Indie development studios all have different methods of operation. Some set strict deadlines for themselves to push forward and not get caught up on details, others determine whether or not they make a game based on successful funding strategies like Kickstarters or investors. The two man team of Eneme Entertainment have decided to take however long it takes to make their game Eitr exactly as they envisioned.
Artist and Game Designer David Wright has wanted to create games for some time and decided to follow in the footsteps of some of his favorite titles, Diablo and Path of Exile, for his own project Eitr. This combat driven exploration game was inspired heavily by Norse Mythology and follows the quest of the Shield Maiden as she tries to restore order to the 9 Norse Worlds that have been corrupted by the toxic substance known as Eitr.
With plenty of enemies, items, and areas left to create, Wright and Programmer Tobi Harper, are currently remaining quiet on their release date. Wright had plenty to say in our interview about the studios use of the Unity engine and how they are holding up financially.
Jesse Tannous: How much experience did either of you have with the Unity 3D engine before starting to develop this game?
David Wright: I personally didn’t have too much experience in Unity, I’m the artist and game designer. I had used Unity on a few projects in the past but I’m no guru. Tobi Harper however, the coder behind Eitr has many years of experience in Unity and is actually the main reason we decided to use Unity, simply because of how comfortable he already was with using it.
JT: How easily have you been able to pick up the Unity 3D tool?
DW: There’s a ton of resources available for Unity on the internet, because it is free and appeals to so many Indie Developers, the community has built a wealth of knowledge, tips and tricks available to everyone. It makes learning the tool that much easier. We’re both for the majority self-taught, we both have a background in Software Development through education, but almost everything we have learned has just been us following tutorials and guides we’ve found on-line over the past 10+ years.
Just like with any piece of software, the more you use it the more you feel comfortable with it, but Unity has that added benefit of having an immense amount of free information available.
JT: For most players, how long will this game generally take from start to completion?
DW: As the game is still early in development, this is a question that I can’t answer at this time. What I can say though is you won’t be blowing through this game in a couple hours on your first play-through.
JT: How much have you both already invested in the development of this title? Has funding become an issue yet?
DW: Well we’ve been developing the game for around 6 months, however for 2 of those months we were still working and not working full time on Eitr. I think funding is always going to be an issue for indie developers, but our expenses so far, similar to most indie devs, are just for our survival. We are still evaluating our options for funding, for now, we’re “okay”. Haha.
JT: Given the current speed at which you are developing the game and the funds you have available, do you have any idea when the game might be getting close to release?
DW: At this moment in time, the best answer I can give to this is that we want Eitr to be as great as we want it to be, we want the game to be complete and polished before release and we’re going to do whatever we have to do to make this happen. So at this time, we’re not going to make any promises on a release window.
Similar to Eitr’s nameless Shield Maiden, much has been left to mystery as to what the game will truly be upon completion, but it seems that both Wright and Harper will be giving their project all the attention and dedication they possibly can.
Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.
