How Four Kiwis Realized New Zealand’s Latest Game Success

A Christchurch-developed video game about fishing is making headlines abroad.

But Dredge is not a relaxing day on the water. This fishing trip has a “sinister undercurrent,” says its developers.

“Dredge’s Elevator Pitch is a ‘cosmic horror fishing adventure.’ On the surface, it looks like a comfortable fishing simulator, but you quickly realize there’s something else going on,” says programmer and writer Joel Mason. said Mr. “The sea is a little scary and unfamiliar, so the spookiness just feels right.”

A week after its release, Black Salt Games’ first project is already a huge success. With his 95% positive reviews on the digital storefront Steam and a comfortable spot on his list of top sellers on several other platforms, Dredge far exceeded the expectations of the four-person development team. surpassed.

Mason, along with studio manager Nadia Thorne, lead artist Alex Richie, and 3D animator Michael Bastiaens, took a risk two years ago when they left the safety of their big studio to begin a passionate project. .

“The whole idea was to see if we could actually go out there and create a game that would be played by a small number of people,” Bastiaens said. It was pretty amazing to see it become.”

The team thought fishing games with a horror feel were too niche to succeed.

“I wish I had a few people who liked me, I wish I could have connected with just a few people,” Richie said.

Instead, Dredge’s unique premise has hooked gamers around the world.

“The reception and response blew all our hopes and even our dreams away,” Mason said. “We’ve received some great reviews. We’re really happy. We’re feeling great.”

Mason said game development is a high-risk business and the decision to build a game from scratch was not taken lightly.

“There’s a lot of luck involved and there was always that worry, but it felt right to do this to focus on our own game.”

From left to right: Dredge 3D animator Michael Bastiaens, lead artist Alex Ritchie, and programmer/writer Joel Mason.
photograph: black salt game/offer

Video games are often developed by large teams with dozens of staff, but Black Salt Games says smaller teams have their own advantages. “We can move pretty quickly, like if we want to change direction or try something new,” Richie said.

“Another benefit is that we have less brains in the room talking all the time, so we can make design decisions faster,” says Bastiaens.

Mason said it would not be easy to split the entire project among just four people. “The challenge is how much can you accomplish in an hour of the day,” he said.

“We take great care to keep the scope of the game manageable and not turn it into a 10-year project.”

Nadia Thorne said that keeping team expectations in check is essential to a successful project.

“I think being in the industry for a while meant that we were really realistic about what we could achieve with our first title from our own studio,” she said. Armed with that knowledge, we only tried to improve Dredge’s chances of success.”

A week after its release, Dredge exceeded the expectations of the development team at Black Salt Games.
photograph: black salt game

A week after its release, Dredge exceeded the expectations of the development team at Black Salt Games.

After a tumultuous week, the team at Black Salt Games was thinking about the future. Should they work on further updates to Dredge? A sequel? Or should I start something completely new?

According to Thorne, their first task will be to address bugs, glitches, and flaws discovered by Dredge’s unexpectedly large player base.

“Soon make sure Dredge is fully supported and feel how much players appreciate their response,” she said.

Bastiaens said the plan next week is to do a breakdown. “Okay, here’s the situation. Do you want to keep dredge or move on to the next project? I have some ideas for more dredge or something else.” Overall. “

After two years of intensive work on the Dredge ocean, the team felt inclined to change course. “I think Alex stopped working with fish for a while,” Bastianz said. “yes, [he drew] 128 fish illustrations,” says Mason.

“We finally got there,” Richie said.