WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS EXTREME CONTENT
VIDEO game developer Simon Peter is pushing ahead as the ‘days of unemployment’ counter on his website ticks over to 3324 days.
Peter finds mainstream video games boring, so he decided to come up with something very different.
“Gaming is a massive industry, but people want something genuine, something a little bit scary,” says Peter.
After working on Centaurian The Game for over a year he will launch it this month. A free online trial will be available, and Peter is working out payment details.
“It has taken a year to build; it has been full-time, watching tutorials online about writing code and other problems.”
The game’s trailer has been viewed by almost 14,000 people on YouTube and Peter is frantically fundraising to make the E3 video game expo at the Los Angeles Convention centre.
“E3 is ‘it’. Anything that’s anything happens there. The LA Convention centre is like the size of Taumarunui, you can get lost in there for days.”
Peter wants to visit E3 to find out if anyone else is on his mythological wave length. However, he needs seven thousand to get to the expo, opening on June 15, and has not yet found any sponsors.
Centaurian The Game is being created at Peter’s Miramar home and combines live acting with graphics. The game captures modern slasher humour, with themes similar to Dawn of the Dead and Family Guy.
Although the trailer is popular online, the storyline might not appeal to everyone.
In the trailer Phoenix Foundation’s Luke Buda mates with a mare to create an evil Centaurian race. Beating the boss Centaurian with an ‘Axearang’ is the game’s objective, and he is one character you don’t want to mess with.
The boss man character fascinates Peter.
“It’s like someone did a stand over on your mum, and then asked, what’s next. If you were freaked out and went to a really rough prison, you don’t pick on the biggest guy there to show you’re tough, you just get up and rip off your genitals, like at breakfast time, and everyone knows not to mess with you.
“The boss Centaurian did that to himself, a super psycho. He had both the horse parts and the human parts, but really didn’t like the human side, so he ripped them off – an utter savage.”
Peter distances himself from the computer geek label. He says computing was never an obsession, but he has always been drawn to games with a good story-line.
As a lad he spent weeks trying to conquer the Arabian Nights pinball machine at Midnight Express on Courtenay Place.
“I never could free the princess, and never beat the genie. But it was an inspiration that game; I kept playing because the narrative was really good, even though I couldn’t win,” Peter says.
He wants people to feel a similar connection with Centaurian The Game.
After releasing the first few levels of the game this month, Peter will work to customise characters.
“I want people to sub their faces into the game, so they can use the Axearang and take out these monsters.”
Although Peter is creating a game that includes avatars, he is against people devoting their lives to the computer screen.
“Virtual lives are creepy, more people are spending too much time gaming. They need to spend time with family and friends. People break up because of their Avatars, because they don’t interact.”
Co-producer Tony Allen helped organise the game’s live actors and Peters says having a critical eye on the production is helpful.
“I’ve done about 97% of the work, but in creative enterprises you can lose your way a bit and it’s good to have someone tell you if it’s wack or not.”