Like several impartial sport developer, Fajrul Falakh Nurfitryansyah, who goes by Fajrul FN, simply wanted a possibility to get his sport in entrance of potential gamers. He obtained an opportunity when Geoff Keighley, the person behind Summer time Sport Fest, gave him a name.
“He mentioned he noticed the sport and requested if there was something he might do to assist the mission. I advised him we have been nonetheless a small staff attempting to achieve visibility,” Fajrul FN advised epicgamejourney by way of e-mail. And visibility he obtained — Summer time Sport Fest attracts tens of millions of viewers annually, and this 12 months’s viewers obtained an exhilarating take a look at Fajrul’s Acts of Blood, a Raid– and Sifu-inspired beat-’em-up due out subsequent 12 months.
Fajrul FN was born in Karawang, Indonesia, and moved to Bandung somewhat over a decade in the past, which is the place Acts of Blood is about. When he’s not engaged on his sport, he’s watching movies or UFC fights, and that affect will little question be felt in Acts of Blood’s graphic fights. “These hobbies are an enormous a part of what shapes me as an individual, and so they’re additionally what encourage my work and the video games I create,” he mentioned.
epicgamejourney spoke with Fajrul FN about Acts of Blood — how he’s making it, what impressed it, and simply how bloody it’s going to be (spoiler: very).
epicgamejourney: How do you know you wished to make Acts of Blood? When did improvement begin?
Fajrul FN: I’ve been making video games since 2010, beginning with private initiatives in Blender Sport Engine. After 5 years within the skilled sport business, I spotted how a lot I missed the inventive freedom of creating one thing for myself. In January 2024, I made a decision to begin Acts of Blood as a means to enhance my Unreal expertise. However what started as a private facet mission shortly developed into one thing greater. Growth began then, and it’s been rising ever since.
Is there a enjoyable, bizarre, chaotic, or in any other case noteworthy second that stands proud to you from improvement that you might share?
Actually, one of many weirdest issues about Acts of Blood is that the entire sport began as a private studying mission. I’m primarily a 3D artist, not a programmer, so to start with, a lot of the gameplay techniques have been actually cobbled collectively from random YouTube tutorials. If you happen to seemed on the early Blueprints, you’d in all probability see a Frankenstein mixture of nodes from 5 completely different creators. It’s humorous to suppose a sport that made it to Summer time Sport Fest began off as a check mission constructed out of instructional scraps.
May you inform me somewhat bit concerning the staff behind Acts of Blood, Eksil Group? At Summer time Sport Fest, Geoff Keighley mentioned the sport was being made by you as a solo developer with your pals, so I hoped you might shed some gentle on that.
Yeah, that’s fairly correct. I’m main the mission and doing a lot of the work sport design, programming, 3D environments. However over time, some associates joined in part-time, particularly for music, animation, and voice work. We’re a small indie staff, most of us engaged on weekends whereas juggling day jobs or different initiatives. I name us Eksil Group, which feels becoming it’s like a bunch of outcasts constructing one thing private collectively. [Ed. note: “Eksil” translates to “exile” in English.]
What video games or movies are inspiring Acts of Blood?
Movies like The Raid, The Night time Comes for Us, and something from Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto are an enormous affect. For gameplay, it’s a mix of Sleeping Canines’ counter-based fight and Sifu’s layered combo mechanics. We’re additionally taking visible cues from video games like Max Payne and Manhunt, particularly relating to grit and tone.
How did you land on the place you’re presently residing, Bandung, for the setting?
Bandung isn’t usually represented in video games, and I wished to vary that. It’s the place I grew up, so that is my tribute. It’s not a 1:1 recreation, however the really feel is there: the wet streets, distinctive structure, cooler local weather. From a design perspective, the town’s mixture of city and pure areas additionally helps maintain ranges visually various.
With the buckets of blood being spilled and the Mortal Kombat-like X-ray function, how graphic can we anticipate Acts of Blood to get?
Picture: Eksil Group
Fairly graphic. We’re going all-in on violence as a core a part of the expertise. Brutal takedowns, dismemberment, and sure, our personal model of X-ray kills. Consider it as a grounded however uncooked homage to traditional motion video games and movies. We’ve been clear with our companions from the beginning: this isn’t going to carry again.
How did Acts of Blood find yourself at Summer time Sport Fest? Did Geoff Keighley attain out to you, or was an occasion like SGF someplace you at all times wished to showcase the sport?
Geoff really emailed me straight, which was insane. He mentioned he noticed the sport and requested if there was something he might do to assist the mission. I advised him we have been nonetheless a small staff attempting to achieve visibility, and never lengthy after, Acts of Blood was included in SGF 2025. Then he even talked about it throughout the present. It was a surreal second.
Is Acts of Blood solely in improvement for PC at the moment? Do you intend to make console variations as effectively?
Proper now, the sport is in improvement for PC. However we’ve secured help by means of the ID@Xbox program from Xbox, and we’re planning to carry it to consoles beginning with Xbox, then hopefully extra. The scope is manageable, so porting is certainly in our plans.
What are you most excited for gamers to expertise after they get their palms on Acts of Blood subsequent 12 months?
The fight. I’ve poured a lot into making it really feel tight, responsive, and satisfying. That second once you dodge a strike, counter with a brutal finisher, and see the X-ray impression, it’s every little thing I really like about motion video games. I can also’t look ahead to folks to acknowledge components of Bandung within the sport. It’s each private and cinematic, and I hope that comes by means of.
