Interviews

These are the **interviews** that Endnight Games has conducted with media outlets.

## Engadget

* Published: May 13th 2013
* Engadget talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

>
> *It's definitely an ambitious project for a small team, but along with the three key team members we do utilize outside freelance artists, programmers and animators.*
> *As we move closer to release we're looking to expand the team slightly. I think in some areas having a small key group gives us an edge in fast production and quick decision making.*
> *[Playtesting will be an issue] Which is why we plan to release an alpha version to the public in order to get both player feedback, and work out any issues with bugs and fixes that are needed.*
>
>
>
>

## PC Gamer

* Published: May 28th 2013
* PC Gamer talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

>
> *Our focus is much more on a survival horror experience, letting players experience being in the world of 'The Hills Have Eyes' or an 80's Italian cannibal film.*
> *We want the players to feel empathy for them [enemies]. We've taken some inspiration here from the novel 'I Am Legend'. There is some question as to who is actually the enemy: them, or you. You're the one who is invading their forest.*
> *Food and water are both really important, there are lots of lakes you can drink from, but if you're hungry you have to either hunt/trap small animals, or plant your own garden.*
> *We're trying to build in a lot of interactivity in everything, we have no traditional story or cutscenes so our focus needs to be on making the world as dynamic and emergent as possible. We want it to be engaging just to spend time in the world.*
> *During cold nights you'll need to either make a fire or stay inside to keep warm. You can sleep at this point, however you should hope you've set up some traps or defenses outside first.*
> *One of our big features is that every tree in the game world can be chopped down, drastically changing the forest permanently. (although chopping down every tree would probably take months to do).*
> *We have a set number of enemies you are battling, not endlessly spawning creatures coming from thin air.*
> *You're hiding huddled in a corner and watching them search for you.*
> *Again, like I Am Legend it's possible to spend the days thinning out the enemies numbers, and players can if they wish and are able to wipe them all out.*
> *Enemies are pretty smart ... we found the game's scariest moments come when you're hiding huddled in a corner and watching them search for you.*
> *Some players will want to just spend time building up a base and defending against enemies, others will want to go explore and find new things about the gameworld; We have a bunch of stuff for players to uncover.*
> *It's [Oculus Rift] a perfect fit; Exploring the forest during the day becomes at times a magical experience, and at night or deep in a random cave a terrifying nightmare.*
> *Since it's so new there are a bunch of challenges to overcome. Scale was the most surprising thing. The first time I walked out of the plane into the forest with the rift on, everything looked wrong.*
> *Small logs looked massive, the enemy characters looked like miniatures. Getting scale correct and consistent is one of the biggest things in making the game world feel real.*
> *We're hoping we can get this working well since it massively enhances the feeling of being connected to the gameworld.*
>
>
>
>

## This Is My Joystick!

* Published: Jun. 21st 2013
* This Is My Joystick! talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. Tell us a little bit about the background of the company and why you chose to build *The Forest* on PC.**

> *Our first game was for iPad called End Night. It gave me a chance to explore ideas I had about an open world horror game with procedural elements; however, I was never able to overcome the limitations of touch controls. For The Forest the initial vision was a large procedural forest, and I knew this wouldn’t be possible to the level I was interested in on a tablet or portable device.*
> *We’re also really excited about the Oculus Rift and so our game is designed to use that to create the scariest game experience ever made.*
>
>

**2. What kind of challenges have you come across when developing a game for the Steam Community? Are there any less restrictions than iOS, XBLA or PSN?**

> *No challenges so far; the Greenlight community has been amazing and really embraced the type of game we’re making.*
>
>

**3. What was your inspiration for The Forest?**

> *I take a lot of inspiration from 70’s and early eighties exploitation films. I Spit On Your Grave, The Hills Have Eyes and Italian cannibal films. The goal was to take a serious and scary horror world and throw players in there. The type of vision we don’t see in today’s games.*
>
>

**4. Are you fans of horror movies and games? Any stand-out favourites?**

> *I’m a big fan of horror films; the original versions of Dawn of the Dead, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, along with Italian horror movies from the same era, Deep Red, New York Ripper and The Beyond.*
> *My favourite game is still System Shock 2.  I think of all the horror games I’ve played it gets the balance perfectly between scary and calm moments.*
>
>

**5. Upon seeing the trailer, I immediately thought Lost + The Descent + Minecraft + first-person survival horror. Is this a fair assumption?**

> *Yep. Completely. I feel these different ideas have never been brought together in a way like this before, and are the perfect premise and set up for a survival game.*
>
>

**6. How do you feel about The Forest being compared to Minecraft?**

> *I think it’s great. I’m a massive fan of Minecraft.  Our game is different in a lot of ways as we focus much more on survival horror.  Dropping players into a terrifying world and letting them figure out how to stay alive.*
>
>

**7. Could this be considered as Minecraft for the over eighteens?**

> *I think horror can appeal to a pretty wide range of players.*
>
>

**8. How do you want the Forest to be perceived by gamers?**

> *I hope players really do find it the scariest game experience they’ve ever had. And with the Oculus Rift I want players to be so scared they can’t even put on the headset.*
>
>

**9. How did you come to start developing The Forest with the Rift headset support?**

> *I’ve been really excited for the Rift since it was first announced. Early test versions of The Forest were played using the Sony HMZ-T1 which gives a really immersive 3D view, and even with the limited FOV and lack of head tracking was a pretty amazing experience.*
>
>

**10. What challenges are you having to overcome with designing the game with the Rift headset in mind?**

> *Getting the controls right is the biggest right now. Also making sure the scale of the world feels correct; this is something that you don’t really notice until you stand inside the world looking directly at objects.*
>
>

## Only Single Player

* Published: Aug. 1st 2013
* article link on WebArchive

**1. For those of us who don’t know exactly what The Forest is, can you please give us a quick synopsis of what the game is?**

> *The Forest is an open world horror game, taking inspiration from the late 70’s italian cannibal films. The game throws you into a violent dangerous world, and gives you complete freedom in how you try to survive.*
>
>

**2. Does the game have a main storyline to it, or is the goal of the game just to survive as long as you can?**

> *We don’t have a traditional game story. Our focus is on world building, and creating a believable situation.*
>
>

**3. Can you explain how the building elements work and how players can use the environment?**

> *Every tree in the game world can be chopped down, and from the wood players can create different structures.*
>
>

**4. How do the survival elements work and how in-depth are they? Will players have to, say, boil the water they find to make it drinkable etc?**

> *You can collect water and boil it, or risk drinking it straight from a water source. Food works in a similar way, if you manage to catch a rabbit the next step is to build a fire and cook the meat. Leave the dead rabbit sitting in the sun too long and it will start to rot, attract flies and make you ill if you try and eat it.*
>
>

**5. How do both the elements of the game, survival and survival-horror mix into the game. Are they day and night times equally timed, or do you give players a bit more time during the day then at night?**

> *The enemies mostly come out at night, but if you go down into the caves and start butchering them while they sleep, they’re going to get mad, and they’re going to come for you regardless of the time of day.*
> *It’s also possible to sleep during the nights, so if you’ve set up proper defenses or you’re sleeping on a houseboat you’ve built, you can avoid most nights all together.*
>
>

**6. How does crafting work. We read how players can take a stick and sharpen it on a rock to keep the player immersed, rather than going into a menu and selecting an upgrade, but is it just like a quick time event or what?**

> *We don’t have any quicktime events. The in world crafting is instead really simple, you can bring a stick to a fire, and press a key to combine the two, this creates a lit stick which functions as a lightsource. Creating a spear, and other world items is similar.*
>
>

**7. How scary would you say the game is? Seems like you have a bit of competition this year with games like Outlast and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.**

> *We’re really focused on creating the scariest game possible. We hope having the contrast between calm tranquil moments, such as cooking by a fire, or watching the sunset over the ocean, will make the scary moments even more terrifying.*
>
>

**8. Describe for us the Mutant like creatures that we saw in the reveal trailer for the game.**

> *We’re keeping most details about them a secret for players to uncover.*
>
>

**9. How do players defend themselves from the creatures?**

> *You can fight them directly with spears, axes and other weapons you make. Or you can spend the day setting up traps and other defenses.*
> *With our crafting system it’s possible to make more advanced weapons. Combine a can of hairspray you find in some plane luggage with your lighter and you have a mini-flamethrower.*
>
>

**10. How do you plan to have an immersive gallery of enemies that seem to have real lives while also keeping them scary?**

> *I think giving the enemies emotions and making them realistic seeming actually makes them much scarier.*
>
>

**11. What films and books have given you inspiration for The Forest? Hatchet was the first novel that came to mind when seeing the plane crash and the survivalist elements within the first few moments of the trailer.**

> *Italian horror films are a big influence on the game, the core idea of the game is taking a situation, like one of those late 70’s italian cannibal films and putting a player in there. Letting them see how they can survive.*
> *The novel ‘I Am Legend’ is also a big influence on the game, along with other horror films from the 70’s and early 80’s such as texas chainsaw massacre, hills have eyes, the beyond and many others.*
>
>

**12. Once you release the game on PC, do you think there’s a possibility we could see the game come to the PS4 or Xbox One, or both? It seems like this game would fit perfectly with Sony’s Move and Microsoft’s Kinect.**

> *Our focus is on the PC version currently, however we’d definitely be interested in console versions down the line.*
>
>

**13. Do you hope to turn The Forest into a franchise? Or maybe add DLC later on to try using new environments to survive in?**

> *We’re planning on adding free updates to the game once it’s released. We currently have an experimental randomly generated game mode where players can generate a new world each time they play. This is something i could see us developing further once the game is released.*
>
>

**14. When can we expect to play The Forest?**

> *We don’t have a firm release date, but we’re aiming for late 2013.*
>
>

**15. As a site that covers primarily the single player experience, as a developer, how do you think the single player experience will change with the next-generation?**

>
> *I’m most excited about the Oculus rift, and the new types of games that it makes possible. More immersive and realistic games with less of a focus on fast paced action and shuffling players from one exhausting cinematic sequence to another.*
> *For the Forest, we’re heavily focused on making the best Virtual Reality game we can. Things like keeping all the crafting in the game world instead of via menu’s are a direct result of our focus on the oculus rift.*
> *There’s a scene in most cannibal and zombie films where someone is torn open and eaten alive with intestines spilled and pulled out. Picture that scene happening to you. With the rift on you can look down at your characters body as it’s pulled and torn apart. It’s going to be horrifying.*
>
>
>
>

**16. Any other details about The Forest you would like to share with us? Maybe a new gameplay clip or screenshots?**

> *We’ve made a lot of improvements to the visuals since the first trailer release, and planning a big update showing off the new lighting and improved art soon.*
>
>

**17. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. We cannot wait to get our hands on The Forest and try it out. If you have any final comments for our readers feel free to say whatever is on your mind!**

> *Thanks for the time!*
>
>

**New article published: Dec. 19th 2013**

* article link on WebArchive

>
> *Our focus is on a living emergent world, tides rise and fall, every plant and tree can be cut down and entire areas cleared.*
>
>
> *Stealth is a really big part of the game. Some of the creatures especially deep down in the caves you really won’t want to come face to face with. To avoid combat situations with them you’ll have to sneak by instead of engaging directly.*
>
>
> *We have some really great artists on the team, Our character modeller did an amazing job on our creatures and we have feature film quality animation which helps bring them to life.*
>
>
>
> *We’re experimenting a lot with claustrophobia also, in some of our cave sections we make areas so tight players need to crouch to get through, their view literally pressed up against rock as they enter through tight passages – playing this in 3D on the Rift can be quite traumatic if you have even the slightest problem with small spaces.*
>
>

## Eurogamer

* Published: Jan. 13th 2014
* Eurogamer talking with **Ben Falcone** and **Michael Mellor** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was conversational

>
> *I've been frustrated with games for the past five or six years constantly telling you what to do.*
> *It sometimes feels like work playing a game where you have a backlog of missions you have to do, constantly being bothered by NPCs. We wanted to create a world where we could drop the player into and give them free range to do whatever they want, similar to something like Minecraft where a lot of the fun comes from decisions that you make. We wanted to capture that but do it in a world that looked realistic.*
> *There is a way to end it, but I think a lot of players will play without ending the game or even realising that there is an ending.*
> *Our goal was a never-ending type game - with an ending [laughs].*
> *You might see a landmark off to the distance that you can't necessarily get to yet. You'll have to build up a certain number of skills and equipment to actually get to some parts of the world.*
> *We're hoping we can provide some curiosity, some passive goals, to give players reasons to go out and figure out more about the world.*
> *Players actually can uncover where these mutants came from and who they are and what the forest actually is. But we don't push players in any way to actually do any of that.*
> *If you're in a real forest with crazy cannibals, some of them would try to protect each other. That's something games don't even attempt. They treat all enemies as mindless.*
> *You've invaded their forest, you're murdering them, you're chopping down all their trees. Maybe they're just trying to survive in this forest. Maybe you're the bad guy. So we try to make it emotional when you kill one of them and have them care. They're not all bad, even if they are trying to eat you.*
> *A big problem with random generation is keeping areas interesting; So we have a really buggy randomly generated mode and we're not sure if it's going to make it into the final game. If we can get it working it will be as an additional mode, but the meat of the game will be this more authored, large island.*
> *Our focus is on the single-player game, but we've also been experimenting with co-op as well, which we did think would be fun.*
> *The big issue is keeping the horror element... we tried to maintain that balance where it's still scary if you're playing in co-op mode, which is a tricky thing to get right.*
>
>
>
>

