Why an indie hero is taking on Metal Gear © Mike Bithell Games

As one-man band indie auteurs go, Mike Bithell’s up there with the likes of Braid’s Jonathan Blow.

His last game, Thomas Was Alone, was simultaneously a charming puzzle game starring little more than a few colored blocks, and a beautifully crafted tale of humanity in the era of modern computing that won awards for its script.

His next game is not what you’d expect. This isn’t another cerebral 2D puzzler. With Volume, Bithell has made a game based on Metal Gear Solid’s VR Missions, of all things, injecting his quirky sense of humour and gameplay mechanics even legendary creator Hideo Kojima himself hasn’t explored.

Setting Robin Hood in the future, Volume casts players as Robert Locksley, a thief who uncovers a simulator used to train soldiers. Intent on revealing its secrets, Locksley broadcasts robberies against the wealthiest people in the country, incriminating the Volume database with a little help from its Artificial Intelligence. Think Tron meets V for Vendetta, and you’re not far off.

Locksley isn’t armed to the teeth with machetes and machine guns, though. To survive, you’re forced to distract the enemy by using bugles to bounce sound off walls, or blackjacks to temporarily stun them. In true Metal Gear fashion, Locksley will also have to hide away in closets, creep into ducts and snap to cover against walls to stay out of sight.

Clearly, this isn’t a follow-up to Thomas Was Alone, nor a game anyone was expecting from its creator, but according to Bithell, Volume was the game he always wanted to make, long before rectangles changed his life.

“Volume isn’t a direct response to Thomas,” he tells Red Bull. “Thomas was a part-time project while I was working full-time for a AAA games studio [Bossa Studios, the creators of the outrageously bloody Surgeon Simulator]. When I decided I wanted to be an independent games developer, I thought, what’s the simplest game I can make that will be hopefully be cool and interestingly? Pretentious platformers are pretty good. I really like them. I’ll make one of those and it’ll be about rectangles and it’ll be cheap and quick!”

Just one problem. “That took two years!”

“The other game that was in my head all that time, one I knew I wanted to make eventually, was Volume. This is a stealth game I began designing it in my head age 14, after having played Metal Gear Solid.”

Playing the game, the resemblances are obvious. Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, a 1999 spin-off from the original game, put Snake in a Pac-Man style VR labyrinth, and tasked you with completing 300 levels stuffed with guards, security cameras and even cyborg ninjas.

You’re tasked with much the same here, and there are nods to the original everywhere, from the pseudo VR style graphics, to the reactions of the guards when they detect Locksley. The same visual cues are present in Volume, but Bithell’s explored the mechanics and physics much further. Even the acoustics.

“At the time, I thought it would be so cool if you could have a thing you could launch and bounce off walls and it would make a noise that distracts enemies. I’ll make it so it doesn’t control very well and you’ll get all frustrated with it. That would rock. And the idea has just kind of developed from there.”

“But, no, it wasn’t Thomas then Volume. Volume was always going to be a game. It just happened to be the one that was bigger and harder to make, so I actually made the easier one first.”

Thomas Was Alone © Mike Bithell Games

But Bithell hasn’t just pilfered Kojima’s best ideas. He’s introduced new and innovative elements. The bugle, for instance, is a clever way of diverting your enemy’s attention, and there’s no silenced gun to take out enemies then drag them out of sight. Volume doesn’t make things that easy.

Quite the opposite. The game is hard-as-nails, and relishes it. Volume’s omni-present AI, voiced by Thomas Was Alone narrator Danny Wallace, takes great pleasure in mocking the player. For instance, while playing the demo, it snarkily pats the player on the back for figuring out how to use the WASD key combination properly.

This is just one of the quirks that makes Volume so special, but Bithell hints there are plenty more to be revealed in the coming weeks.

“So, we have the bugle, which is the sound maker, but there’s also the blackjack. The blackjack requires you to aim your line of sight at an enemy, and from there you can knock them out for five seconds. That’s usually just enough time to get out of a dodgy situation. Those are just two of the gadgets in the game.”

“When we release, there will be 10 to 15 different gadgets. Some of them are distraction-based, some act as camouflage, and some might daze the enemy and root them to the spot for a while, like the blackjack. So we’re playing with different things. There’s going to be a lot of different things doing different jobs. Some are sound-based, but some are visually focused as well.”

The beauty of indie development is that crowd-sourced QA testing replaces a handful of pre-selected individuals locked away in a close-confined room. Live demos at the Eurogamer Expo in London this fall let thousands check out the game early, and after just one day on the showfloor, Bithell admitted his vision for the game had changed dramatically - even our failed attempts at playing the game have helped shape the direction he needs to take Volume, Bithell says.

Volume © Mike Bithell Games

“In my head, I knew this would be a top-down, looking-down environment, giving the player freedom to move around, directing them to hide in cover. I knew that would be the foundation of the game and it took me two months to get that code together and to the point where I was feeling good about it. Then you go, OK, so, I want enemies and the enemies need control. It seems a really haphazard way of doing things, but when I worked in AAA, it was always a 200 page enzyme document saying, this is what we’re going to make and we’re going to spend four years making it. Off you go.”

“With Volume - and with Thomas - everything is more free-fall. While making these games, I don’t always know which direction they’re going in. I’ve just said to you, I’ve got my 10 to 15 gadgets coming in Volume. Right now, I don’t even know what they all are!”

“There are five things I really want to do, so I’ll make those. Then when they’re done, I’m sure there’ll be five other things that make sense. It’s nice to have the freedom to make whatever it is you want, at the pace you want.”

While Volume will be crammed with levels from the get go, as with any release these days, DLC (downloadable content) is always a consideration. While Volume will let players create user-generated content, nothing compares to additional material from the original developer. Bithell is no stranger to expanding his games - Thomas Was Alone received Benjamin’s Flight DLC earlier this year - but does that mean Volume will get the same treatment?

“I think so, yeah. More content after release would definitely be fun, but it really comes down to whether people enjoy it or like the game. I’m not a big believer in Day One DLC. So I’ll make the game, I’ll see what the reviews are. If it’s a three out of ten game, there won’t be any DLC! I’ll be too busy working on the game to redeem myself!”

“However, if it’s something that really finds an audience and people are liking it, and I think there’s a point to make DLC for it, then yeah, I’ll go crazy!”