Tentatively announced back in September 2021, Team Clout’sILLquickly made the rounds online thanks to its first wave of concept trailers, depicting some seriously gruesome and grotesque monster designs in all of theirUnreal Engine 5glory. Though it was clear these trailers were more of a proof of concept than anything else,ILLgained quite a cult following ofhorror gamefans. Flash forward almost four years, andILLhas officially entered full production, thanks in no small part to the recent partnership struck between Team Clout and Mundfish Powerhouse.
Ahead ofILL’sSummer Game Fest appearance, Game Rant sat down with Team Clout’s Maxim Verehin, one of the studio’s co-founders and one of the lead developers working onILL, who was joined by Mundfish’s Lead Brand Manager Igor Alaniia. During our conversation, Verehin detailedILL’s development journey so far, discussed the importance of realism in horror, and addressed some recent concerns fans have had about the game’s existence.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
ILL’s Development Journey So Far
Q: Could you give me a top-level overview ofILL?
Verehin:ILLis an action-packed survival horror inspired byhorror movies of the early 1990s— the brutal ones. It has realistic visuals, and it’s going to feel brutal. Also, it’s a story-driven game with a lot of cutscenes and different characters. There’s also a lot of resource management. Not the boring type, it’s just collecting some stuff to upgrade your weapons and stats.
Q: When didILLofficially begin development?
Verehin:It officially began development in 2021. We started to talk about it and released our first concept trailers. Then we went through the process of understanding what the game is going to be, how big it’s going to be, and how we’re actually going to pull it off. We had some ups and downs, but now we’re in full production. We finally understand what the game is, what the story is, and we’re just ready to work.
Q: How many people are currently working onILL?
Verehin:It’s around 50 people full-time.
Q: Where did your love for body horror come from?
Verehin:Actually, I’d say we love all kinds of horror, not just body horror. We’re trying to implementdifferent genres of horrorintoILL, but we’re putting a lot of effort into making the body horror inILLreally striking. Inspirations for that come from old horror movies where they relied on showing the exact threat, what the monsters do to the people, and how horrible it can be. Now you might see it as cheesy, but it all felt natural.
Right now, the horror industry leans more towards psychological stuff like ghosts and haunted houses. We’re leaning more towards old school.
Q: Am I right in sayingILLwas partially crowdfunded?
Verehin:you’re able to say that. I would put it thatILLwas supported financially in some way.Crowdfundingis when you receive money to actually develop the game, but we never pushed that part of our business. We only had this Patreon page where people were free to support us. We didn’t do many campaigns to develop our Patreon and earn more money. It was more like a bonus. For example, we recently released a small video clip, and the Patreons actually funded this clip.
Alaniia:I just wanted to add that this community helped us kick off this project. It’s a very dedicated community that we love, and we’re looking forward to seeing their reaction to the upcoming announcements. The community is a very substantial part ofILLbecause they were there when the project began. They helped to start the project’s development. They were really important for the start of production, and now they’re waiting for the results.
Q: You’re now partnered with Mundfish Powerhouse. How has that impactedILL’s development?
Verehin:Drastically, actually. When wepartnered with Mundfish, it was kind of a launch of full production, where we started to build a strong foundation for the team. Mundfish helps us understand things we don’t know ourselves, because this is our first project. We have a lot of questions. Mundfish usually has the answers. Sometimes, some of their professionals help us with different parts of the game.
Q: What’s the biggest obstacle Team Clout has run into as first-time developers?
Verehin:I would say the whole thing is an obstacle! Game development is so complicated in so many ways, and you have to control a lot of stuff. Forming a solid team, finding those first leaders who come to the team that we can rely on. It’s a hard thing. Finally, we’re almost 50 people now. It’s scary. It’s scary to have that many people in the team, but it’s also exciting.
Realism Plays a Vital Role in ILL’s Gameplay
Q: What will the moment-to-moment gameplay ofILLlook like?
Verehin:It’s a balance of survival horror, exploration, and combat areas. WithILL,we’re pushing this balance to the maximum. So in one part, we’re going to try and have a really terrifying, classic horror,P.T.-like atmosphere, and we’re pushing that to the maximum. And then in another part, you meet an enemy, and you shoot, and we push that area to the maximum as well. You feel the guns, the power. And in between that is the story and cutscenes.
Q: What type of enemies can players expect to fight inILL?
Verehin:Many different types. There’s a really large variety of enemies. We have great concepts of how the enemies came to our world. I can’t share a lot of that now, it’ll all come later, but there are different types of enemies. You can expect some classic ones, like human-like zombies, though they’re not zombies in our game. They’re supported by some f***d-up animal-like, huge enemies. You’ll see everything in the future.
