The Art of... HELLSCREEN


Solo developer Jamie Degen looks back on the making of his debut game, one that makes a virtue of hind-sight to get ahead


Jamie Degen is an environment and VFX artist by trade


THE IDEA FOR AN “FPS WITH A REARVIEW MIRROR” SEEMS LIKE SOMETHING CONCOCTED DOWN THE PUB; TO BE DISMISSED OR FORGOTTEN IN THE FOG OF A HANGOVER. HOW DID THE IDEA COME TO YOU?   person to spot another person would always win that    but it led me to think about all the things you could 


OBVIOUSLY, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF GAMES THAT INSPIRED THE FPS ELEMENTS, BUT WERE THERE ANY IN PARTICULAR THAT INSPIRED THE LOOK OF HELLSCREEN, OR THAT YOU WANTED TO PAY HOMAGE TO? There are a few tidbits from various games that inspired the look, mainly the levels from Alien Trilogy with the Derelict spaceship and the Giger-inspired level from Streets of Rage 2, but there’s also a hint of Wipeout 2097’s industrialism and Jedi Knight: Dark  It’s probably more accurate to say that I  realised all these connections to these games that I 


WHAT IN YOUR EXPERIENCE AS AN ENVIRONMENT AND VFX ARTIST HELPED YOU GO IT ALONE ON A GAME LIKE HELLSCREEN?


It helped knowing how to create content quickly and   your skills but it was less pressure knowing that the  allowing me to focus on learning to code and design  


48 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2023


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