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It’s pretty crazy that it’s been almost three years since I wrote my PC review for Calavera Studio’s 2D action platformer “MiniDoom“, but it’s as true as it’s said (don’t miss out on our “MiniDoom 1” and “MiniDoom 2″ pc review!).

When I booted up “MiniDoom” for the very first time back in 2016, I was blown away by how awesome the game was.

Well, since I got so many awesome memories from the “MiniDoom” series I decided to reach out to Calavera Studio for an interview =) And they said yes to my interview request!

So without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Calavera Studio.

Calavera studio is an indie games studio that consists of three key members (JC Porcel. Felipe Porcel and Manuel Soruco). and so far the studio is mainly known for its “MiniDoom” series.

Robin TGG
First thing first, thank you very much for taking your time doing this interview with us =) So, with that said, please go ahead and introduce yourself to our readers.

JC:
We are a three-person development team. JC Porcel and Felipe Porcel, 2 brothers who started Calavera Studio and have been doing the art and programming respectively and Manuel Soruco, who takes care of all the music and sound effects.

Manuel Soruco did a great job with the soundtrack for “MiniDoom 2” (I would recommend all fans of Metal to buy this album as soon as possible).

Robin TGG
How exactly did Calavera Studio go from a thought/ dream to a reality? (how, when, where and why).

JC:
CALAVERA STUDIO was born around 2016 as a 2-person team with the only intention of learning how to make a video game. We tried to make several video games during our time in school and university but we never showed these failed games to anyone.

Our first official attempt at making a game that people would actually see and play was MiniDoom (the first one).

It was short and simplistic but despite its many flaws, it gathered a small yet enthusiastic group of fans which motivated us to take our joke of a game and give it an update.

So in the process put an official site and get a bit more organized with the addition of a third developer (Manuel) who took care of all the music, sound fx and helped a lot with game design and testing.

“MiniDoom” became an almost instant hit among fans of “Doom” and 2D action platformers when the game launched in May of 2016.

Robin TGG
What’s the story behind how you came up with “MiniDoom”? Because the game sure came out of nowhere when it launched back in 2016.

JC:
Our programmer Felipe, after spending quite a bit of time using GameMaker to do his university thesis, decided to monetize all that practice by making an online course about Gamemaker.

So once the course was ready to launch (it was about making a very simple and pixelated platformer), we thought it would be funny to promote the course by showing images of the game you could make with the course.

However, instead of some generic hero jumping and shooting, we would use a very pixelated version of characters from well-known AAA games, something one would not associate with a Nintendo era platformer.

We though a shooter would be rather funny to be made into a retro platformer since they are so different. Of course, what is the most iconic shooter of all time? That’s right, Doom!

“MiniDoom” is a pretty hardcore game on the higher difficulty settings (some of the boss fights and stages will make you lose your mind!).

Robin TGG
What has the response and feedback been since the release of the first “MiniDoom” game? And were you happy with how the game turned out in the end?

JC:
A lot of people liked it very much. There’s quite a lot of lets plays on YouTube and most players are having a good time. The game is very difficult and could be frustrating at times, but that’s part of the fun and the people playing it appreciate the challenge.

And we were more than happy with the result. It was a great example of a thing being more than the sum of its parts. In this case, the parts would be our VERY tiny skills and knowledge as game developers.

John Romero once tweeted out “Great job – I love it!” when he saw “MiniDoom” via Twitter (a friend of Calavera studio showed Romero “MiniDoom” via Twitter).

Robin TGG
Did ID Software or Bethesda Softworks ever reach out to you about “MiniDoom”? Or has anyone of the old-school “Doom” games said anything to you about their thoughts on the “MiniDoom” series?

JC:
A friend of ours tweeted to John Romero about our game and he responded “Great job – I love it!”, which for a group of nobodies making video games in a godforsaken banana-country in South America was probably the highest possible praise we could have ever imagined in our wildest fever dreams.

Regarding Bethesda and company, we had no official contact with any person on the industry. However, I know there’s a Bethesda employee that follows us on Instagram and has liked several or our sprites and artwork, so they know we exist =) And they didn’t take down the game, that’s all we could ask for.

ID Software’s “Doom” series has always been close at heart for the folks over at Calavera studio. In my case, “Doom” turned me into an instant hardcore fan when I played the game as a teen back in 1993.

Robin TGG
I take it that everyone over at Calavera Studio are hardcore fans of the old “Doom” games? So what’s your own history with the “Doom” series? And where did your “Doom” fandom start for you?

Felipe and JC:
I can’t really remember how exactly did Doom appeared on the computer we had back then, but it was there… and it was fantastic.

And just like so many others at the time, we only had the shareware version, which we thought was everything there was. We must have played that freaking demo a billion times.

And every time it was exactly as fun and exactly as terrifying (even with the silly noises coming from our sound-card-less PC). Sadly, our family was not very tech oriented nor keen on video games back then so a gaming pc was rather low on the priority list.

We only watched parts of the rest of the Doom games when we were at the house of our friends. By the time our family’s videogame-phobia went away it was already the late 90s, so our next Doom encounter was Doom 64 and from there, directly to DOOM 3 and then the new Doom in 2016.

It’s true that we technically never had much interaction with the franchise in terms of actual gaming, but the ideas, the monsters, the images and the feeling of that very first demo stayed with us firmly stuck in our memories for all these years.

“MiniDoom 2” took everything that was good with the original game and made everything even better. (“MiniDoom 2” launched back in March of 2018).

