Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Transmogrify’

Review Fix chats with “Transmogrify” developer Andrew Strauch, who discusses the game’s origin and goals for the future.

Continue to their Kickstarter here. 

About the Game:

Transmogrify is a sci-fi platformer where you turn enemies into objects and use them to solve puzzles.

You are lost in the facility you work at when the power restarts and strange creatures break loose. Grab the unconventional weapon, team up with the artificial intelligence that runs the facility, Grace, and figure out how to escape!

Developed with the open-source Godot Engine, we’ve enjoyed seeing Godot grow and being a part of the super friendly community.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Andrew Strauch: The game was initially born from a game jam where the theme was “unconventional weapon”. I decided to have a weapon that transformed enemies into objects, and you had to use them to solve puzzles because that sounded fun.

Review Fix:
What has development been like so far?

Strauch: Development has been a blast. We are having a lot of fun developing all the enemies and their personalities, as well as the puzzles in the game.


Review Fix:
What makes this game special?

Strauch: Turning enemies into objects, and using them to solve puzzles is what makes this game special. It’s a unique balance of understanding the enemies’ behavior, as well as the properties of their transmogs (what they turn into), and how to use them to your advantage.

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Strauch: I would have to say that Portal, Mega Man X, Super Mario Bros, and Chip’s Challenge influenced Transmogrify and the gameplay the most.

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

Strauch: I would probably say that the development, in general, has just been fun. Designing and creating the entire world from scratch as well as each enemy and puzzle is a lot of fun. We also post our content all the time and take feedback seriously from gamers that engage with us. We try to incorporate as much of the feedback that we get as possible to make the game better.

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

Strauch: I think there are expectations you need to understand when developing games. For example, Transmogrify is a platformer. People expect the controls to be enjoyable and responsive, just like other platformer games. However, I do feel like it is important to experiment and push the envelope with new game mechanics at the same time. Transmogrify accomplishes this by taking familiar platformer elements like enemies, jumping, timing your shots etc., and combines it with the new mechanic of transforming the enemies.

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

Strauch: Playing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on our Sega Genesis. I had played plenty of games before that, but that game blew my mind as a child – the colors, speed, and creativeness of the bosses were awesome.

Review Fix: Any thoughts on a Switch release?


Strauch:
We are using Godot which is an opensource engine, so we feel like porting to the Switch would be challenging, but doable. We have it as a stretch goal on our Kickstarter.

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?

Strauch: Gamers that enjoy challenging platformers, puzzles, and sci-fi elements will enjoy this game the most.

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

Strauch: I want Transmogrify to be remembered as a game that tried to do something a little different, and stayed true to itself without trying to imitate other games too much.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Strauch: Our focus right now is on building our community, and finishing development of the game.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 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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