When We Made...


Tyler ‘Bynine’ McMaster, indie artist and game developer, tells Vince Pavey all about the work that went into making his retro platformer dreams into a reality


I


ndie games have paid tribute to classic video game adventures for a long time, although outside of a growing fondness for the boomer shooter, they have largely seemed happy and comfortable to do so with a comfortable reverence for the 8-bit and 16-bit eras of software. Lately, however, there has been a growing


trend of embracing the no less beloved 32-bit and 64-bit history of video games, with nostalgia- infused platformers leading the indie charge, as per usual. Cavern of Dreams, mostly developed by Tyler McMaster, with assistance from composer Benjamin Keckley, voice actor Tasch Ritter and support from Super Rare Games, is one of those attempts to remind the world just what made that era of games so good, as well as stand out as a brilliant adventure in its own right.


46 | MCV/DEVELOP February/March 2024 The game stars Fynn the Dragon (no relation


to Spyro), who’s on an adventure to save their as-yet unhatched siblings from evil. In practice, that mostly involves taking part in platforming and puzzle challenges, unlocking new abilities, and dealing with a cast of interesting characters in varied locations. Or to put it simply, the perfect set up for a video game adventure that is exactly our speed right now.


PUSHING IT TO THE LIMIT As you might’ve guessed just from looking at it, Cavern of Dreams started out as an exercise in recapturing McMaster’s childhood feelings spent in a bygone era of video games, in which he owned a Nintendo 64. “I wanted to create a 3D adventure-platformer that captures the experience I had playing N64


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