It cannot be argued that the Nintendo Switch is anything but a massive international success with gamers worldwide - it continues to sell well and there’s a new OLED version releasing this October.

With this hand-held hardware format proving hugely popular with gamers, it comes as no surprise that the style of the Switch has been embodied in Valve’s new Steam Deck. This exciting new handheld PC device, slated for release this holiday season, is a brand-new avenue for game developers to target.

On paper it looks like it will perform well and deliver a great experience, but only time will tell if it will be a success. If it does succeed, then the market for games that target the Steam Deck will be in hot demand!  We’ll be excitedly watching its progress ?

This month we talk to developer Casper (aka Ghost) about his game Anthropocene Epoch and his game-making journey.

Casper was an avid gamer, and this led to his passion for modding games. He got hooked on the idea of manipulating the game to how he wanted to play it. His wife suggested that he should start making games with this interest and that’s where he began his hunt for a game engine that could provide what he was attempting to create, being easy to use and not time consuming at all.

Casper stumbled upon a game called ‘Redacted’, an FPS created with GameGuru by Wolf.

Casper says, "It inspired me to want to make something like his work, that’s when I came across GameGuru. At the time I had no clue what I wanted to create so for a few years I learned everything about the engine and how it works. That’s when I started a project called Dietara, a medieval RPG game which is still in the works.”

Anthropocene Epoch is a Sci-Fi/Apocalyptic FPS set in the Sonoma region. The main character is ‘Kas’, a cyber pirate who was sent to Sonoma prison for the crimes he has committed. The aim of the game is to complete missions assigned to you to help you get off Earth before the Mantis, an alien species, takes over. It’s a prologue to another project that Casper has been working on called Mantis Corp, a Sci-Fi shooter game.

Casper explains, "I didn’t have a story about how you ended up in space in the first place, so I decided to make Anthropocene Epoch, which is how it all starts. I initially wanted to create a game with a lot of custom assets and sounds that work. I’m happy to say it’s turning out really well and I hope to have this game released soon.

 

As I've never done an FPS shooter before I was kind of on the line when I went and sent out screenshots and made a thread on forums as I didn’t know if people would like it, but I got a lot of hype for Dietara so I decided to take my chances.

 

Then people started seeing Anthropocene Epoch and liked it, so I continued working on it. I did work hard on it and I think people will see the work put in just by playing it.

So, what’s next for me? Well, first completing this project in the next month or so. Then I’ll go back to finishing Dietara but I’m waiting on GameGuru MAX to finish it. I will still continue to make games in GameGuru Classic as I would like to do some educational games for Autistic children, helping them with speech and sign language as I have a 5-year-old son who is Autistic.

I would also like to thank a few people for helping me with GameGuru over the last few years. First off is Wolf, if I hadn’t of seen his games I don't think I would have known about GameGuru or even started with game development. Next is Maverick1981 as he helped me out with blender and making better models, he’s really good in that department. Duchenkuke, who has inspired me with his work and knowledge of GameGuru and his level design skills. Smallg for helping me with scripts for Anthropocene Epoch – and finally to the rest of the GameGuru community on Discord and on the forums – everyone is always very helpful and awesome to chat with. I hope you guys enjoy this read!”

You can find Casper on YouTube, check out his channel and keep up to date with Casper’s games and projects on his website