News: Neverending Nightmares Alpha Build Available – January 28, 2014

Developer Diary, Teaser, Screens, Info

Matt Gilgenbach of Infinitap Games, who has been developing games professionally for 10 years, is making no secret of his history of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Depression, which have been with him over 10 years.

After working in the AAA game industry on titles such as Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Gilgenbach went indie 5 years ago.      

His first game, Retro/Grade, received positive reviews but failed financially. With his partner Justin Wilder, under the banner of their newly-formed 24 Caret Games, he had worked on the game 80 hours a week for four years and gone heavily into debt. This all took a toll on his mental health and his marriage.

The lack of Retro/Grade‘s commercial success sent Gilgenbach into a downward spiral of Depression. He and Wilder split up and 24 Carat Games was disbanded. 

More than anything, however, Gilgenbach wants to remain an indie developer. To that end, he has formed Infinitap Games, has enlisted some talented developers and is now working on Neverending Nightmares. 

Gilgenbach is building this game around something he knows well: mental illness. With Neverending Nightmares, he hopes to help others so afflicted if only to show them they are not alone. He hopes to make a difference.

Of course, he also hopes to scare the crap out of people. His stated mission is, “to make terrifying games AND talk honestly about mental illness.” 

I, for one, applaud Matt Gilgenbach and his development team for their efforts in bringing mental disorders — particularly Depression — out of the shadows.   

A short alpha demo is available here. I’ve played it. Although the game is still very early in development, the demo is done in an interesting style and is, indeed, creepy. 

Neverending Nightmares has been successfully Kickstarted and Greenlit. It will be released in late 2014 for PC, Mac, Linux and Ouya.

See a teaser, screens, and learn more about the game here.