"Deliver Us Home" and the world of Indie game development – an interview with Paul Deetman, Founder and CEO of KeokeN Interactive.

It’s the 23rd century and Earth has long been abandoned after it turned into a wasteland. You’re a brave astronaut working hard to secure a safe haven for humanity and you have arrived at what you hope will be a permanent new home for mankind - but all is not as it seems.

“Deliver Us Home” is a narrative-driven, third-person sci-fi adventure game and the third instalment in the “Deliver Us” series, with the previous titles, “Deliver Us the Moon” and “Deliver Us Mars”, having been a great success among fans of the genre upon release.

If you haven’t played the previous titles in the series, don't worry – this is a standalone story that can be played by itself.

I recently had the opportunity of playing the prototype demo of “Deliver Us Home” and have fun with its story and photo mode. The game is still at its early stages but is looking very promising, with a fascinating story and stunning visuals.

You and your robot companion set off to investigate the area to try uncovering the mystery surrounding the fate of the people who previously settled on the planet. Following the sci-fi exploration theme of its predecessors, “Deliver Us Home” promises plenty to explore in a world filled with lore ready to be discovered!

After the successful Kickstarter campaign and releases of “Deliver Us the Moon” and “Deliver Us Mars”, “Deliver Us Home” has been enthusiastically backed by fans of the series old and new and has achieved the impressive feat of reaching its base funding goal on Kickstarter.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Deetman, Founder and CEO of KeokeN Interactive, the developer behind the "Deliver Us" trilogy.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, Paul - and congratulations on reaching the funding goal for “Deliver Us Home” on Kickstarter!

You and your brother Koen are the Founders and Directors of KeokeN Interactive. How did your game development studio come to be?

«It started very early on: my brother and I were always making films in our backyard, we started by making remakes of Star Wars, James Bond and Scream; we then went on to make our own comic books, we wrote our own stories and we recorded our adventures on a tape recorder.

Eventually, it became clear to us that we should elevate our experience and efforts to a higher level. “Why don’t we attempt a more professional approach?”. From starting at the kitchen table, we went on to renting our first office, getting our first interns, doing a Kickstarter for “Deliver Us the Moon” and publishing its sequel, “Deliver Us Mars”. With a lot of ups and downs, we created these games we love.»

I know your current team is small but very much a harmonious group! What can you tell me about how the team is structured?

«The team is very much Indie now, it’s just my brother and I and two people that do this as volunteers out of their passion for the project. We’re making decisions as a group that’s super small, so it wouldn’t make sense to have a whole structure with leads, because it’s just the four of us at present. From creative direction, to level design, to UI, to marketing, we’re all carrying the load together and that’s very much an Indie mentality: the bigger the team grows, the more individualistic the disciplines become – for now, we are doing everything we can to just get the project going.»

The first game in the "Deliver Us" world, “Deliver Us the Moon”, was crowdfunded by backers on Kickstarter, whereas its sequel, “Deliver Us Mars”, was published without the contribution of the backers. Now the third game, “Deliver Us Home”, is seeing a return to the trilogy’s roots and is being backed once again on Kickstarter by fans of the series. How are you and the team adjusting to these changes?

«The industry has changed a lot. When we launched our first Kickstarter, “Deliver Us the Moon”, we were not known but still managed to secured the funding - now we have two games and millions of players and yet we are getting a similar amount of funding, so you can imagine the current state of the gaming industry as a whole. We are incredibly thankful for everyone who believed in “Deliver Us” and backed the project to help us out.»

What do you wish for the gaming industry moving forward?

«I believe in an optimistic future. In every industry, the market always consists of ups and downs.

I would hope for people to focus on the craft, on why we are making games and not just seeing game development as a business - of course, I know that a company needs to recoup its investment and that making a game needs to make sense financially, but it can’t be that we are all creating games trying to make these unicorns. I think that there are so many stories to be told from Indie companies and I believe we should have a bit more support without anyone having the expectation of making ten times the investment. The risk of that approach is that it’s destroying the market: it means that just a small number of game development companies are making their games happen and when that happens, you get a very restricted view of what the gaming industry has to offer. I’d like to see a little more uniqueness and creativity, a push on the love for the craft instead of the profit.»

What do you see in KeokeN Interactive’s future after “Deliver Us Home”?

«For now, we’ll be fully focused on "Deliver Us Home".

Those who’ve been following us for a while know that we’ve always been very open about our projects. After “Deliver Us Mars”, we were actually pitching five games (to publishers), not because we didn’t know what we wanted to work on but because people changed their mind all the time. One of the big-budget titles we pitched is called “We Are Human” - a philosophical game about life and explaining what it means to be human. We also have a top-down shooter, “Expeditions”, as well as a VR title. We want to create all these things and we tried to adapt to the market to make it possible, but nobody bought them.

We don’t know what the future holds but we’d love to keep creating games and the first step is most definitely to secure “Deliver Us Home”, which is already quite a challenge, even with a successful Kickstarter, but we did it before, and that gives us confidence that we can do it. After that, I’d love to work on our new IP “We Are Human”. For now, it’s all focus and eyes on “Deliver Us Home” until the game is finished.»

What’s one advice you’d give other Indie game developers who are looking to release their first title?

«Be as transparent and open as you can – don’t work in a vacuum. Every screenshot, every part of your game that you can share with your community, even a demo, can help you a lot. If you don’t have a community yet, start sharing screenshots, videos and prototype demos with Virtual Photographers, Let's Players and Streamers in order to bring attention to your game and get feedback on your project. Make sure that you make mistakes early on and recover from them as fast as you can: the more mistakes you make, the better you’ll know what you want.

For people that are starting out, it’s really scary, because you’re always looking at others and thinking that those people know exactly what they’re doing, while many are simply putting their ideas into action and learning as they go.»

The Deliver Us games focus heavily on exploration and have a deep, meaningful narrative. If there was only one message you could wish for everyone who plays the Deliver Us games to take away from them, what would it be?

«I’d wish for people to wonder about our place in the universe, what we are as a species and what it means to be human.»

To conclude, are there any final considerations you’d like to share?

«I would just like to say that I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who supported us, not only the people who backed our Kickstarter for “Deliver Us Home” but also everyone who played “Deliver Us the Moon” and “Deliver Us Mars”, as well as for our lovely team that we had and still have over the last decade.

I love that we’ve been able to create the “Deliver Us” world and bring it to so many people. I’m very thankful that we’re being helped to continue our dream and our adventure with “Deliver Us”.»

I really look forward to playing “Deliver Us Home” once it will be released.

Thank you so much, Paul, for taking the time to talk to me today and for sharing some insights about the “Deliver Us” universe and the world of game development!

"Deliver Us the Moon" is now available on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

"Deliver Us Mars" is now available on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.

"Deliver Us Home" is currently in development and will be available on Steam upon release.

You can support "Deliver Us Home" through KeokeN Interactive's Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keoken/deliver-us-home 

Or you can Wishlist the game on Steam right now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2561340/Deliver_Us_Home/