It’s moolah making time! Check out our interview with Andreas Firnigl, bossman of Nosebleed Interactive. Learn more about the company, their hit title Vostok Inc, and more. Plus, information on physical releases that you do not want to miss!
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m Andreas Firnigl, Designer, Bossman and coffee boy at Nosebleed Interactive. I’ve been making games professionally for about 16 years, 6 of which have been running my own company.
Growing up, what was the first console and game you remember playing?
Hmm. This is a hard one. I think it was the Atari 7200 at a friend’s house, but it could just as well have been the Commodore Vic 20 and a game called Blitz where you flew across the screen, falling by a unit every time you reached the screen edge. Dropping bombs to level buildings so that you didn’t crash into them. I still think about the simplicity of that mechanic quite frequently. Brilliant.
What is your fondest video game memory from your childhood?
My brother had a c64 and one of the games we had was Wizball by Sensible Software. I remember my bro hated it. It had this bouncing ball that you could barely control and you could shoot. We’d load it, play it for 5 minutes, get annoyed and then load something else. One day while he was out I decided to try it myself. On the title screen there was a prompt to hit spacebar for help. It turned out he’d never played it properly. You collected these orbs and then when you waggle the joystick you’d upgrade something, including maneuverability. It ended up having an amazing amount of depth and replay value as well as one of the best async 2 player co-op modes in existence. One of our favorite games too.
Let’s talk about Nosebleed Interactive. A video game and software developer, your reach extends past video games. However, could you provide us with some history of the company?
I’d been working at a company in Scotland for about 7 years when they shut down and made everyone redundant. That was the push I needed to follow the idea I’d had to start my own thing. Our first game The Hungry Horde was signed by Sony, so that set us up for the next couple of years, pretty much, and then we moved straight onto Vostok Inc. when we finished that. Outside of that, we’ve done some really cool non-games projects.
Your first game, The Hungry Horde, released on the PlayStation Network back in November 2014. What was it like to have your game on a major console?
I’d been working on console games for the past decade anyway, so it wasn’t really so new to me. But, it being the first title for my own studio, and it being published by Sony themselves was a big deal. I’m a bit of a fanboy and I’ve always stayed up to watch the various platform holders’ press conferences, so when I was invited to actually go there by Sony it was awesome.
The way the studio was set up was that I paired full-time graduates who didn’t have too much experience with part-time veterans so they could both learn from each other. I think for some of those guys it felt like a real achievement.
Your second title, Vostok Inc., released in 2017 across multiple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. What were the feelings around the office now that your game was reaching an even larger audience?
The plan was always to try and get the game onto as many platforms as possible. Because the game is set up to sort of play itself while doing something else (like watch Netflix) we really wanted it to go onto Nintendo. We did a build for Wii U early on and it worked really well, so when the rumors of a successor that took the portable/home console idea to the next level came out, we knew we wanted it on the platform. Ideally, I’d have liked to get my hands on dev hardware earlier, but they were in pretty short supply before launch I think. We could have probably done a sim launch on everything if we’d had kits. I expected within the first few months on Switch being quite sparse we’d have done really well, especially with the free demo (*cough* https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/vostok-inc-switch *cough*).
Could you briefly describe both games to those that have yet to play them?
The Hungry Horde is a reverse Zombie game, erm, racing? game. You start with 2 zombies. Each time you kill a human they turn and join your horde until you’re in direct control of a screen full of them. You can split them into 2 groups, with each one controlled by one of the analogue sticks. The government sends police, swat, MIB and army to stop you and you’re constantly trying to get to the next checkpoint before you get nuked. It also has a lot of minigames, like, a lot. There’s even a minigame within a minigame in the main game, which unlocks the gameception trophy.
Vostok Inc. is The Wolf of Wall Street in Space. It takes the twin stick formula (like Super Stardust or Geometry Wars) but adds a super addictive reason to keep coming back, by marrying it with idle gameplay. Basically, you fly around in space shooting asteroids and enemies. They drop moolah. You land on planets and build buildings which cost moolah to build. These buildings generate moolah every second. Repeat this a few times and you have enough to upgrade your ship, travel further and set up business in other solar systems. There’s also a lot of minigames in this one. Blame my love of Shenmue for that!
Preorders have appeared on Amazon Germany for a physical release of Vostok, being released through Markt + Technik on August 30th. How exciting is it to see Vostok coming to retail?
It’s really cool. I can show my Mum! “See Mum I have a real job”!
Are there plans to release Vostok physically outside of Germany at this time?
There are talks at the moment for the Switch version outside of Germany that Wired Productions, our publisher for the Switch version, are leading. The PS4 is in print for worldwide distribution as I type this. BadLand games are doing that one, but I’m not sure of print numbers or stockists yet. Keep an eye on twitter for announcements!
Outside of the traditional video game format, your company also produces content for major clients that include (but not limited) to Sony, Newcastle University, Star Trek and more. Could you briefly touch upon some of the projects you’ve helped to develop?
We’ve really done too much stuff to list really. I’ll pick out a couple of cool ones (that aren’t under NDA). We did a cool thing for stroke rehab patients. It was a sort of JRPG. The basic idea is that patents need to repeat the same mover over and over, kind of like physiotherapy. We get data from a Kinect camera which is then “scored” on how accurate to the move they’re supposed to be doing it is and we translate that to action on the screen. The way it worked was that you’re this wizard “Sir Bramble Hatterson” and you have to beat a bunch of RPG enemies. Everything automatically progressed until you fought an enemy. Then you’d have to repeat a prompted move and be scored. That would determine the amount of damage you’re doing. It was really simple but it worked so incredibly well at making people engaged with the exercises and like they’re progressing. A really cool project.
Being at the forefront of the technological revolution going on today with the rise of VR, what do you enjoy most about this medium?
We’ve done a bunch of VR stuff for other people, and I think it’s just really cool. The feeling of presence, like you’re really there. We’re doing a sort of classroom VR teaching aid at the moment and we have this olde English classroom rendered in 3D with some teachers who we recorded on greenscreen, and as the thing has come together even as a developer you sort of forget you’re not sitting there in a classroom. It’s odd but cool.
Where do you see the technology in the video game industry heading to in the next few years?
I think the most obvious one is streaming/games as a service. Netflix for games basically. Xbox is already doing this with game pass and Sony has PlayStation Now. As a consumer I think it’s great, but it sort of worries me as a developer. It’s a bit of an unknown. It’s already very competitive and saturated out there, so a subscription based model is super scary. Apparently, game pass is actively helping drive sales of certain types of games, but who knows how it’ll pan out. The main thing is to be prepared and agile.
Are you able to tease any upcoming projects and where they might appear next?
We’ve been teasing a thing we’re working on at the moment. We’re looking for a publisher at the moment, but in terms of where it’ll be Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC. It’s a very “Nosebleed” take on a genre that I spent the early part of my career working on and I’d say it’s the best demo I’ve personally ever worked on. You’ll have to check out our Twitter and Facebook to get more hints!
Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share today?
Yes! If you have a Switch, check out our free Vostok Inc. demo (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/vostok-inc-switch). It’s pretty lengthy and we’ve had a lot of players tell us they were really surprised by the game. If you don’t then go buy it on one of the other platforms we have it on Xbox, PS4, Vita, PC, Shield, Fire TV, your toaster! Also, if you’ve played Vostok Inc., Metacritic and store reviews make the world of difference. Please leave us one!
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