Robin TGG
Was it a hard thing for you to follow-up “MiniDoom” with “MiniDoom 2”? And was the development process any different from the first game? And do you think that “MiniDoom 2” live up to your own expectations and goals?

JC:
The follow-up was rather easy in terms of objectives. As we were VERY aware of all the flaws and shortcomings of our first silly game.

So, with MiniDoom 2 we were not really making a second part, we were just fixing all the mistakes we made the first time and adding all the details we would have wanted to have from the beginning.

And the game surpassed our expectations. It’s still a very short and simple game but, with the addition of our third developer, we actually got really serious about making a fun game and we are quite confident now people truly enjoy playing it and not just laughing at the chibi platforming cacodemons.

I for one can’t wait to play a new “MiniDoom” game (“MiniDoom III, yes please!), and yes, I do intend to record part II of my “MiniDoom II” video series.

Robin TGG
How did the fans and critics receive “MiniDoom 2”? I mean, were people mainly happy with how the game turned out? Or was it a mix of different emotions?

JC:
People were quite happy. Most of our first fans were playing our game because of their previous Doom fandom.

But with the release of the second game, they were actually surprised that the parody game they played because of the references was now actually playable and fun.

There were also players who were rightly frustrated with the game’s shortcomings. We have fixed and improved the game quite a bit since its release based on their feedback (Their sacrifice won’t be for nothing).

If “MiniDoom III” ever get to see the day of light, then I sure hope that the game will keep the Super Mario Bros 3-like world map view.

Robin TGG
Are there any plans for a “MiniDoom 3” at this time? IF so, is there anything that you could tell us about the game at all?

JC:
We had many ideas for a third MiniDoom, but, in the end, it’s not our IP so we can’t just go around monetizing someone else’s intellectual property.

And considering the great amount of work it takes to make a game, we would prefer to be able to earn some money from our next project.

MiniDoom was extremely fun to make. It taught us a solid base for game development and got us a couple of fans but I don’t think there will be a part 3.

(Unless of course, Bethesda hires us to make an official parody haha, in which case you can fucking believe I would quit my day job that very moment).

Calavera Studio launched their v2.0 patch for “MiniDoom 2” just a couple of days ago (they did so on the 23rd of March). So “MiniDoom 2” is now better and more bad-ass than ever before.

Robin TGG
What could you tell us about the v2.0 patch for “MiniDoom 2”?

JC:
The main objective on this patch was to make the game more understandable for the player so the player never gets stuck. The game is supposed to be full of action so whenever the player gets confused or lost the game stops being fun.

We added a lot of signs, explanations and new tutorials so people don’t have to guess too many things. There were also several other slight adjustments to the levels, enemies and other elements to remove as much unmercenary frustration as possible.

Will we ever see “MiniDoom” on other platforms than just PC in the future? I sure hope so, but we have to wait and see how it all turns out.

Robin TGG
Does Calavera Studio have any plans on releasing the “MiniDoom” series for other platforms than PC in the near future? (console, mobile?)

JC:
No. This patch is probably the last modification that will ever be made to the game.

A lot of gamers have most likely never heard about Calavera Studio’s retro-like action game “Killumination” before (including myself). Well, the game was made during the Global Game Jam 2017 event in just two days.

Robin TGG
What could you tell us about your old game “Killumination”? And is there any plans to do something more with that IP at all? (a remake, sequel, and so on)

JC:
That game was the product of a 2-day game jam in which we participated as a way to train ourselves to work together. It has a couple of interesting ideas but we have no plans to expand of that in the future.

Who knows, perhaps we do get to see and experience a full-blown commercial game from Calavera Studio in the future?

Robin TGG
Have Calavera Studio’s ever had any thoughts about making a full-blown commercial game? (a game which you could release via Steam, PSN, the Xbox store and so on)

JC:
Making a commercial game is without any doubt our most important objective. We are currently on a bit of a pause to gather our ideas and, among other things, learn unity, unreal engine and other tools to make our next games. But we will be back, have no doubts about that.

“Vermintide 2”, “Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, “Dead Cells”, “Night in the Woods” and “Shovel Knight” were some of the games that JC enjoyed last year.

Robin TGG
What games have you enjoyed the most so far? (2018-2019) And which games are you looking forward to play?

JC:
I’m always veeeery late when it comes to playing game, so my pics are rather ancient, but I think these are the games that took away most of my time over the past year…

Vermintide 2, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dead Cells, Night in the Woods and Shovel Knight. Obviously, the game I want to play the most is Doom: Eternal.

Felipe:
I’ve really been enjoying VR last year, I think the best was Doom VFR (of course), Overload and Beat Saber.

Also researching more platformers like Iconoclast, Hollow Knight, Deadcells, and I’ve been trying out a bunch of little free indie games (There is a lot to learn from them).

Will we ever see “MiniDoom 3” (or any “MiniDoom” title at all for that matter) on the Nintendo Switch? Time will tell.

Robin TGG
And last but not least, what’s your plans, hopes and expectations for the rest of 2019? And is there anything else that you would like to say to our readers?

JC and Felipe:
We really hope to have a solid project plan by the end of the year (or be hired to make MiniDoom3 for the Nintendo Switch haha).

And the latest version of MiniDoom 2 will be up on our site at: http://calavera.studio/minidoom2 for anyone which has not played it yet or for those who never finished collecting all the runes and all the secrets now the game is a lot more balanced and fair so you might want to give it another try.

We also have started to release all the assets from the game so people can use them in their own games. Those will be available at http://calavera.studio/en/downloads/ So, if you need pixely demons and other goodies for your game, you might want to check that out!