Villordsutch interviews Philip Muwanga, Project Lead on Beyond Flesh and Blood…
The Beyond Flesh and Blood stand at PLAY Expo is extremely well supported and is teaming with people trying to get a seat or interested parties trying to grab a minute with any of the Orange-Shirted, Pixelbomb Games people around the monitors, lucky for me I’ve managed to secure five minutes with Phil Muwanga the Project Lead for Beyond Flesh and Blood, who is more than happy to give up the time to speak with Flickering Myth about the game.
Phil Muwanga and MyselfVillordsutch: So what’s Beyond Flesh and Blood about?
Phil Muwanga: Beyond Flesh and Blood is a 3rd Person action adventure – in the Unreal Engine – set in a post-apocalyptic Manchester two hundred years in the future.
V: I like it already for it’s set in the North-West!
PM: We’re a Manchester based studio, so we’ve turned our hometown into a game. Most of the story content takes place in Deansgate, you’ll also be travelling to Albert Square, you’ll be seeing the Arndale in it, and we’ve definitely tried to play to our Northern roots as a lot of the enemies that you come up against will have a strong Mancunian accent.
V: Really!? That’s quite fantastic!
PM: We love the North and most of the games that take place in the UK will have a Black Cab and a Red Phone box, that’s about it. So we’ve tried to capture the look and feel of our hometown.
V: So you said you designed this on the Unreal engine?
PM: Yes, we have yes!
V: Was that difficult as a lot of people seem to be going for Unity?
PM: It’s actually been a long drawn out process as we started on Unreal 3 and we’d almost coded all of the game and it was just about done, but to get on current gen consoles it was a lot easier if you were on Unreal 4, so myself and my colleague had to have a tiny chat and we’ve spent the past eight months porting the game from Unreal 3 to Unreal 4. What I will say is that Unreal 4 is a joy to work with. It is amazing, just the tools and the flexibility that we have is astounding.
V: What platforms will Beyond Flesh and Blood be coming onto?
PM: Okay, it will be coming out for PC, Xbox One and PS4.
V: Do you have an expected release date and are you planning Steam Early Access?
PM: We are aiming for the first quarter of next year [2016]. We are “umming” and “arrring” about Steam Early Access, we are being prepped for an early access release hopefully before Christmas, but we need to see what the state of Early Access is and what the game will be up against. Steam has opened the floodgates which is a wonderful thing, but you also need to make sure you have your community behind you so you can get the exposure that you need.
You can find more information about Beyond Flesh and Blood from their website, you can also Like them on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter.
Beyond Flesh and Blood is currently available to pre-order here.
Thanks to Philip, also the other Pixelbomb Games team, for giving up their time during their hectic day for this interview, and also thanks to Michael for also arranging this for Flickering Myth.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=r8eFmbwpBDk
Originally published October 13, 2015. Updated November 8, 2019.
