Review Fix Exclusive: Inside The Good Life

April 24, 2018 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with White Owls CEO Swery, who discusses their new game, “The Good Life,” detailing its creation process, inspirations and goals.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Swery: I’ve been working on it since 2007, but nothing serious ever happened with it. After I started White Owls I started writing a plan down, then worked on it more with Grounding and promoted it a bit until it finally became “The Good Life.”

Review Fix: What has development been like so far?

Swery: Currently we’re in pre-production, the stage at which we test the tech and mechanics to see what will be the most fun. We learned a lot from our previous campaign and have improved the graphics to be very close to the final product.

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Swery: The townspeople in the town Naomi is sent to transform into cats and dogs for one week per month due to some mysterious power. The player needs to take pictures in order to uncover the truth behind this mystery.

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Swery: Without a doubt, Deadly Premonition.

Review Fix: What inspired the art style?

Swery: I spoke with the art director, Mr. Hotta, and we came up with an art style that would make balance our deep, dark adult fairy tale so that it wouldn’t become too grotesque. (*Mr. Hotta is an art director famous for his work on Rez).

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Swery: When I have meetings with Mr. Futatsugi, we argue for about 6 hours. But at the end, we shake hands, hug, and go out to drink together, laughing all the way.

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Swery: As I creator, I’ve never thought about that. I just make the best choices for each specific game I’m working on.

Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?

Swery: When I skipped my cram school when I was an elementary schooler to visit the arcade, over and over again. Eventually the delinquents that hung out there started calling me the “Phantom of the Arcade.”

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?

Swery: People with pure hearts. #DarkSideSwery

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Swery: I think that’s up to the players, not the creator.

Review Fix: Being your first game, how important is this to you?

Swery: All of my titles are equally important to me. Would you be able to rank your own children?

Review Fix: What’s next?

Swery: Create a SWERY brewery.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Swery: The Good Life is still in the middle of its Kickstarter campaign. We’ve gathered 6,000 backers, but that’s not enough. If each backer would just invite one friend to the campaign, we would definitely succeed without a doubt. Please support us! All you need to do is invite one friend!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrWOdfs8QDQ[/embedyt]

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13870 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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