Dansk
Svenska
Norsk
Suomi
Deutsch
Italiano
Español
Português
Français
Nederlands
中文
Indonesia
Polski
日本語
한국어
Čeština
Ελληνικά
Türkçe
Tiếng Việt
عربي
Follow us
HQ
Videos
AIKODE
Everything is possible, except finding the truth - ACE_19111545 tells us all about AIKODE at IndieDevDay
We spoke with the solo creator of action-RPG AIKODE, which takes place in a world that enables the player to explore and live as they please, all while tasked with hunting down and uprooting the truth.
Audio transcription
"I'm in Barcelona for the IndieDevDay 2024 and I'm here joined by ACE.
Thank you so much for joining us.
It's really crazy that this game is pretty much made by you on your own, AIKODE."
"Is it a... Seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong.
Is it a sort of like Nier meets, AI: the Somnium files?
Well, yeah, kind of. I mean, yeah, it's a bit of a mix of everything.
So it has like NieR meets Persona meets Final Fantasy XIII meets AI: The Somnium files or Zero Escape."
"It's the same company.
Really, really?
Yeah, so it kind of has like that same time of time traveling or not time traveling, but you know, yeah.
So it has that as a mechanic of the game. It's mainly the important thing."
"So it has like, yeah, that's a pretty accurate thing.
It has a lot of games too, but yeah.
So there are murders into it?
What?
Murders? Are people going to get murdered?
I mean, not really. Like it's the same type of narrative in the way of a type of detective game."
"It's not really a detective game, but it has kind of the same mystery to it in the way of narrative.
I mean, there's a lot of murders, but it's not about solving murders because you kill most people, actually.
So, yeah.
What's the sort of the main mechanic here? I see you guys do a lot of things here."
"So is this action, slasher, combat?
The genre is kind of like hack and slash in terms of combat.
With RPG exploration and mechanics.
Also has like the social life elements of Persona."
"Like the calendar and the, well, like the activities and relationships.
So it has all of that.
And at the same time, it has like the verticality, for example, of Gravity Rush with all the cities.
And it has some flying in there."
"So it's a mix of a lot of things.
But yeah, like the main mechanics I would say is combat and social life theme elements mixed with RPG.
How do you work on this yourself on your own?
That's a hard question because it's hard for me to answer because I'm not really sure how to answer."
"I just work.
Right now, I mean, I've been working on this for two years and a half.
Like there was something like four years ago.
I actually was trying to find a team."
"I was always an artist.
So I didn't know anything about programming.
So I tried to, I tried to like, find programmers.
And I had three teams."
"But I didn't have money.
So all of them failed.
And because of that, basically, well, I had to go solo.
It was the only option."
"And that's when I decided to go solo and do all the programming myself.
And that's when I learned.
I've been learning for two years and a half.
Yeah, that's basically how I do it."
"Right now, I have like a Patreon.
Like last year, I opened it.
So I've been one year working full time.
And the other year, I was in uni."
"And I was with freelance staff.
So it was more hard to work on it.
But right now, I'm working full time on the project.
And I just, I guess, like when people ask me how I do it or how I do stuff, I'm not sure."
"I just, like my way of working is like jumping in a pool.
You don't know how to swim.
So just swim or die.
Like you need to adapt."
"So when I do a mechanic, I don't know how to do it.
But it's like I need to do it.
And that's it.
That's my way of working."
"A bit radical, but it works for me.
Not for everyone.
But yeah.
What's your take on AI itself?
On AI in general?
Yeah, because also a lot of people think because of the name that it uses AI somehow."
"I didn't mean that.
I mean more philosophically.
Like, I like the concept of AI.
I just don't like how it can steal people's jobs."
"I mean, I would prefer if AI was used for more like annoying jobs.
Because I work in 3D and everything.
You have UVs.
You have all these annoying jobs that no one wants to do because no one wants to do that."
"It would be better to have a better AI for that instead of just making full drawings.
Because I'm not going to use that personally.
But it's a technology.
In terms of piece of technology, it's amazing."
"I've been messing around sometimes with it.
And I love the concept.
That's why the game is around that too.
It actually is from the context of AI as a real thing."
"Not as a robot or something like that.
The game deals with AI like how we know it.
Obviously, it doesn't use AI.
But the themes of the game deal with that."
"But at the same time, it's like a love-hate relationship.
I love the concept.
But it's advancing so fast with music and everything.
And sometimes it's like, well, this is going to make people lose jobs."
"It's what it is.
You need to adapt.
It's hard sometimes.
It's a bit like both things.
Love-hate, I guess."
"I think a lot of people are in that spot right now.
I'm not super radical with it.
It's here. We can change it.
It's what it is."
"What's the status of AI code?
Do you have a publisher?
When can we expect it to release?
On which platforms?
It will release on Steam."
"It will release also on PS5, Xbox.
I don't know nothing about porting.
So I'm not going to do the port.
It will be the publisher."
"It doesn't have a publisher right now.
I've been approached by some of them.
I didn't choose anyone because right now, in the state of the game, it's going to take more years."
"So I don't need a publisher right now.
I'm talking to some.
I'm not taking a final decision.
But the idea is to release those on consoles, of course."
"So yeah, it will have a publisher.
Right now, as I said, I have the Patreon for funding.
And that's it. That's about it.
But it works for me for working full-time on the game."
"And that's the important thing.
And the state of the game is actually quite advanced right now.
Most areas, combat, mechanics, even the outfits of the game that you can change are finished."
"And it's more like 90% of that.
But right now, I'm working on the things that are probably the most time-consuming things.
That is, like, cutscenes."
"In my case, I have a mock-up suit.
I know how to animate by hand.
Like, most gameplay animations are animated by hand.
But the cutscenes are mock-up."
"So I have a mock-up suit, and I act the cutscene.
Yeah?
So the thing is, I need to send all the dialogues and everything to the voice actors."
"And then the voice actors, they need to send to me the recorded lines.
And with that, I need to record the mock-up acting them myself.
So I need..."
"Sync up.
Yeah, I need to sync up.
I need to kind of memorize, not the dialogues, because I know the dialogues, but because I wrote them myself, right?
But I need to memorize how they acted the dialogues."
"And then I need to do different takes, and then export everything, and clean up, and then all of that, import it into Unreal.
There are two characters.
I need to do one first, imagine where is the other, then act the other character."
"And when they are reacting with each other, it becomes messy.
Like, it's a lot of work, and more like a lot of planning.
But it's a lot of work because it's actual acting in my house with the mock-up suit."
"So it's hard, but right now I'm in the process of that.
I'm doing, like, basically making the story real, right?
And doing also the voices.
But everything else is pretty much completed."
"So right now it's just working on the time-consuming stuff.
That's why I say it can take that long.
It could take less.
But I also include in the polishing state and the book fixing in those two years."
"I don't know how much can that take because it depends on the amount of books.
Hopefully it's not a lot, but realistically it's going to be a lot.
So, yeah, I'm in that state right now."
"Nice, nice.
Looking forward to learning more about AIKODE in the next couple of years.
Thank you so much for your time, Ace, and good luck with the project."
""
Interviews
More
Videos
More
Movie Trailers
More
Trailers
More
Events
More