## G33king Out

* Published: Jan. 22th 2014
* G33king Out talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview

**1. First, the obvious: What were the main inspirations for The Forest?**

> *The main inspiration came from the cannibal horror films of the 70’s and 80’s. I was never really a fan of those films but the imagery stuck with me and I thought it would make a great game world setting.*
>
>

**2. How has the game matured since its beginning stages? For example, was the idea to have it set in a forest with cannibals always the main concept the team was aiming to build, or did it start as anything different?**

> *The idea was always a forest, with the ability to chop down every tree and drastically change the game world. Originally we experimented with different enemies, and at one point we had more supernatural ghost based enemies instead of the cannibal mutants, but it never felt right for the violent horror game we we’re trying to create.*
>
>

**3. You’ve said that the team working on the game is about 3 people large, including yourself. Who are the others, and what role does each member have?**

> *I’m the creative director/programmer and lead designer. We also have Anna, who focuses mostly on 2d/3d art, and Mike our animator and A.I. programmer.*
>
>

**4. With only three main team members working on the game, what sort of difficulties does this bring up? Alternatively, does this make the development process easier in any way?**

> *It’s definitely challenging to make a large game with such a small amount of people, however we also have lots of additional freelance and outsourced help in all aspects of the game from art to code, sound design and many other features that make this possible.*
> *In some ways working with a small team really is beneficial, we can try out and implement new idea’s really quickly. Everyone gets a say in what gets added to the game and it makes for a really rewarding creative working environment.*
>
>

**5. You’ve described the story as being told through gameplay and visuals. Could you give an example of this as it is found in the game?**

> *I’ve always enjoyed games that tell their story visually, and so for this game we’re attempting to tell the story only through visuals and world/gameplay. Imagine yourself dropped in a forest full of cannibals, what happens? That’s the story.*
> *We do have subplots; an old derelict yacht can be found and it’s possible for players to trace the path that these survivors took and ultimately discover what happened to them. We try and fill the game with moments like this, a designed world full of things that have happened, but without a heavy handed voice over or audio logs to tell people explicitly what occurred.*
>
>

**6. You’ve mentioned that your intent with the cannibals was to create enemies that feel emotion and that they weren’t inherently evil. How deep does this go? Will cannibals want to get revenge on the player for killing their kind?**

> *We’re trying to make them as realistic as possible, one great example is if you take down an enemy, but don’t finish him off, another cannibal who might have a relationship with that character might throw themselves on the body, blocking you from killing them and in a way offering themselves instead. Its these kind of moments that we hope will elevate the enemy reactions into something much more interesting. We don’t think enemies who are constantly trying to kill the player with no regards to themselves or their friends very interesting. Its definitely a challenge to create this type of A.I., but we hope that approaching A.I. in this way will give players a unique and interesting experience.*
>
>

**7. Do the Cannibals that attack you come from a particular location that can be found in-game? Do they only attack at night, or are there reasons for the player to be cautious even in the daylight?**

> *The mostly attack at night, however a big goal of the game is to make the world reactive to everything the player does. If you start going into their caves and killing them whilst they sleep, this may cause them to alter their behaviour in some interesting ways. We found having enemies stick too closely to a routine made them not very scary. Having a sense of unpredictability to them, such as having them stalk you through trees and drop down on the player when least expected can be really scary.*
>
>

**8. It’s obvious that a lot of work has gone into making the game truly a survival horror with emphasis on survival and horror equally. We know that players can make themselves camouflage, craft weapons, and build shelter. Will players have to search for food and medicine as well? Can they make garments that will help with the weather?**

> *Yep, weather has an effect on everything. Start a small fire and rain will put it out quickly. Cover yourself in mud to help hide from the enemy and rain will wash it off. It’s possible to craft better clothing from the animals and items found in gameworld, as well as craft medicine from plants.*
> *For food we handle it a little differently than most survival games, tying it instead to our strength and stamina systems. We find the idea of not eating for a couple days and then dying really boring from a gameplay point of view, so instead players need to eat well, exercise (chopping down trees for example or engage in combat) and get plenty of rest to keep strength and stamina up. If players don’t eat or sleep eventually their stamina will be so low they will be easy pickings for the forest threats.*
>
>

**9. How diverse is the Forest itself? Should players expect a large, wholly lush environment? Are there different areas that are unique from one another?**

> *We want the world to feel like a real place, so we try not to randomly mix biomes together or anything like that. We do have many unique areas however, rocky beaches, swamps, underground lakes and caves. We want more than anything for the world to feel like a coherent place, and not a game world where we change the setting for no reason.*
>
>

**10. Do the caves lead to another large area similar to the surface, or is it more of an underground labyrinth type of setup?**

> *There are lots of different caves. Some lead into other caves, others will lead to an opening at the beach. Our tide and ocean system also affects this; some caves will be blocked off by ocean at high tide so players will need to come back at a different time of day to enter.*
> *Before starting this project we went on a real life cave expedition to gather research material and photos. We want the caves to feel as realistic as possible.*
>
>

**11. Were there certain concepts that you wanted to include in the game but were unable to do so, whether due to time, hardware or financial constraints? If so, could you tell us about any of those things?**

> *The game isn’t finished yet – Once we release the alpha version we plan to keep working on implementing all of our ideas. As well as involving the community to continue developing the game into something really memorable.*
>
>

**12. This game is also being developed for the Oculus Rift. What lead to this choice?**

> *I played some early VR games in the 90’s and was also a big fan of ‘Lawnmower Man’ So hearing about the Rift was really exciting. I think it opens up the path to new types of games, slower paced, less about cinematic storytelling and more about existing in a world, which are exactly the types of games I’m interested in playing and developing.*
>
>

**13. What sort of experience does playing on the Rift provide in contrast to a PC monitor?**

> *The feeling of being there, when I first tried the Rift and played the tuscan game demo by Unity, I looked up at the ceiling and imagined how I would feel if a cannibal mutant was up there watching me. The thought was terrifying. For horror games the Rift is going to open up a new type of horror experience unlike anything anyone has experienced in any media before. New horror stories where the enemies are life size and feel real. It’s going to be terrifying.*
>
>

**14. Finally, what challenges, if any, did you need to overcome in order to put the game on the Rift?**

> *The biggest issue currently is the low resolution screen and motion sickness. It can be tiring to wear the headset for long periods. We’re hoping to work with Oculus to overcome these issues.*
>
>

## Analog Addiction

* Published: Jan. 24th 2014
* Analog Addiction talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

I asked Ben Falcone if the book [1954 horror fiction novel by Richard Matheson, called I am Legend] had any influence on this game at all and he replied with

> *It definitely had some influence on the game – subconsciously, at first – and then [more], as we [further] developed the game. Adding the ability to kill enemies in the caves whilst they sleep, and having them more and more relate-able, I started to realize just how much of an influence the book was having on the game. I think having interesting creatures with thoughts and feelings who act unpredictably makes the game a lot scarier than the traditional zombie or mindless enemy that a lot of horror games have.*
>
>

Ben also noted that scaling of the world map had been hard to correct but their main goal was

> *Large enough to get lost in, but really dense. There should always be something interesting to find or see.*
>
>

Ben also spoke about the sort of situation you might expect in The Forest

> *I think through world design and layout, you can help direct players towards interesting areas – a path through dense forest leading to an abandoned village, a floating derelict yacht off a beach… a small cave entrance. I think, as far as horror, when you make the choice to explore a cave you’ve found when it’s not something you’re being told to do by the game, it makes it all much scarier. You’re never sure if you’re where you should be. We’re trying to drop people into a world, a place that’s scary, mean, and dangerous and let them figure out how to survive.*
>
>

Ben also spoke about the potential for a multiplayer mode

> *Our main focus is on the single player survival horror experience, but over the course of making this game, we’ve started to have some ideas of how throwing an additional player into the world could actually enhance some of the horror and randomness in the world. Letting a second player work with you, or kill you.*
>
>

## Wake & Game

* Published: Jan. 28th 2014
* Wake & Game talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview

**1. When you were formulating ideas revolving around where exactly you wanted to take this game what made you come up with "The Forest"?**

> *I had previously made a small iPad game that was set in rural town, I found creating all the art and layout really time consuming, and so wanted to have a more natural environment for my next game – something that could be procedurally created, instead of hand placed and so the forest setting seemed perfect.*
> *The forest as a location for a violent scary horror game is also a really exciting idea and early on when i discussed the premise with people everyone was instantly excited about the possibilities.*
>
>

**2. The concept you’ve developed behind the cannibalistic creatures is extremely creative, giving them an actual thought process that can make them react to specific situations in different ways depending on the circumstances. How do you think players are going to respond to this? In my opinion it only spikes my curiosity even more so and I’m already too eager to see what sets off the different behaviors.**

> *We hope players feel some empathy for these creatures. We find the more unpredictable and realistic-seeming we make them and their A.I,. the scarier the experience is.*
>
>

**3. The island is both dense and visually dynamic, is it a location that takes awhile to explore when attempting to reach every area available, especially when building in the want to discover the islands lore and secrets?**

> *Creating a world that invites exploration is a key priority for us with the game. Making areas diverse and interesting as well as having a large enough world to make exploration worthwhile is essential for a game like this. Some areas of the game can only be reached by building certain items such as rafts, and we have areas that are accessible by traversing certain caves within the game. Players that explore more, will also be rewarded by finding rare crafting ingredients for creating some of the cooler items in the game.*
>
>

**4. Do you feel it was much more of a difficult task working with a smaller development team rather than a large building full of people while you were producing the game? If not is it something that you would rather stick to in the future of Endnight Games?**

> *There are a lot of benefits to working with a small team on a project like this. We can iterate very quickly on ideas, and generally decisions about the game and where it should be heading are quick to nail down. Also personally I think everyone has found it pretty rewarding to take on roles outside their comfort zone, with so few people there is no one to pass the buck so you just have to get things done at the end of the day. I think everyone prefers this style of working, and in future we’d try to keep the team as small as possible.*
>
>

**5. You’ve stated that "I am Legend" and "Cannibal Holocaust" were major influences for you, where there any other sources of inspiration or themes that you considered pulling from when creating the game?**

> *Italian horror in general is a big influence on the game, as well as all the great horror films from the seventies and early eighties. It was always the idea to capture something like "The Hills Have Eyes" or "Zombi" in videogame form. Throw players into a mean violent scary world and let them figure out how to survive.*
> *We also went on a real-life cave trip early on in game development which really helped shape the feel and realism of our cave sections.*
>
>

**6. With the game going to be available on the Oculus Rift do you think that is something that is going to take it to the next level horror and survival wise? I can’t image how frightening it would be to actually feel like you are 100% immersed in the situation the game puts you in while experiencing it through your own set of eyes, instead of knowing there’s that level of safety between you and the screen. The thought of having that barrier removed seems extremely daunting but exciting at the same time.**

> *We’re all very excited about the Oculus Rift, it’s just such a good match for the horror genre. It really does elevate the experience to the next level when all your senses are engaged and your brain is fully immersed in the simulation. When you really feel like you’re in this world and being stalked by creatures at night, and then you find a cave and feel real dread about the possibilities of what's down there. We think the Rift will really make for a uniquely frightening and engaging experience.*
> *At the same time, the 2d version is probably what most people will end up experiencing and even on a flat screen, with headphones on and the lights out the game can be really terrifying.*
>
>

**7. What kind of challenges have you faced throughout the development process of the game? Were there any instances when you thought you know what, I don’t know how to get us over this hurdle, where do we go from here and how do we move forward with this game?**

> *There are definitely a lot of challenges. Although having a small team has its advantages, it can be a challenge when it comes to just generating the sheer amount of assets and animations needed for a game like this. We’ve had to be creative in how we generate lots of our content, making use of scan data for example, or using photogrammetry techniques to generate rocks and cave surfaces has been invaluable in speeding up the production process.*
>
>

**8. The game doesn’t involve any voice-overs or obvious instructions that guide you when figuring out what to do, how do you think this is going to impact the players experience as they have to teach themselves what to do, basically the same as they would if they were to be faced with any situation in real life?**

> *It’s true we try to keep hand holding to a minimum in the game. Because of that we try to make all the gameplay systems as simple and straightforward to use as possible. We can also put hints in the world about how things work. For example a locked suitcase might have a rock sitting next to it. Most players can figure out that you can pick up the rock and smash open the case, then they usually see what other things can be smashed in the world.*
>
>

