The Cecil: The Journey Begins Interview – Solo Developer Tony Brown Talks Development, Community, and More

Promising a chilling and suspenseful experience, the world of Genie Interactive Games, Wandering Wizard, and Snail Games’ The Cecil: The Journey Begins has brought horror thrills to the masses since its launch earlier this month.

Gamers Heroes recently sat down with solo developer Tony Brown to talk The Cecil: The Journey Begins’ development, its devout community, and more – learn more with our interview.

The Cecil: The Journey Begins Interview – Solo Developer Tony Brown Talks Development, Community, and More

Gamers Heroes

I’m a huge horror fan! Thank you for your time today.

When we heard about The Cecil, we had to watch the Netflix documentary over the weekend and got really invested. 

What inspired The Cecil: The Journey Begin’s tale in the first place?

Tony Brown

The hotel in LA definitely inspired the game idea, particularly some of the unsolved cases. 

I wanted to pick things up from there, but also didn’t want to offend anybody in the game. I made the game somewhat fiction, using certain characters to weed out the real events that went on at the hotel.

Gamers Heroes

On that same note, I love the immersive design that went into its world – it’s definitely a hallmark of good horror!

You’ve got your Silent Hills, your Resident Evils, things like that. 

What went into its design?

Tony Brown

I wanted to keep parts of The Cecil hotel in the game, including The Cecil floor symbols and other elements. I also wanted to give the game a certain look; something more of a distraught, worn down place.

If you look at The Cecil in LA, it was a bit more elegant looking – before!

I was thinking that if I use that look, that look would look more non-horror; you wouldn’t be able to bring the character in and let them know this is not a place they should be. 

That design went into my own thoughts and my own way of immersing a player into that environment.

Gamers Heroes

Absolutely – I did see some clips of influencers on Twitter playing it. I saw mannequins and things like that – that was certainly inspired by Silent Hill! 

Are there any other horror works – film, TV, other games, things like that – that have inspired this title?

Tony Brown

Different things inspired it – Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre come to mind.

If I had to choose one, I would say Resident Evil VII!

Gamers Heroes

Fantastic taste – that’s a great title, and a really immersive game as well!

Tony Brown

Absolutely!

I didn’t want to take too much out of Resident Evil VII, but I wanted to give the feel of it. 

I didn’t want to say: “I’m going to take this and that from it.” 

I wanted to give players the immersiveness of John, alone with one weapon and feeling helpless. I wanted to set that for the player.

Gamers Heroes

I saw that Genie Interactive Games was formed in 2019, and it’s great to see it making an impact in the gaming space. 

What’s been like working with Wandering Wizard and Snail? 

Tony Brown

I love working with them! 

They’ve been helpful on everything that I’ve asked; if I had an issue, they made sure to fix it. 

When you’re working with publishers – or working with anybody – you bring everything to the table. We work things out!

Gamers Heroes

That’s fantastic to hear! 

On that same note, I love the positive feedback you’ve gotten on social media. Seeing all the fans, the stuff on the Steam page you’ve been highlighting, like the reaction challenge.

What’s it been like working in the community on this release? 

Tony Brown

I’ve got a great community!

I started with 100 streamers when I had the demo, and they actually catapulted the game to get on Snail’s radar!

Plus – fun fact – I use streamers for some of my voice actors!

I really wanted to show love to my streamers and the people who believed in the game beforehand. 

I love my community, and plan to keep on supporting them.

I also have a room in The Cecil that has all of my supporters there as cards!

Gamers Heroes

Talking about love for the community, I saw that future DLC for the season will be free, complete with new stories and events. 

I know a lot of it is under wraps, but are there any hints you can provide?

Tony Brown

I’m working on one for the Fourth of July, and thinking of working on one for Halloween and one for Christmas. 

The first DLC will be called “Patriots’ Day” that will tell a story – I can’t go into it too much!

Gamers Heroes

Is there anything else you want to add? 

We definitely appreciate your support – you followed us back on Twitter right away! We also understand the amount of work that goes into this type of stuff.

That heart and human spirit – we can’t get enough of that!

Tony Brown

I really like people who support me, along with the publisher and whoever I’m working with. I think that we’re on course to make a great game – I just want to tell everybody to just keep playing!

I’m real big on feedback and criticism; if there’s something about the game that you don’t like, something you think that I should add, something I’m lacking thereof, I’ll do my best to add it!

As an indie developer, it can be hard to meet deadlines. However, I want to tell everybody that there’s more Cecil’s coming – and of course, Cecil 2!

I’m also working on something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; I have a few things I’m working on that I’m planning on giving to my horror audience.

I just love my passion of just making video games! I let everybody else do everything, but my passion is really just making the game fantastic. 

Gamers Heroes

Keep killing it!

One can pick up The Cecil: The Journey Begins via its official Steam page.

Feeling social? Be sure to follow Genie Interactive Games via their official Twitter/X, Instagram, and YouTube social media channels.

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