‘It’s like trying to break into the movie industry,’ says Kitchener indie video game producer

KITCHENER - Despite the return to the '90s look, Mayhem In Single Valley players will be surprised to come across a dark storyline surrounding the characters.

Reminiscent of Super Nintendo games with a strong story like Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures or the techno soundtrack from Super Maria World, Mayhem In Single Valley evokes a nostalgia.

The game was produced by Brian Cullen, the founder of Fluxscopic Ltd. He has lived in Kitchener for about 11 years.

"The main character has parental problems like a father who drinks and ignores the family and the mother is overworked," said Cullen.

"While the game is bright and colorful, and zombies and all kinds of crazy things happen, there is an underlying story and multiple endings."

The title is a puzzle-action-adventure mix in which a character has to juggle homework and radioactive squirrels while trying to save the world.

Cullen moved from Ireland in 2010 to live with his wife Lindsay, whom he met while studying electroacoustic composition at Queen's University as a PhD student.

“Working on video games was a breeze,” says Cullen, who grew up playing games like Street Fighter 2 and spent a lot of time in arcades as a kid.

His first game, You Are Not A Banana, began as an experimental postdoctoral project based on sound and personal narration at the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo.

Production of the game began as a one-man show. Cullen produced the visuals, soundtrack and animations himself.

In 2014 he received money from the Canadian Media Fund through Telefilm Canada to further develop the project. In order to get the financing, he had to set up a company - this became Fluxscopic Ltd.

Four years later, he received additional funding to develop the student project into a full game - Mayhem In Single Valley.

This was made possible after Cullen received funding from Canadian Media and OMDC (now known as Ontario Creates) Full Production in 2018, hiring a team of artists from Kitchener to Hamilton to Oakville. Over the next three years, he said some of the artists were leaving production so he had to find replacements.

The five-person team worked on the project from Cullen's Kitchener home to produce the six- to eight-hour game.

At the end of the project, there were only two of the local talent on the team. The game was released in May 2021.

Right from the start, Cullen did everything on his own - be it leading a team, finding employees, or looking for funding. He said working as an independent indie game producer has been both difficult and rewarding.

"It starts at the bottom trying to build something," said Cullen.

“There are many large companies in Toronto that are already established. It's like trying to break into the film industry. "

Cullen said he wished there were more hubs in Kitchener for video game production and more creative endeavors.

"It's an up and down. Unless you're a big, established company and you're doing something almost as an individual, it's a little difficult to stay afloat," said Cullen.

Cullen said the most important part for him is creating meaningful actions and pleasurable sensory elements such as sound and image.

"I've tried to develop games that have certain aspects that can be fun (and) exploratory, but also for the player who is actually not afraid to deal with everyday life and the life around him."

He said the next steps for his company are to create a game that explores Irish legends and mixes traditional Irish and modern music.

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