? Persona game that clocks in
under 100 hours. I don't I don't think so.
So yeah, that, that'll. I think you could if you if you
have like, if you have your likeCHEAT SHEET of things you have
to hit and if if you know. Exactly what your path's going
(43:32):
to be. You can cut a few days out is
what you're saying. Yep, Yep, there's somebody.
Who's going to yell at me for some comment I made that he's
going to anticipate I I'm makingno derogatory statements towards
Persona infocynic. Relax.
Just making a joke. But just relax.
He's mad at me because I haven'tplayed Persona 5 yet I haven't
downloaded I will get to it somethat is not you're you're going
(43:53):
to learn it sounds like you you're about to hit an age for
your your your kids ghost from autopilot.
So you're just busy and kid kidskids of a certain age become no
longer long large scale RPG friendly.
That's all I'm going to say that's.
A persona. Sorry, Persona 3IN League of
Legends, this is it. I I should have asked this
question earlier. This is an entirely different
(44:14):
portrait of you than than I had going through the rest of this
conversation, so. I mean, I already have
experienced what you're saying. Like I I have not been able to
put in those types of hours intogames for the last couple years.
Especially starting your own business and then having a kid.
So good thing. Is I'll tell you.
Short play time game. I'll, I'll tell.
(44:36):
You on the switch, The slime here is I can just pop the
button off and I can pop it backon.
I'm right back where I was. I don't have to worry about save
points, so I don't have to worryabout playing that one.
That's not clear. But I can't play Clare obscure
in front of my kids. So I'm I'm not I'm not caught up
on Clare obscure yet. Get off my case, everybody.
I know. But I can play this no problem.
I can get control into the kids no problem.
(44:58):
But anyway, so it's just sorry, I just I, I know guys, I know
I'm going to get to it. OK, Same with persona 5.
Relax. That's not what we're here for,
though. Well, Tomas, I'm I'm going to
land this plane now. This is where my coach normally
comes in. And this is not my, this is not
my job. So I'm going to I'm going to
remind everybody of a few things.
First of all, Slime heroes. We have everything linked.
(45:18):
It's on all the consoles. It's on your four, your five,
your one, your X, your S, your PC on Steam, it's at it's
everywhere. Now that you can find on channel
3, You can you can link to all of it from there.
Pancake studios, We've we've gotchannel 3 dot GG slash pancake
studios that will link you to all of the pancake studios
activities. I will also shout out Whitethorn
(45:39):
games who, who published the game and just thank them for for
helping to arrange this conversation here.
And you certainly this vibe works perfectly with the rest of
their games too. So it's just it, it, it works.
It works very well. I got to shout my, my western PA
brethren, my, my western PA brethren up there, but go play
on the on the platform of your choice.
(46:01):
The podcast. We will we will drop every
Wednesday, 3:33 AM all the majors, just like the just like
the game. We're on Spotify, we're on
YouTube Music, we're on Apple run one stuff.
I've never even heard of that. People tell me that the podcasts
go to so whatever it feeds into it, I don't care.
That's fine. But again, shout out to pancake,
shout out to whitethorn and go play slime heroes.
(46:22):
I'm I'm Dan Ray's not with me today, Joel Willis executive
producing and and our theme songby Caster garden.
Go enjoy, enjoy his music. He just he just put out another
album here for his one of his game soundtracks.
Go check it out from Caster garden.
Go play slime heroes. Everybody have a good day.
(46:42):
Channel 3 is the future.
Channel 3 is the future Welcome crew to What are your 3A
Channel 3 podcast where we take a developer, sometimes go
(00:33):
through three games that they'rechoosing and talk about their
game and do our normal thing, but do it with somebody
different. But that's, you know, I got to
tell you, it's been like 20 episodes.
I'm leaving this in that we've done with developers.
I have to do a different introduction at some point.
I'm going to actually script it and figure out how I introduced
that as opposed to my normal like game interviews.
But today is not that day, Tomas.
(00:53):
Today is not that day. But I'm here as referenced, we
have Tomas Gomez, the the CEO, the founder of Pancake Studios.
We're going to talk about Slime Heroes here.
But Tomas, you want to want to say hi to everybody.
Hello everyone, I'm happy to be here and talk about Slime Heroes
and my three games. So, so Tomas, after give or
(01:15):
take, well, like a dozen years in the industry, you, you made
the you pulled the ripcord and you said it's time to start my
own studio. It's time to time to go
independent. Is that I'm, I'm sure that was
an easy one night conversation with yourself.
But but you know you you made the jump finally, and fourish
years ago you started Pancake Studios.
(01:35):
Yeah. So, yeah.
So that was, yeah, pulled the cord.
There was four years ago. I think it was just at the end
of the pandemic. And I think like most people is
doing a lot of soul searching onlike what I want to do with my
life, my career, family. We were married.
(01:57):
And so there's a lot of conversations between me and my
partner. And yeah, I was doing, I've been
in the game industry for 15 plusyears now.
And at that point in my career, I was doing a bunch of like
contract work and I wanted to domy own thing for a while for,
for years before that and just seemed like the right time.
(02:20):
We, we had some savings. And I think anyone who goes
independent, there's like a riskof like using your own money to
build what you're passionate about.
And so we had enough savings that my partner had a good job.
And so I was luckily to be in a position where I could take on
that adventure and it seemed just like the right time at that
moment. So I I always end up asking this
(02:42):
question to to gamers about their gamertags over the course
of time. But I I have to why?
Why pancake studio? Like why?
