Steve Ellis and David Doak made their names at companies like Rare and Free Radical Design, but their latest venture – MindFuel Games – is a decidedly lower-key affair.
The small studio has just announced its first game, Beyond Words, which feels like a mix between Scrabble and Balatro. It's as fiendishly addictive as it sounds, as you may be aware if you've already tried the free demo on Steam.
I was keen to learn more about how the game came to be, and what approach Ellis and Doak were taking with their new company – so grab yourself a warm beverage and let's find out...
Time Extension: Could you tell us a little about how you guys came to establish MindFuel Games? How have your respective careers led to this point?
Steve Ellis: David and I have worked together on and off since the mid-1990s, most recently on a new TimeSplitters project at the reformed Free Radical Design. Unfortunately, the decision was made to shut down the studio after its parent company got itself into financial difficulty, so I had to lay off the entire staff.
For me, this isn't the first time that external factors have had this outcome - back in 2008, the original Free Radical Design was forced down a similar path after LucasArts (publisher of two of our upcoming games) decided to close down nearly everything that they were doing, for their own financial reasons.
It's soul-crushing to build a team and then have to close it down. Having been through this twice, I was keen not to jump right into another big team environment. I was also keen to get more hands-on than it was possible to be while running a larger studio, so doing something smaller sounded like fun.
David Doak: My best experiences of making games have been working in (relatively) small teams. So that's what we decided to do. I'm too old for all the other shit now.
Time Extension: How long have you been working on Beyond Words, and how did the concept originate?
Steve Ellis: Originally, I thought it would be about 6 months, but it must have been 18 months or so by now. When we first started, we were prototyping several games. Beyond Words wasn't one of them. We were a few months in on a different project when one weekend, for fun as much as anything, I threw together a quick prototype of a roguelike word game to see what it would be like to play.
Back then, it wasn't exactly like the end product, but it was enough for us to convince ourselves that the idea had promise, so we diverted our efforts into it for a while. We showed it to a few people and got encouraging feedback, so we decided to run with it.
Time Extension: What element of the game are you most proud of?
Steve Ellis: I enjoy the scope for strategic play. In other roguelike games that I've played, I find that although they are heavily RNG-driven, the random factors quickly push you to adopt a particular strategy or fail, and your real choices actually diminish as you play for longer.
With Beyond Words, the board plays a huge role - you’re constantly interacting with the words you’ve already played, planning for future moves and finding new strategies as your run evolves. It feels more open and flexible.
David Doak: Getting to a point where the cards, tiles and board work together in an interesting way.
Particularly shaping the board layouts and limited tile decks - it's not obvious at first, but the board is effectively an engine-building tableau which is constantly interacting with deckbuilding in the tiles. In play, you can shoot yourself in the face or make your life easier. Learning the ropes is a fun and rewarding journey - I hope.
Time Extension: What titles have inspired the development of Beyond Words?
David Doak: All the physical deckbuildery / engine stuff I've ever played - originally going back to Dominion, Ascension but also things like Race For The Galaxy. For rules, irrelevance and systemic chaos, Cosmic Encounter has always been an inspiration. And obviously other recent video games which embody the same spirit - Rogue Legacy, Slay the Spire, Balatro, Baba Is You, Loop Hero, Inscryption. It's really as much about attitude as mechanics.
Steve Ellis: I played a lot of roguelikes last year - some of the popular ones, some quite obscure. The thing that resonated with me was giving choice and freedom to the players. It's what we were always aiming for in the TimeSplitters games.
Aside from that, there's a board game that I used to play where you make words with tiles on a board and try to get high scores. I forget the name...
Time Extension: You're launching on console and Steam at the same time, which isn't always the norm. Why is it essential for this to be a simultaneous release?
Steve Ellis: I wouldn't say that a simultaneous release is especially essential, but why not? We've released on cross-platform before. You should be able to play it wherever you are. I'd love to get it on even more platforms in future - we'll see.
Time Extension: TimeSplitters is a series you're both famous for being involved with. What do you make of the recent cancellation of the reboot and the efforts of the fan community to keep the series alive?
Steve Ellis: It's a terrible shame that TimeSplitters and the reformed Free Radical Design were collateral damage in Embracer's bad financial decisions. The fans and the team deserved better, but sadly, the industry has many more stories like this.
However, it's great to see that TimeSplitters Rewind finally released after more than a decade in development. It's an impressive achievement from a team of fans, so I wish them well and hope that it doesn't get shut down by Embracer.
David Doak: It's heartwarming to see the continuing love for TimeSplitters, and I'm impressed that the fan remake has finally been released. Let's hope that it gets to flourish. Untrammeled.
Time Extension: What platform excites you the most as a developer?
Steve Ellis: As a developer, I'm most excited by the platform that gives the best development experience.
Rapid iteration is key to successful development, so I'm always looking for the one that allows the fastest "change, test, change, test" cycle. For the Beyond Words and the other projects that we've been prototyping, that's Unity. As a consumer, I've always favoured consoles over PC, and I do most of my gaming on PS5.
David Doak: As a developer, I've almost totally lost interest in 'traditional' platform hardware evolution.
Like Steve, I'm more interested in the dev experience, and he's spot on about ease of iteration.
As a consumer, I'm interested in playing quirky things that have new mechanics and ideas. I have very little inclination to play AAA stuff anymore. In recent years, almost all of the stuff that has interested or excited me has appeared on PC first.
Time Extension: Once Beyond Words launches, what future plans do you have? Are you tempted to delve back into the world of FPS titles, or is the plan to create simpler titles?
David Doak: If it is a success, we'll likely have the appetite to do more things. If not, we'll go back to being old and grumpy.
Steve Ellis: Never say never, but a return to big shooters is probably unlikely. Shooters require big money. Big money requires external funding. External funding, in my experience, too often leads to random closures. I'm not keen to get back into a situation where I'm asked to build a team, but I can't offer them job security.
All that aside, though, I enjoy working in smaller teams as it gives me time to write code, and I always enjoy doing something that I haven't done before, so who knows?
We'd like to thank Steve and David for taking the time to speak with us, and for Andy at PQube for making this possible.