Interview with one of the game developers of the indie studio Creepy Brothers

The studio has a lot of games, but I think many have heard about one of the studio’s title series of games, namely Creepy Tale (parts 1 and 2). These games even flashed by such well-known streamers and let’s players as, for example, Dmitry Kuplinov. And so, for more immersion in an interview with this studio, I decided to play both games. Not without dancing with tambourines, I bought games (many people know that it’s not very easy to buy games on Steam now) and started playing the first Creepy Tale.

At first, I regarded it as an ordinary game, albeit 2D. Like went there, did it. I’m so used to regular games where the most difficult puzzle is just to press the right buttons. The game itself leads you and does not give much thought. And with this one too, I started playing and something didn’t go very well at first, I didn’t even like the style, but then everything went fine, I quickly became interested and got involved. For me, it turned out to be a little difficult, although I do not differ in excellent passing of games. But I couldn’t tear myself away. Interestingly, at first there are no special hints in the game, but if the user starts to freeze, the game itself offers help. And yes, you might think that this game is similar to quests from the 90s, and it really is. But the main thing in the game is the gameplay, and it is quite exciting. Then, nevertheless, I had to break away, as urgent tasks appeared. Perhaps, when I finish it, I will make a full-fledged serious review on it.

After that, I decided to run the second part to compare the changes. However, here I failed: I have an M1 from Apple on my laptop, and, unfortunately, Creepy Tale 2 does not come with it. And so far the guys have not been able to fix this bug. But nothing, when I take up the review of both games, I will launch it already on a regular Intel.

Otherwise, I did not familiarize myself with other games of the studio. I rather wanted to talk more about the games that gave the studio its name. Although it used to be called differently and already had enough other different games behind it, some of which were also popular.

Tell us a little about your studio.

We have been developing games since 2010. We started with Flash. Riveted 50 games. Among the most successful:

1. Dangerous Adventure

2. Strike Force Kitty

3. madburger

4. Nelly

5. nordic kingdom

When Flash began to die, we began to master Unity and conquer Steam.

They searched for a long time and finally found it. The style and name of the game that changed everything gave our studio a new name – Creepy Brothers. (before it was Deqaf Studio – behind which there was no point).

What is the state of the studio now?

Three persons. Programmer, Artist and Sound Engineer. We all live in different cities, but this format does not interfere, but on the contrary, it only speeds up the development process, specifically in our case, for sure.

We are all fanatics of our business and give ourselves to the creation of games completely – it’s just our lifestyle. Of course, we are no longer 20 years old and sitting at a PC around the clock does not work. But you constantly think about the game, it’s a part of you.

Tell me, do you make games to order or only your own creations?

We create exclusively for ourselves. This is our entertainment, recreation, hobby and work in one bottle.

You said that you were inspired by various fairy tales, in your press releases it is said that the emphasis is more on the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, and in an interview you mentioned Volkov and Tolstoy (Aleksey). The emphasis is more on which fairy tales – foreign or domestic, or 50/50?

Now the emphasis is more on their own ideas and stories. I don’t want to create the game as a set of references. Creepy Tale 3 is based on Andersen’s fairy tale about a girl who stepped on bread. This is where the similarity ends.

The first game was developed on Unity, the second was also created on this engine? Do you plan to switch to Unreal Engine?

For our tasks, changing the engine makes no sense. 2D games are great with Unity.

Your games are only released on PC and consoles, do you have any plans to release them on mobile platforms? Will you be making cross-platform games (both PC and mobile)?

I do not like the mobile market and do not seek to release my games on it. I do not rule out that someday this will happen, but now we are focused exclusively on the PC. Consoles have become very difficult.

Your game Creepy Tale 2 does not work on Apple’s M1 processors, tell me, did you manage to solve this problem?

Unfortunately no. There is no Apple computer, and there is simply no way to assemble the assembly. And building through Unity Cloud gives a similar error. They may have solved the problem, but we no longer have a subscription and cannot buy a new one.

What cartoons, artists or other works inspire you when creating your games?

Complex issue. We are all inspired. Everything that comes to hand. Sometimes a serious book on a completely different topic throws up ideas.

We really like the creations of Amanita Design. But, to be honest, we hardly play now.

