In this interview, we caught up with CONSCRIPT developer Catchweight Studio, otherwise known as Jordan Mochi. CONSCRIPT is Jordan’s first game and as the solo developer on the project he has undoubtedly learned a lot. CONSCRIPT has been a labour of love for Jordan, and in a few short months, the game will be out in the wild. We spoke with him about his journey into games development, what inspired him to create a game like CONSCRIPT and the advice he’d share with other developers thinking about going it alone.
What got you into video game development?
JM: Becoming a game dev was always a childhood dream. While I wasn’t consciously thinking about finding a job in the industry as a young boy, I remember drawing maps and designing levels and characters for imaginary games I had conjured up.
Playing games was all I did growing up. I remember learning how to read while playing Super Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Other kids were reading books to learn how to read – not me. I was playing through these Nintendo games with my older cousin and reading the strategy guides to grasp the English language. I’d say it worked out well!
These are the titles that really inspired my love for games. Zelda is my favourite franchise, and I grew up on all the Nintendo staples - Mario, Pokémon, Smash Brothers, etc. Then along came high school and I kind of lost sight of my aspirations for a little while until I was around 20 years old. At this time, I was a year or two into my BA majoring in history, not really knowing what the future held or what my career was going to be.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64 (©Nintendo)
Looking back at those Uni days, I felt as though my degree had no value. That it was just acting as an expensive buffer period while I figured out what I was going to do with my life. In hindsight now, all the puzzle pieces fit together as I’ve realized that it fostered a real curiosity for history which has now had a direct impact on my career with CONSCRIPT.
On a whim in March of 2017, I downloaded GameMaker with absolutely no coding, graphic design, or game design experience prior. The first three years were rough as hell. Trying to simultaneously self-teach myself multiple different new skill sets while balancing Uni full time was a lot!
What inspired you to build a game like CONSCRIPT?
JM: Resident Evil has always been a favourite franchise of mine going back to when I was around 11 or 12 and picking up Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube. Those initial few months of game dev in 2017 also coincided with a marathon of the franchise - which led me to decide on my first game being a survival horror title. I felt that the smaller scope of survival horror titles would make for an easier first game. These games usually take around 7-8 hours, have a more contained play space and the handcrafted nature of the environments appeal to that inner kid who was drawing game maps instead of doing math homework. Plot twist: it was not at all easy and still took me seven years!
Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube (©Capcom & ©Nintendo)
For the first few years of the project, I struggled to decide on a setting. Originally, the first prototypes of the game would have you teleport to different historical conditions via a hub world which would have resembled a Resident Evil inspired mansion. The idea wasn’t quite there, but in 2019 I finally decided on a setting.
Military history was always something I had an interest in, and WW1 became quite fascinating to me during my degree. Around the time I was developing the first prototypes, I was tasked with some university assignments that had me investigate some of the conditions of the First World War. Simply put, the conditions that these men had to survive were horrific. I remember binge listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History series on WW1 which further solidified my fascination.
And so, I decided to settle on WW1 as a theme for my then unfocused survival horror prototype. The rest is history (excuse the pun). As I’ve gone through production, my interest has only gotten deeper - and this game has really taught me more about history than any degree ever could.
When it comes to the design of CONSCRIPT, did you have a clear visual style in mind that you wanted to achieve?
JM: Visually, I was always quite set on some sort of pixel-art / low resolution style. This would match up well with those older PS1 titles that CONSCIRPT was inspired by, and honestly that lower resolution style helps mask many of my imperfections. As mentioned, I didn't have an art background - so this came in handy.
Horror just works well in low resolution. Good horror doesn’t feel the need to show everything (many games get this wrong). Leaving some things vague just lets the player’s mind fill in the gaps which reinforces the atmosphere. It’s a win-win for me.
The earliest known screenshot of CONSCRIPT, circa April 2017
The only major evolution was a change from hand drawn pixel art character animations to a pre-rendered look specifically for the character models - like the old school Donkey Kong Country games. This looked great and was also just more efficient than hand drawing everything. The game would be released in 2030 if I had to do that!
What’s been the hardest part of developing CONSCRIPT?
JM: Every step of this journey has been challenging beyond belief. First time developers with no experience don’t generally go straight into making a full-fledged 8–10-hour title for their first ever game!
There are mistakes made every day, and consequently lessons learnt every day. I’ve never done this before, so every time I implement something new, it’s my very first time – so mistakes are expected.
