Today we have the opportunity to interview the studio behind the upcoming bomb disposal simulator Shockwave: Land of the Bland. Bnayat Games is planning to release the game on Steam in Q1 2023, and it looks like nothing I have played before.
Before we dive into the game and start cutting wires, can you tell us a bit about yourself/selves and the studio Bnayat Games?
I’m Jamal, CEO, and founder of Bnayat Games, developer and publisher of PC games, and the main initiator of Shockwave: Land of The Blind. I’m ethnically Syrian, but I have lived in Warsaw for as long as I can remember. Despite this, I’ve visited my home country hundreds of times since I have family and friends living there.
At Bnayat Games, we have gathered a team of creative professionals; our level graphic designers and developers have previously worked on many larger productions than Indie titles. In addition, we were lucky to have had the opportunity to cooperate with one of the best EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) teams in the world – ex-military specialists from GROM, the Polish special forces organization.
Shockwave: Land of the Blind is the first game you’re developing as Bnayat Games – did you create games in similar genres (for example, simulation or VR) before diving into this project?
It’s our first project at Bnayat Games. Our team made a lot of games in the past, especially simulators. Poland is known for simulator productions ? (Nick: And I love you for that, keep doing you).
So, Shockwave is a unique game because I can’t remember ever hearing about a game in which you play as a bomb disposal squad member. Can you tell us a bit about the game?
Shockwave: Land of the Blind is a narrative-driven military simulator where players learn the ins and outs of one of the world’s most dangerous professions: bomb disposal. As a highly trained EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) operative, players will work their way through 13 missions set within a disturbing real-world environment of Aleppo, Syria. With on-the-spot, life-or-death, high-stress situations to deal with, players must use various skills and high-tech equipment to dispose of the devices left behind by a bomber.
Where did you get the inspiration to develop a game set in Syria and bomb disposal?
It’s an anti-war and anti-violence manifesto… I’m ethnically Syrian, and I’m very aware of what my country of origin has become… In a blink of an eye, Syria transformed from one of the safest countries in the world to the most dangerous. Even after the war had ended, peace did not come back to the country… People no longer had anything and had to flee to save their lives; unfortunately, not everyone managed to do that. Many people, including me, lost family members and friends, so it’s also a very personal insight.
I had a clear vision of the game; I wanted to create Shockwave: LoTB from a completely different perspective and for it to be an anti-war game. The most challenging task was understanding how to translate this point of view into the digital world.
The objective is to save as many lives as possible, but unfortunately, that might not be the case every time, and you will have to decide who it will be. The level of stress increases massively since people whose lives depend on you – see you as a superhero.
I don’t know why, but it’s a pleasure for me, and I’m happy that I can make it. We wanted to explore a narrative-driven game that hadn’t been done before. EOD technicians have a godlike status in military circles and are highly respected for their work under challenging circumstances.
What was it like to work with IED experts (improvised explosive devices, IED)? Did they also help create the system behind the procedurally generated IEDs?
It was a brilliant experience. Working with IED Experts helped the team understand the mechanics of the devices as well as their role better so that we could be as accurate in the game as possible. In addition, there are many different types of devices and a diverse range of countermeasures to disable them, so it was an incredibly educational experience.
To stay on the topic of collaboration, What was it like to work with an ex-member of the Jednostka Wojskowa GROM (Polish special forces unit, which forms part of the Special Troops Command of the Polish Armed Forces)?
It has been great, and the cooperation has been concrete and more than exceptional to the whole team and me. An ex-member from GROM helped us make this game more realistic as he helped us understand what a person can do in such situations with a limited amount of time. The level of expertise and attention to detail makes a game respect the source material.
Shockwave isn’t going to be a game about hand-holding and guiding the player towards its goal; not the usual course we see in games nowadays (except for Dark Souls) – what was the idea behind this?
It’s meant to be an immersive sim – and mini maps and quest markers kill immersion immediately. It’s been a topic of hot debate in game design since the 2010s, and we’re on the side of making the player pay attention to the environment and in-game clues! There’s a systematic approach to bomb disposal; it’s evaluating the circumstances, threat, and outcome in equal measure; it’s not a rushed scenario, so we want the player to feel like they are inside the bomb suit.
The game will be developed in Unreal 5; how was it to work with Unreal from a developer’s perspective?
We adopted 5.0 EA early on, and while it had its quirks, the technical capabilities provided by its features – Lumen, Nanite, virtual texturing, Control Rig – far outweighed the difficulties. Switching to 5 before any assets were made also ensured a smooth transition – it was just a matter of re-writing the gameplay and fixing some rendering issues.
We’re on 5.0.3 now and can say that Unreal Engine has improved with each release!
With Shockwave launching on Steam next year – any chance the game will be brought to other platforms as well?
Sure, once the PC player community welcomes the game, the next step is considered to be Xbox porting, and then we’ll plan the rest.
Virtual Reality is also essential to me as I can already imagine the VR version of the game. Still, we’ll be focusing on the PC version to ensure that’s the best it can be before we port those experiences across to other platforms.
If you had the opportunity to create another game with a specialized force (like bomb disposal) and you had carte blanche on budget and information – what would be the first thing that comes to mind?
Breacher. This squad is also critical and has a lot of pressure while working. You only have to look at games like Rainbow Six and Ready or Not to see how much interest there is in these specialist roles.
And, something we ask everyone we interview – what’s your favorite console and game (apart from your own game, of course)?
I have an Xbox one at home ? and I like games on Kinect.
However, we have all types of consoles back at the office. I don’t have a favorite one, but I prefer FIFA on Xbox ?. However, I like to play Crash on PS – I don’t know why… maybe it’s a sentiment because I played Crash Bandicoot on PS1 in the 90s.
I don’t have a favorite game now, but I can tell You that Commandos behind enemy lines was my favorite game when I was young.
And now I love playing everything… Mario, Duke Nukem, Deus Ex, Cyberpunk, Dying Light, Arma, CS, Fifa, NFS, NBA, Assassins, The Witness, TWoM, Thief, a lot of magnificent titles from small and big studios… there are a lot of great titles…
Anything else you would like to add/let the readers know?
Yes, I want to invite all your subscribers/fans to add Shockwave Land of The Blind to Your Wishlist and to like us on Social Media, we also have a growing Discord community, and we’d love to connect with you.
We want to thank Jamal Bnayat and his team for his time and for answering our questions! I added the links to the socials of Bnayat Games & the Shockwave Land of The Blind store page down below, so be sure to follow them/add the game to your wishlist!
- Facebook: Bnayat Games
- Instagram: Bnayat Games (@bnayat_games)
- Youtube: Bnayat Games – YouTube
- LinkedIn: BNAYAT GAMES
- Discord: Shockwave Land of the Blind
- Steam: Shockwave – Land of The Blind