Q: Could you describeILL’s “visceral dismemberment” system?
Verehin:You shoot a limb. This limb flies away. There’s a lot of blood and a lot of detail. We’re trying to push the details within thedismemberment system. I don’t know if you remember some of the older games where, as a kid, you would kill an enemy and try to test how the enemy could be dismembered. You’d try to knife it or hit it with an axe. InILL, we want to push that same feeling you had as a kid when you were interested in whether the developer put thought and effort into that.
Q: Could you explainILL’s “dynamic enemy behavior” system?
Verehin:Dynamic enemy behaviorwill mainly consist of how enemies react to player actions. I’m not going to oversell that our enemies are going to be super, mega complicated because we have to think about gameplay and the fun aspect of that. We don’t want to create lots of opportunities for bugs or weird, unexpected behavior, but enemies are going to react to their injuries, and they’re going to scream. You’ll feel that they’re alive in this world.
I want to add here that when enemies haven’t seen the player, or they’re not fighting the player, we’re going to have some moments where you’ll just see them in the world doing horror things. They don’t see you, you pass by, they’re doing some f****d-up things with their victims, stuff like this.
Q: Realism seems to be a core element ofILL. Could you talk me through the importance of realism inILL?
Verehin:Realism is really important because it creates a more immersive experience, which is really important for horror. Realism helps to make the player feel like the world they’re in is real. That’s why we’re pushing realism as far as we can go, not just in terms of graphics, but animations, the overall feeling, the sound design, and other things like this.
Q: What’s one feature ofILLyou can’t wait to show players?
Verehin:I think I can say it. We recently added astomp mechanic. Our player can stomp an enemy to finish it off, and it looks super cool right now. It’s actually a gameplay mechanic that looks like something you’d want to put in a trailer. I’m really proud of the team. I wasn’t even part of this. I’m super happy when something happens without me, they show me, and it looks super cool.
Q: Aside from ’90s horror movies, what are some of the biggest inspirations behindILL?
Verehin:Games for sure. We are big fans of theResident Evilseries, especiallyResident Evil 7, for its atmosphere and how scary it was. Also,Resident Evil 2and how they used traversal mechanics. In terms of more terrifying experiences, we’re inspired by theearly games in theSilent Hillseriesand Hideo Kojima’sP.T., of course.
One of our pillar inspirations isHalf-Life 2, purely because it’s physics-based, and it’s fun to play with the world, and how they pace the story. How you start here and end up there, and that feeling of going on a big journey that shows you a lot of new stuff and surprises you all the time. We’re inspired heavily by that.
There are also some examples of books and even TikTok videos that inspired us. It’s funny, but sometimes when you see some weird stuff in the world, it inspires you. Hopefully, in the future, I can share more of those exact inspirations. There are a lot of fun connections.
Team Clout Co-Founder Addresses Concerns That ILL is a ‘Scam’
Q: Over the last year or so, there have been some concerns thatILLis a “scam.” How do you feel about those concerns?
Verehin:I could say that it feels bad. Or, it could feel bad, but I know for sure that right now we’re in full production. We already have a big team and we’re making the game. We’re waiting. People will see more announcements, they’ll see that development is going well, and that the game is happening. There’s still a lot to do, and it’s hard to make, but we are fully committed to that.
There will always be people, and they have the full right to be concerned. We have a lot of examples ofgames that promised a lot and didn’t deliver. I understand that we haven’t shared for a long time, but hopefully, soon we’ll change some minds into a more positive way of thinking.
Q: What’s your favorite part ofILL’s current development process?
Verehin:It’s a hard question for me because I’m in a position in our team where I’m making everything. It’s super chaotic. I would say I enjoy everything in a way. I don’t hate anything. I think my favorite part would be seeing how ideas from our heads get put into the game, and seeing that it looks just as cool as when it was in our minds. Just seeing your baby come to life. That’s my favorite part.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything I didn’t ask you about that you’d like to mention?
Verehin:I’m just really excited that the trailer is out. I hope people love it, and I hope people now understand what game we are actually aiming to deliver. Also, wishlist, please!
Alaniia:We’re really excited to see those passionate players. We call them passionate because, of course, they want to see the game is real. We all want to play it. We’re not trying to convince anyone at this point that the game is real because we want to show it to them. We want them to see so it gets rid of all their concerns. We’re really excited for this to finally happen.
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ILLis currently in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
