Xbox Game Studios Game Camp was founded in 2020 on the belief that extraordinary talent exists everywhere. The goal of the program is to help traditionally marginalized communities and people from non-traditional backgrounds realize their potential in the gaming industry and grow thriving gaming communities and industries in locations around the world. That’s it.
In this Q&A series, we want to highlight the stories of Game Camp graduates’ unique game-making journeys.Chat today with the CEO and Creative Director of lemon juice game studio Austin-Taylor Caldwell talks about his experience at Game Camp and his current projects. beyond the night lightis a 3D horror adventure game that sheds light on mental health and addiction.
Tell us about yourself (if applicable: your team and the game you’re working on)?
My name is Austin Taylor Caldwell. Like most individuals in the gaming industry, I grew up playing video games. But thinking about making a career in games made me laugh from an early age. I grew up in the poorest county in my state. Resources and connections with the tech industry were very remote and few there. Fast forward to 2020 and decided to dive into Deep His End and founded LemonJuice Game Studio to create cinematic games in the horror genre. From solo development to Game Camp, LemonJuice currently has 20 members working closely together on their current title. beyond the night lightThis is a mental health and addiction focused 3D horror adventure game that we hope will shed some light on this topic and potentially help those who struggle with these ailments on a daily basis.
Reason for choosing center beyond the night light About mental health and addiction?
beyond the night light Research focuses on the fact that when we die, we have seven minutes of activity left in our brains. . She runs through this strange world in her death-hunted porcelain doll body, telling her story of what happened to her and how she can get her second chance at life. regain memory.
I lost my mother to drug addiction in 2019 and it was probably the most difficult time of my life. A year later, I learned from my therapist that I have both depression and anxiety. beyond the night light It’s built from real trauma and the experiences of real people, and shows players who suffer from similar, if not exact, problems that they’re not alone.
“Xbox Game Studios Game Camp taught me things that would otherwise have taken me a decade to learn. It helped me focus on it instead of doing it. ”
Austin-Taylor Caldwell, CEO and Creative Director of LemonJuice Game Studio
Before joining Xbox Game Studios, please describe your game-making process game camp?
Before Game Camp, I taught myself game design through the Unreal Engine documentation and tons of YouTube. Working a full-time job made it difficult, but not impossible, to learn game development over time. Wake up a few hours early, complete a few lessons or add a new feature to your project, then go to work and use your lunch to investigate various systems or whatever you may have encountered that morning. I have solved the problem. When I got home from work, I would stay up later than necessary to keep adding features to the project and learn everything I could to make a playable product, and really get down to work.
What are the key takeaways from your experience at Xbox Game Studios Game Camp?
Xbox Game Studios Game Camp taught me what it would have taken me a decade to learn otherwise. Game Camp helped me identify and focus on my “superpower” in development. every day Department. That alone is invaluable, but more than that, it has taught me how to manage teams, how to communicate and network to establish long-term relationships, how to create and manage development pipelines, and more. rice field. Game Camp really changed my life.
What excites you about the process of making games?
Words cannot describe the excitement I felt when I saw the first prototype. It’s fascinating to spend days building this world and watching it come to life. It’s been a lot of fun for me to direct it, and seeing other people get inspired and have their eyes sparkle with the new ideas they’re proposing is what really makes game development beautiful. .
What unique challenges did the development team overcome? Were there any tools/services that helped you overcome this?
The biggest challenge we faced was switching the 2D project from Unity to the 3D project currently in Unreal Engine. It took us a while to get back on track as we had to restructure the code in a different language, but the Unreal Engine documentation helped us get our direction together as a team.
What tools do you use for game development and why?
Using Unreal Engine 5 and Quixel Megascans. beyond the night light We chose to work within Unreal Engine 5 because the amount of free tools available really tip the scale of what we can achieve. Plus, easy to import into Unreal Engine and easy to use, Megascans are perfect for painting highly detailed and immersive environments.
Tell us about your experience working with mentors at Xbox Game Studios and what you learned from them about the game creation process.
It was a great experience working with our mentor, Rosa Dachtler. She was very kind and she was always willing to help in any way she could. She guided and supported us especially when the production period was left and she made an extreme switch in two weeks. She taught us how to build a strong narrative around action-packed gameplay and how to improve cross-departmental communication throughout the design process. ”
You’ve been attending Xbox Game Studios Game Camp, what’s next for LemonJuice?
Game Camp has prepared LemonJuice with the tools and knowledge you need to jump headfirst into the industry. We are currently in the final stages of completing the prototype. beyond the night lightWe intend to offer it to publishers. This will allow LemonJuice to work full-time on this project as a collective, equipping them with the tools they need to make it as beautiful as we are. Have Assumed. I have I’ve always dreamed big, and it’s still my dream and goal to have my company become a first or second party studio for Xbox Game Studios.
Find out more about Xbox Game Studios Game Camp here xbox.com/gamecamp.
