One of the highlights this year for me at G-FEST was being able to lead a dedicated and passionate team in running what we call the “Mecha-G Arcade”. Inside the arcade is any kaiju video game your mind can muster, on platforms ranging from arcade cabinets to the latest and greatest current gen hardware! We host tournaments for the Godzilla PipeWorks Trilogy of games, as well as foster a positive, encouraging community of kaiju gamers. Lately, there has been a rise in independently produced kaiju video games, such as Dawn of the Monsters, released by 13AM Games, and Gigabash, released by Passion Republic Games. Those indie productions have seen major platform release, and it’s wonderful to see. However, we are here to talk to some of the truly independent game developers that have made their mark in the kaiju scene, and first up, is Zach Beauchamp. Zach has developed a kaiju simulator called Exidio, and we got the details on how it all works below!
Jonathan Hernandez (Interviewer) – Bold
Zach Beauchamp (Interviewee) – Italics
We are right outside of the Mecha-G Arcade room during G-FEST. What a place to be!
To start off, what is an Excidio? Can you break down what players can expect from this new game?
Excidio, the Kaiju Simulator has been a passion project for many years now. Basically, it’s a Godzilla simulator. You get to be a massive kaiju and go around destroying cities with realistic physics-based destruction. You can fight the military or play without them. It is a very modular experience.
You’ve brought it to G-FEST. Are you planning on trying to get it on Steam? Maybe do a few more shows? You have a playable demo, but what is next in the pipeline for this game?
Even if we aren’t very successful right now, immediately, we’re working on stability and we are bringing in other monsters to fight so you’re not just fighting against the military or buildings. We have one in the works right now called Golem. He should be coming out very shortly. You’ll have that, you’ll have stability as well as localization, so more languages and support and more skins are coming. We have a skin that’s a reference to a character from War of the Monsters, which is very cool.
That’s the immediate guaranteed future. But next steps, some bigger steps that depend on our financial success is porting to consoles like Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch, as well as bigger scale content like a story mode, even more enemy monsters, etc. Really, the sky’s the limit with how much we could do with the game. It just depends on if we are able to keep putting our time and effort into this, if it’s not completely running us dry, that sort-of thing.
Since you did mention about porting the game over to consoles, which console/company would you like to port to first and why is that?
Well, the first that we already started at the very beginnings of is Xbox. Xbox will be coming after we get it on Epic Games as just a test for having different versions of the game. Xbox is just I find the easiest to develop for as an indie developer. They are very indie friendly and it’s actually free completely to develop for Xbox.
That’s awesome! I didn’t know that it was completely free for indie developers to develop on Xbox!
It is. They have a great community outreach program for indie devs, so it’s just very convenient. Also, the architecture of the Xbox is very similar to computers, of course, because it’s Microsoft.
Exactly yeah, because the computers, Xboxes are very similar. You got your graphics components. You got the processor component and then you have storage, which are your primaries and then power supply because how are you going to run it.
It’s also still running on a version of Windows. It’s the easiest to do. And then after that, we would love to be on PlayStation. A lot of our target demographic is on PlayStation. That all depends on financial success. They do have a community outreach program, but we just haven’t been able to get into it just yet. And the same thing with the Switch, but with the Switch, it’s also a matter of if we can get it to run. We aren’t sure about that yet. We have done tests on very low end devices and it’s run pretty okay, but we just aren’t sure yet if it’s feasible on the switch. But we’ll find out and we will make it clear whether that’s in our plans in the future.
So, we briefly brought this up earlier. Do you plan on outsourcing to other conventions and to advertise the game? The Arcade staff and I are grateful you accepted our invitation to be here to showcase your game!
Well, we would absolutely love to be at anywhere that would have us. I’m not sure how many of the kaiju conventions have game rooms, but if there is any program or designated spot for that, then I would absolutely love to get into contact with the people there. I know you said before there is one that’s happening in Canada, which is actually where we are based.
Yes, that’s Super G. Super G will be the first ever kaiju convention in Canada, later on in September/October. It’s Windsor, Ontario at the Ceasar Hotel. For those in the United States, it’s a border city with Detroit, Michigan! I also friends who are from out there that know about the host venue, and they said that it’s a very nice hotel convention center.
So, it is a big opportunity for not just kaiju goers, but as well as indie developers who are creating kaiju games to bring new things to the kaiju community.
Have you also been eyeing on any non niche conventions, some that aren’t kaiju-specific?
Well, with any bigger conventions, I’m not sure if they’d quite have us just yet. I don’t know how we’re quite at that level. But nothing that I’m eyeing, but anyone that would reach out to us, I would be very happy to come to your convention. We just aren’t sure if we currently have the funds to send somebody out there, but we would 100% be willing to send a build of the game to be showcased at any convention.
Yes, that makes sense. You and your co-developer, Zoran, are the sole developers right now. Zoran is the original creator of the game, but you are the lead developer/administration advisor to Excidio, right?
I run TokuPop, which is the developer for Excidio. And Zoran, he mostly runs Excidio itself. He’s in the engine, he’s doing the heavy lifting, and I’m on more so the company side.
Can you tell us where to find TokuPop or Excidio?
Well, we do have a website right now that just recently launched. It’s still under construction, but you can find it at www.TokuPop.ca. And we also have a Discord server, which you can find on our steam page and also linked on that website. That is a pretty sizable community right now of over 100 members at the moment that have been very influential in the game itself. We are very receptive to feedback.
Yes, everybody has been very informative on that server. It’s been fun being in there! And there’s not just discussions of just the game, but as well as discussion for Tokusatsu in general.
Yes, it’s a very big hub for just kaiju lovers in Tokusatsu. Right now, it’s the three year anniversary of the release date of the original version of Excidio.
We are actually hosting a fan art contest right now. The winner of that will be posted on our website. So we tend to be very good with our community outreach. Adding on to that, we will also soon be launching a Kickstarter campaign where people can donate to help us achieve these goals. You can keep an eye out for it on www.Kickstarter.com or check out our website or socials where we will announce when it goes up!
That is awesome. I’m very excited about that then. But thank you for your time. I really do appreciate you taking a brief bit to talk about the game. It was great talking with you. Is there any social media that you would like to put out there for people to look you up?
Well, right now we do have our YouTube channel, which is TokuPop on YouTube, and we will soon be on Instagram, Twitter, and just everything, all the socials. TokuPop will soon be everywhere!
Awesome. Thank you so much, Zach. It really means a lot.
Thank you so much for having me!
