"OZARK" is an action-horror game that catches the eye with its unique style: a side-scrolling adventure set in a world rendered with realistic 3D graphics.
Set in the remote mountainous region of northern Canada, the game follows the protagonist as he heads out on a rescue mission and steps into a mysterious facility. The game features not only gunfights but also exploration, stealth, and horror elements, and it supports local co-op for two players.
Game*Spark recently interviewed writer Travis Warnock, Creative Director and developer Andrew Kostuik, and Ed Wisniewski, who handled technical direction and AI development.
Why did they choose a “side-scrolling” format over an FPS or TPS? With games becoming increasingly lengthy, why did they aim to create a title that can be completed in about 3 to 5 hours? And what was it like to continue developing the game for about six years, working on it at night and on weekends while holding down day jobs?
Influences from *Resident Evil*, *The Legend of Zelda*, *Splinter Cell*, and movies from the ’80s and ’90s
—First, please introduce yourself and tell us about your favorite games and the titles that have had a major influence on you as a game developer.
Travis Warnock (hereinafter Travis): I’m Travis Warnock, a writer on *OZARK*. Andrew and I have been friends for a long time, and being able to create something together was a truly exciting opportunity.
Andrew and I have very similar tastes in games. *Halo*, *The Legend of Zelda*, and *Final Fantasy* have all influenced my creative work in one way or another.
I grew up during the late ’80s and early ’90s, when the NES was at its peak, so I think that’s why I came to love titles like *Adventure of Link*—games that offered a real challenge and that old-school sense of discovering things for yourself.
In terms of the story for *OZARK*, the *Resident Evil* series has had the biggest influence. I love the combination of survival and mystery, and the process of gradually unraveling the mystery of “what on earth happened here.”
Although the protagonist doesn’t speak, I wanted to create a game where, through characters like Chaucer, players feel like they’re “going through this experience with someone else.”
Andrew Kostuik (hereinafter Andrew): I’m Andrew Kostuik, Creative Director and developer of *OZARK*. I’ve been using Unity since the days of Unity 3, so it’s been nearly 15 years now.
My influences are quite broad—I love tactical games like *Contra*, *Smash TV*, *Splinter Cell*, and *Ghost Recon Wildlands*.
I’ve also been heavily influenced by movies—from ’80s and ’90s classics like *Die Hard*, *The Thing*, and *Scanners* to horror and sci-fi films like *The Evil Dead* and *Event Horizon*.
Action, horror, military themes, and atmosphere—it’s a blend of all these elements that makes up *OZARK*.
Ed Wisniewski (hereinafter Ed): I’ve been involved in software development for over 30 years and have been working on *OZARK* with Andrew since the early stages.
I’m primarily responsible for technical direction and engineering, and I’ve focused in particular on enemy AI, pathfinding, and the systems that support how enemies interact with the player and the world.
It all began in 2019–2020. “What would happen if we made a modern 2.5D side-scroller?”
—How did the idea that became the prototype for *OZARK* come about?
Andrew: It all started with an experiment around 2019 or 2020. It began with the question, “What would happen if we made a modern 2.5D side-scrolling game?” The first thing we had wasn’t a story—it was a gameplay prototype.
Personally, I’ve always liked tactical military games and slightly exaggerated ’90s-style action, so those elements were incorporated into the combat from an early stage.
We already had the title *OZARK* and the idea for Dr. Ozark, but the story didn’t really start taking shape until Travis joined the team.
Travis: I remember going over to Andrew’s place and him asking, “Why don’t you try writing the story?” By that point, the sections that would later become the first two stages already existed, and surprisingly, those areas haven’t changed much even after such a long development period.
We wrote the story for the first two stages, which we unveiled at Steam Next Fest, and gradually expanded the world from there. Andrew gave me a lot of creative freedom. We’d bounce ideas off each other and often decide based on “which one is cooler” (laughs).
The overall direction of the story hasn’t changed that much once it was set. It starts as a military sci-fi action game, but something even stranger is unfolding behind the scenes.
Actually, there’s a lot more backstory than is directly revealed in the game. I hope we can delve deeper into it someday. We’ve even talked about how a comic book might be a good fit for this world.
Why a “side-scroller” instead of an FPS?
――It’s quite an unusual combination to have realistic 3D graphics in a side-scrolling format. Why didn’t you go with an FPS or TPS?
Andrew: Nostalgia played a big role. Side-scrolling is a genre we love, but we hadn’t seen many titles that combined it with realistic military action.
Another reason is that we didn’t necessarily want to make an FPS.
We wanted to combine the immediacy of a side-scroller with modern 3D environments, lighting, tactical combat, and storytelling. Seeing the characters from the side as they move through the world creates a unique sensation. At times, it even feels like you’re controlling a scene from a movie. Players can also hide almost all UI elements, which allows us to make the experience even more cinematic.
