ZOMBIES NOIR

Protect yourself against zombies in Zombies Noir, an intense mixed-reality action game where you can look through your VR headset and see the real world around you. Synodic Arc’s mixed reality environment offers a completely new take on the zombie-themed VR experience: using your personal space as a map, navigate through waves of zombies from Noir City in your very own living room.

Catch yourself ducking attacks and strategically placing objects as you get immersed in this one-of-a-kind mixed reality environment. We couldn’t stop laughing as we watched our team take on zombies in front of our eyes while onlookers got a glimpse of what a Call of Duty-inspired looks like from the outside. Zombies Noir is an intense AR experience; every game-over will make you want to play it again and again with different strategies in mind.

Zombies Noir is currently in early access exclusively on the Quest 2.

Sarah: This is Sarah and I’m interviewing Michael from Synodic studios. Am I saying that right? Synodic?

Michael: Synodic Arc.

Sarah: Synodic Arc. *laughs* Alright, so who are you? What do you do?

Michael: So I'm the founder and the lead programmer at Synodic Arc. So that means, gotta manage a lot of stuff and do a lot of programming, basically.

Sarah: What are you working on?

Michael: We are currently working on Zombies Noir, which is a mixed reality action title where you fight zombies in your house. We are also working on The Boo Crew which is a four player couch Co Op game.

Sarah: Nice. So what got you into indies? Into game design/founding/whatever, what got you into it?

Michael: I think it's an interesting story. I've actually always wanted to make games. So, many kids in elementary school were saying that they wanted to be firefighters or doctors or astronauts. I've always wanted to make games. So ever since I was six years old. And then going into the indie space has just been a way for me to be more creative and passionate. So I have worked at you know, AAA studios before, but currently, at the very least, I am doing this full time at the moment.

Sarah: Nice. What have you been most excited about doing in your field or in your games that you're creating? What's been the most fun for you?

Michael: I think fun as a game developer comes about in a lot of different ways. I do think working on Zombies Noir more specifically has been awesome. Being able to work on this mixed reality title, working on integrating all these tools with pass-through and setting up the room space inthe VR setting for the Oculus Quest has been really, really cool.

Sarah: So, I know you said you have a fun time dealing with all the VR stuff... What made you decide to go with Zombies Noir and Boo Crew? Because they both seem to be kind of spooky, scary in a way. So what's behind that?

Michael: I'm gonna be completely honest: I'd like to say it's on accident, but I don't think that's the case looking at our track record. Considering that The Boo Crew is the next game we plan to release, that means that four out of our five games have been horror themed. So it might not really be an accident anymore. I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that horror games are something that is very, I guess, marketable. People like to see horror — it's fun. But at the same time, I feel that our newest games, Zombies Noir and The Boo Crew, are more fun than they are horror. So we're definitely targeting a younger audience there. If you look at the art for both games, you'll see that they're not supposed to be like mature rated games.

Sarah: Has there been any inspiration behind that? Like with the arts and the theming? Is there anything — I don't know if there's any other games or anything that you compare it to — but any inspiration behind that?

Michael: To be honest, I think it just comes from other games that aren't even necessarily horror themed. I would say it's pretty clear that Zombies Noir is inspired by Call of Duty. I think that it comes down to the fact that Zombies Noir is a wave based survival game against zombies. Obviously, Call of Duty zombies mode has quite a few differences from our game, but that… It's almost in the same way, would you consider Call of Duty zombie chronicles to be horror? And now I almost feel like, do you consider Zombies Noir to be horror? It’s almost like the same question. I feel it's more of a “no”, but some people might think it is.

Sarah: Okay, that does sum it up really well, actually. So if you could go back in time and change one thing — developing the game or in starting up the Synodic Arc Studios — is there anything that you would change or a piece of advice you would give your past self?

Michael: Oh, that's a loaded question. I'm sure there's so many things I could say. Um, I guess maybe more so, the advice for my past-self is basically everything I've learned throughout the experience of making these games, right? Sort of, know what you're looking for from the beginning. You know, get the talent on board that can help you. Because I think that actually has been one of our biggest struggles: we have sometimes not hired the right people for the job. Specifically, like we don't have people to help us full-time or part-time for things like animation. Which has meant that all of our animations have to come from our outsourcers — which it is very difficult to communicate with them. Nothing against them, of course, because they do great work. But it's very difficult to manage people that you cannot talk to you between nine-to-five when you are working nine-to-five.

Sarah: That is a very good point. Wow. I did not even… I remember that so many indies do outsourcing but I did not, I guess, factor in how much of a hindrance that can really be to the games. Alright, is there anything else you want the people to know about you or your studio? Tell us where we can find ya, all that good stuff. Plug yourself.

Michael: Sure. So I'd love you to all try out Zombies Noir. It's available on the App Lab today. You can download it in early access for $20. You can find us online with our link tree which Linktr.ee/SynodicArc. Synodic Arc is spelled S-Y-N-O-D-I-C A-R-C.

Sarah: Awesome. I love you comin’ in with the spelling too. *laughs* That helps every bit.

Michael: Nobody can spell Synodic. *laughs*

Sarah: You know, I think I kept saying, like… I kept saying it like it was something else. I don't know what it was.*laughs* But it is a very cool name.

Michael: I’m not going to remind you of the wrong ways to say it. *laughs*

Sarah: What's the inspiration behind the name? If I can ask, if there is?

Michael: So I think a lot of the original inspiration for the names were things that were in outer space. So we had a couple of different things, words that sort of sounded similar to ethereal, things like that. We decided on Synodic Arc actually because it's very hard to come up with a studio name that isn't taken. So we literally looked up words online and found that Synodic relates to basically, like, the moon cycles and things like that. And we thought that's really cool. And if you actually look at our logo, you'll see it's kind of like the arc of a moon.

Sarah: Oh…

Michael: So that is, I guess, the actual reason why we have the name that we do.

Sarah: Alright. I love that. Well, thank you again, Michael, for interviewing with us. This has been Sarah with Game Raven, and this has been Synodic Arc.

Sarah: Awesome. Thanks, Sarah.