Alumni Profile: Harris Debenham
Kaleidoscope Games - 2022 Team
Tranzfuser Project Description
Our project was Play Pretend, an approachable action rogue-like set inside the imaginary worlds of schoolfriends playing in the playground. the core mechanic is that upgrades are collected in tetris-style blocks that you slot into a grid to gain that upgrade. Our aim is to make a rogue-like that is very approachable to casual and younger audiences that you typically see in the genre.
Quick Q&A
If you could turn the clock back, would you do anything differently?
In hindsight, we would have made our game a bit differently as we treated it almost as a university project, which meant we had a great demo for the presentation but it was difficult to expand on that going forward beyond Tranzfuser, so we should have scoped down a bit and accepted that some parts (art especially) don’t need to be perfect for presenting and pitching to the industry.
What made you want to take part in the competition?
Tranzfuser was always in our minds through our final year of university, and our course encouraged us to take part if possible. And the additional support was a great option as we were already planning on starting an indie studio after graduating.
Why should the up-and-coming game dev talent of tomorrow apply to Tranzfuser?
Tranzfuser is the perfect opportunity for anyone who knows they want to go into the games industry as the support is brilliant and you can get to see what being an indie dev truly means. But Tranzfuser is also brilliant for anyone that is curious about joining the industry as you get a bitesize crash course in the business and nitty gritty side of being a games developer for a few months.
What benefits did Tranzfuser bring to your game dev career?
Tranzfuser gave us a brilliant foot in the door of the games industry, and offered loads of incredibly helpful support both in starting a studio, and introducing all of the teams to what being an indie developer means, through the Pitch Event and the final EGX presentation. it gave us lots of great contacts that we have stayed in touch with since and made us feel very much part of this scary but great industry.
What are you doing now?
We are continuing to work on Play Pretend and thanks to the continued support of the UK Games Fund we have made significant progress and took home 2nd place at the Big Indie Pitch earlier this year.
