DAYMARE: 1994 SANDCASTLE into breathing (undead) life to a brand new corpse of its own

Hi there Michele, how are you? Thank you so much for granting us this interview! I’m really looking forward to the new Daymare, as a fan of the original game and also a fan of the studio whose first project was a remake of Resident Evil 2, right? Could you tell us a little more about that period and how was Capcom’s contact with you?

Michele Giannone (Co-Founder andCreative Director atInvader Studios) — Thank you for your interest in us and in our game. Yes, several years ago we worked on an unofficial Resident Evil 2 remake while we were just a group of friends and not a software house. We had great success with some gameplay videos until we received a call from Capcom asking to stop our work and fly them to Japan.

It has been a great experience and useful to learn so much about game development. After that meeting, we founded the company and started working on Daymare: 1998. We’re so proud of our friendship with Capcom and to be present in the official Resident Evil 2 remake game credits.

How did the transformation happen? How did Daymare 1998 come to be from what you created as a Resident Evil fan project?

Michele Giannone — It has been a natural process. We just decided to put all our ideas in our game instead of an unofficial remake, and we’re happy about this decision now. Daymare: 1998 has been a great success for a small company like us!

And how does Daymare 1994 evolve from what we were presented with in the original game? What are the most outstanding features of this new game, in your opinion?

Michele Giannone — If Daymare: 1998 was more like a classic title of the survival horror genre, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a complete evolution of the formula. The game is still a third-person survival horror, but we add so many original features that make it unique. Starting from the Frost Grip, the device you can use to freeze the enemies and manage the fight like with a crowd control system or solve environmental puzzles, and arriving at the enemies, able to appear from nowhere and empower the other creatures with their vital energy, if not bring to life corpses scattered around in the maps. So many new ideas make this game different from the first one and other titles of the genre in our opinion.

What’s it like to create horror these days, with a market so full of amazing games, be it independent productions from a single person, be it multi-million productions?

Michele Giannone — Hard to say, we were a small group a few years ago and a small company now, but we’re slowly getting bigger. If you have a big publisher behind you, you have money, but probably also a lot of pressure. If you’re smaller, you have less pressure but also less money to spend for the production.

What, in your opinion, makes Daymare 1994 unique? How does Daymare 1994 contribute to the horror genre in terms of bringing new scares, new experiences?

Michele Giannone — As I said, we wanted an evolution. This was the chance to show our ideas and creativity once again. As I said, there’s the Frost Grip, this special device that you can upgrade and useful to solve environmental puzzles or fight and kill all the different creatures you will face. At the same time, the enemies are something really original and unique in the genre, animated by this electromagnetic vitality which lets them bring back to life other corpses or empower other creatures and make them stronger. We presented the scanner, which is useful for finding secrets and information hidden in the maps. Not to mention a totally new controller and inventory system compared to Daymare: 1998.

Could you share a bit about what the horror game development scene is like in your country — Italy is huge regarding horror movie!

Michele Giannone — Honestly, I’m not sure if there are other projects of the same genre produced in Italy, but I really hope that together with us, more and more studios will work on the same titles. Would be great to have some kind of horror Italian movement like it was for the movies in the past.

After Daymare 1994, do Invader Studio’s plans include a new franchise? Or keep on expanding the Daymare universe even further, with its unscrupulous megacorporations and terrifying monsters?

Michele Giannone — We always thought of Daymare as a trilogy, so we created the story of the first game by putting a lot of connections with a background past of some characters and events. These connections are now present in this new game, and more will connect everything with the third chapter of the saga, which is already pretty clear in our minds. That’s our main plan and goal, work on the third one in the near future.

Speaking of monsters, these are an integral part of a good horror game — how was the creation of creatures in the new Daymare? By the demo, I know they are really persistant and resistant!

Michele Giannone — We wanted something original, scary and smart in this game. That’s how we planned them, something never seen before and able to give to the player fun and challenge satisfaction. We also decided to create different creatures with different abilities to make the fights more varied and enjoyable. It’s all about AI and the visual side, both have to coexist at the best.

While the original game brought us 3 protagonists, Daymare 1994 will be led by a single character, Dalila Reyes. Right? Why only her this time? Or am I missing something here?

Michele Giannone — This time we wanted to focus the attention on one protagonist, a female soldier with a really deep background. In the first game, our goal was to present the game events in different times and places, in this case, all we want is to bond the connection and empathy between Reyes and the player from the beginning to the end of the experience.

And we know Daymare’s biggest influence is the horror games of the late 1990s, early 2000s, but what scares you the most at Invader Studio? What most impacted you in video games, cinema, literature, comics, while you were making this new game?

Michele Giannone — I would add from the 80’s too. So many movies, videogames and books or comics influenced us and shaped our lives. That’s probably thanks to them if we’re doing this job now and we feel like making nostalgic products full of tributes and connections that the people love.

In this new game, we add so many of them and I do prefer to not anticipate anything and let you and the players find them all!

Thank you very much for granting us this interview! Would you like to leave a message for those who are just starting out in the world of creating horror video games? And much success for Daymare 1994!

Michele Giannone — Make videogames with passion, and together with people who share the same feelings. Itì’s important to create a strong group, work hard and never give up. Only with the right determination you can get what you are working for! That’s what we feel to share from the beginning of our story. Thank you so much for your interest in our games!