**9. Although reaching the ending is not the main focus of this game is there different ways to go about reaching it if that is what you strive for whilst playing? Or, is there one solid path developed that leads the players in that direction without them being fully aware of it?**

> *We’re really excited about this aspect of the game, but also think its something we’d rather not say too much about and let players figure things out on their own.*
>
>

**10. Lastly, do you have any hopes for the upcoming beta release of the game and are there any certain reactions you are hoping to get back from the players?**

> *We’re hoping with the alpha release to really get the community involved in the development of the game. We still hope the game is scary and fun even in it’s unfinished state. Although the first alpha release is intended more for players who want to be part of the development, finding bugs and offering suggestions as we move towards beta and then final release.*
>
>

**11. Thank you so much for your time, there’s no doubt that we are SUPER excited for the release of this game and can’t wait to see what it has in store for us when we play it!**

> *Thank you :D*
>
>

## VG247

* Published: Jan. 29th 2014
* VG247 talking with **Ben Falcone** and **Michael Mellor** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

>
> *Disney stuff was an inspiration for the daytime in the forest.*
> *There are God-rays from the sky everywhere, butterflies and generally cute looking areas. One of the things I don't like in horror games is when they're all one tone, when they're always just dark and depressing.*
> *Our vision was always a game in which half of the time it's a place that you really want to be and then it's at night that the horror starts. Our main goal is really just to do something completely different.*
> *Horror films from the 70s, and the Italian films from the 80s, and the book I Am Legend are all pretty big influences.*
> *We've all played horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but we've not really taken anything from those games.*
> *[the game is] more about you being in a situation. You've been in a plane crash and you find yourself in this horror world with a threat from cannibals, the story is just what happens as you experience the game and that world.*
> *Really, [The Forest] started with my frustration about most of the things I've been playing for the last few years but Minecraft is something that's a really big inspiration. We also see our game as similar to Don't Starve, which is also kind of never ending.*
> *The excitement in Minecraft of being able to do whatever you want was something we wanted, but we wanted it in as photo-real an environment as we could by using cutting-edge PC technology to bring it to life and bring in some interesting AI threads.*
> *Obviously, we wanted to make something scary as well. We don't actually find a lot of horror games very scary and we're really aiming to make something truly terrifying.*
> *We're trying to treat them like real inhabitants of the world as much as possible.*
> *Whenever we think about anything in the game we think about the reasons for its existence and its being there. So, the mutants have proper day/night routines and we give them lots of things to do around the forest.*
> *More than that, though, they feel sad when one of their comrades dies and they will try to drag an injured friend to safety and away from you if you're attacking them. You begin to understand that they do actually have their own feelings and aren't just zombie-like evil creatures. Even though they do want to eat you... [laughs].*
> *You can go to their caves and murder them in their sleep, which is an inspiration from I Am Legend.*
> *That changes the world, because there are a limited amount of enemies and you can eventually wipe them all out. That's really difficult to do, but it ties in with our goal of creating a survival simulation and allowing people to play in lots of different ways.*
> *The deeper you go into the caves, the weirder and crazier the creatures get and there are some really cool character designs to support that.*
> *There are moments when you're walking through a cave and your light might go out temporarily as you glimpse something coming towards you... that's really terrifying.*
> *Our vision was always a game in which half of the time it's a place that you really want to be and then it's at night that the horror starts.*
> *They're very hard to kill and you have to be very violent to kill them.*
> *In lots of games you can shoot someone in the leg four times and they die instantly, or you hit them with a stick and they die. In our game, you hit them with a stick to make them fall over and then you get a rock and hit them over the head three or four times to kill them.*
> *We really want to get across that it's very difficult to actually kill someone and we want each kill the player performs to be something they feel some guilt about. What we don't want is just mindless killing.*
>
>
>
>

## EGMR

* Published: Feb. 3rd 2014
* EGMR talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview

**1. Thank you Endnight Games for taking the time to do this interview. I always love getting to know indie developers, so please introduce yourselves. What previous projects have you worked on?**

> *My name is Ben Falcone and I’m the creative director. My background is mostly Visual Effects where I’ve worked for over ten years as a lighting and look development artist on films such as ‘Tron: Legacy’ ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘300’. More recently I’ve been involved in independent videogames, and in 2012 I created an iPad title named ‘End Night’ – a small open world horror game, made as a solo effort, the game’s development got me very excited about open world horror possibilities and once it was finished decided to do something much bigger and this time with a small team involved.*
>
>

**2. Congratulations on getting Greenlit! I found The Forest recently after seeing a picture of the game in a Tweet. Since I’m a massive fan of horror, I was instantly excited. Tell me, what is The Forest all about?**

> *The forest drops you in a world that’s at first mysterious and beautiful, but which soon becomes a nightmare as you realise you are not alone.*
>
>

**3. This is my favourite question: what, would you say, is the biggest reason to play The Forest?**

> *Our main aim in designing the game is building a simulation, a world players can really get lost in. Everything reacts to what the players does, every plant can be cut, every tree chopped down. We feel this level of freedom makes the game very exciting, it’s fun and engaging to just exist in the world. Conversely, a reason to not play the game lives deep in the caves.*
>
>

**4. Tell us, how did your game first come to life? What was your initial vision for it?**

> *The initial idea was a game set in a forest, I had some ideas on how I could generate a procedural game world and had always felt the world from something like ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ or ‘Zombi’ would make a great game world.*
>
>

**5. I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for Lost (a favourite TV series of mine) after watching the two trailers for your game. Were you inspired by it by any chance? What else helped to give you ideas for the game?**

> *Definitely, we’re big fans of Lost here. We even did the lost tour in Oahu! Also early on in development we went on a real life cave trip which provided inspiration for our underground cave sections and changed the look and feel of our cave art and layout drastically.*
>
>

**6. Before getting into gameplay, I have to say that my mind was blown away by the incredible graphical quality of your game. Which engine is your team using, and how much emphasis did your team place on the visual aspect of the game during development?**

> *The engine is Unity 4. My background is as an artist and lighter for film and tv and so visuals are always something we think about. We try and find ways the visuals and gameplay can work together, especially when it comes to lighting the game world. One thing we keep adjusting is just how dark night time is lit, and how dark the caves are. It’s about finding the right mix between filmic lighting, realism and gameplay.*
>
>

**7. The initial trailer reveals the player character crash-landing on a mysterious island. Is survival the main objective, or is there a main story and mystery to unravel?**

> *There’s a whole forest to discover and learn about, but survival is the main and first goal of many players. We don’t have a traditional story, instead we prefer to drop players into this situation and let them figure out how to survive*
>
>

**8. Building on from that what are your core gameplay objectives?**

> *We don’t have traditional objectives. Players can try to survive however they want. Eating is important to keep your energy up. If you hope to survive against the enemy threat it’s important to start planning what to do. We let players make all of these decisions, some players will want to stay in the plane and try and live there as long as they can, others will build a raft and escape to one of the nearby small islands during the night, only returning in the morning when it’s (hopefully) safe. Instead of any kind of traditional missions or objectives we give players a world and lots of options in how they survive in it.*
>
>

**9. Your feature list references a living breathing forest with “changing weather patterns” and “plants that grow and die” to name a few. Are these solely to improve immersion, or do they affect gameplay? My assumption was that if survival is key, plants could be a source of food or medicine – and it wouldn’t be too good for you if they died.**

> *The changing tide is a good example, at low tide certain caves become inaccessible, and if you’re not out of there in time you can get flooded and trapped inside. Plants and herbs can be used to make medicine, and though these are finite in the world, you can also grow your own garden to make healing plants at your base.*
>
>

**10. In the day time you are meant to gather resources and set up your defenses. However what caught my attention was that at night you don’t just have to survive, as you can take the fight to your enemies. That sounds seriously awesome. Tell me, how does this element of choosing to fight back or hide work? What incentives do you have to hunt your enemies down for instance?**

> *The enemy returns to it’s caves during the day to sleep, it’s there that they’re at their most vulnerable. Our enemies are also finite, so it’s possible to (eventually) wipe them all out, we don’t think this will be the goal of all players but some will definitely want to attempt this.*
>
>

**11. Are you in any danger during the day? Perhaps from wild animals, starvation or sickness?**

> *Players will have to decide how they spend their days, from going down into the tunnels to try and kill the sleeping mutants, or exploring the world to try and find a way out, or taking a more defensive position and building shelters traps and walls and building an impenetrable fortress.*
>
>

**12. It says that you will face “genetic mutant enemies that have beliefs, families and morals”. That sounds extremely interesting to me. What does this mean for the game? Does it affect gameplay? For example would killing your enemies make them more hateful/aggressive towards you?**

> *We’re trying to make the world and especially the a.i. dynamic and reactive to everything you do. The mutants travel in groups and these little family structures that can be broken up by you murdering some of them. We get some really interesting emergent gameplay with this when you kill the leader of one family, and how the other family members react to this changes depending on a variety of factors leaving you sometimes in a really dangerous predicament.*
>
>

**13. How does player death work in the game? Are there checkpoints, or do you have one chance to get as far as you can, and dying means restarting from scratch?**

> *We do have a permanent death mode, however in our main game mode we also allow players to save the game. Currently players can save anywhere, however for gameplay reasons we might switch this to only at certain locations, such as a shelter or fire.*
>
>

**14. What are some of the things you can build to fortify or defend yourself?**

> *You can build simple structures as seen in the first and second trailers, such as cabins and walls, or you can snap together doors, floors and ceilings and make pretty much any type of structure you can imagine. For defense there are a variety of traps you can make, a big inspiration for the game are those survival type films, where characters use everyday items to fight an enemy, we also try and capture that with our enemy combat. Fighting enemies head on isn’t often a great idea, instead to survive, setting traps, making molotov cocktails, covering yourself in mud to be less visible are all great ways to get the upper hand.*
>
>

**15. Your enemies appear to be very agile based on the trailers. What can you tell us about how they will function in the game? For example, are you able to outrun them if spotted? Are they relentless in chasing you down? Do they hunt you and can they find you in hiding places?**

> *You can try to outrun them, although hiding in the bushes, or underwater in a lake is probably a better idea. We give these creatures lots of routines, they live life in the forest, they hunt food, create cannibal art (out of body parts) and sleep during the day. They are pretty relentless and a major focus of the game is surviving against this cannibal threat.*
>
>

**16. What you most proud of with The Forest?**

> *It’s really amazing to see the entire thing take shape, from initial concept to where we are now. Seeing an a.i. flee from you, jump on a near by tree, then jump tree to tree stalking you is always really satisfying.*
>
>

**17. I was pleased to see that this will be a single-player experience, as it ensures a clear focus and direction. But the concept does seem to have multiplayer potential as well. Did the thought cross your mind at any point?**

> *We always thought of it as a single player only experience, but over the course of development it’s become clear just how much an additional human in the experience could add. We plan to keep multiplayer as an additional mode, and have a lot of idea’s how this could play differently than other survival games.*
>
>

**18. The game is currently set for PC and Oculus Rift. I understand those are your focus right now, but would you be keen to bring the game to PlayStation 4 and/or Xbox One if things are looking up?**

> *Yes, we’re really excited about both platforms and would love to bring the game to consoles. Our main focus and passion however is PC gaming and so that’s our current focus.*
>
>

**19. Where is your team with development right now? Your Steam page says an alpha was initially planned for the end of 2013, but was delayed to early 2014. I’m happy for the extra effort put in! What can we expect from the alpha, and how can gamers get in on it? Any word on a final release date?**

> We’re aiming for early this year for the alpha. Originally the end of 2013 was planned, however after the enormous response to the first trailer and seeing how excited people were for a game like this we decided to dedicate extra time to development to improve the game as much as possible before the public alpha release.
>
>

**20. Does Endnight Games believe that genetic mutant cannibals are people too, and should be accepted by society? If so, what would your team do if you were trapped on the Island inside your own game?**

> *Of course, we’d still fight to survive against them though. When I watch movies like Dawn of the Dead or 28 days later I always imagine how I would survive in those situations, and it’s what we’ve tried to capture in this game. Throw people into a survival situation with lots of different options and then let people try to figure out how to survive.*
>
>

## SurvivalistGaming

* Published: Feb. 15th 2014
* SurvivalistGaming talking with Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is speech-to-text so it may slightly differ from the original

**1. How do you intend to handle the natural wildlife?**

> *Most of the wildlife isn't a threat to you, but animals in the woods add a lot to the immersiveness of the game. Owls hoot in trees at night, seagulls down by the beach will peck away at the sharks corpses, turtles will swim away or lay in the sand, lizards will wander about, climb trees or rest on a rock.*
>
>

**2. How long is day and night cycle?**

> *We started off with quite short days but over time as we added more and more things during the day we've been slowly lengthening the days. We find an exact length is a setting we constantly tweak as we get closer to the alpha release and we expect it will change a lot during the alpha.*
>
>

