Mornin’ fuckers. It’s Monday, which means its time for an all-new edition of Behind the Mask. This week, we’ve got Christoph Mueller, developer of Hobo Cat Adventures. This game is very early in the development process, but it’s got one of the funniest premises and characters I’ve seen in a long time. I discovered Christoph on Twitter a few months ago and I think he does a great job showing all the different updates to the game. What makes this game so fun right now is the developer is clearly having so much fun playing with all the wacky crazy ideas that he comes up with, and I really cannot wait to see how this game shapes up over the next few years! So, without further ado:
This is me.
This is Christoph.
This is a GIF of one of the best bosses in video game history.
Alright Christoph, we start every interview with the same question: how’d you get into video games as a hobby? First game/console?
I started playing games around 5 years old. My parents owned the original Gameboy and we had Tetris (obviously) and Super Mario Land. Later I got the first Wario from a friend, which is still one of my favorites. Then I got the Super Nintendo for Christmas together with the “Super Mario All-Stars” collection. I really loved Super Mario World on there. My neighbor owned Super Metroid which I borrowed from him… Still got it today. Probably my favorite for the SNES.
Dude, you are literally the worst friend haha. Any time Super Metroid is mentioned around that guy now he’s like “fucking Christoph…”. Hahaha so what made you make the jump into game development?
I think it was at the end of 2016. I was really bored at work, so I started learning C#. I created a simple Tamagotchi-Style game in Visual Studio. Later I found out that you can make real games with Unity using C#. Since then I’m hooked!
What were you doing before learning C#? What was your career?
I was and still am an electronics technician. You know, swinging the soldering iron and stuff. But I actually always wanted to be a movie director before getting into games. It’s hard to get people to play in your shitty movies though, so now I create all my actors myself.
Gotcha. So you started making games; Hobo Cat wasn’t the first though right? Tell me about those early experiences. What was your first idea? How did it turn out? What did you learn?
Well, basically my first attempts of making a game transformed into what now is Hobo Cat Adventures. I always wanted to make a 3D Platformer/Adventure type game, so I started with that right away. When I first started out though the concept was a bit different…
What was the concept back then?
You played as this penis-character with two legs and arms called Richard (“Dick”). And he had a baseball bat and could throw bombs around. Basically, just like in Hobo Cat…but with dicks.
Hahahahaha that is the funniest concept I’ve ever heard of.
Well, firstly I wanted to make my friends laugh with the idea that someone would actually do that. Secondly, I thought if people would scroll through Steam and see a game where you’re a penis with a baseball bat, they’d buy it just to see what’s going on there. I always drew stuff like that too. I don’t know. It’s my stupid humor, I guess.
No, I totally get that. I agree I think people would absolutely check it out just because of how absurd it looks. So how’d that become Hobo Cat?
I eventually found out that the Swiss government supports and funds Swiss-made games and I wanted to be a part of that. Of course, they’d probably never support something like that so I changed the character. Also, my girlfriend always told me she doesn’t like the concept (…I still don’t understand why). So one day I drew this cat character that kinda looked cool. So there’s that.
Oh cool, so are they funding you?
…no hahaha.
Idk why but that just made me spit out my drink hahahaha.
Should have gone with the dick concept I guess lol.
Ok well, let’s dive into Hobo Cat Adventures then. It’s a platformer right?
I’m actually not so sure about that. It sure looks like one. But I’d say it’s more like Dark Souls without the combat. But with cats. I guess it’s an action-adventure. I really sound like I have no idea what my game is all about haha.
Yea not gonna lie, that’s confusing as fuck lol. Expound on that more. Imagine if I was gonna invest like $100k in your game. What is your game, and why would I want to play it? What type of gamer does it appeal to? What’s the gameplay like? Is there a story already made?
What’s important to me with this game is the story and the weird stuff you will encounter. And mostly the characters. I want the game to be like a fucked-up cartoon you’re watching but with gameplay. If you’ve played “Conkers Bad Fur Day” you probably have some idea what my game is like. I mean the main attraction of that game is the story, the characters, and just to see what will happen next. I’m also very inspired by the Souls series. Not so much by the combat for my game but by the way you discover stuff and find these hidden secrets. I hope people that like these kinds of games will like my game. Or just people that like cartoons like Rick and Morty, South Park or Ren and Stimpy. It’s probably just like Death Stranding…if you know what I mean.
Oh like where no one has a fucking clue what the actual game is? Haha, I was waiting for you to say Conker because that’s immediately what I think about when I see Hobo. There hasn’t been anything like Conker in a very, very long time and I think there’s still a market for it so I think you’ll be good! When can we expect to see an alpha or beta for Hobo?
My plan for the game so far is to create one episode. I will release that and see what people think about it. If no one gives a damn, then at least I didn’t spend 10 years on a huge game no one cares about. Since I’m doing everything on my own, next to my job and going to school, progress, unfortunately, is quite slow. But I hope to release the first episode sometime next year. Or an alpha or beta or something of that first episode.
Ok ok, I gotcha. What are you studying?
Software Engineering.
Ok. Pretty relevant. Definitely worth your time and investment, I think.
Alright, well thanks again for spending some time with me today. Ready for some rapid-fire questions to finish this thing off?
Hit me!
Favorite game of all-time?
Bloodbourne.
Love it. Favorite game this year?
Risk of Rain 2.
Also love it. Most underrated game of all time?
Bubsy 3D.
…I’m sorry what?
Lol, I’m kidding. Minit.
Man, I love this question because most of the time I’ve never heard of these games. Gonna have to check it out. Most overrated game of all time?
Also Bubsy 3D.
Hahahaha ok but seriously.
Haha, Fortnite.
GREAT answer. Game you refuse to play for whatever reason?
I never wanted to play Pokemon when I was young, despite all my friends playing the shit out of it. Just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Interesting. I feel ya. Give me a fact about Hobo Cat that no one knows about?
Old Cat is Augustus (Hobo Cat) from the future.
Alright, I usually end with “is Fortnite a good game” but you’ve already answered that lol. Thank you again for your time! I look forward to following Hobo Cat and I’m sure this isn’t the last time we’ll speak! Good luck!
Thanks man!
Alright everyone, I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did. If you want to learn more about Hobo Cat and follow along with the development process, you can follow Christoph on Twitter here! Also, this interview was sponsered by Humble Bundle. I’ve already mentioned it before, but they’ve got an excellent deal going on right now for their monthly subscribers: Call of Duty WW2, Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy all for $15, plus more games revealed on Nov. 1st! That’s a fucking steal. Plus, part of your monthly fee is donated to a charity of your choice. So you’re not only getting a ton of awesome high-quality games for $15, you’re supporting a good cause. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do.
See you next week for a spooky edition of Behind the Mask!
