Boomdash Digital takes us into the world of Evil Dead

Do you think you have what it takes to kill Deadites and survive the cabin (a.k.a. Ash Willams’ “evil mistress in the woods”)? Try playing Boomdash Digital’s latest virtual reality game, Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare.

“Not all horror fans love Evil Dead because of the humor, at least not me.” – Fede Alvarez

I Will Survive

Boomdash Digital has created the ultimate frightening experience in their current virtual reality game, Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare. For those lovers of the Sam Raimi franchise, this current incarnation is based on Fede Alvarez’s 2013 version.

A first-person POV, players can use iconic weapons such as the chainsaw and nail gun to rack up Deadite kills. What bumps up the reality quotient even more is the 360-degree experience of the cabin as well as sound and vision!

Get immersed in Raimi and Alvarez’s world with accurate 3-D graphics and camera work. You will feel like you are actually in the movie!

At 1428 Elm, we recently sat down with Kitty Crawford of Boomstick Digital to get the lowdown on the creation of this groovy experience.

Boomdash Digital – The Interview

From Fans to Creators

1428 Elm: At Boomdash Digital, who originated the idea of creating a virtual reality game based on Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead?

Kitty Crawford: The VR game was the brain child of our company director, Viktorya Hollings. She headed up the publishing of Evil Dead: Endless Nightmare and was one of the main driving forces behind the VR game.

1428 Elm: I have seen some of the work that you have put out on social media and it is incredible. Is it a painstaking process to get all of the details accurate?

KC: A lot of the detail we put into the world to keep it true to the movie is down to the team being big fans of Evil Dead and being excited ourselves to make as many references to the original material as possible. We did do studies of the movie before going into production, but we’re as excited getting in as much detail as possible, as fans are at seeing it.

Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare, courtesy of Boomdash Digital

Behind the Scenes

1428 Elm: How long does it take to produce a game of this magnitude? In other words, how long does it take before it can be released?

KC: A lot longer than you might think. Our original brief was to do a port of our mobile game Evil Dead: Endless Nightmare to VR, which originally took about 3 years to make. With the material we had, we thought taking it to VR wouldn’t take too long, but optimization of mobile VR is a whole different ball game, that alone took over 3 months of time.

That being said, we went above and beyond with the VR game, adding in a lot more weapons, charms, and a whole new level. We had other things planned, and we’re hoping we’ll get to add them in an update, but that wholly depends on how fans receive the game.

1428 Elm: Do you do Beta testing?

KC: As a game development company, you have to. It’s not enough to just make a game and expect it to be good – you have to test it on your audience to make sure that A) they can actually play it, B) it’s fun for them to play and C) make sure the game is bug free.

And it’s not just enough to test in house, you have to make sure new eyes see the game all the time, because testing games yourself means you get used to it very fast.

Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare, courtesy of Boomdash Digital

Sam Raimi’s the Go-To Man

1428 Elm: Evil Dead is a franchise where rights to their movies are complicated to obtain due to many entities being in the mix, so to speak. Was it difficult to get this particular project started?

KC: Getting started wasn’t as difficult as we thought it’d be, but it wasn’t a walk in the park either. Conversations with any franchise holder takes a long time, and this was no exception.

We’re very lucky to be able to work with Fede Alvarez’s masterpiece, but being franchise fans of course we would love to also create something with the original Evil Dead movies!

1428 Elm: I know with The X-Files games, Chris Carter was very involved. How much input if any did Fede, Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert or Bruce Campbell have in this incarnation?

KC: Sam Raimi is our main contact within Ghost House. So, he is the guy who gets the final say on everything we do.

We are given the ok to work with the material, we create the project, and then Sam looks at it and gives us the green or red light on whether or not he’s happy with the representation of the movie. That’s really it.

Into the Future

1428 Elm: What is Boomdash currently working on? 

KC: We’re looking for our next big project, but in the meantime, we’ve secured funding to do a bit more work on Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare. We’re not quite sure exactly what that’s going to be yet, but expect big things.

This game is so addictive that once you start playing you are not going to want to stop. Here is to hoping that in the future they will be able to do something with the original trilogy!

Have you played Evil Dead: Virtual Nightmare? Did you enjoy it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. We want to hear from you.