Interview: Mekazoo

Quirky animal platformer Mekazoo has been attracting a lot of attention on the show floor this weekend. We managed to pull product manager Mark Naborczyk away from the chaos to talk about the game and the design behind it. Check out the full interview below!

TSSZ: Mekazoo is built on a really creative idea. What inspired your studio to pursue it?

Naborczyk: Honestly, because we’ve been inspired by the 16-bit SEGA classics that we grew up with. SEGA, Nintendo 64, everything like that. We basically wanted to create our dream platformer. Most of us went to college at DigiPen, and this started as a student project. Now, three-and-a-half years later, it’s actually coming out!

TSSZ: So, this game is stuffed with different approaches to the traditional platformer. It’s obviously heavily focused on its animals. How did you go about deciding which animals to use and which abilities they would have? 

Naborczyk: We wanted to keep the animals specific to what their natural actions would be. So, the frog does a little hop and can use his tongue to grab onto things. The armadillo can roll into a ball and spin. The wallaby perpetually bounces. There’s also a panda and pelican that you unlock later. The panda is very much like a tank – he’s lumbering, he can climb up walls. We just wanted to keep all of the animals kind of similar to what they actually are.

TSSZ: In terms of balancing those characters to work with the gameplay, can you talk about what challenges you faced in terms of making sure they all played well?

Naborczyk: Our level designer is amazing. That’s why this game flows so well. We wanted to keep it so that you’re constantly moving at a fast rate once you get the rhythm of it. You start off with just a pair of animals so you can get the switching mechanic down, then as you progress through the game, you unlock more bosses who will unlock more animals, and this helps keep the flow going. Later in the game, you’ll have all animals playable, but you’ll only control a pair of them, and this keeps things fast.

TSSZ: What’s the technical foundation for the game, and where there any significant challenges the development team faced while working on it?

Naborczyk: When it was built at school, we had to build it on our own engine. Once we started the company, we switched over to Unity, so we’ve been using that, and we use ShaderForge for all the lights and effects. Honestly, because none of us had any professional experience before this, it’s really been a learning process since day one!

TSSZ: Doubling back a bit, the art style is very distinctive: it’s bright, it’s expressive, all of that. How did that style come about specifically?

Naborczyk: We just wanted something that could capture your imagination when you saw it. We wanted something that would pull you in and be a completely immersive experience.

TSSZ: How has the reaction been? You’ve shown this at shows before; how have people reacted in the past and today?

Naborczyk: Honestly, it’s been nothing but positive. That definitely buoys the team since we’ve been working on it for three-and-a-half years, but we’ve heard nothing but good things. Our booth is always filled. Everything coming out so far has been positive.

TSSZ: What inspires you and the team in general to get out of bed in the morning and keep working on this game?

Naborczyk: Our motivation definitely dips and peaks, but coming to shows and seeing everybody’s reaction definitely gets me out of bed every day. The more people see it, the more I see that it has an effect on people. You can see kids smiling and families coming together over it. Now that we’re only four months away from launch, that in itself is driving the team. We’re at the finish line now.

Mekazoo will launch late this summer on PS4, Xbox One, Windows, Mac, and Linux with a Wii U release to come in the future.