Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Alter Vú – Dead Reckoning’

Review Fix chats with “Alter Vú – Dead Reckoning” creator Tom Miller, who discusses the scary point and click adventure on the iOS, detailing its development process and goals for the future.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this game?

Tom Miller: So when I was quite a lot younger, I put together a Flash game on Newgrounds.com. That game ended up being featured on the front page and to this day has been played 1.5 million times.

How could younger me not be inspired by that? For a while life happened, I always knew I wanted to create a spiritual successor and at some point, the stars aligned I found the time to focus learning how to make what was in my head tangible.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Miller: I’ve enjoyed development for the most part; the most frustrating times were things that could have been avoided by a more experienced developer, but persistence got me through, it’s been a learning curve. I think along the way I realized I could only make the project ‘so’ odd without becoming too obtuse, but it led to a more refined final game.

If I were to try and pinpoint a struggle, I’d have to say marketing. The game is complete, the app store is well known to be… flooded, discovery is a huge challenge to most developers, big or small and while working full time, it’s not something I feel I have time to devote to. It’s a nuisance, interaction with the community is something I really enjoy and not something the App Store caters to very well.

Review Fix: The game has an awesome look, what were some of the films or books you’ve read or watched that helped mold the game’s look?

Miller: My aim was melancholic, atmospheric, moody and mysterious. Fear of the unknown is almost always effective, or something that feels safe devolving into the unknown, Silent Hill: The Room did this well… the look and feel of Alter Vú were structured around these ideas.

So I feel like I watched an eternity of horror for reference and ideas, but it was films such as The Road, Melancholia & Antichrist, The Strangers, Old Boy, Synecdoche New York through to Twin Peaks, stories from Lovecraft, anything Dystopian. Certain ‘feelings’ were invoked by these and it’s fair to saw I drew inspiration from them.
The bizarre artwork of ‘Junji Ito’ is worth mentioning also.

I found a hidden resource simply in the definitions of words and concepts, there’s a huge number of things that have yet to be touched upon. I tried to have a word in mind when scripting conversations throughout Alter Vú.

Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid? How did they influence this one?

Miller: I think you can tell from a look at Alter Vú it’s not hugely influenced by the kind of games you’d usually play as a kid.

A few games that have I’d say influenced my game design decisions so far include Alex Kid, Rocket Knight, Zelda: Link to the Past,  XCom, Flashback, Silent Hills, Resident Evil 1, Soul Reaver, Exmortis, Final Fantasies 7 & 8, Metal Gears and Ultima Online… Arguably these games were too difficult for a kid to be playing, but I’d say they’ve definitely molded me to appreciate and respect the challenge.

Review Fix: What do you think is the coolest feature in the game?

Miller: There are quite a few point and click games out there on iOS already, which is great, I’d say it’s an almost ideal platform for it.

The device itself offers a ton of hardware features that in turn opens up a wealth of opportunities.

Steering clear of spoilers an example might be, that the device has the ability to detect rotation and movement, so why not have a lock in a game that reacts as if the phone itself is a lock pick. Or if you’re holding a match, why not allow the user to put out the match by shaking the device. I like stuff like that, more recently a puzzle game called ‘Black Box’ came out that heavily uses the hardware like these examples. It’s awesome.

Another thing I’m proud of is the conversation system.

It always bothered me in games that you have a limited selection of ways to push the conversation. Why can’t I ask this guy about the interesting place I saw earlier? Or an oddball character elsewhere. So in Alter Vú, you have a card system, a Deck.

From the start, your Deck is empty, as you progress and explore you’ll discover locations and characters that have existed in this world, people and places have a story to tell. So if for example, I discover the Garage, I now own the ‘Garage’ card and can use it to gather each character’s perspective on this area. It required quite a lot of writing on my part, but I feel it adds depth to everything, it also allows the player to investigate as much of the mystery as they like.

It’s my take on the normal: ‘Press A to Ask Aggressively’ or ‘B to Ask Politely’. Instead, it’s ‘I’ve seen this Area, I want more information on it and perhaps I should ask this person about it’. I like to think it’s more natural.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone play this?

Miller: In absolutely no way would I consider this a game for everyone, it’s tough, lacks hand holding, it allows the player to go ‘off the rails’ and the story itself is quite abstract.

I also think it’s fine to have a game that is not aiming to please everyone, too many games these days try to have mass-market appeal in order to make back the costs of producing them, looking back, some of my favorite ‘games were created for a specific audience:

Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture, Siren, Project Zero, SOMA, X-Com, I have no Mouth Yet I Must Scream, Exmortis, there are loads of examples.

I think more devs should have the freedom to create what they want, I think the rise of indie devs is showing I’m not the only one thinking this. Hideo Kojima is my hero (probably many peoples and his ‘Death Stranding’ reveal is a good example of why. The universal reaction is basically ‘I have no idea what it is, but it’s unusual and I want it’. I love unusual.

So in a sentence, I think Alter Vú is unusual, if that is something that interests you, watch the trailer, have a brief look at the walkthrough if that looks like your kind of thing, by all means, give it a go!


Review Fix: This game would be a blast on the go. Any plans for a PlayStation Vita version?

Miller: Odds of porting to other platforms are slim. In my eyes, iOS is hitting the ‘on the go’ market. If anything, I’d like to work towards a Steam/ PC version. But priority wise, my aim is to make it as close to perfect on iOS, then move to new projects.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Miller: If you look at games such as Bloodborne the story is there, the developers lay down hints and breadcrumbs, but the audience is given enough freedom to let their thoughts on the game grow organically. It allows for imagination to drive and piece together the story. Personally, I absorb the story through reading the fans discussions around their findings. Youtube is great for this. Another example being P.T, or the latest Resident Evil 7 demo, the reaction and theories you find in the communities the form around these games are one of my favorite things to witness.

It’s a level of interactivity that feels unique to games as a media.

So hopefully that answers that my aim was to create the world, story and characters, avoid spoon feeding of information, provide the tools to progress, but allow the path to complete the game to sway. To a certain point aim for choice to have consequence. While taking a step back, allowing player imagination to form ideas as to the story.

I’ve had discussions with quite a few of the audience and their interpretations as to the story and the path they took to complete the game varied, which is awesome.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Miller: I am working on a new game. So far it’s shaping up nicely. In a similar fashion to Alter Vú, it’s odd, I’m steering for it to a bit a bit more ‘gamey’, much bigger in scope, but it’s very different and I’m really excited to eventually start talking about it when I’m 100% sure everything I have drawn up and written down can actually be done.