Outshine: The Interview

Outshine was immediately interesting to Pantaloon. While it’s not necessarily weird, it is such a bold take on a Typing game, and takes the genre in a very visceral and unexpected direction. As part of our partnership with the game, we chucked a few questions to Bruno Urbain, CEO of Fishing Cactus, the game’s Belgium-based developer.

Enjoy x

How and when was the studio founded, and what is your general mission or creative intent with your games?

Soooo, long story short :) Fishing Cactus is an independent game development studio based in Mons, Belgium, I founded it in 2009 with a group of passionate developers. We were four industry veterans, all of whom hailed from the AAA gaming world, seeking a fresh start where we could explore more creative and innovative projects. We wanted to create an environment where all team member’s ideas and decisions could significantly impact the game development process, breaking away from the more rigid structures of larger studios.

The name "Fishing Cactus" was chosen to embody the spirit of the studio: an aspiration for adventure coupled with a willingness to embrace resilience. This name captures the essence of crafting something unique while bravely navigating the inevitable challenges, including financial hurdles, with creativity and determination.

Our primary mission is to design games that are not only entertaining and engaging but also offer added value beyond pure enjoyment. We are constantly exploring new ideas, experimenting with various genres, and innovating gameplay styles to provide players with fresh and unexpected experiences. Our focus is on creating games that tell compelling stories and offer enriching experiences, often incorporating educational elements to enhance the gameplay.

For instance, our debut title (as our main owned IP), Epistory - Typing Chronicles, is an adventure game that blends exploration with typing mechanics, providing a unique learning experience through its gameplay. Similarly, our latest release, Outshine, builds on this foundation but shifts towards a more competitive edge, focusing on scoring and player performance. With each project, we aim to push the boundaries of what's possible in gaming, delivering experiences that are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining.

Outshine is one of several Typing games across your portfolio - what is it about this somewhat niche genre you find interesting to explore creatively?

To tell the truth, our journey into the typing genre began quite humbly with Epistory. Initially, the game started as a simple typing tutor—we wanted to make the process of learning to type more enjoyable, transforming it from a mundane exercise into a fun and engaging experience. We also saw an opportunity to push the boundaries of traditional keyboard controls, moving beyond the classic WASD + Mouse or gamepad setup to explore more innovative interactions centered around the keyboard.

Fortunately, Epistory evolved into something much more than just a typing tutor. It became an adventure that captivated players with its unique blend of storytelling, exploration, and keyboard mechanics. Following the success of Epistory, we developed Nanotale, which continued to focus on typing but incorporated more RPG elements, expanding the depth and complexity of the gameplay.

Our latest release, Outshine, further expands this unconventional franchise. It explores the intense, fast-paced action of bullet hell and arcade genres, crafted with speedrunners in mind—but certainly not limited to them. With each new title, we strive to bring fresh ideas to the table, continuously evolving our unique take on typing-centric gameplay.

In essence, we're carving out our niche in the gaming world by creating a genre of our own, even though we aren’t the only ones utilizing typing as a core control scheme. Our goal is to constantly innovate, adding new dimensions to each game and exploring the typing genre from different perspectives. This approach not only keeps our work creatively invigorating but also ensures that our games offer something new and unexpected to our players.

Tell us about Outshine specifically. How did the idea come about, and what was the development process like?

After completing our work on Epistory, we conducted a survey to gather feedback from our community of players, asking them what they enjoyed about the game and what they would like to see in future titles. The results revealed two significant areas of interest: on one side, players expressed a desire for more RPG elements and a narrative-driven experience, while on the other, there was a strong demand for games focused on scoring and competitiveness.

This feedback guided our next projects. Nanotale was developed to focus on the former, enhancing the RPG and story-driven aspects, while Outshine was designed to explore the latter, emphasizing a fast-paced, competitive action experience.

From a development perspective, we began working on Outshine while still wrapping up Nanotale. In hindsight, this overlapping of projects may not have been ideal, as it meant our experienced developers were stretched across both titles, which could have impacted the efficiency and focus of our development process.

