The Land of Pain is a beautiful example of what can be achieved with CRYENGINE by a single developer. We talk to Alessandro Guzzo about his development process and how CRYENGINE has made the difference for him.

Welcome back to the CRYENGINE blog Alessandro! Can you tell us about The Land of Pain for CryENGINEERS who might not have heard of your game?

Something disturbing appears in the woods. What can it be? You find yourself in a creepy and unknown place where something terrible happened. Dead bodies, blood, and people who died horribly. Who or what could have done all that? You will have to learn to survive as you face mysterious and disturbing events in a Lovecraftian atmosphere.  

What was the inspiration behind your game? 

The works of H.P. Lovecraft inspired me when I wrote the story for The Land of Pain. His main interest as an author was the creation of mood and atmosphere, and this is an important goal in The Land of Pain as well. His imagination was macabre, and it comes across in his tales, which concern disturbing mysteries like the myth of Cthulhu and the nature of humanity itself. Lovecraft always wants to unveil the unknown, the universe, and the origins of mankind. The Land of Pain’s story is inspired by these themes.

Since the last time we spoke to you on CRYENGINE.com you released a demo. Can you describe the demo, and what challenges were there in pulling it together?

The demo represents the first part of the game, giving a rough idea of what the player will encounter. It’s important to note that is only a very small part of The Land of Pain. Separating the first part of the game and making it into a demo took a lot of time and work, but now that it is free and available for everyone I’m really satisfied. I’m a gamer first and then a developer, and I think that giving people the chance to try a part of the game pre-release is very important. 

What did you learn from the experience? How was the reaction to the demo from players? Did you get valuable feedback?

When I released the demo many people were enthusiastic and shared their thoughts on social media and on YouTube. Some YouTubers made some great gameplay videos and enjoyed the demo. As I said, the demo is the first part of the game, so I hope that people who played it are very curious to see what will happen next! I am very happy with the reaction to the demo’s release, and I can’t wait to get the finished game out there. The feedback was very important, and it will help me find the right way to improve every aspect of the final product. 

What has been the development roadmap been like since you release the demo?

The positive feedback gave me even more motivation to work hard to complete the game and achieve the best results possible. For instance, I have already improved different locations within the map and I am going to add new localized languages to the final version. I will also be implementing new music, sounds, and other details. 

How long have you been working with CRYENGINE? 

I’ve been working with CRYENGINE since October 2014. 

Why did you choose CRYENGINE to develop your game?

I chose CRYENGINE because I found it ideal for the kind of game I wanted to create. It allows me to use the latest games industry technologies like tessellation, volumetric fog, air particles, and global illumination. The Land of Pain makes use of photogrammetry technology which, together with CRYENGINE, allows me to achieve realistic graphics. CRYENGINE also allowed me to create a huge map full of detail whilst maintaining very high performance. 

Which CRYENGINE features have made the difference for your development? 

I love nature, and when I had the idea to create The Land of Pain, I wanted to recreate its beauty in the game. Nature can be beautiful, but dark and mysterious too. This is what I wanted to reproduce in the game, and CRYENGINE is perfect for creating a natural landscape in the most realistic way with all its nuances and accents.

Has being part of the CRYENGINE community helped you during development?

Absolutely! The CRYENGINE community is very useful for developers, and I also want to thank all of the CRYENGINE technical support team for helping me through the development too.

What feature would you like to see come to CRYENGINE?

An integrated UI editor would be very useful. I have seen that CRYENGINE is increasing its focus on supporting small indie developers, and I think this is a really great thing. 

When will the game be available? 

The Land of Pain will be released this year on Steam for Windows PC and the Steam page is already available, so anyone who is interested can add the game to their Steam wishlist!

Thanks Alessandro! 

You can try out The Land of Pain demo for free here, and visit the game on Steam here.

- Your CRYENGINE Team