If you've ever used a Windows computer, you've almost certainly enjoyed at least a few minutes of fun drawing in MS Paint. Pawel Kozminski, aka Pantaszwent further and created something that seemed impossible for a drawing tool: a video game.
Paul is a 31-year-old Polish dentist. You read that correctly: the person responsible for creation World of horror Not programmed or Game developer. That was about the time he left part time who built, framework the framework, his first video game. It took seven years.
“Anyone can say that creating a video game with MS Paint is crazy and impossible,” he admits to PÚBLICO, because e-mail. At a certain point, he himself doubted the feasibility of the project and considered giving up. “However, in the end, I'm glad I pursued and completed the product.” The obvious limitations of the tool, of course, prevented the game from being made 100% in Paint. There was a lot of post-processing work necessarily done in game development software (Game enginealso commonly referred to in English).
World of horror It's an RPG gameRole playing game, or “role-playing game” (free translation), in which the player takes on the role of a teenager investigating a series of supernatural mysteries in the fictional Japanese city of Shiokawa. Throughout the story, the player has to make many decisions that affect the course of events.
There are a total of twenty investigations to complete, but in each new game you only have access to five, chosen at random. At the end of each, the player faces one of the “Old Gods”, the villains of the story. Combat system, like in classic RPGs Pokemon Or the first Final fantasythat it Role-based (in turns).
Therefore, finding and completing the entire game requires several returns to the game World of horror. Hey location How Long to Beat estimates that each game will take about two hours. It can take up to 38 hours to find all scenarios and unlock all additional content.
A game that seems to come from the past
Deciding to create a 1-bit style game – where each pixel could only be black or white – was one of the reasons Powell decided to use MS Paint. “Low accuracy and using patterns with to hesitate [ruído visual] “Instead of colors, it allowed me, as an inexperienced artist, to make some mistakes that added something to the dream-like aspect of the game,” the author explained to PÚBLICO.
The aesthetic that references horror manga from the 80s and 90s is no coincidence. “World of horror It is a love letter to middle Of the terrors I grew up with as a teenager. Amazing work to Junji Ito [autor de manga de terror] It has caused me many sleepless nights and that is my appreciation,” confirmed the person in charge of the game.
Despite dealing with everyone design Single, World of horror It is not the result of a “one man army”. The soundtrack reminds of old ladies Hallwaysfor example, featured composers Cuesta and Sebastian “Jaroslaw” Šebowski.
It was officially launched in October World of horror It is available in Early access (Early Access, in Portuguese) since February 2020. During this period, many players have tried out an incomplete version and shared comment. Powell confirmed that a lot of fan ideas were incorporated into the game. “It's a bonus to get a title Early access While building a community around it.
Since its release, the game has been generally enthusiastically received. On Steam, 92% of 8,030 user reviews are positive. Hey location Developed by IGN Games World of horror On our list of the five best horror games of 2023. On Metacritic, it has a score of 78 out of 100, based on 22 reviews.
according to Video game insights, which collects data on the video game industry, on Steam alone, the game has been sold more than 263,000 times and generated $3.3 million in revenue. Today, Powell's “passion project” is his main source of income.
Published by Ysbryd Games and Playism World of horror It can currently be played on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and 5, as well as on PC. I want to location For a game either on Steam or the console store, the price of the game is around 20 euros.
Powell is currently working on a Expansion pack (Additional Content Pack), which covers the story that precedes the narrative World of horror. As for future projects, the Polish dentist-programmer is only lifting the veil a little. “I'm currently designing a horror game that explores another exotic location for a Western player.” Will he be in the paint again? We will see soon.
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