I'm back! Sort of. I'm taking it slow these days. But in the meantime, I managed to score an interview with another indie horror dev team! This is a game that caught my eye from the moment I saw it on Itch.io, and I'm glad it's picking up traction! Laser Tag Massacre, made by the Brazil-based dev team Liminal Road, is a love letter to slasher movies of the 80s, like many other titles following in the footsteps of the legendary game studio Puppet Combo. It's packed with nostalgic vibes, fun gameplay, and some pretty brutal gore, all tied together with an interesting narrative that really got me engaged with the game.

The team consists of 4 friends - Pedro, Lucas, João, and Geter - with Pedro doing most of the question-answering here. I'm really excited to welcome Liminal Road to the interview series!

Spoiler alert for Laser Tag Massacre! If you'd like to play the game first, it's available on Steam or Itch.io! On both platforms, the game costs $4.99 USD (see links for your own regional prices), and it takes about an hour to finish.

Inspirations/Process

A question for each member: What got you into your specific art form/passion?

Geter: I pretty much always liked programming ever since i was like 13/14, saw my father programming a little robotic claw, got interested in stuff like that, after that i started learning programming, it is a pretty basic story, sorry lol.

Lucas: I have been pretty passionate about computers since i was a kid, playing flash games and big titles like the sims, mario 64. And was really curious on how games were made. And i’ve doing it for at least 8 years

João: Out of pure curiosity and the desire to learn something new, I taught myself how to model in Blender through youtube to work with the other members. As months went by, I also learned rigging and animation. Cutscenes, in particular, are something I really enjoy creating because I feel like I’m directing a movie scene: the camera angles, the movements... I truly enjoy this kind of visual storytelling. I never imagined myself making games, but today I’m really grateful that I started.

How did you all meet and form Liminal Road? What is it like working together?

Pedro: It started as a hobby, but it became much more as we learned and saw potential in the field. We were already friends before starting Liminal Road. We met online and have been playing games together for years.

Geter: It is pretty fun working together, we get really hyped when we have something new to show to the other members, and it always nice to get positive feedback, it feels more like doing something with friends than actual work most days.

Lucas: Me and Pedro met playing Minecraft, João is Pedro's friend from school, and Geter we don’t even remember anymore.

What are your influences from other media?

Pedro: I love horror movies, books, and games, it's been my favorite genre for as long as I can remember. I'm really into retro horror, from classic slashers to the timeless works of Edgar Allan Poe and the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. (I’m also a big fan of Puppet Combo).

Geter: Pretty much the same answer as Pedro, i always liked horror movies and creepypastas, but to be honest i mostly watched those old trashy horror movies, also big Lovecraft fan.

João: I enjoy any kind of horror media, to be honest. Honorable mentions: Thriller by Michael Jackson, the movie Scream, and The Exorcist book.

What was the initial spark that gave you the idea for Laser Tag Massacre?

Pedro: It was like: "What if there was a slasher set in a laser tag arena?" We did some research and realized nothing like that existed, so we thought the idea was brilliant lol. 

When I was a kid, I was really scared of laser tag arenas — they were super dark and noisy, and I would totally freeze up.

(Editor's Note: This is kinda funny to me, considering that one of the things that drew me to the game was that I love laser tag and being in the arena, to the point that it influenced my color palette. It looks like I and the devs both had formative childhood experiences, haha.)

What drove the decision to add minigames into the game?

Geter: We always see a kind of horror game that we kindly call “Simulador de CLT” in portuguese, in english it would be something like “Workplace Simulator” they pretty much consist of doing something in a workplace while you wait for something scary to happen, we got the idea pretty much from them, they pretty much always look really fun since the minigames are a big part of the game.

Pedro: Just walking back and forth can get boring, so we tried to make the minigames as varied as possible.

João: The laser tag arena is located inside an arcade, so we had the moral obligation to create mini-games to bring the place to life.

What did early versions of the game look like? Was there any scrapped content?

Pedro: The early versions are always really rough and simple with lots of drafts, and most of the ideas just stay in my head. We actually had to cut a lot of content. For example, we originally planned for the game to be fully voice-acted. We also wanted the third act to be longer, but it ended up feeling pretty rushed since it was the last part we worked on and we were already way behind schedule.

Geter: I will try to get some prints from the early versions

Early Convenience Store

Weird Lighting Before I Fixed The Shadows

First Arcade Version

Even Earlier Convenience Store

Paulo Working Out, First Animation Tests

Were there any significant challenges in the process of making the game?

Pedro: Making a game takes a lot of discipline and organization, and that can be really challenging with such a small and inexperienced team. But with each new project we improve fast.

Geter: Mostly estimating how long stuff would take to make, we had no experience before, and we were hoping for a halloween release, it took a lot longer than we estimated lol.

