We had the pleasure of chatting with Belfrost Studios! Check it out to learn more about this indie game studio! Perhaps you will find some inspiration to continue to work towards your creative goals!
1Q: What Initially Inspired you to become a creator, and how has that inspiration evolved throughout your creative journey.
1A: I went to school for graphic design and in my free time I was a writer for fun. I wrote short stories ranging from horror to fantasy. My friends read one of my books that I wrote privately and they thought I was a great writer and they ‘literally begged’ me to work on a game as they were upset about how gaming was becoming as microtransactions, hacking, and other elements just made gaming for them very unenjoyable. I focused on writing a story, but that turned into horror as the scope of the project needed to be smaller due to indie budgets. If you asked me ten years ago I would be heading a company making a horror game I would have been shocked as I rarely played Horror, much less developed a game for one.
2Q: Can you share a specific moment or experience that fueled your current creative project?
2A: I went to school for Graphic Design, but my school had me take a Modeling course with a Professor that changed my life. He has a passion for creativity/design and worked on games as well. He got me excited to create and I began creating models which turned into games. He helped me develop my skills on discord for the current project and I am grateful.
3Q: What Challenges have you encountered as an indie creator, and how have they shaped your approach to work?
3A: It is SHOCKING how many people will be ‘excited’ about a project and then ghost the project. They aren’t upset or anything, but they claim they can do all this work and be a great asset to the team, we agree and welcome them to join with open arms and then they just disappear. Some of these people don’t bother signing our NDA and one guy openly admitted he was joining just to steal our idea. So while he is a thief… he is an honest one. Though finding the right people is hard and that has made me be more ‘picky’ about who we have join for testing and other aspects of team efforts.
4Q: Are there any particular creators who have significantly influenced your style or approach? How do you incorporate those influences into your own unique voice?
4A: All of them, and while that sounds crazy its true. We look at the entire industry, even brand new baby indie games and we see what they did right, what they did wrong in every aspect of their work. Level design, audio design, marketing, graphic design, everything. This is in part to learn and grow but also because we love creative gaming and we love to see how it evolves. Most of the best systems we have seen in games have come from indie creators as lately many creative large titles have been ‘cookie cutter’ copy and paste work that feels bland that makes us want to create unique titles.
5Q: How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and adapting to feedback from your audience and collaborators?
5A: We learned a lot and most of that is bulk research. We try to listen to feedback, however we have learned with horror and other games, people will recommend advice that is just plain..awful. While we want to listen to our audience, we are pretty sure making a horror game that is filled with pink hallways and plush characters doesn’t fit the creepy Robot/AI aesthetic we are going for, yet that was a serious recommendation by a few people. Now some of this advice may be malicious, we had one of our team members talk with a large competitor at a convention who actually flat out LIED about marketing and elements that I had to correct them on. It shocked me as we are small and I am confused as to why they would do that to an indie team, but it is something that happens. Sadly not every person has the best interests of the community involved.
6Q: Can you recall a memorable success story or milestone in your indie creator journey that stands out as a turning point for you?
6A: We are still small, though with our current title we are about to announce, we are excited to see the reaction. I let some early access people see what we have planned and they went ‘wow’. We temporarily showcased our game to a Voice Acting Discord and we got over a hundred applications in 48 hours. People loved our idea and I am grateful to that community. They are so passionate and caring and I loved chatting with so many of them.
7Q: What role do setbacks or failures play in your creative process, and how do you overcome them to keep moving forward?
7A: So this question is more of a two part question for me and I will explain. With team projects it usually will have a couple people who don’t do well with the team. They either complain and don’t do work or they just go silent and contribute every other month or even less than that. Because of this I put a lot of the burden on myself and would try overworking to compensate for that. I would work every day for months and would work from the moment I woke to when I slept and when I did sleep it was only for a few hours. I suffered severe medical issues from not only stress but also from overwork and I learned I needed to take breaks. I still suffer stress and panic attacks. I try to be as accepting and helpful as possible but I am so terrified of another key member ghosting us without any reason and because of that I suffer panic attacks and it gets hard.
8Q: How do you manage your time and energy to sustain a consistent creative output while juggling other aspects of life?
