Psycasso Devs Talk About the Inspiration, Gameplay Mechanics, and Development Process

Omni Digital Technologies Ltd. is a new development studio that is currently working on its first-ever project, titled Psycasso, which puts the player in the shoes of a serial killer who uses their victims in their art. During the interview, we got the opportunity to talk to two members of Omni Digital Technologies Ltd., and they had plenty to say about its upcoming project and the chaos players will be able to cause.

So, to Start, Do You Mind Telling Us Who You Are and What You Do at Omni Digital Technologies Ltd.?

Omni.: Sure, people know me as ‘Omni.’ I’m the founder and owner of Omni Digital Technologies Ltd. I’m responsible for the design and production of Psycasso, along with the role of art lead.

Ben: Hi, my name is Benjamin Lavender. I am most known for my work on Phasmophobia, but I have also been working on this game for the last 5 years. I am responsible for the technical direction of the game, leading the programming team, and programming the core gameplay elements of the game.

Let’s Jump Straight In. The First Question I Would Like to Ask Is, What Was Your Inspiration for Psycasso?

Omni.: Haha, it’s a question I get asked a lot when in conversation about the game. It’s definitely an ‘out there’ concept. I guess, when I was at university, I was exposed to the reality that making games is very hard, and getting your game discovered was even harder. So before plunging into a project, you really need to be sure that what you have is not just fun to play but that it stands out in the crowd.

I spent a long time batting around concepts that I thought would be fun games before settling in on the basic idea for Psycasso. Inspiration for gameplay and styling came from titles like ‘Stardew Valley’, ‘Stickman RPG’, and ‘The Escapist 2’, while also being inspired by TV shows like ‘Dexter’ and ‘Painting with Bob Ross’.

During the Trailer for Psycasso, We Can See a Rather Unique and Bleak Location That the Game Is Set In. What Was the Reasoning Behind Going With Such a Setting? Was It to Keep Closer to the Vibe of the Game or to Make the Vibe Even More Daunting?

Omni.: The general vibe for the environment is supposed to be a hat tip to the Super Nintendo/Mega Drive era, but with a slightly darker vibe. Kind of like in the movie ‘Roger Rabbit’, where the contrast between bright cartoons and the faded, grubby reality of IRL. We wanted the environment to feel fun and nostalgic, but at the same time let players be reminded that everything has a darker side when you look more closely.

From What We Can See in the Trailer, the City Psycasso Is Based in Looks Pretty Large. Was It a Challenge Filling the World With Life, or Did It Come Naturally?

Omni.: Yes, the map is HUGE, and the trailer and demo only show around 30%, so there’s lots more to be discovered by the community. The general design of the city was done over the course of about 5 months, with various amendments being made over development. As for filling the city, all the buildings relate to some form of game mechanic as opposed to just throwing in buildings for the sake of filling space. So we have pet shops for buying pets, computer shops for buying computers and tech, art shops for buying art supplies, and so on.

There are about 85 buildings around the map that you can enter and explore, 7 districts, and various stylized areas like parks, a marina, an airport, and a couple of farms. We designed the city layout to be less like a real city in an effort to focus more on creating routes for general exploration and also for when the NPCs or players are running away; this allows the player to ‘hunt’ and, when caught, flee from police using their favorite escape routes around the city.

Ben: The map is massive; even for the demo, we had feedback about how big it is, and it’s only around 30% of the whole map. A big challenge for making it come to life from a technical perspective was balancing performance with visual fidelity. We wanted it to look and feel beautiful but also run well. Most people, I think, assume that because it’s a 2D game, it’s easy to make it performant, but due to the sheer size and complexity of what we’ve created, there are a lot of considerations.

Every single AI has a unique identity, where they work, live, hobbies etc. They also react in real-time to what the player is doing, the time of day, any crimes seen, and report things to the police. Secondly, the day-night cycle. Making a 3D-looking 2D game with dynamic shadows across an entire city is expensive. All of these things come together to make a big technical challenge unique to an open-world, large environment.

A Big Part of Psycasso Is the Ability to Make Art That the Player Will Then Attempt to Sell, That They Themselves Drew. Were There Any Challenges Creating a Fair System in the Game That Balanced the Effort on the Drawing With the Income Made From Each Painting?

Omni.: So the system for this is actually pretty simple; the player has a bunch of skills they can ‘Level up’, and completed artwork has a ‘Star Rating’. The maximum ‘Star Rating’ that can be achieved, or the ‘Cap’ is determined by the player’s ‘Musing’ skill level. In tandem with this, we have some (secret) parameters within the art game that affect your final score positively or negatively; this final score will determine what your ‘Star Rating’ will be when you complete a painting or sculpture.