Why pancake? I so I didn't actually come up
with the name my wife did we? We go on many of our walks and
we were like having this conversation about the what I
(03:02):
should call the studio. And I wanted a studio that had
some resemblance of how like I look at building stuff, how I
want to build games that we build for that for the studio,
how I want to build the studio itself with the people that we
hire. And I'm a big component of like
(03:24):
iterating and constantly workingon yourself where if it's maybe
like your pipeline, speeding it up, being more productive.
I always am goal oriented. And so I wanted to have a studio
that kind of resembled always trying to be better and working
to be better. And my wife, one of my favorite
(03:45):
foods is pancakes. And my wife jokes like, well,
like when you make pancakes, like usually the first one's not
very good. Like it doesn't get cooked right
or you overcook, you burn it or whatever.
And then as you get two or threein, it gets better and better
and you make your really good stuff there.
And so it was kind of a humorousway to kind of represent that
(04:08):
momentum that I kind of wanted to represent in my studio.
And and also, it's one of my favorite foods.
How did it feel finally, you know, you, you get to this year
and you know, I'll, I'll start the segue into slime periods.
I'm going to I'm going to get tothat more formally, but you, you
finally, you turn the game on upon release, whether it was
(04:29):
Steam or Xbox, whichever from the initial from the initial
roll out, right? Like I'm not I'm not asking you
to to pick a side in the in the console wars or anything like
that, but you you see the logo come up knowing the product is
in the wild. Finally, how did how did that
feel? Yeah, it was, it was a long road
to get to that point. Like, yeah, we, we talked about
(04:50):
four years ago starting this company by myself, obviously
with my partner's support, but Iwas doing everything by myself.
And four years down the road, getting funding, growing A-Team
and then releasing it was quite the the feeling of like we
initially launched on PC and Xbox first and we're now
(05:12):
launched on all platforms. All the majors are there now.
You, you got the PS4 PS Five outa few weeks ago.
So yeah, last but not least. Yeah.
But yeah, that first initial launch, like working those four
years and there's a lot of struggles and it, it, it was
stressful, euphoric. Like, I think it, there's just a
(05:38):
overwhelming amount of feelings,but like gratifying, like having
finished something that you worked on for a very long time,
seeing people get their hands onit, stressing out about your
sales, making sure you've hit the proper marketing.
There's just a lot of things youworry about.
(05:58):
And then you start and then you start seeing the list of bugs
and, and battery views and, and then so you're like, oh, should
I, I, should I start working immediately and fixing that
stuff? There's a lot of feelings that
go in with the first launch and I've, I've experienced launches
through the companies I've been at, but this is my own product.
And so it definitely is. I think all those feelings you
(06:22):
get working for someone else andreleasing something, it's just
amplified because you have so much more ownership over it.
Well, enjoy the good part. Next time you turn it on and you
see your see your logo on the screen, take a minute and just
and just enjoy that. Just just forget.
Forget the forget the rest of itfor a minute.
I I. I always feel.
Good. Like that's the fun part about
talking about like the independent studios and stuff
(06:43):
is, is, you know, like I, I, youknow, there's a lot of stuff
like, you know, we started this through conversation through
Whitethorne games and yeah, kindof kind of setting things up.
And I, I see the logos for theseplaces and I see the website.
And that's another thing like I,I put yours on my Switch too.
And it's another thing when I boot the game up and I see like,
oh, there's your logo on the switch too.
Like it's, it's something cooler, something, something
cooler about seeing it on the screen.
(07:04):
So I feel that for you. And I hope you, I hope you get
to feel some gratification for that at some point.
So may that may that happen for you.
I think one of the most gratifying moments, so generally
in my life goal is to build stuff for people to enjoy.
And I that's one of the main reasons I got into making games.
(07:26):
And, and so I think one of the most gratifying things that I
felt after Slime Heroes launchedwas we have, we have a discord
channel and people get in there.And especially after Slime
Heroes launched, more people have gone, come in and share
their experience with Slime Heroes or ask questions.
And we even have a channel, we have a channel in there where
people can get together and playtogether 'cause the whole game
can be played with the, and I, Ithink the time I felt the most
(07:51):
joy is, yeah, seeing those people get to experience the
game and, and then also play with each other and, and create
bonds. And because of that, that's,
that's that was my goal from dayone where I wanted to build.
Well, let's jump into the game itself.
We we've we've danced around a little bit here.
I I, I derailed a little more than I probably should have to
(08:13):
begin with, but let's talk aboutslime heroes here.
So you've had a progressive rollout, as you mentioned back in
March, you launched for APC and for the Xboxes and then July you
hit the hit the switches and then finally a couple weeks ago
hit the the PlayStation 4 and five.
So you can now officially say you were you were on all the all
the majors, all the modern consoles.
You're there you are you're agnostic.
(08:34):
You're not picked one side or the other here.
And that's, you know, that's, that's not, that's not always
the easiest thing, but like you're listen, you're everywhere
now. Yeah, it's it's so great when
they people ask you now I can just say, yeah, we're on
everything now. Yeah, whatever you want it to be
on, it's there. So it's ready to go.
The the slime, the slime. So listen, I, I, I, we got to
jump back here because my entirelife going back to like dragon,
(08:57):
Dragon Warrior I, I still call Dragon question when looking
back, like slides have been dumped on for my entire
lifetime, which is longer than yours now.
And you decide the slimes have been dumped on for long enough
and it's time to time to make the slimes the good guys here.
And you know, the, the guardiansof the land have failed.
