I recently had the opportunity to chat with "XERA: Survival" creator Joshua Harrington and ask some questions about his upcoming Humanoid Robot survival game. For those who may not know, "Xera: Survival" is an upcoming open world humanoid-apocalypse multiplayer survival game you will be able to find on Steam. Players will have to fight to stay alive in a near-distant future overrun with conscience AI.

In a beautifully designed map, survivors will have to scavenge for food, weapons and much more while fending off attacking AI and other players! Harrington has implemented many new features to the genre, such as a reward based mission system, a powerful drone used for scouting, lighting and remote detonating explosives and a sleek user interface optimized for performance.

'XERA: Survival' developer is self-taught

On Joshua Harrington's Kickstarter page it stated that he's "self-taught". I asked him about the obstacles he had to overcome and looking into the future for his production company, Spotted Kiwi.

Harrington said, "Yes I am fully self-taught. I have been programming ever since a young age, so it was relatively quick for me to learn Unreal Engine. I have been using UE for about 2 years now. There were many obstacles while creating XERA, one of them being the graphics card I currently have (GTX 960) which can drag down productivity when working inside of the map. So to overcome this, I had to learn how to optimize the game as much as I could – just so I could build it.

As a result, the game actually performs better than a lot of other survival games. Spotted Kiwi Productions is a one-man development team right now, but I plan to expand the team..."

'XERA: Survival' inspirations

What inspired Harrington to create his own game, and how long has this been on his mind? With influences from other games of the genre and film, he has created something unique and thrilling.

According to Harrington, "The idea of XERA first came about 2 years ago. I was a big fan of survival games, and the one which I played most was shut down (The WarZ). I would say XERA has been influenced by this and the desire to bring back the nostalgia. The humanoid idea had some inspiration from movies such as ‘I, Robot,' 'Ex Machina' and 'Automata' - just to name a few."

What will set 'XERA: Survival' apart from others in the genre?

The survival genre can seem saturated with games about zombies, and you're not alone.

Harrington wanted to create something different that will not follow suit with other examples in the genre.

His response on the matter, "Many survival games lack originality, they all seem to try build their game around a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. I didn’t want XERA to be like every other survival game. Whenever I think of an idea, I always think – how can it be different, how can it integrate with the story and how can it bring enjoyment to the player. I hope that XERA will inspire other developers to think more outside the box, and not just add features because every other game has it."

Aspirations for 'XERA: Survival' in the future?

I asked him what the future holds for his game, and if there will be upcoming additions, expansions or addons.

Harrington replied, "I will to continue to build a strong community, which will always have a say in the future of the game. It will be important to continue to add interesting content to keep players coming back for more – including new maps, weapons, missions and more."

What even is 'XERA'?

The question that was drilling me was what is "XERA" and what does it mean?

Harrington simply states, "The word XERA itself does not stand for anything, it was merely a word which I selected from a bunch of ideas in a list. Originally the game was ‘Project XERA’ while I was learning UE and prototyping the game idea, but I dropped the ‘project’, and just recently added the ‘survival’ to the name."

I love the idea that it doesn't have to mean anything, maybe it just sounded cool.

That is how I would title a game if I were even half as smart as 'XERA' developer and one man army Joshua Harrington.

Final thoughts

I asked Harrington one last thing, just out of pure curiosity. Other than his creation, what was his favorite survival genre game?

He answered with a truly great video game title, "I would say "Dying Light" is my favourite game in the survival genre. It’s a beautiful game and I love the parkour implementation."

You've made a beautiful game as well sir. You can find and pledge to the cause on Kickstarter, Twitter and Facebook. Help support new and original content, as it's becoming more difficult to come by.
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