Despite these challenges, we had a positive experience working with procedurally generated content for our levels using Houdini. This approach significantly influenced the diverse range of levels featured in the game. As we were experimenting with different genres within the constraints of typing controls, we faced several strategic decisions.

One early concept was to incorporate rogue-like elements into the game, focusing on fewer levels but with more complex systems around replayability, such as power-ups that players could build upon. However, for the sake of development clarity, we decided against this path and instead pursued a design more akin to a Guitar Hero approach. Looking back, I do wonder how the game might have played with those rogue-like mechanics.

With games like this, the development process often involves a lot of trial and error to find the fun factor and ensure the experience doesn’t feel like a repetitive chore. In the end, these creative explorations and refinements led to an almost year-long delay, but they were crucial in shaping the final product into something we are proud of.

What were your biggest design inspirations behind the game? I get hints of Tetsuya Mizuguchi's work?

REZ has been one of our major inspirations, particularly in shaping the artistic direction of Outshine. We wanted a visual style that was striking yet not overly complex, as we understood that with the game's high-speed, fast-paced action, an intricate 3D design could compromise usability and detract from the overall player experience. Our goal was to create visuals that enhanced and complemented the gameplay rather than overpowering it.

We also drew substantial inspiration from rhythm and music-based games like Guitar Hero, Beat Saber, and Thumper. Thumper, in particular, made a lasting impression on us as an outstanding example of what a small team can achieve with a clear vision and cohesive execution. Its precision and impact, especially in terms of “beat” are truly admirable, and I often found myself aspiring to achieve a similar level of excellence in Outshine and wish we did better there.

Also the universe of Outshine is set within a machine—a digital prison from which our main character, Hue, is desperately trying to escape. This setting allowed us to explore a unique blend of inspirations, crafting a metaphorical world of living particles, beams of light, electricity, and hardware components. These elements combine to create a distinctive aesthetic that is both dynamic and visually captivating, mirroring our high-energy gameplay. This interplay between visuals and action is essential to Outshine, as it immerses players in a vivid, electrifying experience that feels as much like navigating through a vibrant digital landscape as it does a thrilling escape.

What other games have you seen recently in the indie space that are doing something bold or interesting?

There are so many indie games out there these days, and the sheer diversity is astounding. I recently returned from Gamescom, where the indie arena alone showcased over 200 titles. It's nearly impossible not to find something bold and intriguing amidst such a vast selection.

One game that caught my eye was Hyperloop, which shares some similarities with Outshine. It's a fast-paced, highly demanding game focused on lane management, and it truly exemplifies the innovative spirit that many indie developers bring to the table in a very specific genre. On top of that it is almost a solo dev behind it.

Then there's Arte’s lineup, which continues to push the boundaries of creativity with titles like 30Birds, Gloomy Eyes, and Looking for Fae. These games stand out for their boldness and unconventional nature, offering experiences that I think are delightfully quirky and refreshingly different from the norm.

What's next for Fishing Cactus? Are you looking to further evolve the Typing game space, or have other genres in mind?

After releasing three games centered around typing mechanics, we're looking to take a break from this genre for our next project. Our creative minds need some fresh air to explore new ideas and innovate in different directions. While typing-based gameplay has been a fascinating space for us to explore, and there’s certainly more that could be done with it—whether that’s through a fresh approach like a collection of typing mini-games or even a sequel to one of our previous titles—we feel it’s important to step back and recharge creatively before diving back in. It's not farewell but goodbye for now.

And at the moment, our team is focused on developing Gloomy Eyes, with a planned release around Q2 2025.

Gloomy Eyes is a narrative puzzle game that I like to describe as a blend of Monument Valley and Tim Burton's distinctive style. It’s set in a world where the sun has mysteriously stopped rising, plunging everything into darkness. This perpetual night has awakened the dead from their graves, and an oppressive leader has exiled them from society. Players take on the roles of Gloomy, a zombie, and Nena, a human, as they embark on a quest to find the sun and restore light to their dark yet poetic world.

Steam page for wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2667950/Gloomy_Eyes__The_Game/

Until next time.

pantaloon.