8A: I don’t really sustain a healthy balance at the moment, though I am trying to. I love design and I will sometimes not be able to sleep because I will be up with ideas and I can’t sleep until I get them designed and in an engine/on paper. It is a hard but fun journey nonetheless.
9Q: Have you found any unexpected joys or rewards in the indie creator community, and how has it contributed to your overall experience?
9A: I have learned to be cautious, I am sure there are a lot of great members on there, but I can’t even join a discord to show off work because so many are quick to steal ideas. I mentioned an AI horror game a week ago and already the three people that were in that call with me out of 7 started working on an AI horror game and began copying the screenshots I had made. I would love to have a community where I can collaborate, share freely, and chat with. Though at the moment I keep that community at a small distance because there are so many willing to stab you in the back.
10Q: If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring creators, what would it be based on your own lessons learned?
10A: Oh wow, there is honestly a lot. Though the most important one is that whenever you work on a new project, strive to improve on what you are doing. For example: I created a lot of assets for a game ‘test’ project already. I could have reused those assets, but I redid every single one even if it was twice as long to do what I needed to do. Because of this my skills and assets have grown considerably in a short amount of time. I keep trying to improve and try to spread positive vibes while doing so. 😀
11Q: What are your thoughts on All Ages of Geek? What are some things we should change/do? What are something you enjoy about our website?
11A: So on twitter (X) it is very hard to find your site. The BIO you have is for the patreon and not the main page and I had to scroll down to search for your site. Until I found this question I had no clue that you had a website until I did some searching. So maybe just optimize that a bit better so I can find you. Site looks amazing too, though the font for the Header Tabs seems a tad off in comparison to the rest of the page. I love how interactive the website is, looks great 😀
12Q: Goals for 2024?
12A: We are releasing a game in 2024 called ‘Maxix 1989’ The game is a horror game about AI and we feel it is super important, as while it is a GREAT horror game with very deep subject matter, the game is intended to spark discussion around AI and how it is starting to dominate our culture. AI is replacing people in not just our game but in real life too with people losing jobs and income due to its fast rise. Our hope is to spark a wave of creators to disclose if AI is used in their projects and pioneer a way for everyone to have their voices be heard. I hope the project does well because I would like to hire those who have lost careers due to AI and let their creative voices be heard as well. This is near and dear to my heart and we are excited to debut our title soon!
MORE Screenshots
Thank you for your time, the goal of our game is to create a fun discussion topic with a lasting impact of our story that covers.
- The dangers of AI and how we need to have a discussion.
- What are the psychological impacts of losing a loved one and how that factors into physical manifestations of trauma.
- The toxic family dynamic that can arise and what a healthy one can be like and how it’s worth fighting for what/who you love.
Game Synopsis:
‘Play as a woman named Nora who searches for her husband in a Robotics Factory called ‘Maxix Robotics’. During the night, Nora encounters many unforeseen dangers such as Maxix Daughter who serves as an obstacle on her mission. Discover the lost secrets and journey deep into the factory by solving puzzles, fighting the mental hallucinations that plague you and uncover not only the secrets of the factory, but the secrets you have long since repressed.
Note: This game is very different from our ‘test game’ called ‘maxix robotics’ which served as a test to see if people liked the subject matter and idea of what we had. We have grown as a team and have professionals in the industry creating a game filled with Voice Acting, Animation, Cutscenes, dynamic gameplay and more expected of a higher quality game. We are excited to debut this title soon with an Early reveal in 2024.
Why We Made the Game?
– As a Team we love Games and we wanted to make a horror game with an impactful story. The ‘Maxix Family’ is filled with heartbreak and horror, with a lot of elements that touch base on a lot of issues people experience. The way we present AI is terrifying, but enjoyable as a story system with real world discussions. During early development we have been getting so many requests for paid work that we sadly had to turn down as this is an indie project with a small budget and it’s due to AI that there is such a lot of people desperate for work. We hope we can be a voice in the Digital community and raise awareness on not just AI but relationships, trauma, love, and the world we live in. We are excited to debut the game soon and we thank everyone who has been on this journey with us.
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