**3. Can you shed some light on the inventory system?**

> *We have a full 3D inventory system. Players open their in-game backpack and can take items from it.*
>
>

**4. To what extent does the fire spread, just to houses, to trees, etc.?**

> *Fire will spread depending on the wind and the environment. It will burn down structures as well as bushes and trees. It's mostly a damp forest with frequent rain so it won't be possible to burn down the entire forest.*
>
>

**5. Can mutants destroy the structures you build?**

> *Not only a mutant will try to destroy the structures you build, you can also destroy your own structures and regain some of the resources you've used.*
>
>

**6. Will there be rivers and streams?**

> *We currently have a bunch of lakes and the surrounding ocean. Water can be used for a few different things in the game, from hiding briefly to escape enemies or as a way to wash blood off yourself after the battle.*
>
>

**7. What does the weather effect the ocean?**

> *We have a tide system that will rise and fall each day but we don't currently affect the wave size due to the wind but it's something that could be added eventually. It is also possible for players to build water crafts, things like houseboats or a raft. Also having a changing ocean would offer a bunch of gameplay possibilities.*
>
>

**8. Will the A.I. counteract strategies used repeatedly, meaning will they catch on the certain traps in tactics if we use them too often?**

> *This is something we're still balancing, enemies can be aware of traps and things you place around the world but it can lead to frustrating gameplay if they always avoid player's tactics.*
>
>

**9. Will the players be restricted to one home structure at the time or will they be able to build wherever they please?**

> They can build wherever they like and can currently build as many as they like. You're going be limited by the time it takes to build these structures and resources. We imagine most players will build a single base and try and improve it as much as possible although some may wish to build several mini bases around the world.
>
>

**10. Is there currently any limit on how much you can build?**

> *You're limited by the available resources in the world but we don't currently stop players from building as much as they like.*
>
>

**11. You've elaborated a little on just how violent and dangerous the combat in the game is. Which weapon do what you would expect to when you strike an enemy, do bladed weapons actually cut them or is it more of a system like Skyrim or they have an overall health?**

> *A lot of different weapons affect the enemies in different ways. Hitting them with stick will be a lot different than swinging an axe at them. We're trying for a sense of realism with their violence and we want players to have to beat them with a stick and then have to use a rock to smash their skull in just because it isn't a higher damage weapon. Players can also build different traps so we can expect most players to use a combination of traditional weapons, luring enemies into the traps and using world elements such as fire to get the upper hand.*
>
>

**12. Do enemies react to where they're hit accordingly, meaning does that actually look like you're hitting something where you're hitting it?**

> *This is something we're actually working on currently. Getting hits to feel real and [unintelligible] is very important to us and part of this comes from separating hits from the upper and lower body and really making combat feel alive and dynamic.*
>
>

**13. Will there be ways to engage single enemies quickly, like one good shot to the back of the head?**

> *You can stealth kill enemies from behind with a rock. It's pretty good strategy when they're not in the group.*
>
>

**14. As we go [unintelligible] usually apathehic to any A.I. let alone [unintelligible] NPCs, do you think the force will instill a feeling of empathy [unintelligible]?**

> *I hope so. More than anything we're just trying to do something interesting, something different than other games when it comes to A.I.s and NPCs. We become attached to these creatures as we develop them so what we see as a heartwarming image of one of the creatures holding and helping another some people may view as bizarre and scary because they seem so human but they are obviously far from normal human beings like you and I.*
>
>

**15. Also, how unpredictable is the A.I. behavior? Will I be saying "Wow I've never seen that yet" even farther ending the game or will I have a general understanding after a few days of playing?**

> *As the A.I. get more and more desperate there will be changes in how you tackle them. Having a sense of progression over time as the game develops and even as far as who you're fighting in the later part of the game is something we're really focused on.*
>
>

**16. Will there be a weapon and tool degradation or will they break down over time?**

> *We had this in originally but we haven't been able to make it not frustrating in the game. In the middle of the fight and finding your stick breaking because you've spent too much time hitting plants with it ends up just being frustrating. It's possible that weapon degradation can make a return at some point if we can get it working smoothly [unintelligible] the frustration which is something a lot of games have a problem with. [Games like Dead Island and Dead Rising, you always find a cool weapon but it never really lasts.]*
>
>

**17. Are there poisonous plants and berries that can be hazardous to the player if he/she is careless?**

> *Yes, players will have to know which berries and mushrooms to eat and which to avoid.*
>
>

**18. Will the game be taking a traditional save file approach or will there be some type of penalty system when you die?**

> *There will be saving. Currently is a save anywhere system but it will probably be switched so it's only possible to save at your fire or shelters. There's also a permanent death mode.*
>
>

**19. Will you be able to camouflage your house as well as traps?**

> *Leaves can be collected from plants and bushes to create camouflage and only use them on certain items.*
>
>

**20. Does player gain experience and skill doing certain things; example, the more you run the faster you can go?**

> *This is one of those systems we're still working on.*
>
>

**21. Is it true there's a chance you can trip if you're running to fast?**

> *No, I think it's an interesting idea but that would be really frustrating in practice.*
>
>

**22. Will you be giving earlier access to coverage sites before the public alpha launch?**

> *Probably.*
>
>

**23. Can we expect to see longer cuts of non spoiling gameplay in the future?**

> *We really want to get the game to a bunch of people's hands and let them make videos for YouTube. We think that's probably a better way to show off long gameplay than having us make extended videos. In our trailers we're really trying to get across to [show] version of the entire game in a minute or two.*
>
>

**24. How is alpha development going and how excited are you to get the game into the public?**

> *It's going really well and we're constantly adding and improving things. As a small team, development moves really fast and new ideas can be done really quickly. We're excited about the alpha release and we've been asked a lot about the exact release date or just release the game as it is but before releasing the alpha launch we want to be in a place where the team can push a regular working build and updates [unintelligible] without breaking anything.*
>
>

## We Got This Covered

* Published: Apr. 9th 2014
* We Got This Covered talking with Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. "expectations"**

> *The team mostly come from a visual effects background and so for all of us we’re really excited about cool new technology and lighting and shading techniques. We want to make the visuals as good as we can get them to be. Realism and immersion are very important for us. We want the player to feel as if they were dropped into a world.*
>
>

**2. "obstacles"**

> *The real difficulty is in making an interesting world without much repetition and so for our main game mode we’ve decided to go with an authored layout. We may at some point add back in the option to re-roll a new world.*
>
>

**3. "environment"**

> *Having an environment where you can chop down any bush or tree, makes those elements a game play in itself. Clearing areas of the environment will affect your building as well as your interactions with the enemy threat.*
>
>

**4. "enemies"**

>
> *Investing in the cannibals’ believable emotional reactions has been a big focus of the A.I. Cannibals attempt to protect members of their family during combat, dragging downed comrades to a safe distance. So if they come across a slain family member, they may spend a moment mourning the loss, which has gameplay implications by giving the player a chance to sneak up on occupied enemies.*
> *Cannibals that see a member of their tribe killed by the player will react differently depending on who was killed and in what manner. For example killing a female in front of a group of males is generally not a good idea. Cannibals that are slain in a particularly brutal manner may even freak everyone out causing them to flee temporarily.*
> *There is a balance between survival and dealing with the cannibal threat. We want to give players as many options as possible to deal with the cannibals. Everything will come at a cost, though. You won’t always want to attack them straight on, you will be able to build traps and bombs. You can also sneak into the caves during the day to try and thin out their numbers.*
>
>
>
>

## GAMEYARD!

* Published: Apr. 11th 2014
* GAMEYARD talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. A long time is gone since the „The Forest alpha“ has been released. How happy are you with the game progress. How satisfied are you now with your game?**

> *I’m really happy with the pace we’re moving at now, new additions are being added regularly and some of the longer term goals are starting to come to life.*
>
>

**2. How was „The Forest“ by the community affected? What changes & features have been implemented by the community feedback?**

> *The bow and arrow is one that was heavily requested by the community, we were never sure about adding it in, but now that we have it everyone on the team loves it. There are still many additions and improvements planned for the current bow but it does add a really interesting item to build and gives more use to players for the game’s collectable feathers.*
>
>

**3. If we are already talking about the community: In the last months was less likely to hear / read from the developer team. You already wrote to me in a recent email that you had some plans for improvements. How will the contact to players look in the future?**

> *We’ve been trying to be more communicative, we’re in crunch mode on the game itself however and so almost all our time and energy is devoted to production, that the other side of community involvement, press and marketing gets pushed to the side!*
> *To try and rectify this we’ve recently hired on one of our mods from the Steam community forums. He’s been involved in the game since pre-release and seemed like a good fit to help us relay feedback from the community to the team and also engage more with them. One of his idea’s was to every week or two take down the top 10 community questions and have the team answer them.*
>
>

**4. How proud are you of your community? Players create fansites, guides, forums or even mods for the game. Had you ever expected a so great commitment to „The Forest“?**

> *It’s really amazing, I’m always surprised to see forest related sites and images.*
>
>

**5. Let`s talk about mods. A lot of players (like Andrew, Souldrinker or TemplarGFX) created huge mods and the players really loved them. What are you thinking about mods? What are you thinking about the possibility of a steam workshop?**

> *We love the mods, and want to support them as much as we can. Steam workshop would be great, and is definitely on our wish list. The current process to get mods working in the game is a bit fiddly and we’d love to make that experience smoother.*
>
>

**6. It`s amazing what graphics are allowed by the engine. The visible details looks very beautiful. How much potential is still in the increase of the graphics / engine. Are the capacities fully exploited or exists more capabilities for enhancement?**

> *Our graphics programmer has been working in the background for the last few months developing a new rendering system for Unity. We’re attempting to switch to a fully deferred rendering system which will allow for more geometry, more advanced image effects and should all theoretically run faster. In addition we’re re-writing our physically based shading, adding micro-faceted brdf surfaces, new subsurface scattering for leaves and massively improving the games water rendering. The tests we’ve been doing look really promising and we’re hoping to start implementing this into the builds very soon.*
>
>

**7. With the update to version 0.06 you have added a new cannibal. „The hungry cannibal“.He is so hungry that he attacks his own people and eaten them. This step surprised many players. Will you add more rival groups of enemies in the game?**

> *We really like the idea of the enemies interacting with each other and with the animals in the world, it’s definitely an area of the a.i. we want to keep exploring and developing.*
>
>

**8. How will the future of crafting look like? Will you make the crafting system as real as possible (e.g. stick + clothes = torch) or will the crafting system becomes easier (e.g. Alcohol + coin + board computer = bomb)?**

> *It’s important to us that the system is simple and fun to use. We want to capture that feel of preparing for a battle. You open your inventory, you load some cloth into a bottle as a molotov, connect some teeth to your axe to increase it’s damage, maybe rig together a small bomb. It’s not supposed to be completely realistic, but we want to capture that feel of playing macgyver, coming up with cool interesting combinations.*
> *Our next patch coming in a few days revamps crafting, adding the ability to upgrade any weapon with teeth, feathers or cloth, it’s really interesting and gives the players a lot more ways to deal with the enemies.*
>
>

**9. Which role will play the second island on the other side of the map ? Why is this part of the map blocked?**

> *Originally we wanted to open up the entire world as soon as possible, but over the course of developing we’ve felt it’s better to keep this smaller enclosed space only open for players as we polish and develop all the systems.*
> *There are some surprises in the second half of the map and we’re not quite ready to reveal them yet.*
>
>

**10. The problem with horror games is, that they loose the Horror aspect over time. How would you like to expand the horror aspect in future?**

> *Over time we plan to really expand our cave system, leading players deeper into the abyss. We have some very unexpected elements to come and think players will be both shocked and terrified by what they see.*
>
>

**11. Endnight Games hired more people over time. How great is your team now? There is a common picture of the development team?**

>
> *We’ve managed to slowly assemble a really great team, it’s actually been the single hardest part of development! I always assumed it would be easy to hire great talent, but the truth is it’s miserable!*
> *It’s been a slow process, but the team is now what we feel is amazing. We have great sound designers, 3 great programmers, an amazing dedicated multiplayer coder, a strong art team, an additional animator who has been working on the game’s animals for the last month or so.*
> *Taking the team from 3 people to the 11 or so it is currently was really challenging but the team as it currently stands, works really well together and development speed is only going to increase over the next few months as everyone becomes more comfortable working on the project.*
>
>
>
>

**12. Where do you see the game in one year? What can we expect?**

> *We hope by then it’s the most amazing open world survival game in existance. The game really is a labour of love for the team, we would be working on this as a hobby if it wasn’t successful. The success however has given us the resources to really make our dream game with a really strong team.*
>
>

