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We catch up with co-founder Luis Oliván to discover more about Fictiorama's 10th Anniversary, the lessons learnt, dystopian messages, fan favourites, and upcoming games such as Do Not Feed the Monkeys 2099 and The Fabulous Fear Machine.
"Alright, we're at the BIG conference in Bilbao and it's always nice to catch up with Luis to learn all about Fictiorama's games.
Last time we talked it was remote and we were talking about Do Not Feed the Monkeys 2099, which was supposedly releasing at the end of the year.
So what can you tell us about the status of the project that we talked so much about?
Well, it's progressing nicely. We're actually at beta stage, so doing some Q&A and polishing stuff here and there."
"The goal is to have the game released next year, hopefully early next year, but it's doing great.
We think it's going to be really fun for players of the previous game, but also for players that didn't play the original Do Not Feed the Monkeys.
You have another game here, but before we get into that, yesterday was your panel, we couldn't attend, and it was all about your studio."
"10 lessons about these 10 years, if I'm correct?
So can we get a takeaway? What's the main message you sent to the audience from those 10 years and lessons?
Making games is hard. Sometimes you have to face lots of uncertainty and you never know what's going to happen.
And you have to be really into your games to be able to put into them whatever you want."
"That's great, especially if you do like we do, personal games, games about things that we care about.
So yeah, sometimes it can be hard, it can be challenging, but especially because of that, the most relevant thing is that you have fun while making games.
Because that's the most important thing. We make games to learn how to make games, that's really great for us, so that's why we make different games."
"But the really most important thing for us is to have fun while we make them. If you don't have fun, then probably it's not worth the effort.
For us, it's been for these 10 years, so we hope it's going to be fun for the next whatever.
Which would you say fans have from Fiction Armistice as the game that they're most fond of? Is it that synchronicity or monkeys?
Or which would you say is the ones that you are feeling that people really, really love?
Yeah, probably the Nuts for the Monkeys so far. It's more popular, it's done better in terms of financial results, commercial results."
"It got some awards worldwide. For us, it was really special because when we made our first game, Dead Synchronicity, it was a very old-school point-and-click adventure game.
We decided to go with such a game because we didn't know anything about how to make video games.
So it was like, okay, let's try something achievable. And actually, we did the game design of the game actually without knowing that there was something called game design."
"We knew nothing at all. But when we finished that game, it was like, okay, now we feel we're ready to approach more ambitious games, especially with more unique mechanics.
We decided to put all of it into Nuts for the Monkeys, and we are really proud of the game. People love it, and it's very special.
That's why we decided to make a sequel because from day one, the community asked for more content, more stories, more characters, more crazy stuff."
"And it was like, okay, let's do a sequel, and let's include lots of fun stuff for the players.
Alright, let's talk about Fabulous Fear Machine. It's something I find interesting about you guys.
I think we talked about this back in the days that you always have this sort of dark twist.
You're always slightly dystopian, or even though you're sending this really positive message, your games are about a foreseeable not-so-good future."
"But in this case, you play with fear. So what's the main concept that you play with here?
Well, it's a narrative-driven game that includes lots of different mechanics.
But the main topic of the game is fear, and how fear can be used to control people.
Especially not only in a small scale, but in a big scale."
"How the establishment usually uses fear to make people behave the way they want them to behave.
So the core of the game is that once a society is afraid enough, then they're easier to be controlled.
And eventually they will make what the powerful people want them to make.
And that's something really relevant today."
"It's been happening here, especially now that information travels so quickly.
Something happens in Bilbao, and someone in Japan knows about it two minutes after that.
And no matter if those news are real or not, the game deals also with these viral hoaxes.
Things that might not be true, but then they spread like fire."
"And that's dangerous.
It's great that the world has become so small in those regards.
Everyone knows everything about everything.
But that's also dangerous, because it's easier than ever to control people with information."
"Especially if it's viral hoaxes that are very dangerous.
So we're in a moment in which two or three powerful people combined.
One of them, I don't know, having a lot of money.
One of them controlling media outlets or a social network or whatever."
"Can do whatever they want with people.
And we are really afraid of that. We're really concerned about that.
And that's why we decided to go with a game like this.
You got me hyped, because you always introduce this sort of message."
"And it's always current.
And you got me really interested.
But what about in terms of gameplay?
Because you also are trying something different."
"We're used to your sort of graphical adventures.
But in this case, there is a tactical and a strategy touch to it.
Yes. Again, as we did with Dune of Feet and Monkeys, we decided to mix different kinds of mechanics."
"Number one, because we love doing different things.
And it was like, OK, let's do a narrative-driven game with strategy mechanics.
Because it would be great to learn about strategy mechanics.
And also the game looks like a board game."
"So it's going to be great to learn about that too.
And let's include some cards, because we love card games. Why not?
I mean, it's going to be great as long as everything makes sense.
That's like the main thing for us."
"Like, OK, this is the message of the game.
This is what we want to convey.
Does it make sense? If it does, then it's great to include all these mechanics.
Because that's also a way to attract different kinds of players."
"I mean, people that are keen on narrative-driven games will love The Fabrication Machine.
But also people who enjoy strategy games, card games, board games, I mean, that's like the two main reasons why we decided to go with this approach of including different stuff."
"All right. And if Monkeys 2099 is going to be early 2023, what about The Fabulous Fear Machine?
It's too early to announce any release date.
It's probably going out after Duel of Fates and Monkeys 2099."
"But we don't know exactly the date.
Thank you so much for your time. And again, happy decade.
Thanks a lot, David.
Thank you."