EXPLORE THE GAMES:
⟢ Thesis
⟢ Capstone
⟢ Studio II
⟢ Major Studio
⟢ Elective
AMALGAM
⊹ ࣪.⋆~⊹₊⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆✩࿐
For Capstone
A roguelite movement FPS where your sole ally is a sentient gun that grows with every upgrade, building a unique weapon every run.
Interview:
✧ In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
In a world where humans have gone extinct, the last synthetic child on Earth alongside his sentient gun embarks on a journey to discover what it means to be human. The game explores the themes of life and death, the ethics of mass production, rationality, emotions, capitalism, and humanity.
✧ What was the inspiration of the game? What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
As action shooter enthusiasts, we enjoyed the refined movement of Titanfall, the arcade-y old school feel of Doom, the limitless environment of Armored Core, and the chaotic end game of Risk of Rain. Even though they are of different genres, to us they all possess this one magical element that makes them fun: the diversity of gameplay elements that allows players to explore their own creativity. And so when we decided to make our own shooter, we want to push this magic to the max by turning the one core feature of the genre – the gun – into a real, lively character. Thus we developed Amalgam - a chaotic movement shooter where you fight alongside your sentient gun.
✧ What were some of your most memorable moments from making this game? What did you learn from those moments?
Some of the most memorable moments include the initial team bonding sessions where we cooked and watched movies together. Those made us realize the importance of taking breaks for mental reset and spending some quality time as a team outside of just developing the game. There were tougher times when we met huge creative blocks and thought that the game needed complete redesign. Whether it be a lack of motivation, lack of direction, lack of coordination, we learned to just set up a meeting as a team and put every problem on the table honestly. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, and we learned to put our personal egos aside in order to decide what is the best way moving forward both as a team and to make the best game that we can.
✧ Talk about your teammates! What was everyone's role?
Arnav Arora is the programmer and artist on the team. He drinks coffee.
Asaad Barwani is the designer and programmer on the team. He drinks tea.
Derek Yu is the designer and artist on the team. He drinks water.
Eric Zhang is the designer and tech artist on the team. He hydrates.
Joon Lee is the designer and programmer on the team. He drinks sugar.
Kai Feng is the artist on the team. He drinks.
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