There are games that get caught up in the crosshairs of the gaming community, and they have gained overwhelming negative receptions overnight.
It doesn’t take much time, but when this happens it tends to be a snowman effect that is difficult to stop, and these games tend to be amortized before hitting the digital shelf.
This seems like it just happens to have built Rocket Boy’s Mindseye. The games that received Mountain Press in the past few days range from confusion from reports to statements that suggest uncertainty within the ranks of the development team.
The marketing and overall noise surrounding Mindseye is surreal to say the least, and that’s why we sat down with Adam Whiting to learn more.
With the game coming out in a few days, we aimed to know what Mind-Yay is and what sets it apart from the many contemporaries that portrayed it.
Make Adam Whiting and Rocket Boy
Q: First, you can start things with an immediate comparison with GTA, CyberPunk 2077 and see the dogs this new IP has received. I hope you make a decisive statement. Which games served as Mindseye’s core inspiration?
A: We took a lot of inspiration from different forms of media and culture, especially film. Leslie is always looking for inspiration in the real world and our culture. So it’s the same part of the film-like and real-world inspiration that makes up Mindseye.
Many of the themes we include in our stories are very relevant in society today. It’s like global warming, AI, big businesses, and politics are intertwined. All of these were things we saw and what we wanted to explore in our stories.
Q: To provide contrast, a lot of people have been very focused on games like the games I want to ask. What are the key aspects of Mindseye that stand out from the pack?
a: From the perspective of our raw gameplay DC2, I think companion drones will help set them apart from others in terms of third-person action. The fact that you can use the abilities your drone has, and you can do whatever you need at the moment, such as zapping or hacking, while reloading. It’s a truly outstanding feature.
But really, our secret weapon is a creation tool that we’ve created along with the game. Everything you see and play with Mindseye is built with the same creation tool.
Our team is constantly using this tool to create new and exciting segments, providing players with that exact tool. It’s not a ridiculous or boning version, it’s the exact same thing, and it’s very intuitive.
It is built to allow you to experiment using drag and drop and dig into the logic of each system. Plus, there are many useful tools at launch that will help players become familiar with it.
Q: The creation mode sounds incredibly loud, but it may still be a bit vague about what players actually can do with this feature. What can players expect to be able to do with this feature?
a: Essentially, from a gameplay perspective from a third person perspective, it can almost be built within this creation system. There is this logic system, where you can place logic nodes to interact with different things with players, environments, different objects, and props.
After that, you can combine whatever you like, and there is no upper limit. This means you can build highly creative and sophisticated segments of gameplay.
I think our players are really trying to blow us away with what they came up with. Obviously, when building the game on the same system and making sure it’s refined and cinematic, we had to be a little more restrained, but we want to be really eccentric to the players.
Q: What we saw is primarily mission-based and highly curated. Can you talk about how much of a role the world plays in this game and how freely the freedom that players have to enjoy this as a sandbox and get out of the script plays?
a: It really depends on one mission to the next. Crossing the city offers a variety of paths and routes. Obviously, if you are following your targets, you need to chase them, but you set up a big checkpoint so there’s room to navigate while you’re fitted.
I wanted to give players a sense of freedom and exploration. Because when they navigated through the city, they didn’t want to feel too guided or trained. However, once you reach a certain point in the game, you unlock Freerome mode.
Certainly, it’s a bit of work in progress as we’re constantly adding to the city and adding more content, gameplay and story. All of these set us for future development in Manzier’s world.
Q: And just to elaborate on that “Work in progress” statement. I just want to ask, does Mindseye offer a fully built city? Are there any hidden, unexcluded textures or invisible walls? Is this a complete city that you can fully explore in this free roam mode?
A: No textures are missing, no. You can explore the entire city and the entire surrounding desert region, and there’s a lot to do. Clearly, the inside is primarily tailored to the various parts of the story in which they take place. But there are plans to open this even further.
But no, there is no area to go to places where there is no texture. Everything is built with very high quality and we will continue to improve this as we continue to build open world experiences in the coming months.
Q: Then, speaking of this broader use of Mindseye’s world, I heard the announcement of today’s Hitman Crossover. What was it like working with that IP? Can you reveal anything about what you can expect from that crossover?
a: Ultimately, when it comes to Mindseye, I think leaning on something inherent in our game will stick to our strengths. I can’t say anything more now, but we’ll pay great respect to Hitman’s IP. We are huge Agent 47 fans.
So, effectively, we are trying to provide a Manjiei-specific version of that experience. Additionally, other exciting collaborations are planned for the future.
Q: This title had a multiplayer rambling. What does the team imagine about this? For example, are you thinking of a cooperative or PVP?
a: I think we’re looking at cooperatives at first, but we also want to promote some PVP functions, such as competitive races and deathmatches.
However, we are primarily considering allowing players to work together to play more structured missions and content. As Mindseye is developed after its launch, we’re going to do it all a bit again. Because players have access to all the features and tools.
I’ve played PC games for the rest of my life, and all the big esports that exist have origins from people who are passionate about games that love to make mods in the bedroom.
Q: Finally, I feel that I need to acknowledge the elephants in the room. Mindseye’s reception was a bit negative ahead of its release, to say the least. Some say they barely know what this game is, while many say it appears to have it on their cross. I just want to give you a platform to talk about it. What did you make at Mines’ reception as a loom on the release date?
a:Yeah, first of all, we were intentionally mystical because there are really interesting stories we don’t want to ruin. However, rather than hanging the carrot “two years later” carrots, they want to make a loud noise just before they fire.
But in the end we just bowed our heads and I think we focused on making this a really great game and polishing it as much as possible. It’s useless, so we try to ignore negativity.
After all, we are a new independent studio with an independent spirit, and we are trying to bring our first game to the market. So once the game is announced in a few days, you’ll be invited to the player to jump in and make his own judgment.