Coding is not something that generally comes naturally to me - I was never inclined that way, nor was it something that I really “enjoyed” during the whole process. But if you want to create something truly great there are parts of the process that will suck. Getting through those unenjoyable parts and then seeing the product come out on the other end - that feeling of accomplishment - is more rewarding than anything; even though it was painful during the process.
And the truth is, development never felt like it was going well. I took every day at a time and tried not to look at the insurmountable obstacle ahead of me. It’s like if you’re trying to run a marathon: don’t think of the 42kms, just think of every individual step at a time. That’s the kind of mindset I forced myself to adopt.
On the flip side, which part did you find the easiest?
JM: I don’t generally believe in natural talent, but I will say that the actual design aspect of CONSCRIPT came quite easy to me. When I say design, I primarily mean level design and pacing. Those are two of the aspects of CONSCRIPT I am quite proud of above all else. The parts of development where I had to sketch out levels, player routes and set pieces probably gave me the most enjoyment out of everything. Along with that, studying the history and then implementing the history visually in those levels was very rewarding. It felt like I was bringing history to life.
CONSCRIPT screenshot taken from Jordan’s logs around 2019
What would you say keeps you motivated to keep going with development?
JM: Well, when you start getting three or so years in - there’s no going back. The time investment is too large. Once you have a successful Kickstarter campaign - there’s no going back. Your reputation is now on the line. Once you obtain a government grant to keep going full time - there’s no going back. When you finally sign a deal with one of the biggest indie publishers - there is no way in hell you’re going back. There’s too much on the line.
This is to say, keep building and building and stacking up those smaller accomplishments until they start snowballing. Now you have way too many things keeping you accountable to ever feel unmotivated.
There is a flipside to all of this. Making a game by yourself is insanely stressful. I’m not going to sugar-coat anything here. The more of these accomplishments you stack up - the higher the expectations become. The pressure keeps building. I have had countless sleepless nights. Was the sacrifice worth it? Will this all pay off? The marketplace is saturated, how will I stand out? But this is the road I chose - and I was the one who chose to do it by myself, so you accept that sacrificing seven years is inherently going to be stressful. It is what it is. And I wouldn’t change a thing.
Is there a particular part of CONSCRIPT or feature you developed that you’re especially proud of?
JM: It sounds corny, but I really am proud of the whole game. Nothing stands out above others. Given the resources I had, the level I was starting at, the timeline I had and the context of my life during development - I really gave this everything I had. Considering all these limitations, I’m happy with how cohesive the whole package feels. Even if the game doesn’t reach my expectations, I can rest easy knowing I gave it my all and there is absolutely no way I could have made anything better than this given all the factors at play. I feel like I really left no stone unturned here.
CONSCRIPT screenshot taken from Jordan’s logs around 2020
What advice would you give to any budding solo developers?
JM: If you want to be a solo developer, you’re going to be at a disadvantage compared to most other studios, this is just a fact. The mountain you’ll need to climb will be steeper and higher if you are trying to release something of comparable scope to those larger teams. You need to understand this if you are going to go that route. Like, really understand it - and accept it for what it is.
Because you’re going to have to work unbelievably hard to compete, and many sacrifices will have to be made to even be relevant in the conversation. I’d rather be honest with anyone reading this than offer empty platitudes.
Now, I can only speak from my experience of course. Other solo developers have had different journeys so please interpret what I’m saying with this context in mind. Do not under any circumstance neglect marketing, even if it adds complications and stress to the process.
Steam wishlists are your primary goal. Claw at any marketing opportunity you’re given, whether it be online showcases or Steam festivals. These are where you’ll garner most of your wishlists. Release a demo, but make sure it’s a good one. Good demos will help your marketing tremendously, a bad demo will hurt you though. So, spend time on it and make sure it’s a solid representation of your game. You can then use this demo to apply to Steam festivals, events, pitch to publishers, take to tradeshows etc. I released around three or four revisions of the CONSCRIPT demo from 2020-2022. I wouldn’t have half the audience I do now without them.
CONSCRIPT screenshot taken from the 2020 demo
Post on social media consistently. I found my audience mostly on X (Twitter), but this may be different depending on your project and genre. It took me years to reach the 1k follower mark. Then it took a lot of extra effort to breach the 3k mark, from there it becomes easier to snowball into 5k and then 10k followers. It’s a slow as hell process but having that community there really does help with discoverability. Most publishers that reached out to me before I signed with Team17 found my game through X (Twitter). Like I previously said, this is just one person’s experience so take it how you will.
CONSCRIPT comes to Steam Summer 2024.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286990/CONSCRIPT/