It's time for the time for the slimes to step in.
And that's your game comes into it to this.
(09:20):
Can I call it action role-playing?
Is that that's kind of the kind of the the general.
We'll, we'll talk a little bit more about it as it goes on
here. But yeah, but that's how you
come into your game. That is the the it's time for
the slimes to to be the good guys.
And how did you how did you decide on the slimes of the
protagonist and kind of the structure of the, the game like
(09:42):
that? That's kind of the first big
question is like, OK, how did you decide this action RPG,
which I like I I just go back on, I think a secret of man
immediately the first time I sawthe trailer, like I go back to
the, to that era of Super Nintendo with this and, and even
playing the game, like, oh, good, we get the there's
actually you're shaking. You're you're judging me and and
putting a clock on my head. I, I love, I love the references
(10:05):
you're bringing up. These are those are all great
games. That that's I, I gotta, I gotta
tie in. These are certain crowds.
I need people understand, like I, I have played this thing and
like, this is where I'm this is where I'm vibing at at this
point. But you know, so so four years
ago, you make the jump, right? You create, OK, we named it the
studio. That's half the battle.
I'm just kidding. It's nowhere near half the
battle, but like, but you decide, OK, how, how do you come
(10:27):
to we're going to make a game about the slimes.
It's their time to be the good guys.
It's their time to be the protagonist.
And like, how did you, how did you come to where this game is
going to be at? So I knew I wanted to build my
own studio. I knew I wanted to attempt to
make my own games. I wanted to take this also as a
way to build a successful business.
(10:49):
I think. I think there's an idea when
you're like building, you're going indie and building your
own indie games, like build yourpassion project.
And I definitely did things I really want to do in this game,
but I also wanted to like think about a game that I could
practically build with the resources that I had available
to me. And this studio I was building,
(11:10):
at least initially, was just myself.
And so I had to really think about strategically what I could
build by myself, at least at themoment, and try to build a
vertical slice prototype that I could raise money.
And so I looked at a bunch of myexperience and what that kind of
resulted into a lot of my past. I worked it in action games and
(11:35):
stylistically cute and wholesomeand, and quirky games.
And so I took that experience and kind of figured out where
that would fit in the game that I wanted to build.
I also wanted to, I, I mentionedit before, I wanted to build a
game that you can share with people.
And so Co-op was like a very important thing to me basically
from day one that I wanted to add into this game.
(11:56):
And so I, I like took all those things and, and that kind of
morphed what I could potentiallybuild.
And, and I want to do a time estimate of like, oh, I want to
build this in a couple years. And so I, I kind of like set,
put a box around what the game could be and try to figure out
how it would fit. And that's where slime heroes
came from. The, the actual character, the
(12:19):
slime character. I, there was a technical
limitation that kind of resultedin what it was.
And then there were there were some artistic choices, but
because I was by myself, one of my weakest, if of all my
experience in the game industry,like I'm, I'm very, I've worked
very little as an animator. And so I was like, if I'm going
(12:43):
to animate this main character, like I can't have it be too hard
for me. And So what is what is the most
simplest thing that I can animate?
And usually whenever you get into your first animation class,
whatever and made a ball bouncing like that's the first
thing you do. It was like, OK, So what if the
(13:03):
main character was some ball shape?
And and then with that, I took some experience of like when I
worked at like Poly arc, who arewho are very good masters of
like creating very characters you can relate to and how
important it is to have a character you relate to.
And so I wanted a character thatwas cute and and can be somewhat
relatable, but still quirky. And so I was like trying to
(13:25):
think of like a monster and and so like within all those it
slime just came up as the perfect kind of just fits all
checks all those boxes. Well, clear.
Clearly as the game developed, alot more went into the animation
than it you're making it, so yeah.
Too. Yeah, that was, that was, that
was. The initial bill, 'cause I, I,
you know, it's funny, 'cause I, I had the, the character
(13:47):
animations and not only that, but like you not project a lot
onto the sound how I want to, how I want to say this.
And again, I'm leaving this stupidity in for me not being
able to, to say this eloquently.But like, you put a lot of
skills and different weapons andlike the slime is able to do a
lot. So yeah, what, what started
probably is like a prototype really.
(14:09):
You guys expanded it way more than you needed to.
Yeah. We I, we, I, I grew the team to
we had we had seven people working on the project, building
the core game. And yeah, we, we, we got an
animator who was a lot better than me and higher sound design
arts and so filled in the gaps that I I was weaker in and yeah,
(14:34):
the the core design of the game.This kind of came from some of
the games I love to play actually.
Like one of my favorite games around the time we were like
thinking about the game was I think Elden Ring had come out
around that time actually that. Time.
Yeah, I I love all the Souls games I've played.
Yeah, that is. So the the initial e-mail I got
(14:55):
announcing the release of the game was a family friendly souls
like or something like that. Was that the?
The souls like. For the for the whole family,
that's what the I had I had to look up like, oh wait, the
email's going to be the top of my list right now.
Yeah, a souls like for the wholefamily, which is a just.
Like OK that. If you want to grab somebody's
attention, OK, you've got you'vegot my attention.
If you're going to say that description, there's normally
(15:17):
don't go together, Yeah. Yeah, one of my favorite things
and what kind of fed into the main design philosophy of
building slime heroes was like in the Souls games.
One of my favorite things that Ilike about those games is the
freedom of play that they allow and allow the player to kind of
explore and play the way they want and experience the game the
(15:37):
way they want to. And Alder Ranger by dying.
