I’m a huge fan of FPS games. I’ve always been curious to explore everything from realistic simulations to the wildest arcade-style experiences. So when I discovered Deadlink, I couldn’t resist jumping straight into it. The vibrant colors, intense action, and mind-blowing animations instantly hooked me.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Grzegorz Michalak, also known as Greg, from Gruby Entertainment, and talk in depth about this phenomenal title. Here is our interview, exclusively on INDIEGAMES/WTF.
What inspired you to create Deadlink, and how did you come up with the unique combination of FPS, rogue-lite mechanics, and a sci-fi colored art style?
The idea for Deadlink initially came from Paweł Siech, our creative director. As Polish game developers, we have always had a soft spot for cyberpunk. Just look at games like Ruiner, Observer, Ghostrunner, Gamedeck, or Cyberpunk 2077 (duh). We love gritty stories like Blade Runner, set in dark, rainy city streets illuminated by neon lights.
Maybe it comes from our country’s history, rapidly transitioning from the post-Soviet era and eagerly embracing new technologies from the Western side of the Iron Curtain.
Choosing FPS as our genre was mostly based on experience. All four founders had previously worked as gameplay programmers on Outriders at People Can Fly, so we already shared a strong background in shooter development. At the same time we were huge fans of games like Hades, Dead Cells, and Slay the Spire, which we played religiously. So we asked ourselves: “What would happen if we combined FPS with a roguelike?”
It was not the most original idea in the world, since there were already excellent titles like Roboquest, Gunfire Reborn, Immortal Redneck, and Ziggurat. However, none of them were set in the specific cyberpunk universe we wanted to explore.
When we started developing Deadlink there were only four of us, all programmers, with zero artistic skills. Realistic graphics would have been difficult to achieve with that team, so we went for a low poly, stylized approach. Then our art director, Tomasz Ćwik, joined and surprised us with a fresh direction that combined mid-poly meshes with rim lighting and unconventional cel shading. This unique art style has stayed with us ever since, and we are honestly quite proud of it.
What kind of research and preparation did you do before starting development on Deadlink?
Let me break the preparation down into three categories.
1. The formal stuff
Deadlink is the first project from Gruby Entertainment, so we had to deal with everything related to setting up a company. We had to work with lawyers, accountants, and business developers to get it off the ground.
If you plan to start your own studio, be ready to spend a lot of time handling paperwork, emails, and spreadsheets. It can easily become 60–80 percent of your life, especially as your team grows. If that is not your thing, consider finding a business partner who enjoys that side of the work. It might be expensive, but it lets you focus on development.
2. The technical side
To my surprise, many new studios do not set up a proper technical pipeline before jumping into development. With four programmers on board, we decided to automate as much as possible from day one.
Seriously, invest in automation. It pays off immediately. Here are some key parts of our setup:
Source control repository
A must-have for any team today.
Build automation
We have a system that builds the full project after each source control submission. This allowed us to enforce two important rules:
Always playable – The latest version of the game built from source control must be playable from start to finish with no blocking issues. The build machine catches some errors automatically, and others are discovered by simply playing the game. If there is a blocker, drop everything and fix it. Keeping the project in a healthy state is crucial.
Treat warnings as errors – This one can be controversial and is hard to introduce mid-project, but if you start with it, the benefits are huge. Seeing a clean build with zero warnings is strangely satisfying.
Automatic Steam build uploads
If your game is already on Steam, make sure you have at least one beta branch updated automatically every day. That way everyone who owns the game can always access the latest version. Combined with the “always playable” rule, this creates a constant feedback loop as you add features and updates.
Integrations with communication tools
Developers usually hate email, so it helps to automate communication through Discord or Slack. We use a Discord bot that reports build status directly to the team. We also have bots that notify us about new Steam reviews and Twitch streams featuring Deadlink. It keeps everyone aligned in a lightweight way.
3. Game-related research
This is the most important part, even if it appears last. You and your team need to play a lot of games, especially within the genre you are targeting. You have to understand what makes those games special and think about how you can push those ideas further.
One piece of advice: read the negative reviews of your favorite games on Steam. They can give you a fresh perspective on what players struggle with and how your designs might address those issues.
The art style of Deadlink is amazing. How did you approach the aesthetics, and what were the biggest challenges?
Working with stylized graphics was a blast. It allowed us to be very creative and do things that would be difficult or impossible in a realistic game. It also introduced some interesting technical challenges.
We did not follow a standard Physically Based Rendering (PBR) pipeline. Instead, we wrote our own lighting functions and shaders. Here is a glimpse of what our master shaders look like:
One of the most important parts of our style is how we handle rim lighting. It took a long time to get right, but it is a key element that brings the visuals to life.
Another interesting point is that we barely rely on traditional UV mapping or textures for objects. We almost never use normal maps. That means we have to be much more precise when modeling, because most of the detail is built directly into the mesh.
(Check out the keyboard. Every key and carving is part of the mesh. Only the display panel uses a texture.)
This approach increases vertex counts, but keeps objects sharp and gives them that comic-style look.
Our technical artist, Michał Orzełek, gave a great talk about Deadlink’s stylized graphics at Digital Dragons 2023. If you want to learn more, keep an eye on the Digital Dragons Krakow YouTube channel where the lecture should appear.
The main menu, with its laboratory setting and interactive elements, sounds like a fascinating and immersive approach. How did you design this interactive menu system, and how does it support the overall atmosphere?
From the very beginning we knew combat would be the core of Deadlink. Gameplay had to be king, so we spent a lot of time refining movement and shooting.
At the same time we believe games should deliver a holistic experience, where gameplay, visuals, audio, and narrative all work together to immerse the player.
Hades was a big reference here. We loved its story and how it used narrative elements. One thing that really stood out was being able to talk to NPCs and experience story content that did not necessarily affect gameplay directly. We wanted to explore a similar idea.
That is how Rumiko, Thomas, and Maria were born. These characters exist to help immerse players in the world of Deadlink and add narrative value without getting in the way of combat.
Finding the right balance was challenging, but our goal was to offer something for players who enjoy story and worldbuilding while also letting action-focused players jump straight into the fights. We wanted to serve both the “pew pew boom boom” crowd and those who want a deeper connection to the setting.
I saw on game-stats that Deadlink has made about 300,000 dollars in revenue. Is that accurate, or are they exaggerating?
First of all, as a team our main focus is developing Deadlink to the best of our abilities. Deadlink is currently in Early Access on Steam, and sales can fluctuate a lot, especially with things like our recent Humble Bundle feature.
We understand the curiosity about revenue, but we still have a long way to go before we can be considered as recognizable as some of our peers, like our friends at Roboquest.
For us the most important part of Early Access is the chance to gather feedback and interact with the community. That feedback is crucial for improving and refining the game on the road