An Interview with Sinclair Strange, Developer of I Want To Be Human

Published: September 10, 2015 1:00 PM /

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Sinclair Stange

Sinclair Strange is an indie developer releasing his first major game, I Want To Be Human, this fall. I Want To Be Human is a gory, action platformer with a cool art style and interesting story about a vampire girl trying to save her boyfriend who has been turned into a hat. Tech Raptor had the opportunity to ask Sinclair Strange some questions about the new game. Read on to learn more about Sinclair Strange and I Want To Be Human.

I Want To Be Human
Sinclair Strange

TechRaptor: Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

Sinclair: I’m Sinclair Strange. I’m a Brit with a fetish for pots of steaming hot tea and video games. Yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up.

TechRaptor: When I Want To Be Human was green-lighted on Steam the story was about a robot collecting human organs. Now the story is about a vampire girl trying to save her boyfriend. Why the change?

Sinclair: In short, it was a crazy story change to fit a more suitable Halloween theme since the game is set to release around that time. I also had a new gimmick involving the organs that didn’t quite fit the theme I originally had. Plus vampires are bad-ass (shout out to the late and great Christopher Lee).

TechRaptor: How do you think the Steam community that greenlighted I Want To Be Human will respond to the change?

Sinclair: Hopefully well. The gameplay and style hasn’t changed one bit and making the new characters a vampire and hat gives it a more interesting dynamic.

TechRaptor: What were your experiences with the Steam Greenlight process?

Sinclair: Weird. I originally stuck it up just to see what Greenlight was all about back in the beginning of 2014 and with-in three weeks it had 10,000+ votes without me doing a single thing to promote it. (I’m pretty sure that wasn’t how Greenlight typically worked at the time.)

TechRaptor: What are you hoping to do differently with vampires than other games and mediums often have?

Sinclair: Actually, I’m trying to make them good again. Vampires these days have become really crap, with their love for glitter and broodiness. It’s about time to bring back the carnage!

TechRaptor: What sets I Want To Be Human apart from other indie platformers?

Sinclair: Its crazy-ass art-style, its humor, and its high-paced gory action. Hopefully it’ll capture a nice punk vibe and try and not be yet another pretentious indie game about soul searching or figuring out why their relative has just passed.

TechRaptor: Can you tell us more about I Want To Be Human's gameplay?

Sinclair: There are multiple paths players can take to get through the levels and also hidden secret floppy disks in each “block” that will unlock extra content, (concept art, music, extra challenge levels etc. ) Also, you can play through the stages in different styles: players can either go for a high score, or try and get the quickest time, it’s totally up to the player to find their own play style. I loved games back in the day where you had score but also a timer. I remember playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 when I was a kid and I’d one time try and complete it as fast as I can and another I’d spend all the time getting every ring.

But basically, kill everything.

TechRaptor: I Want To Be Human has an interesting art style. How did you decide what the game would look like and how it would fit into the theme of the game?

Sinclair: I used to be rather active back in the day on DeviantArt. One day I thought I should totally make a game using this art style as my fans would dig it, hence I started development of a flash game and it slowly evolved into the game we’re seeing today.

TechRaptor: Some of your flash games have been inspired by old video games. Is that the case with I Want To Be Human? What were some of your inspirations for the game?

Sinclair: My gameplay inspirations came from my childhood, so it has a splash of stuff from games like Kid Chameleon, Sonic, Mario, Kirby, Mega Man and general awesome stuff from that era. I’m a sucker for the 8-bit hard-as-nails NES games, so I also ramped up the difficulty in the later sages to reflect my love for this particular era of gaming.

TechRaptor: This is Sinclair Strange's biggest game yet. What have been the challenges of its development?

Sinclair: Yes, I’d never sunk so much time into development of one game before. The biggest challenge will be getting it finished on time for Halloween, but everything is on track!

TechRaptor: Is there anything else you would like readers to know about I Want To Be Human?

Sinclair: No body bags are included, they must be purchased separately.

A big thanks to Sinclair Strange for taking the time to answer our questions. Retro inspired, gory platformer I Want To Be Human is slated for launch on PC this October.

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Alexandra Joy Taberski
| Past Author

Alexandria is a former Staff Writer at TechRaptor, who specializes in coverage of mobile games, RPGs, and JRPGs primarily, and has an unfortunate aversion… More about Alexandria