Eddie: Hello, everybody! This is Eddie V. from Boss Rush Network. I’m here, ready to try Voidwood, and I am with the Chief Technical Officer. Could you introduce yourself? 

Derek: Hello, I’m Derek Brinkman. I’m the CTO of the studio, Chief Technical Officer. Yeah, I’m very excited that you get a chance to play today.

Eddie: Well, before we continue, how did you get into video games, and also how did you get into game development?

Derek: Okay! I think I always knew I was going to be a game developer. I started at Electronic Arts in 2004, so 22 years ago. Seems like a lifetime ago. I worked on Madden football, and then I switched over to work on Ultima Online for about six years. Absolutely loved working on that game and then jumped around a little; did my own thing for a while. Now I’m here with Santa Barbara games. 

Eddie: It’s so funny that you mentioned EA because we’ve been talking about Army of Two: The 40th Day. Why is that game not rereleased? (lol)

Derek: I don’t work there anymore, so I can’t tell you. (lol).

Eddie: Yeah, it’s one of our favorite games. How did you get into gaming? Did you play Super Nintendo or TurboGrafx-16?

Derek: I was a SEGA kid growing up. If I was at a friend’s house, I could play Nintendo, but I had a Sega. Yeah, my first console was a Sega Master System. 

Eddie: Yes! Yeah! My brother was the SEGA kid; I was the Nintendo kid.  We had games like My Hero, Ghost House, and more.  Well, can you tell us about Voidwood? This is the debut game from Santa Barbara Games. 

Derek: Sure. It is a four-player co-op horror game. It has some survival elements in it: crafting, harvesting, and stuff like that. There are four kids; they’re trapped in a forest, and they need to get out. You have to figure out, you know, through the gameplay how you can escape the forest. The demo we have here is a single-run experience. So you get to play from start to finish. Hopefully you get out of the forest (writer’s note: we didn’t). You might get knocked out by the beasts, but yeah, that’s what we’re demoing here.

Eddie: How long has the game been in development?

Derek: About a year and a half, I think. We had a long pre-production period, and we do a lot of playtesting to validate the game. This demo here, we’ve really, really dialed it in to make sure that it’s fun as we can make it for a stimulating in-person experience.  So yeah, we’re really excited about it.

Eddie:  How have the playtest sessions been? Has it been fun? Has it been exciting?

Derek: We just got started, and it has been amazing so far. We’re loving it. So yeah, so far so good.  I’m actually over here making some last-minute changes to the build.  So we’ll see how that goes. 

Eddie:  Are you guys excited to get the feedback from the community, from the players here at Pax West? 

Derek: Absolutely. Yeah, there’s nothing better than actually watching people play our game. We do a lot of playtesting online, and we get feedback, you know, digitally. To see the in-person experience, you see the reactions and the faces and stuff like that; it’s priceless.

Eddie: Do you feel nervous, or are you super excited?

Derek: I mean, I think it’s a combination of nerves and excitement; right, the two together just create some unnamed emotion.

Eddie: Now about the music. Are you guys going for a certain style that would fit for this horror game? 

Derek: Yeah, so our sound designer is amazing. He does both our sound and our music. Jordan is here also. You could catch him and ask him; I can’t speak to it, but it’s very spooky and ominous and tied into the experience of the game. 

Eddie: If this is somebody’s first time experiencing this game, is there something that you want to make players aware? 

Derek: I’ll give a tip, okay?  So there are these things called noisemakers on the map. If one of the players goes and hits the noisemaker,  it distracts the beast, and he’ll run towards the noisemaker, and everybody else can go do their objective, like get the wood. So that’s the trick, it’s the noisemaker. When I’m playtesting, I always use it. I’ll say, you guys go do your thing; I’m gonna distract them and send them this way.  

Eddie: I just got two more questions before I get my chance to play. I’m doing a series called The Beauty of Video Games: Personal Interest, and it’s about games or a game or some form of media you personally love that others may not find beautiful. Is there a personal game that impacted your life and you want others to go check it out because they’ll find the video interesting?

Derek: That’s an interesting question. I mean, I would say Dark Age of Camelot profoundly changed my life. That’s an older game. I actually met my wife in that game. So that game has a special place in my heart. Yeah, and you know, it’s still running today—so you can still jump in and play it, and it’s an amazing game. So I would say that if I had to pick one, it’d be the one I met my wife.

Eddie: My final question is, what is your go-to snack? It’s the weekend, or you’re designing, and you’re like, I need a snack. It could be a meal or anything. Is there a snack that we don’t know about, but we should try?

Derek: Well, for me it’s KIND bars. I absolutely love them. I cannot live without them. I have four in my bag.  Yeah, because it’s just a combination of the chocolate and the nuts. It just keeps you going.  It’s my go-to snack.

Eddie: Well, thank you so much. I’m super interested. Everybody, I’m about to go check out Voidwood.  Is there anything that you want people to know? 

Derek:  Sure. Yeah, we are booth 744. We are over by Pax Rising. You really can’t miss us between the Voidwood tree and the spooky decorations. So I think we’d love to have you over here at the booth.  

Eddie: Well, everybody, I’m about to go try Voidwood, and thank you, Derek, for your time. 

Derek: My pleasure.

You can check out more about Voidwood on its website and Wishlist it on Steam.

Feature Image: Santa Barbara Games