Also, precisely because the camera isn’t free-roaming, we can control the composition, lighting, silhouettes, and how and what appears on screen in great detail. However, that also presented many challenges. Creating an environment that looks beautiful from a side view while still being fully playable is much harder than it appears.
Ed: From a technical standpoint, this affects nearly every system.
In FPS and TPS games, things like “where enemies will attack from,” “how the player perceives danger,” and “what’s happening outside the camera’s view” are taken for granted—but in a game where only a limited portion of the screen is visible, we had to rethink all of that.
This perspective became a defining feature of *OZARK*, but at the same time, it created a massive number of interesting engineering challenges.
A Mysterious Facility Inspired by *Resident Evil* and *LOST*
――The setting—the mountainous region of northern Canada and the mysterious facility located there—is also striking.
Travis: When it comes to the mysterious facility, we were heavily influenced by *Resident Evil* and the TV series *LOST*.
In the original *Resident Evil*, there’s a facility in the basement of a Western-style mansion, and in *Resident Evil 2*, a whole other world unfolds beneath the police station. In *LOST*, too, there are mysterious stations scattered across the island, right?
I wanted to create that sense of, “I’m trying to survive right now. But what on earth is going on here? What is this place?”
You’re supposed to be on a rescue mission, but before you know it, you’re the one under attack. I’m also drawn to exploring cities and remote areas. Canada has such vast expanses of land, and there are so many places most people will never see in their lifetimes.
In Sudbury, where we live, there’s also “SNOLAB,” a massive underground research facility that studies neutrinos, dark matter, and other phenomena. Of course, it’s not a secret lab teeming with monsters (laughs), but seeing places like that really sparks the imagination, doesn’t it?
“When and How to Show Them” Over “The Monsters Themselves”
――When creating horror, what kinds of fear and tension did you prioritize? Also, I imagine there’s the issue that monsters become less scary the more you show them.
Travis: What people find scary varies from person to person, right? I can’t go into too much detail, but as you venture deeper into the facility, the enemies change, and starting around the third or fourth stage, the body horror elements become more pronounced.
The game provides clear explanations about what’s happening and who the enemies are. Story-wise, we wanted players to sense a certain tragedy lurking behind what they’re seeing.
Andrew: I think the most important thing was “sensation.”
We wanted not just isolation and anxiety, but also a sense of aggressive pressure. While some enemies close in on the player quite intensely, others appear as you venture deeper into the facility, changing the pace in different ways.
We also made sure not to reveal all the enemies right from the start. Lighting, camera placement, and timing are all extremely important. Sometimes, “how they enter the frame,” “what we deliberately choose not to show,” and “when they reveal themselves” are more important than the enemies themselves.
“Horror when you’re alone, but with two players, it’s ‘Alright, let’s take them all down!’”
—This game supports not only solo play but also two-player co-op. You might worry that playing a horror game with someone else takes away the scare… What are your thoughts on that?
Travis: To begin with, *OZARK* isn’t so much a pure horror game as it is an action-horror game. If you want to savor the atmosphere and the story, I think playing it solo on your first playthrough will provide the most immersive experience.
But of course, having a friend right beside you changes the whole vibe. Instead of feeling completely alone, it turns into, “Alright, let’s take these guys all down and finish the mission!” (laughs). It’s a different experience, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Andrew: We didn’t try to make co-op feel exactly the same as single-player. After all, it just wouldn’t be the same.
Sometimes, being isolated on your own is what creates the fear, and other times, it’s the fear of desperately trying to survive with just one friend while being overwhelmed by enemies. The entire campaign is designed to be played solo, so there aren’t any sections where two players are required. However, the combat dynamics change in co-op.
The Deliberate Focus on “Couch Co-op”: Why We Didn’t Implement Pure Online Play
――Now that online multiplayer has become the norm, it’s interesting that you deliberately prioritized “couch co-op,” where players are in the same room.
Andrew: Couch co-op was an element we’ve been working on since quite early in development. We experimented with several approaches, including screen-sharing, traditional local split-screen, and systems where the screen splits based on the distance between players. There’s something about the actual feeling of having someone right next to you that online multiplayer simply can’t fully replicate.
And for a team of our size, the complexity involved in adding true online multiplayer was simply beyond the scope of the project to begin with. Thanks to Steam Remote Play, players can enjoy the game from a distance without us having to build a full-fledged online network system, which was a huge plus.
Travis: There’s a lot of nostalgia there, too.
I have really fond memories of Xbox Live Arcade from around 2008 to 2010. Playing games like *Shadow Complex*, *Castle Crashers*, *Osmos*, and *World of Goo* reminds me of the times I used to play with Andrew and other friends.
Nothing would make me happier than if, someday, someone commented, “We got together with friends and played *OZARK* all night—it was awesome.”
Developing industrial software by day, games by night. Before I knew it, the player control code had reached “10,000 lines.”
—I hear the development period was quite long. What was the most challenging part of continuing to develop the game with a small team while juggling your day job?