Immediately because they put a boss to you can't beat.
You're like, I'm gonna go up andfight the fire giant like no.
And you die. I mean, OK, No, no, no.
OK, That's in ham. OK, Sorry, sorry.
It's, it's more of like, oh, I'mgoing to use spells and stay at
far distance, or, oh, could I use this and, and create some
situation where I can drop this on top of the like they, they
(15:58):
create a lot of opportunities toexplore and, and figure out what
is fun for you. And, and so that was kind of a
core philosophy that we followedthrough for slime heroes.
We wanted to allow the player todiscover and find the fun for
them. And that kind of resulted in the
core system of, yeah, the the slime can consume enemy
(16:19):
abilities and then mix and matchthem to create new abilities.
And so it allows for explorationand allows to a lot of
flexibility to find the play style that you enjoy to play it.
It it certainly does what what is your what are your favorite
skills of the bunch? Like if you're if you're going,
you're playing the game, what are your what are your go TOS?
(16:43):
Yeah, I've I've played the game a lot now and so I've definitely
changed too much. Probably yes.
You gotta really think about this one for a minute, but like,
what are your what are your likeunlocking these in Yeah.
There's there's, there's the usual like magic attack speed
build that I like to do. And so there's a couple of
combos you can do where you can place down AOE auras that
(17:05):
benefit both you and your teammate.
And then you can put a passive where you get life steal off of
whenever you hit within those auras also.
And then you can amplify your attack speed as you level up
your character. And so you you're just like
Wheeling, dealing blows to the enemy, dodging all over the
place and then life stealing. That's that's probably one of my
(17:27):
favorite combos, but there's a lot of fun physical skills where
you can create walls and block block enemies from even getting
to you or create arenas around you and the and the enemy and
lock them into place. There's a like, but yeah, I'm
I'm usually more of a a tax beadwith a little bit of magic.
That's usually my favorite placeto house combination.
(17:49):
Works no problem there. So you, you've got some, yeah,
you mentioned the, the Co-op here and you can really
distinguish the slides from eachother because you do have just
like a fun customization menu when you start the game, you got
different faces and the colors are like whatever you basically
want to make of them. You've got, you've got a couple
of mix mixes and matches in there to, to really make the
thing whatever, whatever you want it to be.
(18:11):
So that's, that's pretty fun forpeople who are coming in like,
oh, it's, it's not, it's not Skyrim's menu where like I'm
going to spend 45 minutes designing a character that I'm
never going to see again. You can figure out like what's
going to look easy for you on the screen?
What's got a silly enough face or a serious enough like you
have like I want the angry looking slime, but I want the
happy looking slime, but I want the the happy mouth with the
angry eyes. What do I and whatever color
(18:32):
combinations you want that like I I, I just spent a few minutes
making sure I'm like, do I? Do I like my color combination
here? Will I be able to see it on the
screen? Yes, I can.
I'm good. I'm set.
Let's go. Yeah, I I think it's important
that when you, especially if you're playing a game for a long
time, that you can relate to your character somewhat.
And, and allowing even just a little bit of customization to
(18:54):
set the colors and the tone of the character that you want
allows you to feel connected more so to that character.
So that was something important that we wanted to add to the
game. And you can get more equipment
and hats in the game to change the look even more as you play.
So again, shout. Out to the to your entire team
for making all those things work'cause again, you talk about
(19:17):
like it, OK, it starts out as a simple character design, but
like, no, you guys really made the most of it with the
different skills and the weaponsthat like it, it looks cool.
I don't know if there's, there's, it's too dumb of me to
say it that way, but like it looks really cool and unique
that like these things are absorbed into your slimes design
(19:39):
and coloring and everything. And you kind of, and again, you
can kind of it. It's not like I love Zelda and
I'm not disparaging when I say, but like you go into someone
like the linear Zelda and you'relike, OK, I just got the hook
shot. I know I need the hook shot to
be the boss in this temple. You get the option like, OK, you
have a new enemy skill, but thatyou've absorbed, but it's not
(19:59):
the one that you have to then beat the next enemies with.
You have the option to like, OK,do I want to mix it up?
Do I want to try something different?
And it really, really works well.
And I have to also shout out thedash at this point because my Co
host loves a good dash and and yours is a good you can do it do
do a string of dashes to get outof a situation real quick 'cause
(20:20):
I might I have been using like a.
A sword melee build for for whenI get up up close to dirty.
I'll attack with the magic from a distance, then close the gap
and finish them off and that's my that's my usual play style
for this so far that so I got a shout out good good dash.
I use one to get in there and 1 to get out if I'm in trouble.
Thank you for thank you for that.
That's. I'll give you a little spoiler.
(20:42):
You can get hats that help the dash, it'd be even more
powerful. And there's a spell that also
adds stuff to your dash too, so nice.
Perfect. Exactly what?
You want to hear so, so you know, you mentioned I will I
will bring up the souls piece because you you die in this game
(21:03):
like there's no, there's no two ways about you.
Do you do you do die. I I died, I remember very
quickly in my first go around, not because of combat issues,
because there's like trying to look over a ledge and I'm like,
what's down there and I fell offand like, no, but you, you go
gather your stuff back up. You got time.
Don't die again. It's just like, it's like that
same souls like Elden Ring. I can go gather some of my gear
(21:23):
back up. I can get over there to it.
So you know, it seems like you guys put some consideration into
you're going to die. It's going to happen.
