ALAKABLAM!
AlakaBlam! from Sixgill Studios is a multiplayer arena first-person shooter that puts a whimsical twist on the genre. Instead of firearms, you use your hands to wield magical blasts against your foes — it’s a bit like wielding finger guns in a high-energy shootout. Drawing inspiration from classics like Quake for its fast-paced action and from modern hits like Apex Legends and Titanfall 2 for its dynamic movement and verticality, AlakaBlam! promises intense, enjoyable combat for up to 4 players.
Sixgill Studios aims to keep AlakaBlam! light-hearted and family-friendly by steering clear of blood, gore, and traditional weapons. During our playtesting at GeekFest West, we noticed how engaging the game was for kids, with the most explosive moments simply translating to bright lights and excitement.
Currently in its early development stages, AlakaBlam! is free-to-play and accessible via Google Drive if you have an active Steam account. It's shaping up to be a promising addition to the multiplayer shooter scene, offering a refreshing alternative for players of all ages who crave fast-paced action without the mature themes.
Puppet: This is Puppet, and I'm here interviewing with Sixgill Studios for their game...
Stephen: Alakablam.
Puppet: Alakablam! There we go. Thanks for joining me. Tell me who you are and what you do.
Stephen: I'm Stephen. My day job is a bus driver, I would like very much to not be a bus driver anymore. So, I decided to build a video game. And it is a first-person arena shooter to start. Yeah.
Puppet: Yeah. So tell me what you have done so far on your game and what that process has been like.
Stephen: Blood, sweat, and tears. But mostly, right now we've got three levels, we've got two characters, and while originally, I was planning on having like, characters like heroes, I don't want to make a hero shooter. So we're pivoting away, and we're going to just do a bunch of customization options.
Puppet: Cool, that's awesome. Yeah. So what originally got you into developing games?
Stephen: I found out that it was free.
Puppet: (laughs)
Stephen: And 1000s of dollars later, it is not free. (laughs)
Puppet: (laughs) Wow. Okay. All right. Um, we'll dive into that a little bit later. I have a great question for you later on.
Stephen: Sure.
Puppet: But for now, tell me about your game and what are you most excited about in your game.
Stephen: I'm most excited about how we're presenting it. We're presenting it as a $20 game. That's all the money we get. That's it. I don't want the microtransactions. I don't want you to pay for any of the cosmetics. I want you to earn your cosmetics: do a cool thing. Get a cool thing.
Puppet: Love that. Yeah, it's becoming more rare to find that.
Stephen: It is. And I mean, I've even played around with in-game currency and I don't even want that. I want everything to be earned.
Puppet: Yeah.
Stephen: I did this to get this. Not “Oh, I grinded 10 matches and therefore I got this.” It’s not really a thing.
Puppet: Yeah, I like the “do cool thing, get a cool thing”. That's a great way to do things, for sure. Um, so this game, in particular, tell me why this game? What inspired you to make this game in particular?
Stephen: This game in particular, it just, it seemed like, I guess, not necessarily the easiest. I originally started with, like a sidescrolling Contra clone but it ended up being very difficult, which sounds a little counterintuitive to a first-person arena shooter that's online. But I found out I wasn't quite good at it. Then I just was like, “Oh, let's pivot. Let's do something that feels a little more familiar, something that I've got a lot of hours in.” So I decided to do that.
Puppet: Yeah. And when you say you “have a lot of hours in”, what games do you?
Stephen: Oh man, a lot of PUBG and I dropped out of school to play Halo and not in any kind of professional capacity. I was lazy. (laughs)
Puppet: (laughs) Amazing.
Stephen: So yeah, I just like first-person shooters and I don't like where they are today. I like where they are 10 years ago, 15 years ago.
Puppet: Okay.
Stephen: And I want to bring it back. And talking to people here today, I'm not alone.
Puppet: Yeah, so tell me more about that.
Stephen: I want to get rid of load-outs. I don't want you to buy your weapons, you know, spend $20 for a skin or like in Halo Infinite pay $25 for the color blue on your armor. I don't… I think it's strange. I think it's predatory. And you know, this game is meant for kids. Not maybe meant for kids, but kids have been really flocking to it. I don't want to drain their parents’ bank accounts.
Puppet: Yeah.
Stephen: And at $20 for a game, it’s an easy sell. Whereas $70 for a game and then all the microtransactions, and at the end of the year, you've paid $700 for it.
Puppet: Yeah.
Stephen: That feels… it feels wrong. On my my website I say it's “ethical monetization only”. I I don't want to prey on anybody.
Puppet: Yeah. “Ethical monetization” I… Yeah, wow. Very cool. Yeah.
Stephen: Yeah.
Puppet: I do remember the first thing you said to me was “Do you want to shoot each other?” to me and Sarah. (laughs) And then and then it was “Would you like to shoot some?” (laughs)
Stephen: Yeah.
Puppet: And yeah, you had two kids playing at the time and they were having a great time with this game.
Stephen: Yeah.
Puppet: Yeah, it was very cool. Yeah. So, if you could go back in time to when you first started developing games in general…
Stephen: Sure.
Puppet: What would you change? Or what is some advice that you would give yourself?
Stephen: Uh, huh… “Don't trust this person (I’ll will keep them nameless). Look, they’re offering it to you, just say no.” Alright, that would be that one. That's probably the biggest piece of advice. I took two years off because of everything that happened in that — just a bunch of drama.
Puppet: Yeah.
Stephen: But um, but it took me a while to even open the project. And it was yeah, two years of just like it’s too painful to even open. And then something happened. Oh, right. I joined TikTok.
Puppet: Oh?
Stephen: And I was making a trading card game. Just literally with paper. I was… there were some of my first videos are of me cutting out cards. And it's a mech-builder game. It's gonna be in the computer eventually because [right now] it doesn't work. But yeah.
Puppet: Yeah. So yeah, what I know so far in meeting with indies, and talking to other developers is that it's such an emotional process. You were putting so much of yourself into this game.
Stephen: Yeah.
Puppet: And it's not the first time that I've heard of a heartbreak happening during development.
Stephen: Yeah.
Puppet: And so it's interesting to hear. How did you get out of that? That dark pit, you know?
Stephen: Other creative people came in and they're like, “Oh, you're working on that. That's super cool.” I was like, “Oh, I guess I'll show it. I'll post it on video.” And then people are like, “Hey, go continue to do that.”
Puppet: Yeah.
Stephen: So that… it just helped uplift the spirits a little bit.
Puppet: Yeah, very cool. Well, thank you so much for talking with me. Very short interview. Please tell me where can we find more information about your game and where you're at online
Stephen: Sixgillstudios.com or Sixgill.Studios on Tik Tok. I do have a YouTube page, just search for Sixgill Studios and you'll find me. Uh, it's not very good, I don't have very many subscribers right now. But the websites’ good, my merch is there. Just my logo on hats and pillows and t-shirts and stuff.
Puppet: Cool. All the important stuff. We love that. (laughs)
Stephen: Yup.
Puppet: All right, well, have a great rest of the convention.
Stephen: Thank you.
Puppet: Thanks for meeting with us.
Stephen: Of course.