One of the More Shocking Parts of Psycasso Is How the Player Will Be Able to Create Art Using More Than Just Paint, and Instead, Using Blood From the Victims of Their Serial Killing Antics. Can You Give Us Any Information as to What Inspired This Idea and What Challenges You Came Across When Trying to Put This Idea Into Action?

Omni.: Actually, ALL the painting is with blood, so the player is restricted to only using shades of red, which we felt was both fun to focus on the ‘murderous painter’ vibe, but also poses a fun challenge for artists and creatives to work on a monotone palette. After all, there are tons of games where you can paint with any color, so this was one of the core concepts when we designed the game. Although not yet shown to the public, the game also features a voxel modelling mini-game where players can make sculptures using the victim’s body parts!

Since Players Will Be Taking on the Role of a Serial Killer Within Psycasso, Will Players Be Required to Hide the Bodies of Their “Harvesting,” or Is This Something That Felt Too Complicated to Include in the Game?

Ben: The purpose of the game is to allow the players to do whatever they want to do. They can hide bodies in trash bins across the city, preventing the police from finding bodies. Or they can leave them out in the open, where NPCs and the police can find them, increasing the police presence in and around the city. Or they can take bodies back to their murder room to harvest their bodies for even more body parts to paint with.

We Can See During the Trailer That Players Can (And Most Likely Will) Be Hunted Down by The Law During Their Playthroughs of Psycasso. Will These Officers Be a Dangerous and Ever-Present Threat to Players, or Could They Even Be Used to Create Masterpieces?

Ben: Without spoiling too much, all NPCs, including the police, can be used to harvest body parts. They will, however, be much tougher than civilians and will always fight you back instead of running away. Over time, the more trouble you cause in the city, the heavier the police presence will be. If you lie low for a while, the police presence will subside. It’s similar to the wanted system in GTA.

A Big Danger of “Harvesting” Paint Is Obviously Getting Seen. Is There a Stealth System Within Psycasso That Will Allow Players to Achieve This Goal in a More Subtle Way, and if So, How In-Depth Does This System Go?

Ben: Correct, the police are tough enemies; it is risky to try and fight back against them, especially in the early game before you’ve bought any guns. There is a stealth system in the game. During the day, the police have a long and wide FOV, but at night, they have a thinner and shorter one. You can hide in bushes, trash cans, phone boxes, etc., to avoid detection.

The police AI is quite sophisticated; if they see a crime or have a crime reported to them, they will begin to search the area for you. If crimes continue to be witnessed, tougher police will be called in, and in greater numbers, making harvesting body parts significantly harder. If they spot you, you will need to break the line of sight and attempt to hide or fight back at your own peril.

During the Trailer, We Can See That There Are Moments in Which Players Can Actually Grab People and Take Them to Certain Locations to “Harvest” Paint. Are There Many of These, Let’s Say, Torture Devices, Around the City of Psycasso, and if So, Which One Is Your Favorite?

Omni.: Of course, there are lots of locations you can hide, torture, or dispose of bodies. Each type gives a certain item reward or bonus. Fire pits are a personal favorite, allowing the player to turn NPC’s to ash, allowing the player to mix dark red colors for their paintings. Some other fun ‘devices’ are the ‘Home Recycling Center’ and the ‘Rock Crusher’ at the quarry.

Within Psycasso There Are Numerous Weapons That Players Can Acquire to Make “Harvesting” Easier Throughout Their Art Projects. Were There Any Weapons You Created for Psycasso That You Felt Shouldn’t Be Included, or Any Weapons That You Didn’t Create That You Wish You Did?

Omni.: This is a great question, actually at this point in time we have removed ‘Two handed melee’ weapons, this is simply because when creating the artwork, these weapons would need to use a larger tile size than the 32x32pixel tile of the player and would involve adding an entire new section to the players animation controller and the way the sprites work from the current setup used for all other weapons. We felt the players had ample choices for weapons with projectiles, one-handed melee weapons, throwables, and traps.

If the game becomes popular after launch, we would look to include these and other weapons in future updates or DLC. As for weapons we would like to have added, it would have been great fun to add some ‘explosive’ weapon types, things like bazookas or grenade launchers however we’ve built Psycasso to allow growth as we plan to grow it as a franchise so everything is scaleable if we want to add DLC or make a second title that improves upon the architecture of this initial game.

