Neon White’s creative director on making the ‘most video games game possible’

theverge.com:

I don’t think I’ve ever played something that blends genres quite like Neon White. Let me try to summarize the game: you play as a demon hunter who destroys baddies in heaven by using cards that serve as either guns or special movement abilities, and the goal is to get through each level as fast as you possibly can. It’s part first-person shooter, part first-person platformer, part puzzler, part card game, part time attack, and even part visual novel.

I’ve struggled to come up with a better description, but in an interview, Neon White creative director Ben Esposito finally gave me one: “a really gamey game.”

“It’s a really unlikely game,” he said. “It’s a really gamey game that’s full of gamey things. But the combination of elements is something that no one asked for.” I think he’s got a point there — the idea of a game that combines first-person action with a race against the clock that’s backed by a charming story sounds ridiculous even in my wildest dreams.

In a video released last year, Esposito talked about Neon White being a game “for freaks,” and I asked him what he meant by that. “We wanted to make something that was unique and felt fresh but still felt like it was using the history of video games, especially late-‘90s / early-2000s Japanese games, as a big inspiration,” he said. “We talk about it being for freaks because you have to be open-minded and you have to be into weird, mid-to-low budget tropes and cliches. It might not be as dignified as another game.”

Neon White is Esposito’s follow-up to Donut County, a delightful but far simpler game where you play as a hole. Donut County is intentionally very accessible. “Part of Donut County’s design was that someone who was four years old could play it,” Esposito