**13. Endnight Games, last but not least, you want to give us a foretaste of the next update? What will be new?**

> *The most exciting new addition will be the infinite weapon upgrading. Bash a mutants head in and gather his teeth, attach these teeth to your axe to increase the damage. Attach as many as you can collect. You can also combine a bottle with a weapon to attach glass shards, or feathers to increase weapon speed. Players will be able to really customize and improve the weapons they have improving their chances of surviving in the world.*
> *In addition to weapon upgrading, there will be new buildable items, a new animal type and lots of other small additions.*
>
>

**14. I want to thank you again for answer my questions. And i wish you good luck with the further development of „The Forest“. At last, would you like to say something for every reader of the interview yet?**

> ***Thanks everyone!***
>
>

## GamingBolt 1

* Published: Apr. 17th 2014
* GamingBolt talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. Looking into this game, The Forest has shot up to the top of my anticipated games list. The entire idea sounds genius, and it sounds like something never before attempted. What gave you the inspiration to do something like this?**

> *The initial inspiration came from the Italian cannibal films of the 80’s. I thought it would be really interesting to build a world like that and throw players in there, let them try and survive.*
>
>

**2. The storytelling of this game sounds an awful lot like Metroid Prime, where you almost never had any explicit directive or objective, but had to figure out what to do based on cues from the environment. Was that one of your inspirations for this title?**

> *In some ways definitely. I’m a big fan of those games, and of games in general which inform you via the environment instead of via constant missions/pop ups.*
> *From a story point of view, we’re aiming more for a situation. If in real life you were thrown into a cannibal infested forest, you probably wouldn’t have NPC’s sending you on quests, or a mission log or anything. You’re only mission would be to survive and it would be up to you to figure out how.*
>
>

**3. So, technically, assuming the player ignores the story for whatever reason, the game will continue indefinitely? Is it a full fledged sandbox? What are the range of tools the player gets?**

> *We’re trying to give players as many options as possible and it’s been surprising for us what things end up being the most fun. Picking up rocks and throwing them at plants or into lakes, or poking things with the spear are both weirdly addictive.*
>
>
> *Our building options are pretty vast and so some players will spend a long time building a massive fortress, whilst others will be trying to get deeper into the caves and really uncover what’s happening in this world.*
>
>
>
> *We don’t force players to do anything, however overtime the enemy threat may become more intense and require more attention, you may run out of food having picked the plants around you clean and be forced to move to a more dangerous area or descend deeper into the caves to get more resources.*
>
>

**4. Considering how very often, ‘horror’ is conflated with ‘confined spaces,’ what are the challenges you are facing in making what is an open world game feel scary enough?**

> *One of my favorite movies is the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and for me the scariest moments are early on in the open, in broad daylight. If anything I find dark confined spaces with decaying textures to be such a cliche now that it’s not scary at all.*
> *We’re trying to show people images they’ve never seen before, and hope that makes things scary. We also really like the contrast between very pretty, very serene, and then damp wet dark cave with something moving towards you and you have no idea what it is. We find that contrast really scary.*
>
>

**5. So, the cannibals… although they’re genetically enhanced, I believe, they also appear to be just regular old cannibals, no zombies, no supernatural explanation. When did you decide to keep your horror game grounded in reality?**

> *We want the enemies to seem real and find that makes things much scarier. However the genetically modified part does give us a lot of freedom in where we take them.*
>
>

**6. Considering how dynamic the game world seems to be, I guess the natural question that arises is, would you ever want to add to it or expand it? Maybe hold one time only events in real time, or release content that impacts the game world irrevocably, so the player has to re-acclimatize?**

> *That’s a really interesting idea! Part of our excitement about the alpha release is we will be constantly changing things as people are playing it, which definitely opens up all kinds of possibilities.*
>
>

**7. So, why did you decide to go with Oculus Rift for this game?**

> *I find VR really exciting, especially with what it can do for a horror game. Seeing the enemies run at you when they appear life size is really terrifying.*
>
>

**8. The Last of Us is a great example of creating tension whilst giving players enough survival mechanics. Can players expect survival gameplay mechanics like crafting? How the player is going to survive this madness?**

> *Crafting is a big part of the game, to chop down a tree you need to craft an axe. To spear fish you need to first create a spear.*
> *We have a world full of items you can pick up: sticks, stones, herbs etc and from these and many other items players can craft a variety of tools to help them survive and get the upper hand against the enemies.*
>
>

**9. The game looks gorgeous. Tell us a bit behind the game’s inspiration for art design?**

>  *Gregory Crewdson is a big influence, and we constantly look at his work for inspiration for the games lighting design.*
> *We’ve also been really lucky to have some amazing technical artists on board, such as Oren Kurtz and David Miranda who worked on our sky light scattering system and skin shaders and produced some really amazing results.*
>
>

**10. Tell us a bit about the engine you are using the amount of tech work that gone into it?**

> *We’re using Unity 4 with a lot of custom addons.*
>
>

**11. Have you guys worked on a confirmed release date?**

> *Not just yet, however we’ll be releasing a third and final trailer really soon with the release date attached.*
>
>

**12. Let us talk a bit about next gen consoles. You have expressed interest in porting the game over to the PlayStation 4 and I also understand that you have a small team so the focus is on the PC version. But do you think you will bring the game to Sony’s next gen console and Xbox One once PC development is done with?**

> *Hope so, we’d love to!*
>
>

**13. The Order 1886 is a great example of what the PlayStation 4 is capable of doing so early in its life cycle. As a developer how does it make you feel that such stellar looking vistas will now be possible on consoles specifically the PS4?**

> *It’s always really exciting when new consoles launch. The Order looks amazing and can’t wait to check it out. I’ve actually been trying to buy a ps4 for the last couple months but they’ve been sold out everywhere in Canada.*
>
>

**14. Tell us a bit about the costs that will be associated if you decide to port the game to PS4 and Xbox One? What kind of process would you have to go through to get the game up there?**

> *This is something we’re still looking into.*
>
>

**15. Is there anything else you want to tell us about the game?**

> *We’re currently preparing our third trailer which will show some new things I think people probably are not expecting. We’re really excited to see everyone’s reaction.*
>
>

## Unity 3D

* Published: Apr. 25th 2014
* Unity talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

*The initial idea came from the 70’s and 80’s horror films I grew up watching, movies like ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, as well as the Italian cannibal films from that era, such as ‘The Descent’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’. I thought it would be really interesting to take the world from one of those films and throw a player into it.*
*I had a really great experience developing with [Unity], and after it was completed [an iPad title called ‘End Night’] I started to think about a follow-up game. I started experimenting with Unity’s terrain and tree tools, and not long after that the first rough version of ‘The Forest’ was born.*
*I think we’re most proud of the amount of freedom players have in the gameworld, we really stuck to the initial idea of complete freedom. There are a few really cool open-world games, but none that also have such a strong horror element.*
*We also have a visual identity that’s really unlike any other game, our deep cave areas have been kept mostly secret so far, but we think when players see what's actually living down there, they’re going to be terrified.*
*Being able to seamlessly and precisely blend between many different and complex actions has really helped us a lot, our main lighting system uses the Sunshine asset as its base, with modifications to implement it into a full day/night cycle and light scatter solution, our plants come from a modified version of the advanced foliage shader.*
*As a small team, it’s really hard to achieve a high level of art quality, one thing we are doing for a lot of our assets is using 3D scan data. Our rocks, caves and cliffs are created in minutes instead of days, and have a level of realism that isn’t really possible to achieve using regular 3D modeling tools.*
*Finding the right people to help was definitely key, and we’ve been lucky enough to find some amazing artists to help us bring the vision to life.*
*I always felt hiring on people would be a really easy part of the process, but it’s turned out to be one of the most challenging, everyone at Endnight Games works remotely, and finding people who can work in that way is a lot harder than you might think. It takes a certain type of person who can work with minimal supervision and still produce high-quality work in line with the vision we have for the game.*
*It’s incredibly motivating seeing all the great work being produced as development progresses, there’s constant learning amongst all members of the team, we all really enjoy the learning process, and constantly push ourselves to develop new things and ways of working. I’ve been slowing learning shader programming on this project, which is new to me and really exciting.*
*There was one time where our backup solution [Oculus Rift support] corrupted the entire project and its backup, it gave the entire team a solid two-day scare until we managed to find a workaround.*
*The title ‘The Forest’ carries a sense of mystery, you get the feeling of something lurking in there. Early on we had suggestions to switch the name to ‘The Woods’, but that felt too horror cliché to me. Capturing that sense of mystery and horror in a simple, memorable title was really important.*

## Enter The Rift

* Published: May 5th 2014
* Enter The Rift talking with Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* interview translated from french, may deviate from original

**1. Thank you very much for giving us the time to answer some of our questions. Can you start by introducing the team? What is your background ?**

>
> *Endnight Game: Our main team consists of four people.*
>
>
>
> * *Ben Falcone is our creative director and the creator of the game. He has over 10 years of special effects experience, including films like Tron Legacy or 300.*
> * *Michael Mellor is the animation lead and artificial intelligence developer. He also has over 10 years of experience in special effects and animation. He has worked on the Harry Potter movies as well as many commercials.*
> * *Oren Kurtz is our graphics engineer. He is the co-creator of RocketDock and develops games and applications.*
> * *Anna Terekhova is our 2D and 3D artist. She also comes from the world of special effects. She has worked on films such as Snow White and the Huntsman and Sucker Punch.*
>
>
> *We have also brought in a large number of independent artists and developers all over the world.*
>
>
>
>

**2. Where did the idea for The Forest come from? What were your sources of inspiration?**

> *We drew a lot of inspiration from Italian cannibal films of the 80s, but also from novels such as  I Am Legend . We thought the worlds they presented were perfect for survival horror.*
>
>

**3. The game seems to feature a story mode from the trailers. What is the average lifespan of a complete part?**

> *We have a story in the broadest sense of the word. There is an end to the game, but it is not mandatory. Exploration will allow you to discover clues that will bring you closer to the grand finale. But there is no fixed term. You can survive for days on what you find in the forest before you have to move on. We want to leave the choice to the player as much as possible. If he doesn't want to live a story, he doesn't have to.*
>
>

**4. How long is a day/night cycle?**

> *It's something that we are constantly adjusting. And it will continue until the alpha.*
>
>

**5. What kind of traps can we use to confront the enemies?**

> *We deliberately remained vague on the possibilities of traps and weapons that can be crafted. You can see a little preview of it in the trailers. If everyone knew too much, there would be less suspense and panic the first time you enter The Forest. What can I do ? Where should I go ? We want you to feel thrown into a situation over which you have no control.*
>
>

**6. How is the interest of the game renewed during the game?**

> *Survival is going to take a lot of attention, but the cannibals' hidden mysteries should keep players hooked. We don't want to dictate how to play the game. If someone just wants to build shelters and survive in the forest, it is possible for them to do so for days. However, it will be necessary to continue exploring to find more supplies. This is where things can get interesting.*
>
>

**7. Several of our readers seemed interested in the "peaceful" mode. Can you tell us more about this one?**

> *We know that some people will be more interested in exploration and basic survival immersed in the beauty of the world we've created. "Peaceful Mode" essentially eliminates the cannibal threat allowing for a more tranquil experience. The game is really meant to be played in all its violent glory though, so some aspects might be missing in this mode.*
>
>

**8. Where did the idea of ​​adapting The Forest in virtual reality come from?**

> *We have always been passionate about VR. Early versions of The Forest were developed using a Sony HMZ head-mounted display. When the Rift was announced shortly after, we knew we had to work to make the game compatible with it.*
>
>

**9. How did you approach this Oculus Rift compatibility?**

> *Everything was designed with virtual reality in mind. The claustrophobia of the caves, the beauty of the environment. We created a full 3D inventory and body for the player. Everything we did with VR in mind made the 2D version equally immersive.*
>
>

**10. The rendering looks great with the Unity 4 engine. What's your secret? How do you handle the high FPS need for the Oculus Rift?**

> *We use a large number of proprietary assets and we have the pleasure of working with very talented programmers and 3D artists. Oren Kurtz, who works full time on our team, is the creator of the "Sunshine" asset and he was a big help in making the world look real. We were also lucky to find artists who were able to bring our ideas to life.*
>
>

**11. Is the game expected to support DK2 position tracking? Have you planned this functionality in the gameplay?**

> *Possibly yes. The DK2 not being released yet, it is difficult for us to plan something with it for the moment.*
>
>

**12. The game may require rapid and frequent movement. Did you manage to limit the motion sickness?**

> *We're still having motion sickness issues, especially with the DK1. We hope that the DK2 will help on this point.*
>
>

**13. To conclude, do you have a little anecdote to tell us about the development of the game?**

> *We could all have become a little insensitive after this project. We've had our eyes fixed on corpses and dismemberments for far too long.*
>
>

## Game Debate

* Published: May 24th 2014
* Game Debate talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. The Forest is entering Early Access in a few days. What features can we expect at this stage, and what do you hope to add as the game develops?**

