Review Fix Exclusive: Phi Dinh Talks ‘TinyKeep’ Updates

Review Fix chats with Phi Dinh, Project Manager, Programmer and Founder of Phigames and developer of “TinyKeep” about the last leg of the recently-release game’s development cycle and how the game was able to progress with more enemies, levels and upgrades than were originally planned.

Review Fix: What was the last leg of the development cycle like?

Phi Dinh: Really intense. The last 3-4 months was the longest crunch time I’ve ever done on any project. 20 hour days, 7 days a week, no evenings off and no weekends. But it had to be done, our Kickstarter money was running out, and if the game wasn’t released by September I’d have to seek alternate means funding. I don’t think my wife was very pleased with me during these crazy times :P

Review Fix: Were there any big changes made since the Spring?

Dinh: Since I last showed the demo in April, we only had a handful of monster types (I think 3, the archers, the guards and some skeletons). Now the game has over 22 levels spread over 4 environment types, over 30 monsters including Orcs, Skeletons, Demons and Bosses, over 20+ upgrades and a ton of secret areas and abilities. Content is so important in a game like this, so we wanted to make sure we filled it as much as we could.

Review Fix: How much time and effort went into the game’s AI?

Dinh: The monster AI is one of the unique selling points about the game. Individually, the monster behaviours are seemingly basic, they attack you, and run away if they think they’re going to die. The magic comes when you get two or more different races in the same place. In one late level, you’ll find yourself in the middle of an all-out war between Humans, Skeletons, Demons, Orcs and Rock Monsters. It’s incredibly chaotic and frantic, you end up feeling so small and insignificant as you try and survive amongst the epic battles. I don’t think there are many games out there that have scenarios like this.

Review Fix: Where did the idea for the visuals come from?

Dinh: We wanted to experiment with a contrast between friendly/cute looking graphics and incredibly difficult and often harrowing gameplay. We’ve found players quickly get comfortable with the childlike graphics, and lower their guard to what they think is an easygoing game, only to suddenly find themselves caught on a spike trap or overwhelmed by a horde of skeletons. Then the permadeath kicks in and we see players gradually take the game more seriously. Watching people die on TinyKeep at live events is one of my favourite pastimes.

Review Fix: Should we expect any updates after release?

Dinh: We’ve had a lot of constructive feedback after our launch on Steam, so we’ll be adding a few minor features to the game that will hopefully improve it for first-time players. Other than that, we’d love to add DLC’s such as monster and level packs, and maybe one day we’ll be able to add local co-op. Although, that requires serious budget and time, so is a pipe dream for me at the moment.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself as a developer through this process?

Dinh: When I was estimating how long things would take to implement, I’d normally double my initial estimates just to be sure. Now that the year is coming to an end, in hindsight I should have probably tripled them. Games take a long time to make, and often longer than most people realize. I’ve definitely learned this the hard way.

Review Fix: In a perfect world, how do you want people to look at this game?

Dinh: We want people to see TinyKeep as a simple hack and slash action game on the surface, but on further inspection realize the amount of love that has been put into the game. There’s a lot of content, secrets and depth to TinyKeep that is not apparent at the first glance, and I would love for players to eventually be able to discover these.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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