The wait is finally over, Mike Bithell, developer of Thomas Was Alone, has finally unveiled his mysterious second game, a top down stealth action title called Volume. Indie Haven jumped right on the line with Mike following the announcement, discussing the game’s early reception, the decision to completely switch up genres, his inspirations and if the game would contain MGS length cutscenes.

Laura Kate: A good place to start is that you literally just announced Volume, how are you feeling right now?

Mike Bithell: Pretty good. People seem to.. well.. like it. I’m incredibly surprised and happy about that.

Laura Kate: How did you expect it would be received, considering how different it is from Thomas Was Alone?

Mike Bithell: I was worried, to be honest. People obviously come at it with a lot of expectations. My hope was that it would be well received, and that folks would see what I was going for. So far, so good it seems. I hope people aren’t too disappointed that I’m making something very different, genre-wise

Laura Kate: At what point between Thomas Was Alone and now did you decide you wanted to take that kind of complete genre departure?

Mike Bithell: I knew I always wanted to do something different with the next game. Stealth was the ‘other’ genre on my to do list.. I just knew it had to be the second because I sucked as a coder, and platformers are easier. So when Thomas wrapped, I knew this would be the next game.

Laura Kate: You showed the game off to several people before today’s announcement, with nobody ruining the reveal. What made you decide to trust people with seeing it early? Did you expect it would stay secret until announcement?

Mike Bithell: I’m a trusting chap and I generally believe that’s just an easier way of going through life. I didn’t show it to absolutely everyone, but I did want to get feedback and that’s a risk I was willing to take.

Laura Kate: You’ve said that the game will allow players to create their own levels, as well as editing the core story levels. How much freedom will players have when it comes to sharing their creations and remixing the games content?

Mike Bithell: You can remix anything in a level. Colour, blocks, interactions, even story nodes. Think of it as a massively accessible mod tool. Your changes aren’t made to everyone’s games automatically, someone needs to actively choose to apply them to their game. But if you’re the person who made the game 10x better by being a better level designer than me, your version could totally become the definitive one.

Laura Kate: Unlike Thomas Was Alone, Volume has been worked on by several outside people working on things like art. What was the experience of working on this with a bigger team like vs the solo nature of Thomas Was Alone?

Mike Bithell: The game’s better. It’s so cool to have so many talented and lovely people contributing to the game. Their ideas, their skills, ultimately just up the game across the board. Dave is inspired for a track by a piece of Daz’s concept art. Wayne tweaks an environment asset to look even better next to Kris’ character model. It’s been awesome to be a part of.

Laura Kate: What were your biggest inspirations when first working on the game?

Mike Bithell: It absolutely goes back to watching a Hideo Kojima documentary, where he talks about Lego, and how he built levels for MGS with it. That just really appealed to me, I wanted to make a stealth game that could be built that easily.

Laura Kate: And the decision for the player character not to be able to kill? When did that idea first emerge? Has it been well received as far as the initial announcement?

Mike Bithell: It seems people are digging it. It came from two places really. First, I don’t want to put a gun in my player’s hand. I love games with guns, I just don’t fancy making one. Second, for me stealth as a genre is often unbalanced by death.. it ceases to be about sneaking, and becomes a game about room clearing. I thought that removing any death, even Batman style figurative ‘that-guy-wont-get-up-again’ death would be an interesting shift.

Laura Kate: For any stealth fans reading, what’s your stance on including 30 minute MGS style cutscenes in Volume’s story mode?

Mike Bithell: I can confirm that the game tells its story without relying on lengthy cutscenes.

Laura Kate: What is the one biggest lesson you learnt from TWA that you’ve applied to working on Volume?

Mike Bithell: Volume, it’s sort of my final dissertation after earning the degree with Thomas. I couldn’t code a game when I started Thomas, but I learned so much through the process of putting it together. Volume is my opportunity to put all that learning to use. I also get to build on the massive, kind support I’ve received from the fans of that game. I hope they like this new game just as much.

You can read out Outside the Box feature about Mike’s origins as a developer here, and find all the details on Volume, including the announcement trailer, here.