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Indie Game Developer Interview with Dan Bernardo

We met Dan and his team at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020. Dan is Game Designer at Playtra and currently working on Grid Fight. Below you can read our Indie Game Developer Interview with Dan Bernardo and find out more about the studio and its games at the base of the interview.

Indie Game Developer Interview with Dan Bernardo

Please introduce yourself, your game and your studio?

I’m Dan Bernardo, Game Designer at Playtra, an independent game development studio based in London. We are creating Grid Fight, an all-female tactical/action game for Nintendo Switch

Can you tell us about your game, what makes it awesome?

Grid Fight is a swift tactical/action game that follows the story of Donna and her friends across the all-female cities of Gora.

Move rapidly around the grid-shaped arenas, avoiding deadly attacks and using the unique abilities of your team to defeat and recruit more than 40 unique characters.

Grid Fight features a unique graphic style inspired by 70’s art posters and an original 90’s pop-heavy score.

What has the journey been like making this game?

It’s been quite fast-tracked, to be honest. We managed to assemble a team, secure an office, relationships with major publishers and a deal with an investor in under 18 months. A lot of this is thanks to my previous experience with startups in the tech sphere. Although creating games is a unique process, there are processes and checklists common to all types of business. We made sure we were prepared for the business as well as the creative tasks ahead of us.

What got you into making games and making indie games in particular?

The need to tell stories not normally found in other media. Games allow you to do this in all styles, structures and periods of time in a way that feels personal. Indie games have less need to observe and follow trends, therefore it gives us more chances to experiment and tell new and unique stories.

What have you learnt from making games?

It’s hard. No, honestly. It’s cinema, music, books, photography and engineering all wrapped up into one. No guarantees of completion. No guarantee of success.

If you had advice for indie games makers, what would it be?

Be aware of hidden work, in game production it’s everywhere. Love the game or kill the game. Don’t keep building it just because you already started it. Finally, think big then small. We all have this amazing, huge game that we will never be able to deliver in one lifetime. What is the smallest version of your dream that you can get done in a reasonable stretch of time? Aim for that.

How can people support you and your game?

Actionable feedback is the best that we can ask. The pre Alpha of Grid Fight is available for free and constantly being updated on Itch.io and GameJolt. Every piece of advice is taken into consideration to make sure that we build the game that people are going to love to play. Following us on social media sends a great message to publishers. They will support teams that you, as a player, are interested in.

Where can people buy/play the game? And learn more about your studio?

Grid Fight isn’t out yet but we will open pre-orders in the future. To learn about Playtra Games, our website is a good starting point: www.playtra.com. We have also a Discord server with a live dev channel in which the team posts update of the work in progress. It’s a nice way to view the behind the scenes of the game and speak directly to the dev team. The game will be released on Nintendo Switch first and mobile soon after.

The links to play the Pre Alpha version of the game are Itch.io: https://playtra.itch.io/grid-fight  and Gamejolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/gridfight/462461 

The next Pocket Gamer Connects where you can showcase and enjoy indie games is Pocket Gamer Seattle the 10th – 11th May 2020, use code Into Indie Games-SEA-20 for 20% off the cost of any ticket courtesy of Into Indie Games.

Thanks for reading our Indie Game Developer Interview with Victor Bankler. For more Indie Game Developer Interviews visit https://intoindiegames.com/category/features/