>
> *We want the first early access release to be a great base we can build on top of. Adding and opening up new areas and new caves over time, as well as increasing the variety of wildlife in the world.*
> *There are quite a few surprises planned for the enemies over the course of the alpha, and players can expect new types to appear as development continues.*
> *On the building side, many more structures will become available and more crafting options will open up over time.*
> *We are also really excited to experiment more with a multiplayer/co-op experience over the course of the alpha and feel its something that could really add a lot to the world.*
>
>
>
>

**2. You’ve compared The Forest to Minecraft in earlier interviews, how deep does this comparison go? Will crafting be an open-­ended experience or do you intend to help funnel players down a specific avenue of progression e.g. crafting trees?**

> *We have a very unique crafting system. It’s based on a fully 3d interface and we plan on expanding the amount of items you can craft throughout the Alpha.*
>
>

**3. With no clear end game or goal, what in the game world gives the player the impetus to move on?**

> *We actually do have an end game although not all players will be interested in reaching it. We imagine most people will be more interested to see how long they can survive. The cannibal threat in the world will be very vicious and it will take a lot of skill to overcome.*
>
>

**4. Where do you think the balance lies between totally free-form progression and focused goals in a survival game?**

> *We are really excited about the idea that players can invent their own goals. Some players will decide to build a raft to explore an island nearby. This will require finding cloth and rope which will be more abundant deep down in the caves. Finding those items becomes its own mission, you will have to prepare to go down in the caves making sure you have enough light sources and weapons to survive. Mini missions like these, invented completely by the player will make up the bulk of the game.*
> *There's a lot of survival games floating around right now, so we wanted to address how Endnight is working to set The Forest apart, how players will be able to interact with the mutant dwellers that share the island, and how The Forest will instil fear into gamers.*
>
>

**5. The survival genre is having something of a golden age at the moment. How do you feel The Forest will stand out and what do you feel you are bringing to the genre?**

> *We’ve really focused on building an interesting world that we can just throw players into. Heavily focused on atmosphere and immersion. We try and keep everything in the game world at all times, including our 3d inventory and crafting systems.*
> *Our enemies are a real threat and will place players under constant stress, forcing them to build smartly and gather resources to both survive in the world and against the enemies.*
>
>

**6. You’ve previously cited Cannibal Holocaust as an influence, to what extent can you interact with your fellow forest dwellers? Will opportunities arrive to infiltrate their communities?**

> *The cannibals live mostly underground, and like ‘I Am Legend’ It’s possible to head down there to kill them off whilst they sleep.*
> *As we revealed in our third trailer, there are several varieties of mutant, from regular close to surface mutants who appear mostly human, to deep down below where the mutants can get really distorted and creepy looking.*
>
>

**7. Horror game legend Shinji Mikami said not too long ago that gamers have become harder to scare. Do you think this is true, and how do you feel you can maintain the tension for the horror elements of The Forest?**

>
> *We don’t try and scare players, instead we have tried to build an interesting realistic world with an enemy threat that just happens to want to eat you.*
> *We don’t have any jump scares or what games might traditionally use to try and scare players. Building an atmosphere that is in part horrific, such as deep down in a cave, matched with this very serene above ground forest with birds singing and pretty lakes and ponds create a really unique experience.*
> *Once players are drawn into the experience we find they get scared at almost anything. In a recent playtest one player jumped back on seeing a stalagmite in a cave that from a distance appeared to have a faint human form.*
>
>
>
>

**8. It’s great to see a survival game that is focused on a Single Player experience rather than the many, many survival multi­players out there right now. What drew you to focus on single player as the primary experience of the game?**

> *We’ve focused on single player because a lot of our team is really interested and influenced by single player games. System Shock 2, Bioshock and open world games such as GTA have been big influences on us.*
> *The Alpha system requirements for The Forest dropped earlier this week, and we wanted to know how the devs at Endnight were working to make such a visually attractive title as ubiquitous as possible when it came to running on PC.*
>
>

**9. From what we’ve seen of The Forest so far, it looks like a graphically beautiful title. How tough is the title going to be on our PCs? Will the game run on lower­-end rigs?**

> *We have put a massive amount of time into optimizing. We have an amazing graphics programmer on board who has been working hard to optimize all our settings as we move closer to launch. We expect over the course of the Alpha for performance to improve even further.*
> *Older machines should perform pretty well with some settings turned down such as our screen based reflections,ambient occlusion and motion blur.*
>
>

**10. What about The Forest most excites you personally as developers?**

> *We’re excited most about the amount of freedom we give players. Just letting people loose in a sandbox environment where you can build stuff, chop down every plant and tree, or go caving.*
> *Walking down to the beach and picking up a rock and throwing it at a seagull, seeing it plop down into the sand dead. Or dismembering an enemy body and using his head to mash open a suitcase, are the unique types of moments players can expect.*
>
>

**11. Thanks for your time and best of luck with Early Access!**

> *The Forest is entering Early Access Alpha this week, and will be available to play from 30th May.*
>
>

## Bloody Disgusting

* Published: Jun. 11th 2014
* Bloody Disgusting talking with **Ben Falcone**, **Michael Mellor** and **Anna Terekhova** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. The game is in Early Access. Clearly you have a vision for where you want it to go. What would you like for the final product of The Forest to look like? What changes to the world, environment, and game complexity will you be implementing?**

> *We wanted to release a base that showed what our vision is for the game. We plan on opening up more areas of the world to explore, more caves that go deeper and deeper. As well we will be adding more wildlife and revealing more mutants.*
> *Things like sound design, improved graphics and performance, deeper simulation aspects and more things to build and construct will all be added over the course of the alpha. There are also a few big surprises we have in store and not yet ready to reveal.*
>
>

**2. Is anything big being developed right now that you are adding soon that players would be really interested to know?**

> *We have a lot of really cool stuff in the works. Along with bug fixing we also want to release some cool new things with each update. We haven’t revealed everything yet but we have a pretty solid roadmap. The current plan is to release every two weeks or for the bigger updates, every month. The first update is coming in a few days. (June 16th)*
>
>

**3. How long do you plan on being in the alpha / beta stages of development?**

> *Our current plan is to aim to have the final ready in six months. However as the game develops we will get a much clearer picture. There are a lot of features and improvements we want to make and don’t plan on releasing final until we, and the community really feel it’s ready.*
>
>

**4. I read on the Steam page that a team of only four people created this game. How long have you been working on it, and how did you manage to create something so visually interesting in that period of time?**

> *Most of the team has been working on the game for over a year now. We have also made use of some very talented freelance artists and coders from around the world.*
>
>

**5. Plenty of games in this subgenre of survival sim focus on a very simple aesthetic, or stylized retro-ish graphics. The Forest, on the other hand, is going full tilt on the visual side of things. What prompted that decision?**

> *We have always wanted to see how far we can go with graphics. Coming from a VFX background we knew we could create something really interesting.*
>
>

**6. Tell me a little bit about the people who live around the crash site. Where did the inspiration come from to use cannibals as a complicating, dangerous element?**

> *The inspiration for the cannibals came from 80’s Italian cannibal films. We wanted a smart enemy who could climb trees, mourn their dead and in general be an interesting threat in the world.*
> *This isn’t the 80’s anymore, and so we didn’t think we could get away with a native cannibal threat such as in the traditional cannibal film, and so instead created a mutated human concept, we haven’t revealed exactly who they are but over the course of the alpha as more of the cave systems are opened up, who they are and what they’re doing in the world should start to become clear.*
>
>

**7. I didn’t get very deep into the game – I need to work on my survival skills! – so could you talk also about how the inhabitants play into a larger mythology of the world, or is that being kept secret?**

> *We don’t want to reveal too much about the inhabitants and how they connect to the world. Its something we want players to form their own ideas about as they explore more and as the alpha progresses. Safe to say however that its a really important focus for us, making the inhabitants feel like they belong and have a history with their environment.*
>
>

**8. The game includes a “peaceful mode,” so it seems like you also have an interest in making survival situations as deep and interesting as the enemy attacks. What are the different ways players can approach the world in The Forest?**

> *The peaceful mode is going to be the exact same game, just with the enemies turned off. Although we always saw the core game involving enemies, if players want to turn them off they can approach it as a pure survival experience.*
>
>

**9. Tell us about how co-op will be integrated into the game. How many players will be able to play simultaneously?**

> *We’re hoping to have 2 players to start and possibly build from there. Adding real people to a situation suddenly makes it interesting in a completely different way and it’s something we’re excited to explore more.*
>
>

**10. Has anything surprised you about how people are playing the game, versus how you imagined people would be playing it? Does that affect how you tweak player experience?**

> *Its been really awesome to see the different playthroughs on YouTube. There has been a surprising amount of strategies used by different players. We did not expect players to be so fascinated about killing seagulls on a yacht, for example.*
>
>

**11. How has fan support helped keep the team focused? What sorts of suggestions have been most helpful in steering you in the Alpha phase?**

> *Its been really great getting feedback for the game. Everyone is very enthusiastic and it really helps motivate us. We have had tons of ideas and suggestions emailed to us. Right now the most helpful things have been people providing us with detailed bug reports so we can go in and fix them properly.*
>
>

**12. There is certainly combat in The Forest, but survival is obviously the main component of gameplay. Do you think gamers’ tastes are shifting slowly away from destruction as a means for entertainment?**

> *We think the combat and survival are both essential components of the game. You need the threat of violence and destruction to build tension from the peaceful moments when you’re exploring or crafting. That said, it would be entirely possible to build a great experience purely around survival, its just not the focus of our game.*
>
>

**13. Similarly, what do you think open-world survival games have to say about the concept of making your own play, rather than being compelled to do what the developers have laid out as “necessary?”**

> *Giving the player freedom gives them a lot more possibilities in what the gameplay is in the world. Open world games also have lots of potential to create real tension/horror, as you’re not on a linear path the player can feel genuinely disoriented and unsure what may happen at any moment.*
>
>

**14. What is the plan for Oculus Rift integration? Do you have plans to port it to Mac or release it on consoles at any point?**

> *We are planning on releasing an Oculus update soon. There are still a few things we need to work out before it is ready for the public. Regarding Mac, at the moment we are a very tiny team so our main focus is the PC version. Once that is complete we will look into putting it on other platforms.*
>
>

## The Sydney Morning Herald

* Published: Jun. 26th 2014
* The Sydney Morning Herald talking with **Michael Mellor** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview
* this interview is not question-answer based as it was presumably conversational

>
> *[The Forest was number one about eight minutes after it was uploaded] although I'm willing to concede I may have been dreaming.*
> *We knew we had quite a bit of interest in the game from the trailers already released, but no way did we expect it to be this popular straight out of the gate. After it went live I opened up Steam just to see if we'd moved from the 'coming soon' list into 'new releases' and there was The Forest sitting at the top of the best-sellers. I thought it must have been a glitch.*
> *[Ben Falcone invited him to join Endnight and work on The Forest] At first I said no, it just seemed too risky. But then I slapped myself and thought, when am I ever going to get the chance again to work with a good friend on an awesome-looking project with complete creative freedom?*
> *We really try to leverage [our visual effects background] as much as possible during development.*
> *We're also all perfectionists, and this is a labour of love for everyone involved, so I think that tends to drive us to push things and each other as far as we can in terms of visuals and game design.*
> *I was happy we managed to include the tape recorder that plays random '80s synth 'push it to the limit' music.*
> *At the moment you can use it to regain stamina while chopping down trees, but there are plans to expand its functionality in future updates.*
> *The team is taking staggered breaks at the moment, I'm on a short holiday while Ben and Anna work towards the next update. Then when I get back they'll take some time off. Other than that we're just continuing development and looking to expand the team a bit as we head towards the final version of the game.*
>
>
>
>

## Game Focus

* Published: Jul. 3rd 2014
* Game Focus talking with **Ben Falcone** and **Anna Terekhova** from Endnight Games
* archived link to the interview

**1. Knowing that the game uses the Unity 4 engine can we any expect any cross-platform support with The Forest?(ie. OSX, Xbox One, PS4)?**

> *Being a tiny team, our focus for the Alpha is the PC version. Once the game is complete we will look into getting it on other platforms. We’re all really excited about both ps4 and Xbox one here and would love to be on either of those systems.*
>
>

**2. Can we expect any more narrative based moments or backstory in The Forest? Or, Can we expect any more formal or scripted narrative moments like it starts with?**

> *There will be more story based moments throughout the game, but these will be told mostly through environment and players piecing together the clues themselves. We do have an ending planned for Timmy and it’s going to shock everyone.*
>
>

**3. Can you give a little bit of insight into capturing The Forest’s wonderful balance between serene peaceful moments and grotesque violent moments?**

> *It has always been important for us to have a contrast between light and dark in the game. We have a very serene and pretty world during the day, with god rays coming down from the sky and rainbows after the rain. Then at night and in the caves it turns into a nightmare.*
> *All aspects of the game go back to this, when being violent we try to make sure it’s so violent that it’s almost comical. We never wanted to make a depressing horror game and instead wanted something that was sometimes scary, sometimes beautiful.*
>
>

