Millions of Minions

posted in GildedOctopusStudios

Published January 10, 2020 Imported

I did a quick interview recently with @Mattabulous_ about Millions of Minions.

Millions of Minions is a dungeon crawler, in which you must strategically command your undead minions throughout the eerie caverns. Overtime, you will traverse your way upwards, from The Deep Depths: increasing your army, in order to reach the world’s surface. However, you are met with never-before-seen, as well as fairly familiar, creatures with unnatural capabilities. The world is procedural and so your experience will alter significantly each time you play which allows for extreme replay-ability. Take control of your Millions of Minions and show those unnatural beings who rules the unnatural.

Sounds really cool. What gave you the idea?

We participated in a game jam (competition) called Ludum Dare 45, a fairly well-known one. We had 72 hours to create a game within a given theme: in this case, it was “Start with Nothing”. Initially, it was a procedural dungeon crawler where you would direct little creatures to attack enemies. However, this has been upgraded into featuring more weapons!

So what got you into gamedev?

I started 2 years ago. I’ve always been interested in the creative side of things: since I was young, I had been writing short stories. Stories lacked visualisation and it was quite difficult to stay motivated. I wanted to produce my stores in another medium that I enjoyed: gaming! I searched up the process in which it would take to make a game, and figured I had a chance. I would never go back, and now, I’m writing a book again so it’s the best of both worlds.

So is this your first game?

It’s my first (and the team’s) commercial game. I’ve made a multitude of games beforehand. Over 9 games throughout my journey. This is my first big game. It’s an exciting experience because we’ll actually earn money from this: and that’s just a huge amount of accomplishment for us all.

So how are you planning to monetize it? And how are you marketing it?

We are going to be putting the game on Steam, and possibly on Nintendo Switch and Epic Games. We’re marketing it through Twitter, and my YouTube channel. Also, we are going to be asking press to review the game! Hence why this blog would be very helpful for us!

Have you put a game on Steam before?

Nope. This is our first time. In fact, as we are speaking, we are awaiting Steam to review our store page. Meaning it should be out shortly!

Awesome. How many people are on your team?

There are 4 within the core team, 1 marketing artist, and a musician. The core team consists of the people who began the project. However, the others came later.

So how did you all find each other?

Originally, there were 2 of us. I asked if anyone would want to start a team with me via Twitter and on my YouTube channel (at which point had 100 or so subscribers). I remember asking for an artist especially. I was messaged shortly after by a guy called Ectho and so, he joined up with me. We had plans to take part in a game jam (we’re addicted!), and then I invited another person, Spitzy, who had been helping me with my channel by giving feedback etc. The final member, Goest, of the core team is a fairly recent addition: we had worked on a game called Mr Tubby together for around 2 months, as a gift for my father. I knew that he was talented through working with him and so I invited him on. The marketing artist is my partner and they were willing to help out in any way that they could. The musician is my YouTube manager, helping with keeping me on track etc. He had expressed interest in making music for me, so I asked him!

So do you have a theme for the music and art?

The primary tone of the game is fairly dark, and made to make you feel powerful, but weak and lonely. It’s a sinister but happy tone, because you are the monster but you could also be the hero.

Do you have some examples of the art? Also what would you like people to know about your game?

Of course: