Clocking In: The Third Shift Interview
All images are from The Third Shift by Teebowah Games
Being a fan of horror games in the 90s was incredible–but a bit limited. Most of the titles we had access to, for better and worse, were Resident Evil and Silent Hill clones. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never pass up the opportunity to fight for my life in a world of fixed cameras and tank controls but it makes me appreciate the variety that we have access to now that much more.
One of the titles I’m most excited for in this space is The Third Shift. So, I contacted Scottie at Teebowah Games to learn more about their truly unique take on the things that make our skin crawl. Hint, the Game Boy might be involved.
No backlights will be necessary–but you might need a night light by the time you finish.
For readers discovering your work for the first time, who are you and how would you describe The Third Shift?
I'm Scottie! I make games at Teebowah Games with my longtime friend Julian! We've been friends since 5th grade back in 1999 and we've been making games since 2015. I do the coding and art work while Julian creates the music and sound. The Third Shift is our 3rd big game since the founding of Teebowah Games. The Third Shift is a first/second/third person Game Boy Styled work-place horror game where you navigate a weird museum on your first day as a security guard. There's more going on under the surface of the "fun and whimsical" exterior of the museum, and it’s up to the player to make it through the day and get their paycheck all while maintaining their sanity. TTS is a love letter to all the Game Boy games I played growing up. Also, Clock Tower was a huge influence for the game, so there's a lot of inspiration pulled from that game.
Do you remember a game or the moment that made you want to pursue game dev?
I'm not sure if I can pinpoint the exact moment I wanted to make games. Honestly, I grew up playing them from a very young age. Making games was something I've always wanted to do, but for the longest time I felt it was something out of my reach. Either I was too dumb to pursue it or just lacked the discipline. After a certain time in my late teens, I finally said I want to make games for real, and got my friends together to make a game of my design with me acting as "Director" only because I couldn't do art nor had any knowledge of programming. After that fell through (as most first time pursuits do) I said to myself "well, if I want to make games, I'm gonna have to fight my own inhibitions and just make something". So with the help of Julian, I finally buckled down and made a game. And the rest is history haha.
What’s the worst first day at a job you’ve ever had?
I remember my very first job, it was a pizzeria, I was a dishwasher! I was very nervous to say the least. I was tasked with cleaning up a back prep room, not knowing there was a light so I just cleaned in the darkness. After a time the cooks came in to have a good laugh and show me where the light switch was. Later on one of the cooks mumbled an order for me to clean out a pot of food. As I'm tossing the large amount of food, they ran over and chastised me for not storing the food they made, which kinda set the mood for the rest of the time working there. Let’s just say I didn't last long at that job.
I have a little experience in GB Studio and it feels like I always struggle to keep assets readable. Without spoiling anything, what were some of the most difficult things to draw as a result of the Game Boy’s limited color palette? Do you have any advice for artists who want to work in this style?
So actually The Third Shift is made using Gamemaker Studio! We started development before GB Studio was even a thing, which is unfortunate because it seems like a really cool program and we would LOVE for TTS to be playable on an actual Game Boy. With that said, we've been setting limitations as best as we can to make the game seem believable for the system: using just 4 colors, keeping within the resolution of 160x144, keeping sounds and music within the realm, etc. But with that said, we've definitely taken some liberties with the game. Things like certain sprites and animations wouldn't be doable on the original system, but we hope that folks can overlook that sorta thing and enjoy it for what it is!
In terms of advice for any artist out there, I think the limiting of a palette to work from is so helpful for the craft in general. I started out not knowing much about color and color theory. I've just pulled from whatever looks good at the time, which all together can come out mismatched and just down-right ugly. But using only 4 colors has really helped me hone in on how to use colors and limits to my advantage. I think with TTS I've become a better artist overall, not to toot my own horn or anything.
What do you feel the tricks are for creating atmosphere with a more simple/retro aesthetic?
When it comes to horror, sound design is SO important. You can have the scariest monster on screen, but if the sound doesn't match what's being shown, it loses its sting big time. Julian does so much with so little and it really shows. I also find that what's implied can be way more scary than what's shown. Less is more, yeah? Leaving things up to the imagination of the player is great, because they know what scares them, so why not let them scare themselves?
What challenges came with implementing multiple gameplay perspectives?
I ran into a few issues at first in my pursuit to find a good way to make all the changes seamless with transitioning from first to third, but nothing a little fine-tuning overtime couldn't fix. The one big problem I had is working with different camera perspectives in the third-person view. With 2D, you've gotta draw everything. So having a regular view of the player, and a zoomed-in view of the character seemed like a cool thing at the time, but as development continued, this brought up its own fair share of challenges. Things like the enemies all had to have separate animations for each type of view, so let's say for one view the enemy has an up, down, left and right animation, followed by a knock back animation, a wake up animation, etc. Now I've gotta do all that for the zoomed-in view as well. I've gotten quicker at doing it, but it definitely set me back a bit in the grand scheme of things.
You mentioned on Twitter that you’ve been working on this project for eight years. As a developer, what areas do you feel like you’ve improved the most during that time? And how would you compare this (almost) finished version of The Third Shift to the original vision?
I like to think I've grown a fair amount since the start of development for the game! I'd say my art work has improved, thanks to the limitations of the resolution and colors. Before I had only worked on mobile resolutions which are humongous compared to the Game Boy, so downsizing the work space helped IMMENSELY as an artist. Over the past eight years, we've made some smaller games and demos in the interim, and without those the game would not be the same. Working on other projects, while slowing down development of the main game, helped us step back and take a look at what we've built so far, that and saved us from burning out and crashing haha. Things like different mechanics and art styles helped further shape TTS as a whole.
The first few builds of TTS were from when I first started toying around with the idea of developing games, so those early days were VERY VERY rough hahaha. I'll see if I can find some screens from back in the day, but you can see what I was going for and how it ended up towards the end. I'm still proud of what I did back then, but it’s come a long way.
The demo you recently released is extensive. How large do you anticipate the final game will be?
Thanks for saying so! So I figure the demo is roughly the first 2 hours of the game. The next exhibits might take a little bit longer than an hour to complete if you're viewing and doing everything. I've been trying to make it so the game takes about 5ish hours to beat each playthrough. Any longer and the game might become a slog. I've tried to make it with the Game Boy in mind, you've got this portable system that's built for more short-form games, so hopefully TTS shines that way. If you're trying to 100% the game, it could take 10+ hours altogether! But then again, it's a bit hard for me to gauge how long my own game will take honestly haha.
Do you have a favorite fact you learned while doing the research to fill out all the informational plaques scattered around the museum?
Making the cryptid exhibit and doing the research on each cryptid that got a showcase was really fun! We all know the Loch Ness monster, the chupacabra, but how did they get their start? What was the first experience with these creatures? With these things, you've gotta take everything with a grain of salt due to their fantastical nature, but it's so cool to see historical texts reference these monsters with the utmost belief in their written word. Really makes you question what's really out there in our vast world that's yet to be discovered.
What is a book, movie, video game, or album you feel everyone should experience?
Throughout the development of The Third Shift, I've consumed a lot of different media (8 years worth you could say). I went through phases of the music I listened to while developing. I remember listening to a lot of Beck when starting, his album Colors had came out, had that on repeat for a bit, then went into a 90's alternative mode for a good majority of development, then went to Trap remixes on youtube, to a bit more of 90s, country this time, now towards the tail end I listen to Jazz and Video Game remixes. Music as a whole is so vast and expansive that to limit yourself to one genre limits your taste in a big way. Listen to more stuff outta your wheelhouse! You might like what you find.
Movie-wise, I moved to Bellingham, WA mid-way in development and was a block away from a movie theater. I started seeing movies when I had the time after getting one of those unlimited passes, and doing no research on them as well. Going in blind to a movie is the best way to experience it I find. I've seen so many good movies I otherwise wouldn't have seen if I saw a trailer. One that comes to mind that really stuck out for me was Pig starring Nicholas Cage. That movie made me walk out of the theater feeling a little numb, and I mean that in the most flattering way possible. I won't say much to spoil the film, but please watch that film. I've pressured my friends to watch it, and now I'm pressuring you.
I've tried to read more books as well, usually with my morning cup of coffee. I unfortunately read horror exclusively, I really need to branch out from that. But there's just so much good horror out there! One book that really stayed with me in a good way was The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. It has one hell of a finale that seems to be quite divisive amongst its readers, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed it. Aside from that, I read a LOT of manga. Aside from collecting video games, I also collect manga in the hopes of one day opening up a video game/manga cafe. If I could recommend one manga, it'd probably be Slam Dunk, gah, that manga is so good. And the movie too, mandatory watching if you ask me.
Thanks to the duo at Teebowah Games for chatting with me (and making cool stuff). I can’t stress enough that if this sounds like something you’d be into even a little bit–you need to check out the demo.
As we approach The Third Shift’s release, make sure to follow their various pages for updates:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42190804
Twitter: @RegularBoyADV
Bluesky: @juliancrowhurst.bsky.social
Are you working on a small or strange project? Hit us up on our contact page! We’d love to learn more.
Note: You’ll get bonus points if it’s spooky.