Examiner chats with Giuseppe Enrico Franchi, lead game designer of Digital Tribe Games’ upcoming “Hyperdrive Massacre.†A nifty and difficult experience inspired by classic games on the Sega Genesis, it’s set for release on Steam and eventually the Xbox One.
Patrick Hickey Jr.: What has the development process been like?
Giuseppe Enrico Franchi: Hyperdrive Massacre started as a quick throw-away prototype, codenamed “Protoroids.†We slightly modified an Asteroids template so that debris would not destroy the ship; we implemented the control scheme, which almost never changed, and the bullet-reflecting front shield. This was a year ago. The prototype was a lot of fun to play with, so we decided to bring three artists onboard, expand on it and wrap the experience in a nice-looking package. The goal was to have a very short production cycle and be ready to go to market at the beginning of 2015. Being self-funded, that was a little too ambitious: we are very flexible in our production scheduling, we have to be, in order to free up time when a paid gig rolls in. Lots of nights and weekends were sacrificed for Hyperdrive Massacre. But as the game got accepted into the ID@Xbox programme, and observing the reactions from players when we showcased the prototype around, we thought it would be worth it. We were able to allocate appropriate production resources in 2015, and polish the game properly. The game was 99% complete before summer, we tested it thoroughly while looking for a good partner. I’m happy we will be landing on Steam with Digital Tribe.
Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. at Examiner.com
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.
Leave a Reply