WayForward on The Mummy Demastered's development process, why it didn't launch alongside the movie

The Mummy Demastered is now available on Switch, and it seems like the title is getting a good amount of attention. Wondering how long the project took to put together, and what went into development? Check out the snippet of a Dtoid interview below, featuring WayForward's Austin Ivansmith...

Dtoid: When did work on The Mummy Demastered start?

Austin: Pre-production began in early November 2016: I wrote the game design document (GDD) based on the pitch we presented to Universal Brand Development, and the information Universal provided about the movie. Our lead programmer was laying the groundwork for a new platformer engine and tools to support the game, and various artists were doing concepts for characters and the look and feel of the game world.

In late December I was then able to go to Universal and scour through tens of thousands photos taken on the set of the film, and we ended up with about 2,000 of those as reference for our backgrounds and characters. After that we were ready to start working on the game.

Full development kicked off in the first week of January 2017, right when we got back from our holiday break!

Dtoid: Launching this far after the movie's release might have hurt other games in a similar position, but it seems like Demastered is getting just as much, if not more buzz than the film did. Why do you think people are so hungry for this kind of game right now?

Austin: Originally we were slated to release alongside the movie in early June. Midway through we took a hard look at the game and decided to give it more time, so it could become the game we really wanted it to be. Everyone at WayForward and Universal believed in the potential of our game so much that we felt it could stand on its own and release in October. It bought us another 1-2 months, but it was exactly what we needed to put the right final touches on it.

I think we ended up with a really solid shooter that will satisfy those players out there who are always wanting for this kind of game. We see previews and teasers of games which seem like they are trying to fit that bill, but they will introduce some new mechanic at the expense of losing what made that type of classic game accessible and fun. I don’t want to shoot an enemy only to stun it and be forced to pull of some chain combo our counter to actually kill it -- I just want to shoot it.

I’ve come to think of it as a “greasy spoon diner” approach. I want to make someone this tasty meal with fairly simple ingredients, but most likely deep fry it (in pixels and chiptunes). We didn’t set out to reinvent a genre, we just wanted to make something that would really hit the spot!