The next issue of Five out of Ten is our tenth: it’s called ‘Heart’ and it’s coming soon! While researching a piece called ‘Get Well’ about how people use games for mental and physical healing, Alan spoke to Max Strzelecki, a programmer with the Polish studio One More Level. Max was born without arms and taught himself to type using his feet to pursue his dream of programming.
One More Level’s new game Warlocks is currently going through funding on Kickstarter: we’ve played a demo and think it’s pretty cool, so take a look and see what you think! Here’s our interview with Max:
How long have you been working on Warlocks? What other projects have you worked on before this?
We’ve been working on Warlocks since February. Previously I’ve been working on various smaller and bigger projects, some unfinished and some released. Examples include Rune Masters, Glorious: Companions, Like No One Ever Was and others.
When playing the demo of Warlocks, it reminded me a little of Risk of Rain, but the art style evoked an older PC game called Heart of Darkness. What games and other works of fiction or nature influenced the game’s direction?
Wojtek, the artist behind Warlocks, is a big fan of retro gaming and old consoles, I can only assume he draws inspiration from all those old titles he’s ever played. There’s probably so many that he might not know himself!
As for the gameplay side of Warlocks, except for Risk of Rain I think MOBAs were a great inspiration when designing all the characters and their abilities.
You type and code with your feet. What inspired you to get into game development? Was it specifically because it was unconventional and challenging, or did it stem from something else?
I’ve picked up programming because we used to have this friend of my grandfather come over our house and show his projects to my grandfather. He was a professional programmer at a time and we used to talk about computers and coding – that’s when the passion started. In terms of gamedev specifically… Well, that would be because I loved and love gaming. Add one to another and you get a game programmer, haha.
Do you use any modified hardware like custom keyboards etc. to do your job?
Nope! I type with a regular keyboard and use regular mouse, the only thing that I have to take care of is my desk, which needs to be a bit lower (so I can reach it easier). Aside from that, I get on just fine.
As you’d expect from the name of the game, the characters in Warlocks have various magic abilities. Why do you think so many games focus on supernatural abilities and player empowerment?
Well, they don’t exist in the real world, so there’s that. A game needs to offer a different experience than the one you have in real life on daily basis, otherwise why would you want to play it. I believe everyone, or at least most of us, at some point wanted to have some kind of supernatural powers, or go to Hogwarts, games are one of the ways to enjoy that fantasy.
What advice would you have for someone who wanted to get into game development – whether they’re coding with their feet or hands?
My advice would be to start working on your games! Pick a small project and try to finish it from start to end. Only then you can gain experience and perception needed to be a proper game developer.
Thanks for your time, Max!
We’re hard at work on Issue 10 – while you wait, get a copy of our great new issue Time or check out our full catalogue.