It's OK. Yeah, we I that that was one of
the first course of the game. We also though, wanted it to be
accessible. And so there's tons of
accessibility options where you can control things that you do
(21:45):
have difficulty with, with its damage or timing and or puzzles.
There's a lot of options in there to set the challenge that
you feel comfortable with and, and, and then obviously when you
get to play with a friend it it,it opens up even more.
(22:06):
So I, I was going to ask, so let's talk a little about the
Co-op because you know, I, I think you mentioned or like, I
feel like there's a, there's a bit of this.
It's just like it's nice. You can have a game for the
whole family without having to compromise.
Like, OK, I don't need to be, I'm, I'm sorry, somebody's
playing like the Grinch's Christmas game right now with
their kids And like that, that probably is a little more
(22:29):
painful or the, you know, no offense, Paw Patrol game.
But like I, I, I know, I know what some of these games are
like when you're playing with your kids, you're having fun,
But like this is nice mix because the kids can pick up the
controller and have some fun. And even if they get beaten or
like I, I haven't messed with the accessibility sliders at all
or anything like that. But like, you know, you're,
you're helping each other out that I think the Co-op you go,
(22:49):
you can find a friend. You mentioned your discord.
People are finding friends online.
Like what? What made you guys decide like
this is a key element for us because that that doesn't make
it easy for you guys from, from,from that side of things,
especially if you're involving the Internet.
That's an extra layer of challenge for you guys.
So like what? How do you decide that was going
(23:10):
to be important enough to to have to do something about that?
I love how you keep operating uplike this is this is a lot of
game, like impressive that you built that like.
Yeah, like looking back we maybeI don't wanna make it sound.
Simple. That's all I'm trying to say
about that. Yeah, I'm, I'm not gonna
oversimplify it by saying, oh, you put it on the Internet,
that's really easy. Like, no, it's there's a lot
going on there. Yeah, we like looking back.
(23:32):
We probably bit off more than weshould have, especially for a
first team, first game, first studio.
It was, it was a lot, but yeah, it was a lot of stuff that we
felt passionate about and we wanted to get in there with.
Let's see your, your original question with Co-op and online.
Yeah, the, the main reason I wanted to add that like I, I've
kind of mentioned it previously is I wanted to build a game that
(23:55):
you could share with people. So a little bit in my past
before start made my own stadiumbuild slime heroes.
I I built some smaller games on the side, like I built a mobile
game. I did AVR game and and those
were fine. They were small and there was,
there was a bit of detachment from those because they were
(24:16):
single player and especially like the VR1, someone had a
headset on. And, and I, like I said before,
I like to build stuff that I canshare and share with people.
And so with this game, it was going to be bigger.
I wanted to build a game that you could play with someone and,
and selfishly so, like I could play like with my partner or at
that time we hadn't had a kid yet and I wanted to build a
(24:38):
game. Maybe I in the future I could
play with my child. We, we now have one.
She's two years old now and goodenough for.
Support at this point. If you if you play a support.
Role now yeah, you you you get powered the controller.
You don't have to give them the fake unplug controller even.
Soon enough you'll be there. We we've played a couple of
(24:58):
games so far. It's getting better.
It's getting better. And we so, yeah.
So we wanted to build a game like share people and then and
then could play with family and friends.
And so that was just kind of a goal really early on just
because there was definitely an attempt to build something a
little bit bigger than what I'vedone in the past and really see
(25:20):
putting a good amount of time a couple years into making a game
like what I could build both as a studio and the game.
So what's your, what's your, your one sentence thought of
just like, hey, here's here's how we get people in.
Here's, here's what I want this to be for slime heroes, not to
make you take your last four years of your life and, and
condense it down to 1 sentence. And, and maybe, maybe it is the
(25:43):
the soul's light for the whole family.
I don't know, I don't know. But like, what, what, what's
your, what's your, what's your pitch?
What's your somebody walks up toyou and says, like, well, what's
this? What?
What's your pitch to get somebody hooked to to?
Want to play Slime Heroes? Yeah.
As he watches four years of his life flash by and say, This guy
wants me to summarize that number one year, you moron, I.
(26:03):
Think I think my one sense wouldbe that slime heroes is a game
that you can play with someone someone in a friend or family
and be in a world a very welcoming wholesome charming
world and enjoy together while playing with fun unique skills
(26:24):
and action and puzzle and platforming and all the things
you can find enjoyable in a gameyeah I'll.
I'll, I'll throw my comps out there too, because like, it's
probably because I finally got bit by the Hades bug a few weeks
ago. Someone finally like when it's
anniversary hit, I was like, allright, I'll try it again.
I, I just, it didn't mess mess with me the first time, but I'm
like, oh, I feel, I feel the Hades in this, but this is like
(26:47):
more family friendly version of Hades.
This is, this is nice. This is, you know, I can, I can
play this with the kids no problem.
And like I said, yeah, Secret ofMana was also one that just like
the second you, you get these like action RPGs and just go
back to that like 90s Secret of Mana, Secret of ever more.
There's just something about that that like it, it is forever
ingrained in my, in my brain that way them like, OK, this is
(27:08):
that that's where we're at with this too.
I get that. Like it's somewhere between
those two my brain is operating.I want to build that ideal game
of someone who's grown up with action games and, but now has a
partner or kid that they want toplay with and, and the, the
perfect balance of that for, forthat person to be able to enjoy
(27:30):
a game with your child. And it's been great showing the
game at shows and, and, and seeing that happen where a
parent brings their kids by and they get on the demo and, and
the kids are enjoying it, the parents enjoying it.