During the Trailer, We Can Also See That Players Will Be Able to Acquire Skills and Level Them up During Their Time With Psycasso. Is There Any Information You Can Provide on This Skill System, or Will Players Have to Wait and See?

Omni.: Skills play a large part in the game, adding bonuses to gameplay like strength skills improve the player’s base damage values, or the charisma skill affects the prices of items in shops. The player will need to have certain skill levels to apply for higher-paid jobs in the city, and things like painting scores and auction payouts are also affected by the player’s skills. We’ve included a host of buildings like Gyms or Libraries, to train skills, along with furniture items that can be bought for the player’s home to level up skills too.

A Large Part of Psycasso Is Creating the Art Itself, and You Have Given Players Full Creative Control of What They Make, Name, and Even Sell Their Art for in Psycasso, Leading to Most Likely Some of the Weirdest Art Around. What Kind of Creations Are You Looking Forward to Seeing From Players?

Omni.: Absolutely, giving players that creative freedom was a core pillar of the project. The painting and sculpting mini games allow players to do ‘Gallery Missions,’ which predefine what specs are required for the artwork, but we’ve also included a ‘Creative Mode,’ which allows players to do whatever they like without restrictions. Players will have to buy upgrades from art shops to unlock painting features like brush sizes or more palette slots, but other than that, we wanted the painting to be unrestricted and available to do whenever the player likes….. Because who knows when inspiration might strike!

With This Being Your First Project at Omni Digital Technologies Ltd. What Is One of the Proudest Moments You Had When Developing Psycasso That You Feel Players Would Want to Know About?

Omni: I think just the journey itself has been such a huge learning experience for everyone involved. We formed during COVID, and many of us had little to no industry experience. There was no money to make a game, just a group of passionate people wanting to make something cool! Over the development of Psycasso, we’ve had people leave the team, we’ve had to buy hardware, register trademarks, combat design and technical challenges, and a rollercoaster of adversity in the industry because of the concept and approaches of this project.

Five Years in, and we haven’t had a penny of funding or grants; the team has shrunk from the initial 11 members, down to 4. However, the game has really taken on a life of its own, we’re getting very close to launching, and we are all very proud of what we have created. As a team, we are excited to grow and evolve Psycasso as the feedback from the gaming community starts coming in.

What Is One Misconception or Idea That People Have of What You Do That Couldn’t Be Further From the Truth and, Ultimately, Really Annoys You?

Omni.: Haha, It takes alot to ‘annoy’ me but I guess one thing I always find funny is the uncanny valley of reasoning between ‘Gamers’ and ‘Game Developers’, there is an eternal ‘see saw’ between views from gamers who are wanting the best experience and gameplay, and game developers who want to provide that, but must champion performance, visuals, scalability, budgeting and development practices to ensure that projects actually get finished and get into players hands.

Both sides are totally valid, and this is why throughout the project I have tried my best to sit on the side of players during our development meetings, while also being agile to restrictions and advice from the team, so we could find the best balance throughout the creation of Psycasso.

Ben: I think “annoy” is a strong word, but something that is hard to manage is when people try and tell you how to do something, and that it’s easy. It’s a common misconception that making games is the same as playing them. I remember when I started my games tech degree, 80% of the course dropped out after the first year, which I have assumed is because of this thought. Video games are art in its highest form, in my opinion.

They bring together so many different people of different skill sets from so many different backgrounds. 2D artists, 3D artists, programmers, composers, business management, QA, translators, etc. These roles all come together in a single game and make something beautiful, and it is hard to achieve. Engines like Unity or Unreal take a lot of the pain away, so that the team can focus on the game itself, and less on the systems driving the game, but when systems become easier and more performant, games become more complex and sophisticated. It’s a lovely little loop that drives the industry forward.

As Time Goes On, Are You Looking Towards Bringing Psycasso to Consoles in the Future? If So, Would You Be Looking to Bring the Title to Services Like Game Pass?

Ben: I think mastering the space on 1 platform first is the first step. Releasing in early access on Steam provides a large platform for feedback and iteration that we can use to help make the game as good as it can be. Once we’re out of early access, it would be great to look into other platforms. Doing so in the earlier stages, however, especially with a small team, makes the release cycle more complex and much longer. Game Pass specifically is a great platform for a new company with a new IP. It allows people to play your game, who might not have otherwise played it before, for “free”. So, depending on how the launch and early access go, it’s definitely something to consider.

For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out our review of Dead Take, or check out our most recent interview with the franchise director of Dying Light: The Beast.

Liam Magee

Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.