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Eddie: Hello, everybody! This is Eddie V. from Boss Rush Network. I’m here playing Desolus. I just finished playing the game. I’m here with the creator of it. Can you introduce yourself?

Ty: I’m Ty Taylor, the executive producer of Desolus, a game first created by Mark Mayers thirteen years ago. 

Eddie: How did you get into playing video games, and how did you get into game development? 

Ty: I’ve been playing video games my entire life. I was born with a Nintendo Entertainment System. I’ve been designing games almost as soon as I could talk. I love changing the rules to something else and creating while watching it work. 

Eddie: Can you tell us the premise of Desolus?

Ty: Desolus is a first-person puzzle game set in this kind of beautiful abandoned city. It’s kind of a mystery of what’s going on. You see this cataclysm that rips space and time in two. You use portals to go through these two dimensions, move architecture around through black holes, and solve all these puzzles to unravel the story. So yeah, it’s a great time.

Eddie: I see that you have like a light world and a dark world.  Were you influenced by Metroid Prime: Echoes?

Ty: Metroid Prime: Echoes wasn’t as much of an influence as things like Myst or Manifold Garden or Antichamber. It’s definitely more of a first-person cerebral type of game. 

Eddie: The way that you progress through the game is by releasing these light and dark chains that are holding these doors.  How did you guys come up with that idea?  

Ty: Just organically through making the game. When you spend thirteen years making a game, you change so many things. This looks so different, of course, from ten years ago. As we work on the game and come up with all these concepts, it kind of falls into place as we play-test it. 

Eddie:  Were you guys into puzzles growing up? Did you play around with different puzzle games?

Ty: Yeah, sure.  Portal is one of my favorite games of all time. I think I like making puzzle games, and so does Mark. It’s really fun to design a puzzle and then watch someone solve it. 

Eddie: The music is very ambient in the game.  Is it going to continue to grow with different instruments, or is it just going to be this relaxing piano?

Ty: Acoustic. The entire game is all virtual piano. Kyle Landry has a really popular YouTube channel where he just does those video game covers. He did the music for the game.  

Eddie: Yeah, it’s a gorgeous soundtrack. How has the playtesting been for the game?

Ty: Oh, really well. Yeah, we love watching people solve the puzzles, and we can really pay attention to what’s maybe confusing or where people are getting tripped up, and really polish the game so that people, when they buy the game and when it’s released, don’t have the same problems. 

Eddie: Will there be any boss encounters in the game or just a lot of puzzles? 

Ty: There aren’t any boss encounters. There is this character, this angel in the game who’s like the city’s guardian and is also split through time. So you interact with this angel character to get the story beats of the game. There’s no actual boss in this puzzle game. So people do not have to worry about enemies and stuff.

Eddie: They can take their time to solve the puzzle. 

Ty: Oh yeah, there are no enemies. There’s no death or damage. There are no time limits. It’s very chill. There’s no danger. The only danger is not solving the puzzle. But you’ll get there. 

Eddie: I just got two more questions before we go.  I am working on a project called The Beauty of Video Games: Personal Interests. Games that you personally love or that you’ve been interested in that other people may not find beauty in. Is there a piece of media or a video game that is so personal to you, it means a lot to you?

Ty: Oh, man, so many. I don’t know about the obscure ones. Like I mentioned, Portal and Myst and The Witness and Braid. Like Braid especially was one of the things that got me into making games in the first place. Really inspiring to see a team of two people make something so incredible and see it so well received. I kind of realized, oh, I can do that too.

Eddie: My last question for you: what is your go-to snack while developing? Is there a snack that we don’t know about that you want to let us know about so we can try?

 Ty: Tacos!  It’s my go to.  

Eddie: Well, Ty, thank you so much. This has been Desolus. You guys can wishlist the game now on Steam. Is there a demo out for people to try?

Ty:  There is on Steam. Yeah, look up Desolus, and you’ll find it on Steam, and you can play the demo. 

Eddie:  Alright. Well, thank you, Ty, for this interview. Guys, please go check it out. Wishlist this game on Steam and support this awesome team.

You can wishlist Desolus right here.

Featured Image: The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild