Bright Memory is one of those amazing success stories from the industry with plenty of lessons to take away about sheer will and commitment. In addition of having a visual appeal with an equally impressive sense of style, the whole game was made by a one-man army, albeit benefiting from a few collaborations.
Speaking with SegmentNext in a recent interview, FYQD Studio CEO Zeng Xiancheng confirmed plans to port Bright Memory: Infinite over to next-generation consoles in the future, at least after he is done with the more fully-featured and large-scaled take on the original game for PC.
Xiancheng also stated that Bright Memory: Infinite should be able comfortably to run on 4K resolution at 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, albeit without ray tracing enabled.
His expectations are based on the powerful hardware specifications of the two new upcoming consoles and no internal optimizations or performance tests have been made so far. That being said, Xiancheng believes PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be able to max out the game with ease.
The entire interview can be browse through below.
What was the inspiration behind making Bright Memory?
When I first started out developing Bright Memory I often discussed with my friends what concepts would be cool to put in my game. One that stood out to me was a discussion we had where we talked about what would happen if a sci-fi character was dropped into a world 100 years ago.
What would it be like fighting ancient soldiers with modern weapons, and would it really be as easy as you would think. My friends agreed that it would a cool concept but at the time it was difficult for me to visualize as I was still learning about making video games back in 2015. I decided to take a close look at the action gameplay of some of my favorite FPS games for inspiration.
Were you confident that mixing all those things in one game would work?
What I have always aimed for with Bright Memory is AAA quality gameplay. I am confident about the level of gameplay I have achieved in Bright Memory. It was a challenge incorporating the sci-fi skills into the game but I love the way they turned out. For Bright Memory: Infinite I want more of these types of skills to be included and to improve the animation and uses of the skills for more exciting gameplay.
I know that you can’t go into details but what are the major things you are going to add in Bright Memory: Infinite?
There are so many differences between Bright Memory: Infinite and Bright Memory. Bright Memory in essence is a demo, a concept work where I tested out some aspects of gameplay that I would like to have in Bright memory: Infinite which will be a more polished product. Bright Memory: Infinite will contain much more cinematic narration for players to have a deeper understanding of what is going on in the story, characters’ motives, etc.
Gameplay-wise I have removed the cooldowns for the skills in Bright Memory: Infinite. Instead, skills will use deplete an energy bar, which will recover automatically over time. This is to get players to utilise their skills more than in Bright Memory. Infinite also has a perfect block mechanic that recovers HP if done correctly (can be seen in the new gameplay trailer). With these players will be able to use skills more aggressively leading to more exciting gameplay.
Also, I am planning to include car chase set pieces where the player will have to evade enemies in high-speed. I believe this will be another high impact visual and gameplay addition to the game.
Is our protagonist going to learn some new moves?
As can be seen in the new gameplay trailer players can now use their left arm grapple device to zip to locations quickly which increases player mobility around the map which I believe is important in FPS games. Shelia can now slide along the ground to prevent damage when falling from heights.
What sort of new enemies players can expect to encounter in Infinite?
Enemies have been completely overhauled for Bright Memory: Infinite with all-new enemies. The old enemies did not fit the new story. Many enemies in Infinite are Ancient Chinese themed, to further reflect my heritage. So, you will be battling against Ancient Chinese warriors and monsters of myth and legend.
How long Bright Memory: Infinite is expected to be? Just a rough idea!
Bright Memory: Infinite development started officially in December of 2019, I expect to spend one year creating Bright Memory: Infinite.
As I only have a year to work on this project with pretty much just myself on the team it will be under 20 hours long.
How much of development work did you outsource? Or did you do everything by yourself in real?
I developed Bright Memory during my downtime while working for a game company. I created maps and characters myself but had to rely on Quixel’s media library and Unreal Marketplace for a lot of resources. For Bright Memory: Infinite I am going to be far more strict when it comes to how the game is made so I will be outsourcing 3D art. However, level design, scenario writing and source code will be done by me.
I know it might still be early but when is Bright Memory: Infinite expected to release?
My personal expectation is the development of Bright Memory: Infinite will be completed in December of this year, but the release date is not fixed yet because it has to be decided separately according to the market situation.