You said in one of your interviews that the story in Creepy Tale 2 is over, and now Creepy Tale 3 has been announced. Will it have its own plot?

Yes, we decided to turn Creepy Tale into a cycle of creepy games, not related to each other by plot, but made in the same style. All events, of course, take place in one world and players will be able to find references to other parts.

Did you collaborate with voice acting studios on Creepy Tale 3, as you did on Creepy Tale 2? With the same Polish studio or some domestic one?

Do you mean voice acting? The Polish studio was hired by our publisher on consoles from Poland. The voice acting for Creepy Tale 3 was already written in Russia by professional actors at the Ravencat sound studio. The game will have Russian and English voice acting. But the subtitles will also be in Chinese, Spanish, German.

Our cast:

Eva Finkelstein: Ingrid (Russian), Soul of a Boy (English).

Christina Sherman: Ingrid (English), Bolotnitsa, Soul of a Boy (Russian).

Pyotr Kovrizhnykh: Mlokh, Istukan. (Russian and English)

Sergey Ponomarev: Grandfather, Carpenter, Caretaker. (Russian and English)

Margarita Korsh: Aunt Toothache, Mom, Grandmother. (Russian and English)

Mikhail Khrustalev: Merchant, Owl. (Russian and English)

Do you have enough income from the sale of games in various digital stores to develop new games? Or do you have any other donation sites where people donate to support the creation of games?

Yes, that’s enough. Given the small staff of the studio and development time. With Creepy Tale 3, however, we went way beyond the planned timeframe and made the game for a year and a half. The next project will definitely be smaller. We do not have any donation sites.

Now, under the sanctions, is it difficult to buy games, especially in the departed stores? Are you planning to enter VK Play? How can I buy your games now?

Sales in vk play are so small that it is difficult to talk about them without irony. Yes, it has become difficult to buy games, but sales on steam show that our people do not care.

Are you a Russian company? If not, could you tell me why?

Yes, we are all from Russia. We are not planning to leave.

Will there be Creepy Tale 4? Or a game in the same world but with a different name?

Will! There are a lot of ideas, and, to be honest, I can’t wait to start developing a new game. We are already very tired of looking at our Creepy Tale 3 …

I caught myself thinking that, it seems, there will be no more games with a different name at all. But there will be no numbers. Something along the lines of “Creepy Tale: (name)”.

Are you going to draw something from the fairy tales of the peoples of Russia, as, for example, the studio BABA YAGA GAMES does??

I do not exclude. Perhaps someday there will be a whole game in the setting of fairy tales of the peoples of Russia. There is where to turn around, but we already have an audience mainly from Russia, but I really want to reach out to a foreign audience. I do not exclude the setting in the oriental style. There are plenty of creepy stories too.

What advice would you give to aspiring indie developers?

I appeal to those for whom games are creativity, not business.

The first project should be small and simple. The main thing is to bring it to mind and polish it to a shine. Then release without regrets and start with a new one. You won’t get experience otherwise. Carefully study the games that are an example for you. Everything is built from little things. From a huge number of little things. Good luck!

It’s quite exciting to read people whose eyes are on fire, even when you’re just texting them. Unfortunately, I interviewed the guys when they were in the process of crunching as they were finishing Creepy Tale 3. So the studio had to take a break from work and spend precious time on me. However, now they will release the third game in the Creepy Tale series and perhaps I will ask them about the new game and make a review of the game with the authors’ comments. In general, in my opinion, the style of Creepy Brothers Studio games claims to be merch, a lot of different merchandise. They have a very strange style, but suitable for T-shirts, caps and so on, even soft toys. Won Hagi-Wagi was popular. It is clear that the developers of the game would release, but as an additional penny to improve working conditions and in general, additional capital is always good.

And once again I am convinced that for a good game it is enough just to make normal gameplay. After all, many people play games for the sake of playing. Yes, sometimes the plot is much more interesting than the game. Recently, however, just the indie segment allows you to enjoy the process of gameplay. Yes, the AAA segment is successful (hello, Hogwarts Legacy and Atomic Heart), but this is more of an error, because managers, schedules, focus groups, investors stand above AAA developers. This limits creativity very much, but this is a conversation of a separate material and rather to Jason Schreier.

And so – good luck to the guys Creepy Brothers Studio, I hope Creepy Tale 3 will not disappoint.