PAX East 2012: The Man Behind Dust: An Elysian Tail

This game actually looks pretty damn good, I'd be impressed if it were made by a team, never mind one guy!

Now it all makes sense. It really was all for the fur.

Game looks super gangsta! Hope the game comes out soon.

furries.... okay.

Great interview Brad. I'm really impressed with this guy, it seems like his first game ever is going to be a banger.

Pretty incredible, not only because he did it all by himself, but it looks like a Vanilla Ware title, which would be an amazing feat for even a fully staffed Western studio. Inspirational!

wow! give this man your money, he's fighting the good fight!

@DSale said:

Guessing this got lost in the shuffle of the site-move.

Vinny: "Hey, what's this on this hard drive? Oh man, hey Brad, you still want to post this?"

Brad: "Yeah! That guy was really badass, let's give him some props!"

It has more to do with the fact that I left for North Korea the day after PAX East and Vinny was on leave. I edited the panel video on the plane back from Boston, but anything after that had to wait until we both got back in the office and had time to work PAX stuff into our production schedule.

I'm also an artist that has tried learning programming before. Let's just say it did not lead to working 16 hours a day for weeks on end with a game being released.

PAX East rages! even a month after it happened. This guy is really cool though.

How did he get paid for 4 years?

Man, I really couldn't want this guy to succeed any harder. Game looks super cool. Small detail, but i particularly like the presentation of the enemy health bars as a sort of faint arc underneath the enemies themselves. A lot of times when games expose things like life bars to the player, they can quickly crowd the screen. Very pragmatic and aesthetically pleasing choice.

This is awesome. I was under the impression that this guy had a day job or something and was just working on this as a hobby on the side, but 16 hours a day 7 days a week makes it sound like he's in this full time which is nuts.

Not personally a fan of the genre or the art style, but I hope it pays off for him - his ambition deserves it.

That looks so DAMN GOOD! I will support!! :D

that's pretty damn impressive! great job man

I love the softly animated look.

Dude seems very cool and genuine, mad props for all the hard work he has clearly done. I occasionally have these pipe dreams where I imagine going into a completely different line of work that I have no knowledge of, and Dean pretty much did that, going from zero programming knowledge to making a game. Maybe if I weren't so damn lazy.
 
Game looks awesome, even without knowing that it was a one-man project. Will definitely be getting this.

This game looks rad and this dude is awesome for the amount of work he's put into it.

I SHALL SUPPORT HIM WITH MY MONIES!!!!!1

Also, the guys should get him into the office. STAT.

All these guys showing up and making one man games.. what I wouldn't give to be able to pull that off too. I wouldn't even know where to start, but someday I intend to try.

Looks great though! Definitely that Muramasa vibe to it.

That guy seems like a really cool dude. Looking forward to seeing more near that game's release.

Guessing this got lost in the shuffle of the site-move.

Vinny: "Hey, what's this on this hard drive? Oh man, hey Brad, you still want to post this?"

Brad: "Yeah! That guy was really badass, let's give him some props!"

Very Odin Sphere like and looks very nice. Pretty cool to see that it was from one guy.

timely!

Oh sick, another Jazz Jackrabbit would be amazing.

Dean is the Truth.

@drag: Had pretty much the exact same experience with it that you describe. Just bought Muramasa from amazon, hoping it will grab me more, cause I really love the art that developer produces.

@emergency said:

@Twinsun said:

@emergency said:

This dude seems awesome. It looks very controller driver which is a bit of a shame, would have loved to give him some money for a PC version or something.

That's hardly an issue these days, what with the ease of plugging in a wired xbox 360 controller.

This game reminds me a little bit of Odin Sphere, if anyone here has played that.

True, just hope that it comes out for pc.

Yeah, would be nice.

Looks sick, great work Dean, can't wait to play it!

@Paindamnation said:

@Getz said:

@Paindamnation said:

Dude seems just like an average guy who wanted to learn.

An average guy who just decided to teach himself programming in order to make a commercial videogame by himself. Shoot, that's just like everyone I know.

It's not like the concept is new. It's more the DRIVE of the guy. I know plenty of talentless people who say "I love video games I wanna make one" but have no talent. So seeing someone, who looks average, not dressing up for PR or trying to be something different, make a game which frankly, looks pretty good is impressive. There are plenty of average people out there, but VERY few have the drive and the motivation to go all the way. Color me impressed, bad or not, I think I'll pick it up if it's 15 or less.

So what you really meant was "humble" not "average." See, the very few who have the drive and motivation to go all the way are not average because of the part where there's very few of them. YES I AM A FUCKING PEDANT DEAL WITH IT.

@Getz said:

@Paindamnation said:

Dude seems just like an average guy who wanted to learn.

An average guy who just decided to teach himself programming in order to make a commercial videogame by himself. Shoot, that's just like everyone I know.

It's not like the concept is new. It's more the DRIVE of the guy. I know plenty of talentless people who say "I love video games I wanna make one" but have no talent. So seeing someone, who looks average, not dressing up for PR or trying to be something different, make a game which frankly, looks pretty good is impressive. There are plenty of average people out there, but VERY few have the drive and the motivation to go all the way. Color me impressed, bad or not, I think I'll pick it up if it's 15 or less.

@Paindamnation said:

Dude seems just like an average guy who wanted to learn.

An average guy who just decided to teach himself programming in order to make a commercial videogame by himself. Shoot, that's just like everyone I know.

The character design is a little unfortunate but I'm willing to see what it's got around release.

Sick Mad Props.

JAZZ JACKRABBIT!
Also been looking forward to this game for awhile, great job dude.

he's older than i expected. cannot wait to play it.

Hey guys, remember PAX east? That was some time ago!

The game looks pretty amazing, especially since it´s a one man show kinda deal.

Wow, this game looks great!

How do you make a game by yourself? Smarts, talent and ambition, that's all.

Oh Jazz Jack Rabbit

YEARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN. good job man.

follow him at @NoogyTweet

Mad respect for Dean, and his game actually looks really good too!

Looks unreal. Not sure about the character designs, but the game looks good enough for me to over look that.

Eagerly anticipating this game! :D

cant wait, I'm also sitting on my ms points for this game.

High five Dean, high five

I was on board until I saw the furries.

Brad's enthusiasm for game development, makes me wonder why he hasn't made the jump to the development side yet (something, many other game journalists have done).

Just can't get around the DeviantArt-ness of this.

What he did is very impressive though.

Nothing but respect for this game and for Dean.

Hate the character design though. I'm finding really hard like those kinds of furry-fodder characters.

Whoa that's impressive :O!