And it's a good, it's a good sharing experience and.
Anything else we should know? Again, the game is it is now
(27:52):
out. All the majors, your Xbox's,
your PC, your Playstations, yourSwitches.
It's you're out. You're out there, everywhere.
Anything else everyone should know about Slime Heroes?
Yeah, we're, we're out on all the platforms.
I think we have a couple of updates coming on some of the
consoles cause yeah, our focus was to get on everything and now
we're gonna have some updates coming up for the console
(28:14):
specifically. So Xbox Switch and and so you
should, should be seeing that hopefully soon.
Great. Well, we, we promised we would
talk 3 and and you've got three games for your past that you
want to bring up. And yeah, I'm, I'm sure there'll
be pieces of these that kind of feed into, into into where you
are. But the first game you want to
talk about that you'd, you'd worked on overtime was Guild
(28:35):
Wars two, one of the, the big MMORPGS that that I, you know,
still still going. I mean, right before this
episode drops, they're going to have a, they're going to have a
big update hit. So this thing is, you know, it's
been here since you were done with it probably, but this
thing's still going. Yeah, Guild Wars 2 has a special
play. Like I think all the games we're
(28:55):
talking about have a special place like I throughout my
career. But Guild Wars 2 was the first
game I got to work on. I started out as an environment
artist and I think I I maybe dabbled in playing Mmos
beforehand, but that was also the first MMO I really dived
into. And but it was, it was a great
(29:17):
experience. I loved Guild Wars 2, like the
combat. I think the thing I struggle
with with most Mmos is the combat.
Like I'm more of an action oriented player and I don't like
to manage skillbars or timers and stuff like that.
And so Guild Wars 2 was like a like a fun like get in there and
like the dynamic quests and story.
(29:37):
It was just a great experience. And so I really cherish being
able to work on that project. And it kind of shows that
there's dedicated fan base and they're still making content to
this day. Was there something?
You have to leave your fingerprint on with it.
I mean, obviously you're dealingwith it.
You're dealing with like structured environments, right?
Where like they, they've got a, they've got an established art
style, they've got, you know, kind of established guidelines
(29:58):
for things. But like, was there something
like this is you, you know, like, like I know this is going
to be me. This is, this is my, this is my
tree design or something. Is there something in there?
You're like, no, this is, this is Tomas.
You got that kind of stuff that you know is yours.
So yeah, I got to, I got to workon Guild Wars 2 for a couple
years and before it even launched.
And then I worked on it after itlaunched.
And so I was at a prime time where we were building a bunch
(30:21):
of the rewards for the game. And, and so like I think I, I at
launch of the game, I don't knowthere was anywhere like 100 plus
weapons in the game. And I probably touched almost
all of them, a good portion of them.
(30:42):
And then towards the right before the game launched, we
were finishing out the legendaryitems.
And so I got to actually make a good handful of the legendary
items, like the legendary, I figure what what its final name
ended as is like the day and night legendary great sword.
Like that was one of my favoriteitems I got to build and it's
(31:03):
awesome seeing people and it takes forever.
Well, it's maybe it's probably easier now, but when it first
came out, it took forever to get.
So it was pretty rare you saw someone with it, but when you
did it was awesome. And yeah, I did a couple other,
yeah, like I did the legendary dagger, the legendary staff, the
legendary Mace. And so that was, that was were
(31:24):
fun cause those were like the big flashy things that people
work towards, like they spent the majority of their time
playing, working towards cause those were late game content.
So it was awesome seeing people want to get those.
And when they did, they were very happy with them.
There are, it's so funny you said like trees and stuff there
(31:44):
is there it because Mmos are so big in their giant worlds.
It like I talk about these legendary weapons and that's
definitely probably one of my favorite things that I got to
work on. But there is something
satisfying because that was my first job and the things I
built. Like one of the first things I
made was like a barrel and and maybe some rocks.
And so it's still pretty enjoyable to see like a
(32:07):
screenshot pop up and still see like those very simple things
that I built because those are some of the first things I, I
learned my, my craft on. So see it says somebody.
Thinks I'm being silly when I say something like that.
No, it's, it's going to be thoseare the things that get built in
and get to carry, carry on through time.
They're not going to send like, oh, we came up with a new barrel
design. Like no, they're not going to
like the barrel gets to continueon.
(32:28):
So that's the, that's the, that's the cool thing about it,
right? Like it's, it may sound simple,
but like it's, it's the lowest common denominator.
It's, it's going to be there still.
It's a beautiful thing. People love them whenever they
can destroy them, like it's always, it's great.
Is there something in here? Is there something that's going
to attack me? I don't know.
You know, we got to see what's going on.
(32:49):
So the second. Game you brought up that you'd
worked on was Gigantic one that that had a a storied history and
again it's it's back. I I hadn't realized until you
had brought up this game that like oh it's back.
It it came back with a Rampage edition and.
And sure enough it didn't work as a free to play.
And again doesn't stop companiesnow from still thinking we're
going to put out a free to play game magically it's going to
(33:09):
work in a day. But no, they, they, but they
came back years later and and, and it's back in here.
But you know Boba melee shooting.
You get a little bit of a littlebit of everything in here with
the teams of five and, and can do some battle.
But gigantic was another projectyou worked on.
You brought up, Yeah. That was, that was probably the
(33:30):
longest I've worked on a game inmy career.
I started that company pretty much the beginning of when they
were starting to build gigantic.They had, they had like been
dabbling in a couple of ideas beforehand, but I came on pretty
early. I I think, I think they started
working on like 2 weeks before it started.
