- Who are you?

Im Sebastian Uitz, co-founder and co-CEO of Fire Totem Games. For as long as I can remember, I have been playing video games. It all started with Super Mario on the NES, then Super Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, and of course Pokmon Blue on the Gameboy. Im 32 now and played many more games since then, and absolutely fell in love with the medium and possibilities it provides. During my education, I learned several programming languages and ended up working as a Firmware Designer for automotive sensors in a semiconductor company.

- How did you start to work at Fire Totem Games?

Well, I didnt start working at Fire Totem Games, I STARTED Fire Totem Games. In 2017, I was toying with the idea of combining my programming expertise with my hobby and so I googled How to make games and went down the rabbit hole of Unity tutorials on YouTube. At the end of 2017, I released my first game Rotate Game and needed a company name. This is when I came up with the name Fire Totem Games under which I released a lot of small games until today and of course A Webbing Journey.

- What is your role at Fire Totem Games?

I wear a lot of hats in our company starting from co-CEO together with Michael on the top level, but most of my time is spent managing our team and tasks, programming, integrating all the different elements into functioning levels, fixing bugs, and of course creating videos for Social Media. Yes, if youve seen any video or post on Social Media, that was created by me. If that sounds like a lot of work, it is, but its also what I love about being an indie dev. In a big company, you have one or maybe two roles, but as an indie dev you are working on so many things and its never getting boring because there are new challenges around every corner.

- How does your job work?

The most important software to make our game is Unity, the game engine that combines all the single elements into a functioning game and Im spending most of my time in it working on the gameplay, UI, levels, quests, and more. For programming, I use JetBrains Rider to write my C# code. Another very important software is Notion, which we use for Task Tracking, Documentation, Meeting Notes, and whatever else we need to share within the team. Without a project management tool like this, it would be impossible to manage a team of 6 people. The last software I use daily is CapCut which I use for editing our social media videos. I love the simplicity of CapCut which helps us pump out daily videos. Video recording is done with OBS, because its just the best.

- What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

If I really have to choose one, its implementing crazy ideas from our community and sharing them on Social Media. The first post about A Webbing Journey was done on the first day of working on the prototype. Since then we posted pretty much everything about our game and the feedback and ideas from our community shaped the game into what it is today and generated enough motivation for us to keep working on it. Seeing all of you having fun with our videos and games is so fulfilling and makes all the hard work worth it.

- What is your favorite video game?

Again, picking just one is hard, but based on how much time Ive spent on that game and still do, I just have to say World of Warcraft. I started playing back in 2007 and have experienced every expansion since then, more or less. Its the game I can always come back to and know exactly what I get for the time I put in. Theres just so much stuff you can do from doing quests, exploring the massive world, farming achievements, doing pet battles, or pushing end-game content. So many fun memories were created over the years and playing it brings me back to my childhood every time I log in.

- What is your favorite thing in A Webbing Journey?

Im the mastermind behind the spider movement and web mechanics and Im proud of how well these systems work together with the game world giving you this amazing feeling of being a spider and building whatever you want. I put so much time into optimizing and extending the functionality and to be honest, Im surprised at how well it handles edge cases I never expected. Oh and of course I love seeing players break those two systems in fun and creative ways. The Flying Pan is still my favorite bug ever found in our game.

If you have more questions for Sebastian, please use the comments on this post!

[ 2025-01-04 15:31:46 CET ] [ Original post ]