Last week, we were able to check out Heavy Metal Death Can from the team at Krufs Productions. It’s a unique take on the classic Resident Evil formula, backed by a hard rock soundtrack and plenty of spookiness. But what’s more, it’s a lot of fun to play.
But what goes into a game such as this? With that, we sat down with Toby, game artist and musician for Krufs Productions, to get a better idea. Let’s rock!
So what inspired you to create Heavy Metal Death Can? Is there an incredible need for classic survival horror game to make a return?
So our studio is Krufs Productions, that’s me and my partner Fredrik, and we’re ex Mirage Game Studios devs. The idea came from when I replayed Resident Evil Zero, one of my favorite survival horror games, and we were talking about how great it would be if the entire game took place on the train, and how the survival horror game loop is such a good fit for a more linear confined space. He came up with the submarine theme, inspired by a classic point and click game called Prisoner of Ice. We were really excited about this game idea, chatting about it occasionally by the coffee machine. Then our studio quite suddenly folded and after the initial shock of our pending unemployment we got together and actually started pre-production on what would become Heavy Metal Death Can, starting with a visit to an actual submarine from the era!
Regarding the need for classic survival horror, there have been quite a few releases of this ilk in the past few years, games like Signalis and Crow Country which we really enjoyed and they show that there’s an audience for this kind of games. But ultimately, we’re just ourselves and really excited about this. If you make something that you yourself would want to play, and you’re honest about it, chances are that other gamers will share those preferences.
What would you say are your biggest influences when it came to the creation of this game?
The classics of course! Resident Evil Remake for the GameCube is one of my all-time favorites and to me the period between it and RE4 is a beautiful era of survival horror where there’s still the classic game design, but the fidelity is high enough to make games that are truly timeless. It is pitifully short though so we want to make games that add to that canon, classic Survival Horror gameplay but with modernized aesthetics and game feel.
Tell us more about the development team?
We’re a two person team: it’s me, Toby, and Fredrik. I do game art, audio and music and Fredrik does programming. Game design tasks are split up amongst us and any time we have game design decisions to make we solve it through heated discussion!
Tell us more about the story, and the nightmares that await aboard your Heavy Metal Death Can.
The game takes place in an alternate history version of the Cold War where the Scandinavian countries got together to form the FSS or the United Scandinavian States. As Norway discovers oil in the Northern Sea they accidentally drill too far, opening up an additional layer of the Earth’s crust where new lifeforms are discovered. You are on a research vessel on a mission to investigate these lifeforms and during a dive to retrieve one your team was attacked and you were rendered unconscious. When you wake up you’re in the infirmary, an unknown amount of time has passed and your crew mates have turned into Oil Spewing Zombies. You set out to find survivors, figure out what happened and try to turn the ship back home.
We’ve checked out the demo and it’s rad! Were the tank controls always going to happen from the start?
Thank you so much! Since we’re survival horror aficionados ourselves it is very important to us that the game offers features that would be expected by fans of the genre. That includes Tank Controls among other things such as fixed cameras and item scarcity.
Will there be an option for modern controls should gamers ask for it?
There will be for sure. We’ve looked into how late era fixed-camera games were controlled, games like Haunting Grounds or the RE0 remaster, and they really fixed a lot of issues with using a 2D control mode in fixed camera games. Taking inspiration from these titles we think we’ve come up with something that feels pretty great!
We’re loving the classic look of the in-game engine and the static camera angles. What was the toughest part of putting such an engine together, you think?
We’re using Unreal Engine so we haven’t built any rendering tech ourselves. That said, the look we developed was intended to emulate how you remember the pre-rendered backgrounds from the PS1 and PS2 era. We call it retro-idealistic since while we are using low poly models and low resolution textures this combined with modern lighting, shading and rendering tech brings to life a nostalgic yet modern aesthetic that we hope will bring back feelings of seeing pre-rendered games for the first time.
Are we starting to see a resurgence in classic horror games, even with some of the more modern entries on the market?
I think so! In the indie space the genre is booming for sure, but even in the AAA space it seems like there’s a bigger priority in delivering actually scary horror games which is a great thing!
Let’s talk about the soundtrack. How did Argos Eye become involved? Did they make the request or did you?
Argos Eye is actually my band so they didn’t really have a choice! No, but the key is that full band metal music is something that we want to incorporate into the soundtrack. Taking a step back, we wanted to create a soundtrack that feels like it fits with the theme, but has the room to go full on brutal if the game asks for it. A submarine is an environment full of janky electronic setups with all kinds of exposed wiring and electronic components. Having the soundtrack being driven by electric guitars seemed like a great fit! From there we’re able to go between somewhat clean picking for a more somber tone, or full on metal for like a boss fight or something. This does break with the 70s theme quite a bit, but within that aesthetic clash is exactly where we want the game to be.
We see that the game is currently headed to Steam. If it’s popular enough, could we see it pop up on consoles as well? Maybe Nintendo Switch 2?
Absolutely! We’re a newly started studio making our debut title so it’s a leap of faith for sure but if the game performs well then we plan to make ports for all the major systems. There are a few things we’re doing to simplify this process and those are using a conventional game engine, doing optimization early and using a controller-first development philosophy.
How has the response to the game been thus far? Are you excited for its final release?
The response has been great! These games mean a lot to us so seeing how the Survival Horror community has embraced Heavy Metal Death Can has been so heartwarming and exciting! We started developing the alpha this June and we’re more motivated than ever to deliver a great survival horror experience! Thank you so much for having us on, as a small team this really means a lot!
Heavy Metal Death Can will release on Steam in 2026. You can wishlist it here!
You can read more about Heavy Metal Death Can in our preview!
