TheHockeyWriters sits down with “Old Time Hockey†Game Director, Karthik Venkateshan to discuss the game and its release on the PlayStation 4 on March 28. With its homage to games like Blades of Steel and the earliest EA Sports NHL Hockey games, “Old Time Hockey†will connect with older gamers who remember the classics that redefined the industry. However, with Xbox One and Switch versions on the way, as well as a story mode and a lot of research from the development team that captures the essence of the 1970s style of NHL play, “Old Time Hockey†has the potential for a strong release this Spring.
The Hockey Writers: How was this game born?
Karthik Venkateshan: Old Time Hockey has been a passion project we have been working on since the garage days of V7 Entertainment back in 2010. It started out as a small hockey fighting (only) experience as we felt the depth and difficulty of fighting on the ice warranted its own video game. That was the core thought process behind working on the title at the beginning – in hockey games fighting has traditionally been an afterthought, arguably underrepresented, and have no real consequences that carry over to the gameplay after the fights. But within a hockey fighting experience alone, we could not deliver that message. From there on, we built the hockey elements around it and our core messaging for the design of the game was playing hockey with aggression and intimidation which naturally led to fights, fatigued players, injured players, etc. The design choices naturally asked
From there on, we built the hockey elements around it and our core messaging for the design of the game was playing hockey with aggression and intimidation which naturally led to fights, fatigued players, injured players, etc. The design choices naturally asked of us to place the game in an era, the good old 70s, where such vigilantism was routine and almost necessary to win hockey games.
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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