The Indie Game Magazine December 2014 | Issue 44 | Page 14

FEATURE INTERVIEW

T

he first time I spoke with 5 Lives Studios about Satellite
Reign was back in August of 2013. (I’m getting old, guys.)
As a fan of cyberpunk, and squad-based strategy games,
I was immediately drawn to a game being billed as the spiritual successor to the Syndicate series, complete with series cocreator Mike Diskett on board. Back then, the game had an announcement trailer to its name, and not much else, publicly.

Flash forward to today, and Satellite Reign is gearing up for Beta
testing, with countless development hours and a hugely successful Kickstarter behind it. (They raised nearly three-quarters of a
million dollars.) I caught up with Dean Ferguson to find out how
development has progressed since I last checked in, and got the
full scoop on what players can expect once they head into the
dystopian world of Satellite Reign. Spoiler alert: Don’t expect
any rainbows.

Interview with 5 Lives Studios
by Vinny Parisi

Indie Game Magazine: Tell me about 5 Lives (animation), Brent Waller (environment art) would be, we moved straight into production.
Studios. Where are you based, and who and me (character art). The majority of us
Currently we are just about to release a build
makes up the team?
have worked together for a long time and all
to our Beta-backers (likely out by the time your
Dean Ferguson: We formed 5 Lives Studios in of us have many years of industry experience. readers see this). From there, our road-map
2013. The five of us were working together IGM: How has development progressed since is Steam Early Access around mid-December
at Sega Studios Australia when we received the successful Kickstarter campaign? What’s and aiming for full release sometime towards
news the studio would be shutting. Soon after, next in terms of development?
the end of the first quarter of 2015. (If the
Mike expressed interest in making a game,
gaming gods smile upon us.)
a spiritual successor to the Syndicate titles Dean: We took a well-needed break after
he worked on at Bullfrog. The other 4 of us the Kickstarter, then looked around for a IGM: What sort of world does Satellite
jumped at the chance, and we started plan- studio; that took a little over a month if I Reign take place in? What role does the
government play?
ning the title and its subsequent Kickstarter. recall correctly.
Our studio is based in Brisbane, Australia, Once we were settled, we began the prototyp- Dean: The world of Satellite Reign is one of
the team consists of Mike Diskett (code), ing phase in earnest. Once we had nutted out loss, hopelessness and oppression. So, good
Chris Conte (design/code), Mitchell Clifford the pipelines and the guts of what the game times really. :)

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