Catching up with Dusty Monk at Windstorm Studios
On Wednesday Feburary 17th I got to meet up with Dusty Monk along with PC Gamer journalist Dan Griliopoulos to talk about whats happening with Dusty and his company Windstorm Studios. You may remember that back in April last year Dusty announced through Inc Gamers that the MMO prototype he was working on was being changed into a single player game after some problems getting a publisher on board for the MMO title. Here was what Dusty has to say to Inc Gamers in April last year:
For the first eight months of the company’s lifetime, we were working on our prototype. We finished that around September and the prototype has been largely received with great enthusiasm. From about September through January I shopped the prototype to a number of different publishers, both international and within the States, and all of them have without exception, said “We love the idea, love the project, but we’re just not ready to go forward yet – and part of the problem is that we’re just not sure there’s enough of a real company here.” And I get that; I can sort of relate to that.
So the plan of attack right now is to go forward with a smaller single-player game, and get that out there for people to start playing. This will serve as a sort of introduction to the world that we want to build.
Since then Dusty has been pressing ahead with his single player game. The game is still based on an exciting world with flying cars. We saw some concept art relating to the game back in September 2009. However, Dusty commented saying the game is less about big robots shooting lasers and more about playing the “good guy” in a corrupt world. The flying cars element of the game is expected to have excellent mechanics and it will be a core focus of the gameplay. Some 80% of time spent in the game will involve flying around with about 20% on traditional ground based missions and objectives. The game will be a mix of old classic cars being turned into futuristic flying machines. Dusty commented that the game is really for “The Son and the Dads” where the Dads have their classic cars transformed into futuristic flying cars introducing these types of cars to their Sons.
The concept sounds excellent and I am sure it will be a very unique game. Currently the game is targeting to come out sometime in the Summer however there is no date penned in beyond that. The game will be released on PC through digital distribution, Dusty anticipates bringing parts of the game to other platforms in the future such as mobile and Xbox Live. Ensemble fans will be pleased to here that Windstorm is taking on board some of the design insights from the legendary Bruce Shelley. The game will have a very vibrant colour palette encouraging people to play in a very appealing environment. Windstorm will also be making sure the first 15 minutes are as fun as possible to engage people into the gameplay world and entice them to keep playing.
First look at screenshots and concept art!
It is certainly very exciting times ahead for Windstorm. As the project gets closer to launch be on the look out for some screenshots and brand new concept art. Dan Griliopoulos at PC Gamer has a detailed interview of the meeting with Dusty including some detailed questions and some brand new concept art and for the first time – screenshots! Be sure to check out Dan’s interview on the link below!