And, and yeah, I was there for like 5 plus years working on
(33:53):
that game. And that's definitely where I
grew in my skill set, where I bythe end, I was leading a, a
small team and, and doing everything related to
environments. And I was like starting learning
programming and building shaders.
And, and so I like that period of my career and that time
(34:14):
working on that game. I, I cherish.
I got to work with a lot of really talented people and, and
I got to grow as an individual game develop as a game
developer. And, and yeah, that game like
was definitely, if you talk about a passion project like
that was like, that was one where I probably put way too
much like overtime into. And but that was, it was 'cause
(34:37):
I love the team and love the love the game.
Yeah. Did did you peek?
In at the resurrected version, do you still see still see
fingerprints in there? They like it's still, it's still
there, it's still. Yeah, there's there's that game
changed hands and is a differentstudio, like the the studio that
(34:59):
built gigantic clothes worked for company Motiga and, and, and
so it changed hands. And so it's definitely
bittersweet seeing it come back.Like yes, I love seeing people
get to experience the stuff thatI built and, and but it's also a
little sad, like seeing someone else release it.
(35:22):
And so, yeah, so it's a little bittersweet, but yeah, it, when
it launched, I, we, we got a couple of old Motika people
together and we, we played in there, dabbled in and saw what
they built new. And so I, I am glad that it's
out there and people can still experience the game 'cause
there's still a lot in there that like I, I, I had a part in
(35:43):
and Sam. So I'm, I'm, I'm overall glad
that it's out. Do do you?
Have a rock or a barrel in therethat you still like.
You're looking like that's, you know, that your baby's still in
there. Obviously you had a pretty
significant piece of designing this one, but is there, Is there
one thing you're like, that's mybaby?
Huh. And Gigantic, I mean, yeah, I,
(36:04):
there's definitely way more 'cause like with Guild Wars 2
and like Arena, I think there, Ithink at the Prime there's like
35 people and, and environment artists on Guild Wars 2.
So there's a big team. And so how much I could work on
that. Whereas Gigantic, I think the
biggest our team got was just environment artist was 3.
(36:29):
And so a lot of the environment is, are things that I've built.
But my favorite thing in in Gigantic that I had a part in, I
think this is going to be a little bit more broad, but I the
main reason I actually moved over to work on Gigantic is I
(36:50):
wanted to have a more holistic influence on the world building
and the environment. And so I'd say the world
building in general for each mapwas probably my favorite thing
trying to figure out and, and figure out the story and working
with the concept artists and, and trying to see how we could
tell that story through environment.
Like those like the little, likeadding probably the majority of
(37:15):
players don't even notice them, but like, like adding little
hieroglyphs in the cliffs map that kind of tell like the, oh,
this used to be an old reef thathad a bunch of magical creatures
in there and they kind of embedded themselves into the
rock and having those like little details and, and, or in
the, I think the map's called Misforge.
It's like the Ruiny water map and like spending a lot of time
(37:39):
on the little details of like carved in stone statues and
adding little story elements in there.
Like those, those were always, those were always really fun
'cause you got to like, actuallymake this world feel alive.
Yeah. Excellent.
So your your third and, and I'm guessing was your, your possibly
(38:00):
your, your last in the industry before you made the jump to
solo. But you, you did Moss book 2 and
you jumped into the jumped into the VR world.
First of all. And second of all, you know,
you're, you're dealing with likean entirely different, you know,
just contained game, I guess like a contained dedicated game
as opposed to the other two projects that were a little
more, Not to say that that Moss book 2 isn't alive, but like
(38:24):
you're not dealing with the, the, the, the live play elements
of things. You're but so it's, it's kind of
a little different than you're also dealing with the VR side of
things too, which is an entirelydifferent monster in and of
itself. So, and again, something like
I'm guessing, did you work on the first Moss or was this just
like he came over here? So otherwise, again, you're
coming into another project, then they put new tools in, they
(38:46):
put new elements in and new puzzles and everything.
So you're coming into another project and like, okay, now
you're now you're here. So, like, what made you go make
the jump to say I'm going, I'm going to VR, that's where I'm
going to end up at and jump on this one, Yeah.
And these are definitely highlights in my career.
Like I, I there's studios in between these three and and
there were a couple of studios after Poly Arc and Moss 2.
(39:08):
But a little bit about myself, like the reason I kind of chose
these jobs progressively was always in a, a want to grow and
learn and, and so like arena, like I was AI was a prop artist
and and then and then gigantic, I became an environment artist.
(39:28):
I got to do everything environment.
And so every studio I did afterwards, there was a a a goal
of wanting to either learn more about the game industry or have
a option to grow as a developer and and grow my skill set.
And so after I was like really in the PC and console space, I,
I dived into mobile. I actually worked for King for a
short bit and, and then after that I wanted to learn about VR.
(39:52):
And so Poly Arc is also based here in Seattle.
And, and they had, they had already released Moss, which I,
I love that game. And they had an opportunity for
Moss too. And they needed a principal
artist to kind of help with their environment pipeline.
And I had a lot of experience inthere.
So it seemed to match up. And yeah, I, I, I loved it.
(40:15):
I the, the, especially as an environment artist, being able
to build worlds that you can actually then be in is quite an
experience. And, and so building this
virtual space and then putting on that headset and, and being
able to look around and feel like you're physically there, I,
(40:38):
I really enjoyed that experienceand, and learning on how to
build a world that works with that viewpoint is totally
different than building it for any type of camera view you have
to do for any other game. And so that was a great
experience. I really loved my time there
working on on that project. And then, yeah, I got to learn
so much from like the things that I got talked previously
(41:00):
about, like their view on the characters and stuff like that.
