Review Fix chats with  Craig Taylor, Lead Programmer at Lunar Rooster, discusses the inspiration and creative process behind the new Steam FPS “Sky Noon.†Taking elements from Quake and Unreal Tournament and adding an innovative use/pull game mechanic, it has all the elements of a fun old-school arena shooter, but with innovative new gameplay mechanics that make it feel like a combination of Overwatch and Super Smash Bros.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?
Craig Taylor: Sky Noon started out as a University Project called Sky Force; It was this project in which the main ideas and mechanics of Sky Noon would be thought-up and refined. Originally we had wanted to create a multiplayer FPS that changed the way players had to think about playing a shooter. We prototyped a grappling hook and the mechanics would spring forth from that. To complement the grapple hook we incorporated the push and pull mechanics. From that point, the smash bros style kill sphere was that logical conclusion. We just continued to modify and refine those basic ideas.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What has development been like so far?
Taylor: For our first game, developing Sky Noon has been like a boot camp for game developers. We’ve had to overcome a lot of obstacles and learn new things in a fairly short time span, and we’ve all become better artists and programmers through the experience. It’s also been extremely satisfying when we finally get to share our creation with an excited audience. I think we would all consider it one of the most fulfilling things we’ve done so far.
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