Old School Gamer Magazine chats with “3 Minutes to Midnight†Game Director Jan Serra, who discusses the origin and creative process behind the game and how the team got inspiration from classic point-and-click adventures the likes of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max Hit the Road and Full Throttle.
About 3 Minutes to Midnight:
3 Minutes to Midnight is Scarecrow Studio ’s first adventure game with its development led by Jan Serra . It is a classic point-and-click adventure game telling the story of Betty Anderson.
A comedy adventure with a sprawling story and colorful cast. Betty Anderson can’t remember who she is, but she has bigger worries—like a doomsday plot threatening to wipe out the human race. Join Betty to crack the conspiracy that starts with a bang and ends at 3 Minutes to Midnight.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?
Jan Serra:I was not happy with the work I was doing for the past fifteen years and I wanted to change that into something more fun and fulfilling. Based on that thought, my girlfriend Pavlina and I had a conversation that basically consisted of “If you could choose what you would like to do, what would that thing be?” (Honestly, I think people don’t ask themselves that question enough.) So, that question was answered: “I want to make a video game.” I took some time off to write the story and to think about the main and secondary characters. I made some drafts about locations, puzzles, conversations, etc., and eventually put together the team that is now working together to make “3 Minutes to Midnight†a reality.Â
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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