And so yeah, that was that was agreat experience an entirely.
Different kind of living environment is you're living in
it as opposed to the the kind ofliving breathing ongoing piece.
It's it's just wild, wild. It's the the the jump there so
very cool. Yeah.
I mean, there's yeah, there's definitely when it comes to game
(41:21):
development, developing a game with intent of it being a live
service and creating constant content versus focusing on A1
like a beginning and end story and experience and was
definitely also something new tome at least work on that
project. And so that was that was also a
(41:42):
fun experience. Well.
If, if you'll, if you'll humor me, one of the, one of the
things that we do every day on the website that we have is we,
we ask a quest, a question that we ask of gamers.
It's usually just a, a simple one.
I'm going to ask you just what what game do you think you've
logged the most hours on in yourlife?
My whole life, yeah. OK, well, I so I have two
(42:05):
answers. There's there's the live service
one where I feel like it's a little bit of a cop out because
they you're intended to put all the hours in would probably be
League of Legends. So I could call it the.
Most time into. League of Legends, there's no
Yeah, there's. No casual League of Legends play
this like you say, League of Legends, that's going to that's
going to pop up there on the list for sure.
(42:26):
Yeah, yeah. But the game I probably like
outside of like a live service game, the game I probably put
the most time into and like beatmultiple times.
Oh shoot 2 I guess 2 come to my mind.
Oh, Star Ocean. Star Oceans of Time, I believe
(42:47):
is what it's called. One of There's so many different
names like. It's not one of those ones that
has a very easy naming convention either.
Something like that, like I think just to play through it
once was like 90, a hundred hours or something like that.
And then they have new game plusafter that too.
And so I, I, I put a ton of timeinto that.
And then the other one that cameto mind was Persona 3.
(43:10):
I, I beat that. That's also not a short game,
but then I, I played through it again twice.
So I, I went through it three times.
Is there a? Persona game that clocks in
under 100 hours. I don't I don't think so.
So yeah, that, that'll. I think you could if you if you
have like, if you have your likeCHEAT SHEET of things you have
to hit and if if you know. Exactly what your path's going
(43:32):
to be. You can cut a few days out is
what you're saying. Yep, Yep, there's somebody.
Who's going to yell at me for some comment I made that he's
going to anticipate I I'm makingno derogatory statements towards
Persona infocynic. Relax.
Just making a joke. But just relax.
He's mad at me because I haven'tplayed Persona 5 yet I haven't
downloaded I will get to it somethat is not you're you're going
(43:53):
to learn it sounds like you you're about to hit an age for
your your your kids ghost from autopilot.
So you're just busy and kid kidskids of a certain age become no
longer long large scale RPG friendly.
That's all I'm going to say that's.
A persona. Sorry, Persona 3IN League of
Legends, this is it. I I should have asked this
question earlier. This is an entirely different
(44:14):
portrait of you than than I had going through the rest of this
conversation, so. I mean, I already have
experienced what you're saying. Like I I have not been able to
put in those types of hours intogames for the last couple years.
Especially starting your own business and then having a kid.
So good thing. Is I'll tell you.
Short play time game. I'll, I'll tell.
(44:36):
You on the switch, The slime here is I can just pop the
button off and I can pop it backon.
I'm right back where I was. I don't have to worry about save
points, so I don't have to worryabout playing that one.
That's not clear. But I can't play Clare obscure
in front of my kids. So I'm I'm not I'm not caught up
on Clare obscure yet. Get off my case, everybody.
I know. But I can play this no problem.
I can get control into the kids no problem.
(44:58):
But anyway, so it's just sorry, I just I, I know guys, I know
I'm going to get to it. OK, Same with persona 5.
Relax. That's not what we're here for,
though. Well, Tomas, I'm I'm going to
land this plane now. This is where my coach normally
comes in. And this is not my, this is not
my job. So I'm going to I'm going to
remind everybody of a few things.
First of all, Slime heroes. We have everything linked.
(45:18):
It's on all the consoles. It's on your four, your five,
your one, your X, your S, your PC on Steam, it's at it's
everywhere. Now that you can find on channel
3, You can you can link to all of it from there.
Pancake studios, We've we've gotchannel 3 dot GG slash pancake
studios that will link you to all of the pancake studios
activities. I will also shout out Whitethorn
(45:39):
games who, who published the game and just thank them for for
helping to arrange this conversation here.
And you certainly this vibe works perfectly with the rest of
their games too. So it's just it, it, it works.
It works very well. I got to shout my, my western PA
brethren, my, my western PA brethren up there, but go play
on the on the platform of your choice.
(46:01):
The podcast. We will we will drop every
Wednesday, 3:33 AM all the majors, just like the just like
the game. We're on Spotify, we're on
YouTube Music, we're on Apple run one stuff.
I've never even heard of that. People tell me that the podcasts
go to so whatever it feeds into it, I don't care.
That's fine. But again, shout out to pancake,
shout out to whitethorn and go play slime heroes.
(46:22):
I'm I'm Dan Ray's not with me today, Joel Willis executive
producing and and our theme songby Caster garden.
Go enjoy, enjoy his music. He just he just put out another
album here for his one of his game soundtracks.
Go check it out from Caster garden.
Go play slime heroes. Everybody have a good day.
(46:42):
Channel 3 is the future.
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