**4. There has been a tremendous amount of positive feedback given to The Forest so far in the Steam Community and in the gaming press. Is there anything specific that you were worried about before the pre-Alpha release that turned out to be one your game's more celebrated elements?**

> *We were all terrified of releasing! Coming from a visual effects background, we’re all more used to delivering a final product to the public. Releasing something that wasn’t yet complete is new to all of us.*
> *The game’s book was one aspect we were never sure people would get. Even a few days before release of the alpha we did a playtest with someone new and he didn’t understand how the book worked or how to build anything from it. We did some quick revisions and crossed our fingers it would work.*
>
>

**5. Game Focus is a Canadian based video game website and we care a lot about Canadian gaming content. The look of your game reminds me of a walk through a dense and beautiful British Columbia forest. Is there any other bits of inspiration that can be rooted to Canada? Anything that you think being based in Canada helped inspire or inform in your development?**

> *Being based in Vancouver, we’re surrounded by both inspiration and texture reference everywhere we go.*
> *Living here has inspired a lot of the day to day things you do in The Forest. Walking on the seawall around Stanley Park, you stumble upon beaches and you see tons of yachts off the shore. Hiking and some camping throughout Canada has helped us form what The Forest will look and feel like. We have even gone on a caving trip at Horne Lake caves on Vancouver Island which inspired the caves in the game.*
>
>

## GameSkinny

* Published: Aug. 3rd 2014
* GameSkinny talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. The Forest has really impressed gamers since its May 30th public release. Before The Forest was released, Watch Dogs was the top contender on the Steam sales chart, but only a few days later The Forest was Steam’s top seller. Why does your brand of survival horror speak to gamers more so than a AAA game might?**

> *We were really surprised to release at number one on Steam, especially right after Watch Dogs. We’ve tried to capture the feel of playing in the woods, building a fort, finding a rock and throwing it and then fighting against an enemy threat. The openness of the game and the freedom you get as a player really lends itself to YouTube playthroughs and we credit most of the success of the game so far to the amazing videos people have been making.*
>
>

**2. You’ve stated that a far range of films and games have helped influence The Forest: from Disney films and Minecraft to Cannibal Holocaust and Don’t Starve. Juxtaposition is clear from the onset of The Forest, and the game seems to love teasing players with beautiful vistas only to have them ambushed a few seconds later. How do you keep the players interested in exploration and experiencing the beauty of The Forest while delivering that sense of doom as soon as night falls?**

> *The vision was always to make this really beautiful, interesting world, and then try to use that as a base to scare people. Originally the plan was to only have enemies come out at night, but we’ve found the scariest moments come when you don’t expect the enemies at all. Lots of horror games are set in dark scary locations and it seemed like an interesting idea to try something scary above ground in a pretty location.*
>
>

**3. How important is a proper “endgame” to the experience of The Forest? Has it always been a larger goal that the team has kept in mind?**

> *It feels important to me, that there’s this open world, all these things you can do, but then also the option of going straight for the ending. Your son is missing. How do you find him, and what do you do to survive and find out what happened to him? I feel having just a pure survival game with no goal at all would eventually be tiring, and mixing the survival with the very subtle story is really interesting to us. We want players to eventually build up a stash of weapons, cover themselves in armor and the take on the enemy directly, find their missing kid and try and escape the forest.*
>
>

**4. The mutants exhibit complex behaviors to say the least. Some will bluff charge you only to back away and stalk you from a distance, yet others will walk directly at you, scream, and presume to smash your skull into a chalky dust. What was the decision behind the complex set of behaviors that the mutants seem to posses, e.g., worshipping at early hours, patrolling, setting up communities, etc? Does adding a moral scale deter the players from killing every mutant they see?**

> *We wanted to try something different with the AI, and as a team we are always interested in games that try new ideas. From very early on we wanted to try and make these creatures feel alive and dynamic; not knowing exactly what they’re going to do or how they will respond in different situations makes them a lot more interesting and hopefully scary.*
>
>

**5. A co­-op mode has been in the works for sometime, according to most sources. Are there any details you could share about the cohabitation with other players and how that will change the dynamic of The Forest. Will your relationship with the other human player(s) necessarily be symbiotic?**

> *We’ve tried to make the world and game as dynamic as possible and feel having another human in there will only further this goal. Work together, or kill each other it’s up to you.*
>
>

**Aside from bug fixes and player feedback, what is an advantage of the “Pre­Alpha” public release? Do you worry that some players might be deterred from playing the full future release because of a possibly “buggy” first experience?**

> *It’s definitely a worry for us. We want players to have the best experience possible, and so for most players waiting until final is probably the best idea. Some players, however, really like providing feedback and help to the team, filing bug reports and being part of the development process. It’s also an interesting look behind the curtain for some players who are interested in possible careers in game development at some point, being able to see a game form over time is an interesting experience in itself, but a different one than playing a finished polished release.*
>
>

**6. Occulus Rift — The graphical aesthetic of The Forest has a real visceral punch, coaxing players deeper into areas that they might normally avoid. Booming thunder rolls overhead, rain falls in sheets and pools on the ground, a flash of lightning reveals that you are being followed and then you realize you are surrounded. This game seems simultaneously terrifying and mesmerizing with the Occulus Rift. Why did you want to port The Forest to a VR headset?**

> *I’ve always been really excited about VR, 3D and the Rift. I was hoping to have Rift support in for the first version of the alpha release but so many other bugs and gameplay features took priority.We’re hoping to have a Rift version ready in time for the next dev kits and feel that will be a much better experience for players than using the current dev kit, which is limited in a lot of ways. When the VR does work well, and you do get lost in the world it can be a really amazing feeling, looking down at your feet and feeling like you’re actually standing in mud, or seeing a life-size cannibal run jump attack you which can be terrifying.*
>
>

**7. Crafting and survival seem to go hand in hand, especially in video games. How deeply do you want the expand the crafting experience to aid the player all the while keeping a balance between skillful playing and white­knuckle panic?**

> *The goal has always been to make something that is really hard, really challenging for players, unless they play smartly, gather resources build weapons,using their wits to survive.We never wanted to make a fast twitch type game and hope as we balance the game, more attentive players will be able to survive for as long as they focus on making good decisions. We want making a series of bad decisions to ultimately lead to the players death.*
>
>

**8. Since you have added rafts and houseboats as of V 0.03 are you alluding to the idea of being able to leave the island and explore somewhere behind your humble crash site? Could there be an even greater enemy than sharks lurking in the water? How large would you like to expand the realm of play in The Forest?**

> *Escaping the forest should be the eventual goal of most players, along with finding your missing son, but how exactly you escape isn’t something we want to reveal.*
>
>

**9. How do you propose to keep the players interested and coming back once the island has been thoroughly explored and built upon? Are there limits to your character's actions?**

> *We hope the amount of randomness in the world will help with replayability. Co­-op is one place which will really help this, but even as a single player game it’s hopefully a different experience each time players enter the world. Adding more randomness and interesting actions to the creatures, having a bigger world to explore and more things to do will hopefully keep things fresh to players.*
>
>

**10. Are there any big changes or additions that you can hint to for the next update?**

> *We’re very close to having a brand new ambient lighting system working in the game, along with a rough pass of global illumination, combined they really bring the visuals together and drastically improve the look and realism of the world. Down the line, opening up new parts of the world and introducing new animals and more importantly the rest of the cannibal types is going to be really exciting and interesting to see.*
>
>

## Game Developer

* Published: Aug. 28th 2014
* Game Developer talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. At what point in development did you decide that your game was ready to be released as a paid alpha? Why did you feel that was the appropriate time?**

> *When we ran out of money! Some of the fans were yelling at us to release, our private investors were threatening to sue, and we were down to a few hundred dollars in the bank, so we felt it was time.*
>
>

**2. What have you learned about the audience for your paid alpha?**

> *The audience seems to be a lot of people really excited about game development in general. We get a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of comments from people who say they wanted to make a game just like ours. We were pretty nervous going into Early Access but found the audience to be actually really great and supportive.*
>
>

**3. What have been the benefits of your paid alpha?**

> *The bug reports are really helpful. As a tiny team without a QA department, lots of small things just get missed. Having a large group of people playing each update and emailing us almost instantly with a list of bugs is an amazing resource. The other major benefit is we now have the resources financially to not only complete the game, but to complete it to a standard that would have been impossible relying only on our own savings or private investment.*
>
>

**4. What have been the drawbacks and biggest challenges?**

> *The only real drawback has been having to always keep the game somewhat playable. There are times where we want to break everything for a few days to get a new system in, or change the lighting. When the game has to go out to the public 2-3 times a month it means bigger changes are a lot more stressful, and have to be more carefully-timed so as to not break the game drastically for everyone.*
>
>

**5. What are key pieces of advice for releasing a paid alpha game?**

> *Don't Starve had a countdown timer for days on the front screen, and let players know exactly when the next update would come. We thought this was an amazing idea and took this a little further and instead added hours, minutes and seconds to how long until next build would be out. I think it's something the public has responded to really well. Every-time you load the game your reminded as a player that the game is still being worked on, and you know when the new update will be out.*
>
>

## Gamerheadquarters

* Published Sep. 2nd 2014
* Gamerheadquarters talking with **Ben Falcone** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1.First off, could you briefly elaborate on "The Forest" with just a small sum up of what to expect from the game if having heard nothing about it previously?**

> *You play as the survivor of a passenger jet crash, in an unknown and strange forest. Early on you will scavenge from the plane to survive but as night falls you start to realize you’re not alone.*
> *The vision of the game is a completely open game world, taking the setting from a 70’s or 80’s cannibal horror film and throwing players in there. We have no cut scenes or dialogue of any kind and leave it up to players in how they decide to survive.*
>
>

**2. I know the trailer shows a crashed plane, but what caused your character to end up in such a scenario?**

> *The answer to this, is one of the many things players can uncover whilst exploring the world. Why are all the other passengers missing, who is hunting him.*
>
>

**3. Where did the concept of The Forest come from?**

> *The initial idea was a game set in a forest where you could chop down any tree and build things from the wood. In the original idea the creatures were more mystical and the horror was similar to Blair Witch Project. Over time the concept evolved and introducing an intelligent cannibal threat added a new layer of interest to the survival simulation.*
>
>

**4. Furthermore, where did the thought of having ravenous mutants come from?**

> *I’ve always been a fan of Italian horror, in the 80’s there were a bunch of really bad cannibal horror films made. Although I was never really a fan of those films, the imagery from them stuck with me, and for this game seemed a perfect fit.*
>
>

**5. One more on top of that, how can the player possible protect themselves when faced with mutants?**

> *Players can fight the mutants directly using crude weapons made from sticks and stones, or spend time building elaborate traps. It’s also possible for players to turn the tables on the mutants and hunt them in their caves whilst they sleep, similar to ‘I Am Legend’ where the main character spends his days clearing out areas.*
>
>

**6. How dynamic will the environment be in terms of growth or change over playing the game?**

> *Changing the environment has been one of our main goals in this project, Players can cut down every plant and tree in the game world, completely changing the look of the world. This also affects gameplay since the mutants tend to stalk you via trees, with these cut down it’s much harder for them to surprise you.*
>
>

**7. What will be the balance between crafting items to survive and just exploring the luscious jungle?**

> *We try to give players enough tools and options so either is a good choice to make. If players explore all day they won't have the food and weapons to survive, however if they spend too much time crafting they will run out of crafting components meaning they will need to explore further.*
>
>

**8. There are also plans to have Oculus Rift support, how will that impact the experience? Or what are the hopes for how it will impact the experience?**

> *The Rift really brings the game world to life. Instead of passing by a 3D plant, you feel like you’re walking past a real life one. Crouched down hiding from an enemy who appears life size is really terrifying. Our claustrophobic caves feel very intense in full virtual reality. Little unexpected things become terrifying, lifting a rock and a small spider scurrying out from underneath causes me to jump back slightly every time it happens.*
>
>

**9. Could we perhaps see The Forest transition to consoles such as Xbox One or PlayStation 4 down the road?**

> *We’d love to actually. We’re a really small team so our focus is on making the best PC version possible at this point.*
>
>

**10. I hope I gave good coverage of questions for the game, will just make a final note if there is any additional information you would like to share? If not, thanks for taking the time to answer questions and look forward to hearing more about The Forest in the future.**

> *Thanks for the questions!*
>
>

## GamingBolt 2

* Published: Nov. 5th 2018
* GamingBolt talking with **Anna Terekhova** from Endnight Games
* original link to the interview

**1. One of The Forest’s biggest strengths has to be its atmosphere, how it makes you feel so isolated all the time. The setting obviously plays a huge part in that, but how do you strike that balance of achieving that sort of atmosphere without every making it too overbearing?**

> *The game is really separated into two parts. We have the cave systems under the world that are dark and scary, and then the above ground which tends to have a much brighter, light mood. These two elements work together and we hope stop the horror element from ever feeling like its too much for players.*
> *In multiplayer the game tends to be much less scary, that is until you get separated from your friends.*
>
>

