Their next game, Death Squared, will be coming out later this year. Having made a huge splash at PAX Australia (and making our list of the best demos at PAX West 2016), the anticipation for this co-op puzzle game is high.

 

As the hype for Death Squared grows, I had a chance to sit down with the game’s lead designer, Patrick Cook, to talk about both the game and the industry as a whole.

GameSkinny (Bobby Singer): Death Squared will be your studio’s first big release on consoles, with the game being available on both PS4 and Xbox One. Is this the direction the studio plans on continuing down, or will you be returning your attention to mobile games following Death Squared’s release?

Singer: Your studio is based in Sydney, Australia. Seeing as how the premise of Death Squared is that any action can get you killed, how much influence was taken from the joke that everything in Australia can kill you?

Singer: Like many of your previous releases, Death Squared is bright and colorful. What are your thoughts on the opinion that too many AAA games these days use drab color pallets?

Singer: Do you think it makes a difference in how much fun you have playing Death Squared depending on whether you play with a friend in the same room as you, versus playing with a friend online?

For Death Squared, the colors were a functional design choice, but I’m definitely happy with the outcome aesthetically as well.

Editor’s Note: PS4 players of Death Squared will be able to play online via Share Play support.

Singer: Much like all your previous games, Death Squared does not have a story. Does your studio simply not have a story to tell, or do you just wish to put all of your attention on the gameplay to make it as polished as possible?

Singer: The imagination on display in Death Squared shows that your studio has a great deal of imagination. If given an unlimited budget, what kind of game do you think you’d want to make?

At its inception, Death Squared was indeed focused on just one overarching gameplay premise though – solve a puzzle together without killing each other.

Singer: What aspect of Death Squared are you personally most proud of?

Above all though I guess I’d say I’m most proud of how simple the game engine is. It’s by far one of the simplest engines I’ve written, because everything comes instead from its design. It’s about the mechanical designs, the puzzles, and all the interactions. It takes hardly any code to say “that things moves that way when you move this way”, but what you do with that is what counts.

I’d like to give a big thank you to Patrick Cook, Kyle MacGregor Burleson, and all of SMG Studio for taking the time to answer my questions. 

Players who are interested in picking up Death Squared can keep an eye out for its release on PlayStation 4, Xbox, and PC later this year.