Bulb Boy is a 2D point-&-click horror adventure where you solve puzzles and defeat monsters to reveal a twisted tale. The game is currently going through crowd-funding on Kickstarter in order to raise development funding, so we reached out to Artur Mikołajczyk, the game’s head programmer, to tell us more about this charmingly unique game:
Could you tell us a little bit about the Bulb Boy Team? It’s a collaborative project, right?
Artur: Yes, that’s correct. There are currently three of us who are involved in the Bulb Boy Team, but we all actually work for entirely separate companies. What connects us, though, is our desire to make a great game. Szymon is the one who creates all the graphics for our advertising campaigns. In his free time, he also produces short Indie films. For example, “Mr.F.”: a story about a fly detective who solves a murder case, as well as some freaky horrors such as “Daddy.” I (Artur) started my own indie game development studio recently, and in 2013, together with Szymon, came up with the idea to collaborate on a new game (Bulb Boy). When we had a concept and an early version of the demo, we were looking for a sound guy. Bartosz was the best of the best and left all competition far behind.
What was the inspiration behind Bulb Boy, and who thought of the name?
Artur: The main concept actually appeared accidently. Szymon was drawing concept art for the game, and friend of ours walked next to him and said “that main character looks like he is glowing.” It was that moment when idea of our bulb headed character was born. The name Bulb Boy just came naturally.
Can you tell us about your decision to use Kickstarter as a way to fund the game?
Artur: Together, we’ve been working on Bulb Boy outside of our regular full-time employment. After many months of developing this way, we realised it would take more than five years to complete. If we were to be successful with our Kickstarter campaign, it would assure the funds necessary to live and to focus our efforts entirely on Bulb Boy.
How would you best explain Bulb Boy to someone unfamiliar with the game?
Artur: Bulb Boy is a 2D point-&-click horror adventure about a boy with a glowing head which looks like a bulb. It was inspired by Machinarium and Gobliiins. The gameplay is based on solving puzzles and battling with horrid monsters.
What has been the biggest challenge since you’ve been working on Bulb Boy?
Artur: The biggest challenge so far has been the Kickstarter campaign. There is a lot to do and so little time. We want to expose our project to as large of a group of people as possible. It is not as easy as we hoped it would be.
Could you tell us how you feel Bulb Boy stands apart from other games in the genre?
Artur: We think that Bulb Boy is unique as it has a creepy mood which is also cute. We want to develop a full game with an element of surprise, as demonstrated in the demo. We also want to improve the old point-&-click mechanics by introducing new abilities to the main character, as well as battles with bosses that will require a some reflexes.
Have there been any mechanics that you wanted to include, but didn’t make the cut?
Artur: Our original plan was to develop a point-&-click adventure game which was focused on polishing the more conventional mechanics of the genre. In the future, however, we also hope to intertwine some reflex elements which Bulb Boy will be able to use when battling with some of the creepy bosses in the game.
The art style of the game is very twisted and unique. Can you tell us some of the methods used?
Artur: We wanted to create a protagonist, who is emotional and likeable. The art style used is particular to Szymon’s style. You can see this in his first student movies, such as ‘Daddy’ made in 2006 (http://vimeo.com/22887547).
Can you tell us something new about the game that we can share with our readers?
Artur: Our latest idea is to give the main character a handheld console that he will can play on. There will be cartridges for the player to find. The first title that we announced is “Legend of Bulba”.
Finally, how can we help, and when will our readers be able to get their hands on the game?
Artur: It would be great if you could back us on Kickstarter and vote for us on Greenlight. Spread the word about Bulb Boy – the unique point & click game. For now, there is a demo available on our website: bulbboygame.com. If we can reach our goal on Kickstarter, we plan to release the game towards the end of 2015.
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1216321816/bulb-boy/