Lore Questions

A lot of people were confused about the ending with the gas station guy, where it’s revealed that Hélio was living out of the back of a truck in his parking lot. How much did he really know about the whole situation? Was there a reason he didn’t try to stop the kids from breaking into Stellarcade?

Lucas: We’ll leave this to you to decide :)

Pedro: We intentionally left the ending open to leave room for a possible sequel in the future.

(Editor's Note: Yay!)

What’s the official answer for the situation with the sword? Was it sharp from the beginning? Was it sharpened in order to use it as a murder weapon?

Pedro: Even though Hélio is a bloodthirsty and deranged killer, he's not exactly clever. His victims were the result of a delusion — in his mind, he believes he's protecting his dead siblings from galactic invaders (which is why he wears the space ranger costume). So yes, the sword really was sharp from the very beginning lol.

Geter: I sharpened the sword >:)

Success

What was your initial reaction when you saw people start playing your game?

Lucas: Honestly, I still find it hard to react to, the amount of people playing the demo on itch.io already gave me so much happiness that it's hard to describe. My first reaction was just that we should continue doing it, because so many people are wanting to play our games.

Geter: I felt really euphoric, it is a great feeling knowing people played your game and enjoyed it. I still can’t believe so many people enjoyed our game, it feels great and gives me a lot of energy to make more games in the future.

Aside from the game you’re planning on next, is there any dream game that you hope you can create in the future?

Pedro: Multiplayer co-op horror game would be fantastic. We'll get there one day.

Lucas: A multiplayer zombie apocalypse psx fps game (COD Zombies Clone).

Geter: The thing from space (Remake/Full Version), it is one of my favorite lovecraft stories and I would love to give that game the love it deserves.

João: Night of the Roses, our first prototype that died after just a few weeks while we were still learning how to make games. One day we will get there.

Now’s your chance to advertise anything else you’ve done in the past or planned for the future. What should my readers check out next once they’re finished with Laser Tag Massacre?

Pedro: In the next few days, we’ll be announcing our next game with a trailer and a Steam page — so stay tuned to meet Doctor Viscera!

Misc/Silly Questions

For every team member: Who’s your personal favorite character from the game?

Geter: Paulo is the GOAT

Lucas: I really like Daniela, because I had so much trouble programming air hockey and she probably has the most fun dialogues. But Paulo is a real bro.

Have any of you played laser tag? Are you any good at it?

Lucas: Played it once at a mall event. I was like 12, and played against 8 year old kids and ofc i destroyed them.

Geter: I actually never played laser tag before lol, only paintball, but i would love to play it some day

Pedro: I played once or twice when I was a kid, and even though I was scared, I thought it was really cool.

I don’t actually know if Halloween is as widely celebrated in Brazil as it is here in the US. Either way, do you have a favorite thing to do for it? (Hopefully not break into any abandoned locations?)

Pedro: It’s definitely not as popular here as it is in the United States, but Halloween definitely has its fans in Brazil. It’s always been my favorite holiday since I was a kid! People don’t really roam the streets like crazy, but we do have plenty of Halloween costume parties. 

Geter: I will usually either go to some event or party if there is one or i just stay at home watching horror movies.

João: I think in the US Halloween started being celebrated more like a cultural festival. But here in Brazil, we tend to celebrate anything. Everything can be a reason to have a party and Halloween is included. I’ve already thrown Halloween parties, and my favorite thing is the costumes. I always say to the guests to show up wearing the best costume they can

What have you learned from making Laser Tag Massacre? Do you have any advice to aspiring game devs?

Lucas: Story driven games aren't easy. My best advice to newer game devs is to make small games first. I know every dev, every single one will tell this to you at some point, but it’s the best advice i can give. Big games are hard, and it’s really hard to have the feeling that what you’re doing is good, fun or even if the game you’re doing is five minutes long. When you start doing small projects, you will have the feeling to do games and will know how much work you should put in something before doing it. 

Pedro: Time is precious and routine is the key. Making games, even though it’s fun, requires a lot of discipline and focus. My advice for beginners is to join game jams and connect with people who share the same goals as you. 

Geter: The advice I have is to make a small game before you make a big one, the experience you get by doing a game jam or releasing a small game is the best thing in the world for a beginner game dev, you learn so much just by releasing a game and having people play it. And most of the stuff I learnt during the LTM development is boring technical programming stuff, but I feel I became a much better game developer after that and I believe our next game will be much better because of that.

João: You don’t need to visualize the whole thing before you start, but think of something small at first. If you are new to developing games, you don’t have any idea how time-consuming making a whole game can be. And most importantly: do something you really enjoy! 

Big thanks to everyone at Liminal Road for the enthusiastic response! I know I've been unable to shut up to my friends about this game for the past few weeks or so.

Please go check out Laser Tag Massacre on Steam or Itch.io! This game deserves every ounce of attention it gets!

It's even beatable with a trackpad as I've learned firsthand :'D

Have a good rest of your day!

-Theta