What is your game called and what is it about?
My game is called VILE: Exhumedand it involves exploring an old computer and going down the disturbing rabbit hole of entitlement.
How big is the development team?
The development team is 167 cm tall (that’s just me!).
How long have you been working on it?
It’s hard to measure when you’re working on something part-time, but between six months and a year!
What is the origin story of VILE: Exhumed? Share what inspired you.
I did VIL because I was frustrated. I craved control and agency over my own body, and so taking photos covered in blood, as grotesque as it sounds, was powerful. I was going through some difficult feelings and trauma, but it was on my terms and it was great. It made me feel strong.
I guess I was “inspired” by the things that had happened to me as well and by the people who were involved in those things. I had to take some of the darkest periods of my life and package them into VIL.
Talk about the power of discomfort and disgust, and how VIL uses these emotions to authentically examine the insidious nature of misogyny.
I think drawing from my real-life experience made the game feel grounded in reality – which is why some people found it so effective and so strongly relatable. It’s a feeling that unfortunately too many people, mainly women, know all too well.
What does the physical edition of the game mean to you and what is your favorite aspect?
Making a physical edition of the game was like having a second chance at a release for VILE: Exhumed. Much like the feelings behind creating the game in the first place, and behind releasing it the way we did – it felt like I was taking back control.
I also loved coming back into Candy and Molly’s world and giving them a little more identity with the packaging. Managed to create a reminder for Molly that had nothing to do with what happened to him was much more moving than I expected. I think Molly’s story in the game is much more grounded in reality, so letting her have her moment without it being about her trauma was really special. I felt like I was doing something good for Molly and myself.
VIL became the face of financial censorship on Steam last summer – what do you think has been lost in the popular conversation?
This is a very difficult question to answer – I hesitate because I don’t want to appear unappreciative for all the support over the last year after it was banned from Steam. I couldn’t be more grateful for the time someone spent talking about this VIL last year, and defending what happened to him and what happened to me.
Before the ban, I was really excited to hear reactions to the visual design choices I made. I played all the female characters in VIL which was shown on screen myself, all the gore special effects shown in the game were practically created by me and photographed myself. I think it’s really cool!
I also had a lot of firsts that I think I wasn’t able to fully celebrate. This was my first published game and my first game on Steam (or well… you know). I was also very proud of the game’s writing.
Final girls games
Why are video games your preferred form of expression?
I think I love being able to be so specific in communicating a feeling. I can control what the player was exposed to, and when, and use that to make the experience as close to what I imagined as possible.
I love the immersion of found footage films, for me they are the scariest because they plunge the viewer directly into madness. I think that VILE: Exhumed goes even further by involving players.
Another reason is that the stories told through video games have always had a deep impact on me, even as a child, so it’s such a pleasure to create that experience for someone else.
What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve faced as a small developer?
Like any developer, time and money are things you never have enough of, but as a small game developer I think the real challenge is other people’s time. There are so many games coming out all the time that it’s harder to get players’ attention.
What can big companies and publishers do to better support developers like you?
I think I’d like to use this question as a reason to point out something I really like about DreadXP — the publisher of VILE: Exhumed – in that they don’t shy away from games with difficult subject matter and firmly believe that there are many types of horror worth sharing.
I think more people in general should remove the boxes placed around gender.
Let’s take him home. Sell your game in one sentence:
Play a wicked interactive video.
Final girls games
VILE: Exhumed is available to download and play for free, with the option to pay what you want, and that money is shared equally between Final Girl Games and Red Door Family Shelter, a Canadian non-profit organization that provides emergency housing and support. The physical edition (which, again, looks super sick) costs $9.99 and includes an eight-page booklet, classic slipcase, handwritten labels, and an archival-quality CD-ROM containing the entire game – no DRM in sight, just like the good old days. Half of all profits always benefit Red Door.
THE VIL the physical edition is a limited version and the first 100 copies will be individually numbered. You can sign up to be notified when the purchase goes live on the game’s website.
