[Exclusive] Delve Into the Development of ‘Gori: Cuddly Carnage’ With This Making-of Documentary

After all of the praise for Angry Demon Studio’s  Gori: Cuddly Carnage, you’re probably asking yourself just how the team managed to come up with such a fun (and bloody) concept. Wonder no more, as the developer has put together an exclusive making-of video, going into the development of the comedy horror action title, as well as Angry Demon Studio itself.

Divided up into three parts, the documentary kicks off with “Finding Gori”, in which Angry Demon Studio’s audio director William Sahl, animator Caroline Petri and designer/CEO John Kalderon cover the genesis of their hoverboarding skate n’ slash. “The idea started five years ago [in 2019]. We started everything in a thought of having a really cool mechanic that we wanted to build our entire game on,” explained John. That mechanic was the hoverboarding combat, which you see footage of in a 2019 prototype. Of course, the cat came later, because “why not?” This section of the documentary goes on to further delve into the development, including the decision to go with a more humourous take as opposed to the seriousness of Angry Demon Studio’s past titles (such as 2019’s Apsulolv: End of Gods).

“Small Team, Big Voices” covers the team itself at Angry Demon Studio, and what inspired them. For example, William’s inspiration for Gori‘s soundtrack came from Mick Gordon‘s soundtrack for DOOM. “The style [for the soundtrack] is kind of like DOOM-esque music with a lot of silly noises.” Meanwhile, Caroline explained that with Gori, the team wanted to do something “vibrant, new and fun” while also staying true to their horror roots. “Basically, mixing the two together created what we have here in Gori.” This part also delves into the story of and character inspirations for Gori: Cuddly Carnage.

The final part with “Independent Learning” covers the growth the team has had as an indie studio, beginning from, well, the very beginning. “All the founders of Angry Demon Studio met at university, and we made game projects together at school, and just kind of wanted to keep going,” said John. All three members of the team had focused on different disciplines, but ended up in similar projects, where they continued to grow as a team until they decided to create their own game.

The first title to come from the team was 2017’s Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn, a first person horror game heavily inspired by Swedish folklore and Nordic mythology. “We actually started making games during our Bachelor’s Thesis, so we were doing the Bachelor’s thesis and Unforgiving at the same time.”

With the development of Gori: Cuddly Carnage, the team found themselves not only continuing to enjoy the development process, but also picking up new skills and interests. “We learned so much, but also we have grown as people,” said Caroline. The trio admitted that the development wasn’t all smooth sailing (namely with the global pandemic), but also realized that they couldn’t stop. “So we ended up alone in this [gaming incubator], which basically was isolating ourselves and gave us room to keep working on Gori, which basically saved the project.”

Gori: Cuddly Carnage is available now on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.