An Invercargill-based studio with strong links to Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) has been granted funding from CODE - the New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence – to begin development on a game idea.
The Dunedin-based CODE functions to progress the sustainable growth of New Zealand’s video game development industry. The recent $808,341 boost for the sector, released in late November, was CODE's second national funding round. A total of $358,341 was awarded to nine studios within the KickStart grant funding category for the creation of innovative, commercially viable game prototypes.
Little Dragon Interactive (Invercargill) were awarded a KickStart grant of $40,000 for their project, The Order of the Damned. The brainchild of Matt Inns, James Wilkinson and Nick McGrath, Mr Inns currently works in SIT Marketing and Mr Wilkinson is a Bachelor of Screen Arts Tutor. Mr McGrath worked at SIT Productions for nine years, leaving in 2024 to form his own business, Second Beer, which he operates with Mr Wilkinson. All three men are SIT graduates, having taken the degree programme in filmmaking.
The project is largely peopled by Southerners: Creative/Narrative Design - Matt Inns, Nick McGrath, James Wilkinson (Invercargill); Programmers - Joe Simmonds (Dunedin) Joshua Reedy (Invercargill); Lead Artist - Jack Bronswijk (Wellington); Tech Artist - Nathaniel Pennington (Dunedin); Music and Sound Design - Tane Upjohn-Beatson (Wellington). Mr Reedy is a SIT Bachelor of Screen Arts student.
The Order of The Damned is described as a story-driven and atmospheric 2D action RPG (role-playing game) side-scroller, set in a beautifully haunting, dark fantasy world. Possessed by an unknown spirit, the player must journey through the decaying land in a brutal quest to restore ‘The Order’ and destroy the Revenant invasion. For the uninitiated, a side-scroller video game shows all the game play from a side camera view.
The idea for the game is based loosely on the dark fantasy short film, Riven, which Mr Inns and Mr Wilkinson produced in 2020; it made the cut for the internationally renowned Sitges Film Festival in Spain and was released online in February 2022. “But [The Order of the Damned] is very much its own thing, more of a spiritual successor,” Mr Inns explained, adding they were really grateful for the support from CODE. “We put a lot into the project, but are fully aware of how much work is ahead and how competitive the funding is, so it was awesome to get their backing to get a foot off the ground”, and it was especially rewarding to be the only team to receive funding which was not from a major centre.
The funding will enable the team to develop a vertical slice, essentially a demonstration of the game's core mechanics, visual style and other key elements. “From there, we aim to develop a more polished demo that can be used to secure the finance needed to develop the full game,” he said. At this early stage, the team were very much focusing on “a step at a time”; the finished project is intended for release on PC and consoles, however, this is likely several years away, Mr Inns said.