Eddie: Hello everybody, this is Eddie V. from Boss Rush Network. I’m here with Shawn Selbert at Santa Barbara Games’ debut, Voidwood.  He is the creator and founder of the studio. Shawn, can you introduce yourself?

Shawn: Yeah, hi. I am Shawn Seibert, and I’m the creator and founder of Santa Barbara Games. This is our first PC game, Voidwood, and I’m excited to share it with the world.

Eddie: So my first question is, how did you get into video games, and then how did you get into game development?

Shawn: Oh, that’s a great question. I started by trying to get my foot in the door anywhere I could, and I got a job as a data analyst at Electronic Arts after interviewing three times because I really wanted to work there. 

So the first game I worked on was The Sims 3,  the Katy Perry expansion. I moved on to SimCity.  From there, I worked on another or a few other games at Electronic Arts before moving on to work at a couple of startups, gaming startups. One was a card collecting game called NeonMob. Then I decided around COVID that I wanted to start my own company, so that’s where we’re at now. 

Eddie: Did you play games on Nintendo, Sega, or even the arcade?  

Shawn: Oh, I was obsessed. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and also Ultima Online when that came out was my jam. 1997, and that’s pretty much all I did for the next three or four years.  

Eddie: It’s so weird that Ultima was the World of Warcraft in those times. Ultima was very popular in the 90s. 

Shawn: It was like the pre-WoW days. You already spoke with Derek, but he worked on Ultima Online.

Eddie: Yes! To me, that’s legendary and icon status because to work on a classic that is still popular today.

Shawn: Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Eddie: So can you talk a little bit more about Voidwood? This is your debut game that you guys are in development on. How did you guys come up with the creative process, and what was the idea for this game?  

Shawn: Yeah, so Voidwood is a one to four player co-op horror game where the monster hunts by sound. That’s it in a nutshell. Inspiration for that, though, means if you look at the art style, it’s visually distinct. I really wanted to make a horror game that didn’t feel like a traditional horror game.

A lot of inspiration comes from outside of gaming. Over the Garden Wall (writer’s note: animated tv show), if you’ve seen that, or Midsommar, that horror film by Ari Aster. Something where it’s visually appealing, but it still feels wrong, and it still can feel terrifying. For the design, we pulled from some of the games that the team really loves. A game like Don’t Starve Together.

As for the monster, we designed the monster to behave based on the alien from Alien: Isolation. Obviously, the big sound mechanic. I mean, we played a ton of co-op games where your voice matters, and we really just wanted to take that up a notch.

Eddie: Yeah, it seems that voice plays a big part in the game. If you make a sound through the microphone, the beast has good ears to hear you. Is that something that you guys felt good about to make the horror a little bit more scary? Make players thoughtful and careful?  

Shawn: Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, we really wanted to emulate what you see in horror movies where a group of kids is trapped and can’t find their way to the killer. We tried to recreate that, where you want to whisper because you don’t want to be seen. You have to get loud at times to communicate with your friends. So how do I strike that balance? Do I stay really calm and quiet, or do I communicate with my friends to try to give them information?  

Eddie: There’s a game called Enemy Zero back in the 90s for the Sega Saturn, I believe.  The game is about you being on a ship, and you can only fight enemies through sound. So you have to listen to them. If you save on the ship, through the use of the memory card, you lose power to the ship. You only get a certain number of saves. If your saves are gone, you run out of power, which leads you to play in the darkness but still have to listen to the sound.

You may not know about that game, but is that something that you’re going for? You have to listen to the sound to know where the beast is, or you’ve got to be careful with what you say, or you’re gonna have the beast just straight come to you

Shawn: It wasn’t on my radar.  But yes, it is both ways. The main tell for when the beast is coming close is the noise it makes.  So it’s both: you want to stay quiet, but you also really want to be listening to try to make sure that you’re safe.

(Dev from the side: Eddie, I’m so sorry. Your time is now.)

Eddie: Oh, okay. Well, Shawn, I must ask: What is your go-to snack?

Shawn: Sour Patch Kids.  Yes, love them.

Eddie: Well, everybody, I’m about to go play Voidwood. Thank you so much, Shawn, for your time. Everybody, you’ll hear more about the game in the future. Thank you very much, and we’ll talk to you later.

You can learn more about Voidwood on their website, and you can wishlist the game on Steam.

Featured Image: Santa Barbara Games