**2. Are there any stories or films or games that influenced you directly while you were working on The Forest?**

> *Originally the old Italian cannibal films from the 80’s inspired the setting, however over time the story and game has developed to become its own thing.*
>
>

**3. “Empty open world” is a criticism that we hear levelled at a great many games, but in the case of The Forest, that seems to work in its favour. What was the process of deciding what kinds of activities to give to players while keeping the world true to that sense of isolation?**

> *We didn’t want to fill the world with fetch quests, or find item type missions that fill many open world games. Instead, players decide themselves what they want to do and then the things in the world occur, often changing the players’ plans. Because every plant and tree can be chopped down, and then items collected, you’re constantly doing something as you move through the world, chopping, collecting, chasing rabbits, finding a cave entrance to explore etc.*
>
>

**4. Can we expect any notable changes or additions in the game’s PS4 version?**

> *There are a ton of improvements we’ve done for the PS4 release. We’re also planning on bringing these improvements over to the PC in a patch update. Some of the improvements include new GPU grass for better visuals and performance. Most of the trees and plant are have been tweaked and improved visually. We have new billboard shaders for a better looking distant trees, and a bunch of bug fixes and small improvements to the UI and gameplay.*
>
>

**5. What would you say are the biggest things the multiplayer co-op adds to the experience? Do you think the multiplayer can work against the game’s atmosphere, or that feeling of having to survive all alone in this harsh, deadly environment?**

> *Multiplayer adds a level of extra randomness to everything which we feel really suits the game. You now have an extra person in the world who is maybe constructing things and wants to help you fight off the enemies, or maybe wants to destroy your base when you’re back is turned.*
> *We do watch a lot of playthroughs of players on Youtube or Twitch, and people seem to really enjoy experiencing the game together, building structures, exploring caves and fighting off enemies.*
>
>

**6. The Forest was in Early Access for four years. How much would you say that helped shape the final product into what it is today? Are there any major features or mechanics in the game that you can point to and identify as a result of the feedback you got from the game’s Early Access years?**

> *We took the early access experience extremely seriously, and listened to all the feedback from players. We’re really grateful to everyone who played the game in early access and especially those who took the time to offer comments, both positive and negative. The Forest became a much better game with the guidance and feedback of the players who were actually playing the game over that 4 year period.*
> *It’s difficult to point to a single feature, every element of the game was tweaked based on player response. If elements of the story were not making much sense we would add more clues, if a part of the gameplay was frustrating we would try and tweak to improve it.*
>
>

**7. The AI of the cannibals plays a huge part in helping players what they’re about, and it’s fair to say that it does a lot of stuff through gameplay that many other games would choose to do through storytelling or exposition. How hard was it to get that part right?**

> *We’re not interested at all in story told through NPCs or cutscenes really. Our game has almost no dialogue and tries to tell the story visually instead. We have a few lines of dialogue, but none of it is important to understand the game.*
> *Instead of a traditional story, we wanted to just have a situation players are in, in this case, you crash land in a mysterious forest, and there are unfriendly locals. The real story is unique to each player and how they chose to play the game and experience the world.*
>
>

**8. Do you have any plans for a sequel?**

> *We’d want to really change things up for a sequel. When The Forest came out it was really a unique game, since then there have been a lot of similar survival games released. We do have ideas of what a completely new take on a survival game could be (unlike anything else that exists currently) and are really excited to start exploring those ideas.*
>
>

**9. Any plans for adding stuff like PvP, or maybe a sandbox mode where players can just build their bases to their hearts’ content?**

> *Once players finish the game they can unlock the creative mode. Additionally players who don’t wish to deal with enemies can play in peaceful mode.*
> *We discussed PVP frequently, however we feel The Forest works better as a friendly co-op game. We like that the multiplayer component tends to be a more friendly experience, where you help each other build, survive and live in a world.*
>
>

**10. Does the game will feature PS4 Pro-specific enhancements? What can players expect if they are playing the game on PS4 Pro? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?**

> *Both the original and Pro versions will run at 30fps. With extra visual improvements on the Pro compared to the original PS4.*
>
>

**11. From a development perspective, how do you find the PS4 Pro to be? With so much GPU power, we are sure you must be doing some amazing things.**

> *There’s always challenges in bringing a game from one platform to another, in this case from PC.However the pro has made this process a lot easier than it otherwise would have been. The bulk of our optimization work has been geared towards making sure the original PS4 offers the same experience as the higher powered console, or a high spec PC.*
>
>

**12. How is the game running on the original PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?**

> *We’re targeting 30fps and currently locking down final resolution. The tricky part with The Forest is players can build their own structures, and so one of the major challenges has also been optimizing and loading buildings so that when players start building massive towers and bridges across the map things still run well.*
>
>

**13. Do you have any plans to bring it on the Xbox One?**

> *We’d love to bring the game to Xbox in the future.*
>
>

**14. Why did you go console exclusive with PS4?**

> *Sony had first contacted us back when the initial trailer for the game was released. We were able to build up a really good relationship with them, and knowing that as a small team we would only be able to focus on one console at a time being exclusive for a short period of time made sense.*
>
>

**15. Next-gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?**

> *We’re really excited about upcoming consoles, but to be honest we don’t know much about them at this point.*
>
>

## PlayStation.Blog

### The Forest: Open-World Survival Horror Comes to PlayStation

* Published: Dec. 6th 2014
* by Anna Terekhova from Endnight Games
* original link to the blog

Think back to your childhood days: playing outside, building a fort, skipping a stone on a lake… now add cannibals who want to tear you apart.

This is ‘The Forest’ and it’s on its way to PS4.

> *There are no missions, no NPC’s telling you what to do and no text in the middle of the screen telling you to ‘Follow.’ You know those parts in games where some character is yelling at you, telling you what to do and to do it faster? Those moments’ drive us crazy. When we’re in a game world we want to choose what we do and how we do it. This has been the driving force behind all the decisions we make. What would give players the most freedom and options. We think the best stories in games are the ones that occur on their own, the ones you experience naturally in the world.*
>
>

> *Something we’ve learned over the past 6 months is that people love to share their gameplay experiences, as well as watch other people’s playthroughs. Using the PS4 Share feature makes this even easier for players. People can show off the bases they have built, the places they’ve encountered or just how many trees they’ve cut down. In multiplayer, hearing the crackling walkie-talkie out of the dual shock controller adds an extra layer of realism, and brings players deeper into the experience.*
>
>

> *Building the game alongside the public has been an important part of our process. The community online has contributed ideas and suggestions that have massively improved the game already and will continue to as we move towards a final release. We’re now really excited to start building a relationship with PlayStation fans. We hope this blog post is the first of many opportunities to communicate directly with you guys and we’re excited to hear your thoughts, ideas and questions. What do you want to see, what is your idea of the ultimate open world survival game?*
>
>

### The Forest Launches November 6 on PS4

* Published: Aug. 29th 2018
* by Anna Terekhova from Endnight Games
* original link to the blog

Hey everyone! Today we are happy to announce our official release date for The Forest: November 6.

The Forest casts you as a father looking for his missing son after you both survive a passenger plane crash. You’ll have to find food and water, and as night approaches build a fire and shelter to keep warm. Although tranquil at first, you soon find there is something sinister lurking in the trees.

**Complete Freedom**

> *Our game encourages creativity. The game doesn’t tell you what to do, so everyone will experience their own version of the story. We try to give players as many options as possible and it’s been surprising for us how different individual playthroughs can be. Some players will focus on combat and exploration, whilst others will focus on building the most insane base possible.*
>
>

**Interactions**

> *We wanted to make a game that was almost fully interactable, where you would be able to chop down every tree or bush, pick berries and mushrooms for food or hunt animals and use their skin as armor. Our crafting system allows players to use items from the world to create new resources for survival. For example, make a spear out of sticks and then use it to catch fish, or smash open some suitcases, find some cloth and booze and combine them to make a Molotov cocktail.*
> The game also has an in-depth building system, where you can either choose pre-constructed buildings for your base, or be let loose with custom building options allowing you to make almost anything you can think of. Want to build a tree house connected by ziplines? Or a raft to try and survive at sea? Both are possible. Feel like an ocean side fortress surrounded by traps will be the best way to survive? You can also do that. We wanted to build a world that was scary and dangerous, then give players the choices for how to best survive.
>
>

**Survival and Combat**

>
> *As you’re not alone in The Forest, you’ll need to craft basic weapons to try and survive. Passive players can use stealth to evade most enemies by hiding in bushes, or even play the game in peaceful mode if you just want to focus on building and survival.*
> *The game’s enemies initially appear relatively human-like, but over time more distorted and disturbing creatures will begin to appear from within the depths of the cave system hidden beneath the surface.*
> *Our building system also allows dead enemies to be used in construction. Mount a head on a wall as a trophy, build a fence of out bones, or get creative and build a sculpture out of cut off limbs and then set it all on fire.*
>
>
>
>

**Caves**

> *We wanted to create a real sense of fear and claustrophobia in our cave systems. As you explore the world underneath The Forest, you’ll find some of the game’s most terrifying creatures, along with some of the games best modern weapons and tools. Want a chainsaw to make chopping trees faster? You’re going to have to delve deep below to find it.*
>
>

**Multiplayer Co-op**

> *We originally focused on the game as a single-player-only experience, but fans of the game encouraged us to implement a multiplayer mode. Set out as up to four dads on a horror adventure to find your missing kid. Join together with friends to build, swim, or mess around with turtle-shell sledding in the snow. We now feel multiplayer is the best way to experience The Forest, playing with up to three other friends for the ultimate survival horror experience.*
> *The Forest launches on November 6, and will also be playable at PAX West this weekend. Come check it out.*
>
>

### How to Survive The Forest, Out Tomorrow on PS4

* Published: Nov. 5th 2018
* by Anna Terekhova from Endnight Games
* original link to the blog

The Forest isn’t like other games. You won’t be given tutorials or guidance, there are no NPCs or missions. You’re dropped into a world and it’s up to your creativity and abilities to survive. You’ll probably die a lot, especially at first.

Survive in this new type of game unlike anything else with these hints and tips:

**CRAFT**

> *One of the simplest weapons you can make is a CLUB. This weapon is effective in combat but won’t chop trees. To make a club, simply find an enemy cannibal and kill him. Once he’s dead, chop his head off and then build a fire. Place the head on the fire and wait for it to burn away the skin and flesh. Now, take your freshly cooked skull, find a stick and shove the skull onto the stick. You now have an effective weapon against the bad guys.*
>
>

**BUILD AN EFFIGY**

> *Another effective survival tactic is to fully dismember all of the enemies you kill. With your new club this should be much easier. Take as many body parts as you can carry and decorate stick effigies with them. You can then light these all on fire as a warning to others not to mess with you. Extra hint: Build a log sled to transport lots of bodies at once to make harvesting them easier.*
>
>

**FOOD**

> *It’s important to keep your energy up, and that means eating. You can hunt deer and rabbits, or maybe find a boar or racoon. Berries are available but some might be poisonous. Another option is to cook and eat the body parts of the enemies you’ve killed. Body parts can be cooked by drying on a drying rack, placed directly on a fire, or for an energy-boosting stew add a leg to a pot of boiling water with some mushrooms and berries.*
>
>

**BUILDINGS**

> *A good base needs a good fence. You have a few options here, you can make a weak fence out of sticks, a strong wall out of stones, or take a dead enemy, drop him on a fire, wait for the body to burn away, and then collect his or her bones. These bones can make a great decorative fence that’s a lot stronger than regular wood.*
>
>

**UPGRADES**

> *Finding your weapons too weak against the ever encroaching enemy threat that cannot be reasoned with? Weapons can all be upgraded. First, chop at a tree to receive some TREE SAP. Now, bash away at some enemies — TEETH should fly out. You can now use the tree sap with the teeth to make your weapons even deadlier.*
>
>

**ARMOR**

> *Smash open the skull of a lizard and then cut off it’s skin to wrap around your body for an effective light armor. Combine skin with leaves for a stealth armor. Want even more powerful armor? Slice away at the corpses of some of the game’s bigger monsters and wear their skin as protection.*
>
>

**STAY CLEAN**

> *Covered in blood from fighting and chopping enemies? Make sure to find a clear water source to wash off. Getting blood inside your cuts won’t be good for you.*
>
>

**STILL FINDING THE GAME TOO HARD?**

> *Invite a friend to play with you. Sure, the enemies will scale up in difficulty as a result, but going online is a great way to learn the ins and outs of survival as well as making new friends. Chop, build, and fight to survive in The Forest, out tomorrow at PlayStation Store for $19.99.*
>
>

## PSX 2017: Gameplay Demo

* Published: Dec. 10th 2017
* PlayStation staff interviewing **Michael Mellor** and **Guillaume Kehren** from Endnight Games