Andrew: We started prototyping around 2019 and began full-scale development around 2020. We did most of the development at night after work or on weekends.
During the day, Ed and I develop training and simulation software for industrial use. Since games are a huge passion for us, *OZARK* became a completely separate creative endeavor that we worked on at night.
Technically speaking, the player controls ended up becoming the most unmanageably massive part of the project (laughs). We didn’t plan for it to get that big at first, but it ended up connecting to all sorts of systems—aiming, auto-targeting, weapons, inventory, animations…
In the end, it amounted to about 10,000 lines of code. Well, some of it is a bit of a spaghetti code mess (laughs). But I think that in itself symbolizes how this game was made.
We didn’t start with a massive design document; instead, we built it based on inspiration and experimentation—thinking, “This looks fun, let’s try making it”—then tested it, and if it worked, we moved on to the next thing.
“Not every game has to be a time-sink”—we deliberately aimed for a game that could be finished in 3 to 5 hours.
—Were there any insights you gained from external playtests, or parts of the game that you significantly changed based on user feedback?
Andrew: Steam Next Fest was our biggest reality check. Originally, we were developing *OZARK* exclusively for controllers. Since it’s a 2.5D side-scroller, we thought that would feel the most natural.
But there was a really strong demand from the Steam community for “mouse and keyboard support.” So we went back to the drawing board and figured out how to make it happen.
It surprised even us, but aiming with the mouse gives it a bit of a point-and-click shooter feel. While it’s quite different from a controller, it worked better than we expected.
We still recommend playing with a controller, but in the end, I think expanding the options was the right decision.
――*OZARK* is designed to have a relatively short playtime. Was this intentional?
Andrew: It’s entirely intentional. Many of us have kids now. We have jobs and responsibilities, so we don’t have as much time to spend on games as we used to. Plus, these days, everything is competing for people’s time.
So we wanted to create something you could sit down with friends and finish in a single night—something where you can savor a complete experience in just one or two sessions, much like going to see a movie.
Not every game needs to be a “time-sink.” Of course, there’s a place for massive games you can play for 60 hours. But there should also be a place for truly well-crafted experiences that last three, four, or five hours.
Personally, I wish Steam’s refund system treated short games a little differently. The two-hour limit could unintentionally penalize developers trying to create very short titles, since players can still get a refund even after experiencing most of the game.
I don’t believe that playtime determines a game’s value. In terms of replayability, I’ve recently become quite interested in speedruns.
Even for us, who have spent thousands of hours developing games, it’s fun to aim for faster times by changing items or strategies, and we’re also exploring internal systems that can integrate seamlessly with speedrun software.
Travis: The fact that it’s a short game also influenced how we wrote the scenario. Since the number of stages we were creating was more or less fixed, we didn’t want to stretch out the story just to extend the playtime; instead, we needed to fit the story neatly within those constraints.
We didn’t explain everything in too much detail, leaving room for players to piece things together on their own. By collecting audio logs and listening to them again, their perspective on “what actually happened” might change.
Rather than making a game that drags on longer than necessary, we’d rather respect the player’s time and have them think, “I wish I could have played a little longer.”
Japanese localization is “still on the table”
—Currently, there’s no mention of Japanese support. Is there a possibility of a Japanese localization in the future?
Travis: The possibility of some form of localization is definitely still on the table. We’d like to continue exploring this as we move forward with our work.
To begin with, it’s truly an honor that Japanese players are interested in our game. Japanese games and developers have had a huge influence on all of us.
Andrew: Since we’re a small indie team, it ultimately comes down to resources. And if we do decide to localize, we want to do it right. The interest from players helps us understand “where the demand lies.”
Of course, we want as many people around the world as possible to play *OZARK*.
“We hope you’ll dim the lights, put on some good headphones, and play.”
—Finally, could you tell us what you’d especially like Japanese players to pay attention to, and share a message for Game*Spark readers?
Travis: I really hope you’ll explore the story and listen to the audio logs.
There’s much more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. Leaving room for players to discuss among themselves, “What really happened?” is one of the things I enjoy most.
Above all, I’d be thrilled if Game*Spark readers enjoyed *OZARK*. I’m truly honored that you’re interested in something we’ve spent years creating.
Andrew: From my perspective, I’d say, “Pay attention to the atmosphere.” Dim the lights in your room, put on a good pair of headphones, turn off a few HUD elements if possible, and just immerse yourself in the experience.
This started out as a small experiment that we—who love making games—worked on after our day jobs. Now, people on the other side of the globe are taking an interest and trying to play it. That’s truly amazing to us.
Ed: Personally, I’d be happy if people paid attention to the finer details that aren’t immediately obvious. How enemies react to the player, how combat evolves, and the various systems running behind the scenes.
It took us a very long time to bring all of these elements together.
We hope you enjoy what we’ve created.
――Thank you very much!
“OZARK” is now available for PC (Steam). Until October 9, you can purchase it for 1,050 yen—a 26% discount.
