Developer Latest Past was formed by two high school students. Can you walk us through how that came about?Radovan Šťastný, co-founder and 3D artist:
We met in the first year of high school. When we were talking, we realized that we both wanted to make games. But one of us lacked a programmer and the other an artist. So it was clear that we would join forces and try to make a game together. We started with a two-week project in a game jam where we found out how to work in a team and how development works in general. Everything worked out nicely and we decided that we wanted to do something bigger. And that’s how the Latest Past was formed.
How did the two of you first get into video game development?
Petr Pavlík, co-founder and programmer:
Since I was a child, I always enjoyed playing games and one day I wanted to create my own. When I was eight years old, I created my first 2D game in the Game Maker Studio, which was about driving a tractor and cultivating fields. After that, I created a few more games and then I wanted to create a 3D game. I was thinking about Unity but Unreal Engine appealed to me because of its features and easy coding using Blueprints. The first Unreal Engine version that I used was 4.17 and I really liked it. I have created a few shooters which were fairly simple without much content and some adventure games that I have never completed. Thanks to these projects, I now have a good knowledge of Unreal Engine to create games like Kvark.
Šťastný: When I was younger, I started learning Blender because I always liked to do creative stuff. I created some simple low-poly scenes and designed weapons, but for a long time, I didn’t know how to utilize this skill or where I could use it. So, I would just make something and render it. However, everything changed when I met Petr, and we started working together on some small games. It was there that I discovered my passion for making games.
How did they come up with the idea of Kvark?
Pavlík: It was after we finished our game for game jam when we decided that we wanted to make some bigger project. It was around that time that the UE5 first preview was released and we decided it would be a nice opportunity to try it. And that’s how the idea for a shooter game started to emerge. At first, we didn’t know what it was going to be and we spent a long time developing it, not knowing what it would be in the end. After a few months of that kind of development, we decided it wasn’t going to work that way and we sat down and wrote out all the mechanics, the setting, and that’s how the vision of Kvark as we know it today came about.
Why did you decide to start developing the game using Unreal Engine 5?
Pavlík: We wanted to use the new technologies and features that come with Unreal Engine 5. When we started, Unreal Engine 5 was just in the preview version but we liked it so much we decided to go with it and started to work. We also went with Unreal because it’s really user friendly with Blueprints and we can quickly iterate on puzzles designs, mechanics, and more. Overall, Unreal seems like the best fit for our style of the game and development needs.
Source: Unreal Engine Blog