For those who don’t know, what is The Music Machine?

What inspired you to create a game where not only are the protagonist and antagonist in the same body, but also has you basically playing as the villain, seeing as how Quintin possesses her body?

Later on there are a few simple puzzles and other challenges as well.  A lot of people refer to it as a “walking simulator,” but I just think of it as an adventure game where the focus of the interaction is one telling an interesting story rather than providing challenging puzzles.  I took a lot of inspiration from the way The Vanishing of Ethan Carter combined exploration, puzzle solving, minor gameplay, and narrative.  And I think it’s much more akin to that than to something like Dear Esther.

Why did you go for a heavy emphasis on shadow, minimal detail, and limited sound? The game is sometimes notably silent, save for one or two solitary sound effects.

I came up with the idea before I started working on The Music Machine, and originally I had wanted to do a lot more with it.  Have your character trust or distrust you depending on your actions, maybe do something with the idea of harming them to help them, stuff like that.  Once I started putting the story of The Music Machine together, though, a lot of that stuff didn’t fit with the characters.

In the game’s pause menu, you specifically ask players to take their time and explore. Unlike a lot of horror games, you put a heavier, almost Ridley Scott-like emphasis on slow-burn tension and atmosphere. What drove you to this method of unsettling the player?

Eventually after much tweaking, I ended up with The Music Machine’s art style.  It “felt” how I wanted, it was unique and interesting – well, more unique before White Night came out. And it was something I could make look good.This is one of the reasons I basically do everything myself.  There are some areas I’m good at, some areas I’m bad at, but ultimately it’s the sum total of the good and the bad that make my games uniquely my own. 

If I had simply paid someone to do the modeling and texturing for me, The Music Machine would have ended up looking pretty much like every other Unity horror game.  Art is defined as much by its weaknesses as its strengths.  And working with and around those weaknesses just forces you to be that much more creative.

You allude to a lot of the back story between Quintin and Haley vaguely. Did you intentionally leave some elements up for interpretation or is there a specific story you had in mind that led them to the current situation?

The scariest game I’ve ever played is probably Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but I wouldn’t say I liked it. The whole thing was just a mechanism to trick me into a fight or flight response, and nothing more. I mean, visceral scares and terror certainly have their place, but to me they are more satisfying and enjoyable if that place is in some sort of story context.Creepiness, atmosphere, unsettling themes… those are the things that intrigue me about horror. And it was Agustin Cordes’ game Scratches that showed me how that sort of literary approach to horror could be done in an interactive setting.  And how even the most traditionally mundane of things–a scratching noise, a dark basement–could be absolutely terrifying given the proper context, and the proper time to develop. 

Remember how I mentioned that I’m a minimalist at heart?  Well, given the option between scaring people with a pile of mutilated bodies and a screeching monstrosity, and scaring them with one well-timed creepy noise, I’m going to go for the creepy noise.

As I said before, it’s about two very screwed up people. One of which resorts to rape accusations when they feel slighted, the other of which is so vindictive that he will seriously consider turning a teenaged girl over to be tortured to death. And yet, ultimately, it’s also about a girl who is able to love unconditionally, and a man who can still do the right thing when the chips are down. [At] the end we get the impression that maybe their relationship might be on the mend. ——————————SPOILERS END HERE——————————–

What drives you to make your game projects? They differ a lot from the mainstream crowd, but you’ve gained a following.

At the end of all my interviews, I like to let my interviewees ask me and/or my audience a question. So if there’s anything you’d like to ask, please be sure to shoot it my way!

I guess if you had to label what I do, you might say I make “walking simulators.” But I’ve never thought of myself as a “walking simulator” developer. I just tell the stories I want to tell, in the worlds I want to explore, and pick and choose interaction mechanics based on what I feel will work in those stories and worlds. 

Who knows, in the near future you might see something super gameplay-focused from me. Heck, I prototyped a zany little old school FPS after releasing The Music Machine that I might do something with.  Ultimately, I’m not married to a particular genre, I just look at what doesn’t exist that I think should exist, and make that. 

The way I see it, by the time a trend becomes popular enough for you to notice it and decide to jump on it, you’re already too late. It’s already starting to lose momentum. If you just do your own thing, then maybe you’ll be the one that starts the next big trend. At the very least, you won’t have to compete with bigger developers that have a lot more resources than you do.

As for myself… I’m kind of in the middle ground. I like games to be entertaining, not necessarily always needing to be fun, but entertaining nonetheless. Still, at the end of the day, I’ll value a game more for presenting a new idea in an interesting way than for just being polished. You don’t get Sunset Overdrive and Thomas Was Alone by treating things like Assassin’s Creed.

What about you? Do you prefer polished experiences or more divergent, artistic games? Let us know in the comments below!

You can find more of David’s work on Steam and GameJolt. The Music Machine is available on Steam.

[Image Source: Steam]