Are you ready to raise hell? Well, now you can do that in Obey Me! Obey Me launched on Steam for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on April 21st!
We decided to host an interview with one of the Obey Me devs, Marcos from the Error 404 Game Studios team so he could answer all of your questions about the game and its development!
Obey Me has a lot of little nods to other popular video game franchises. What were some of the inspirations for the game?
In E404, we play a lot of games in our free time, so we took inspiration from many titles. But the main ones are those of the “Spectacular Fighter” genre, such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
What was the inspiration behind Vanessa and Monty’s characters?
Vanessa was partially inspired by Jessica Jones from the Netflix series and the Alias comic-book. Vanessa doesn’t go to the self-destructive extremes Jessica reaches, but the sarcasm and dry wit can be traced to her. Vanessa has a slightly pessimistic outlook in life, as she finds her job unsatisfying most of the time and her lack of memories from her past also enhances that feeling, as she doesn’t feel any connection to her current situation. This detachment also works in her favor, as she can remain flexible and adapt to situations more easily.
Monty is way more simple, he is an animal who masquerades as a sentient being or maybe the other way around. He’s like a twisted version of a Disney animal sidekick. He is the comedic sidekick for Vanessa, as she plays the “Straight Man” in most of their interactions. He is savage and instinct-driven, but he has moments of optimism cutting through Vanessa’s usual demeanor. He also serves as a “mentor” type of character, guiding Vanessa and explaining concepts that she doesn’t know yet. Monty has much more emotional responses than Vanessa, contrasting her usually cold demeanor.
Vanessa was inspired on Marvel’s Jessica Jones with her dry wit and sarcastic sense of humour, while Monty is a darker version of the stereotypical Disney sidekick.
What was your favorite memory from the making of Obey Me?
The first time I saw people testing the game. I knew the first iteration was clunky, slow and ugly but the players didn't care at all and played it. It is such a unique feeling - a combination of nerves, happiness and achievement.
What do fans of Obey Me have to look forward to in the release of the game?
Beside killing demons? Well, I like to see Obey Me as a whole, it’s an experience. I hope they enjoy Vanessa and Monty’s story and interaction in this grim world. We put a lot of love and effort into this duo and we are proud of them.
Killing demons might be your main motivation to play Obey Me, but the devs hope that you also enjoy Vanessa and Monty’s story!
What was the process like for creating Obey Me?
Creating Obey Me took three big steps or iterations. At first, it was more a Diablo-like game, you selected your positions and targets for Vanessa and Monty and clicked over the enemies until they died. Monty was so small that he looked like a rat. The game was very slow for the frenetic action game we were saying it was, so we decided to revamp the gameplay and approach a beat-em-up style. In this iteration, you could control Vanessa and Monty almost at the same time, but the controls were clunky and Monty was almost useless. We wanted to give the player the feeling of playing with a duo and this version wasn't.
After almost three years of developing and learning, the final gameplay iteration came. We decided that Monty was going to be controlled by the IA so the player could focus on the combat and we divided all the abilities between both characters so they would be equally important.
I think that the most important thing of creating this game is that we made Vanessa and Monty back in 2016 and they’ve kept their essence and style until today. The duo survived through three huge iterations of the game.
Vanessa and Monty survived three different iterations of the game to become the Obey Me that you now know.
Did you face any challenges in porting the game to consoles?
When we started Obey Me our first gameplay objective was that it should be played equally well on mouse & keyboard and joystick. This made possible a swift transition to consoles because we could focus on visual bugs knowing the gameplay experience was safe.
What advice would you give to people interested in game development?
The most important thing to avoid while developing is frustration. It’s harder to come up with a solution while in this state of mind. Relax, take your time, do other things and the solution will come in time.