Interview: Developers of Upcoming Deep-Sea Thriller Iron Fish - Article

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Iron Fish, which is hoping to grace our PCs sometime in 2016, sees an underwater diver called Cerys diving into the dangerous and unexplored waters of the deep blue ocean. It is set to be a stunning showcase of fantastic art that was created by a first time indie studio.

After playing the demo build for an hour I decided to catch up with the developers of the game, Dean Edwards (game developer) and Shaun Leach (BeefJack CEO and creative director), to find out what their ambitions are for the game. Below is a transcript of our conversation:

Hi all at Beefjack Create and Dean! First of all, I want to say, the game looks absolutely stunning. What inspired you to set an entire game underwater; a setting that is typically so alien to games that it could be considered off-putting?

Dean: I have always loved watching nature documentaries and this is one of my biggest inspirations for Iron Fish. I particularly enjoy the ones that focus on marine life, something I have felt drawn to and fascinated by for as long as I can remember. There aren’t too many games based in an underwater setting, it’s very unexplored territory - much like the real ocean - and this is something that I find appealing as a designer.

Shaun: Dean is the real brains behind Iron Fish, it was his original vision that set us down this path. The world underwater is a naturally challenging environment, you know: how you move within it, how the creatures move within it as well, is all quite unique. We certainly had a lot of technical and creative challenges but thankfully, working with Unreal Engine 4 and our talented team, we were able to come across something that looks really special and unique. We’re really proud of the game’s visuals and how they work as well.

The setting (under the sea), is usually seen as a boring and mundane place in some games (think Crysis, Far Cry, etc.). What are you doing to make players want to explore every nook and cranny of the world?

Dean: This is one of the reasons why I wanted to make Iron Fish a narrative focused experience, we want it to be something that makes the player want to discover as much as possible. We also really want to show how dark and scary the ocean can be; we have made the environments frightening but also enticing. With these two things working in tandem, we hope to create an exciting memorable experience for the player.

Shaun: Exactly - I think in a lot of games, the underwater segments are often quite drab and bland, and it’s quite ironic because there’s so much of it still undiscovered, the creatures work so differently down there as well. It’s a really unique setting and a unique challenge. Cerys is an engineer and so she’s got a lot of tools and vehicles at her disposal, but additionally, the way the creatures work is really unique to the sort of things we’ve seen. What that builds towards is a really different experience, based around exploration at its core, and this is such a good environment for horror - we think it fits together really well.

I used the camera a couple of times and found it akin to a collecting mini-game. Is this your intention - making a hook other than the story to keep players coming back?

Dean: Yes. With the camera, we wanted to give the player something else to outside the narrative and this just felt very natural. It fits in very well with the gameplay and gives the player another reason to go exploring and interact with the wildlife that they find.

Shaun: The exploration pieces of this are really where the core mechanics are founded. So the camera is a great way to reward the players for exploring all areas of the map. We wanted to create this vast open space where Cerys can explore and find things, but that needs to feel rewarding. So finding more about the story, the main characters and the plot is a big part of exploration and investigating submarine wrecks etc. as well as capturing the wildlife down there. And from that we’ll reward you with learning more about their behaviour: there are a lot of predators down there so the more you know, the better your chances for survival.

The dialogue between Cerys and Marshall seems friendly whilst also being professional. Will this narration between the two characters be your main form of story-telling, similar to the recently released Firewatch? If not, what other forms of story-telling are you going to use.

Shaun: Really good question. As it’s an indie game, we don’t have the budget to introduce a whole raft of characters, so the relationship between Cerys and Marshall is really important and profound. Without giving too much away, it certainly evolves as the game goes on, and you are also learning about the environment, who’s been down there before, what’s happened before as well. There are lots of other smaller elements of storytelling, but certainly that relationship between Cerys and Marshall is a pretty significant theme throughout the game.

Dean: Also, while the voice dialogue between Cerys and Marshall makes up a lot of the main story, the player can find datalogs that will reveal the backstory and more about Cerys herself.

Will players be surprised with what they find as the game progresses, or is Iron Fish more of a psychological thriller which plays with the player's mind?

Shaun: I think there are things to be found. We definitely keep players on edge and desperately trying to find a rationale for what’s happening and what they are seeing. That’s where the psychological elements come in, because we keep pushing you down one road and maybe there’s a slightly different explanation. But there are definitely some special things to see down there.

Dean: These surprise encounters can be scary and perilous. There are physiological parts of the game as it progresses, that work with the scary environments and creatures, as well as the narrative, to create the thriller experience that we want to deliver.

With a game's length becoming a talking point once again recently, do you have any idea yet how long Iron Fish will take players to complete?

Shaun: We’ve been a big believer in quality content rather than just content, so when we started this out we were thinking it would be a two-hour core experience, excluding the side missions. But we have a really interesting story to tell and we want to give that story a lot of justice, so it’s starting to creep up now into a three to four-hour zone, maybe even more. But ultimately we don’t want any loose filler sections. Every moment that Cerys goes through is really necessary to progress in the story.

Dean: Yes, if you focus only on the main story objectives, we estimate finishing the game would take about 3 hours if you were able to complete each mission very well. Exploring, scanning creatures with the camera, and completing side makes the game quite a bit longer - but it’s worth it.

Will there be any additional game modes (such as free exploration) outside of the main campaign?

Shaun: That’s a really good question. Replay value is a huge thing that we’re always working with. It’s definitely something that we considered, but players will have to wait and see how that evolves into the final game. We’ll probably start giving a bit more details on that closer to launch.

Iron Fish doesn't have an official release date as of yet, so when can we expect the game?

Shaun: We are working very hard to make sure it comes out as soon as possible. 2016 is the mark for that, but as soon as we have more to say we’ll announce a solid release date.

Suffice it to say, I'm looking forward to Iron Fish's eventual release on PC. If the demo is anything to go by then it's set to be a great narrative exploration game, similar to the recently-released (and highly praised) Firewatch. 

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