A King, a 5%, and a Sadomasochist: Chatting over Dinner with Apeiron’s Art Leads
Hey!
Hey!
Today we have a banger: an in-depth, behind the scenes interview with Felix Chu, Shadow Wong, Chris Wong, the Art Leads for the entire Apeiron project, joined as well by Frank Cheng, our CEO and Lorekeeper. We sat down with them for some oysters and whiskey and let the evening carry us away, and boy oh boy, did we get carried away…
Foonie Magus: Well lads, we should probably get started before we’re too blasted to talk…could I ask you to introduce yourselves?
Chris: Serious or…?
FM: Whatever you want.
Chris: I am a dog
Shadow: I am a human-form dog
Felix: I am a hella alcoholic piece of shit. Also, Shadow, he is not just a human-form dog. He is also the savior of the team. And he is a treasure when he is drunk!
Shadow: I can’t get drunk tonight guys…I have too many things to suppress, too many secrets…
FM: Ok well now we HAVE to get you drunk
Chris: Shadow is the 5% elite of the human race. Orange, [Foonie Magus’ COO], said it.
Felix: Yes! So true. He is the 5%. Very rare.
Shadow: I don’t trust myself…
FM: We’re off to a great start. Alright, so what do you guys do exactly?
Chris: Everything.
Felix: Let’s come up with movie names to describe what we do! Like use famous movie names.
Chris: Oh ok. Sure. In this case… I would say that I do…Everything Everywhere All at Once. (FM: He’s the technical art director)
Shadow: Are you fucking serious? I am everyone’s friend. Yeah. A friend for everyone. (FM: He’s the lead 3d artist)
FM: So your movie is Toy Story?
Felix: For my job, I visualize the abstract world setting. Concept art to making it reality. And I’m never going to pick up your shit. (FM: He’s the concept art director)
Chris: He always cleans up for everyone!
Shadow: Yeah, he picks up all the shit!
Felix: I’m a nitpicker. Everyone hates me. Man…do I sound emo?
FM: Oh yeah. Super emo.
Felix: Fuck…
Shadow: Nah, everyone loves him haha.
Chris: He’s bullshitting, he’s very popular.
FM: How long have you guys been at the company?
Chris: 6 years.
Frank: Almost since the beginning
Shadow: 2 or 3 years?
Felix: Same
Frank: These guys actually knew each other before they came to work for us.
FM: Really?
Frank: Yeah, they went to school together.
FM: Holy shit, how long have you guys known each other?
Felix: Hmm…must be 12 years now.
FM: Wow!
Shadow: Here, I have a picture of us at that time…
FM: Woah! You guys look…younger haha. But mostly the same. Except for Felix! He’s changed so much.
Frank: He went from gangster Naruto to One Punch Man.
Chris: We had our own animation studio for awhile, before we worked here.
Shadow: Yeah, we did some freelance projects.
Felix: It was more just like a room than a studio haha.
Frank: Orange kept tabs on them, and they worked on some of the first concept art for Apeiron before they joined us.
FM: Would you say that Apeiron has changed a lot in the years that you guys have worked on it?
Felix: I mean of course. But you know, there is one thing, the core of the idea…the core concept that Frank showed us…that’s never changed. It’s always been there.
FM: What’s your favorite aspect of Apeiron?
Shadow: For me it’s seeing everything coming together, come alive. And the toys! I love the toys. I know maybe that sounds a little weird because we are making the game, but it’s nice to have something solid…something you can touch.
Felix: I like the unknown part of it. As a concept artist, going through and exploring the lore and making something totally new. It can be hard to take the abstract and make it something, but it is also a lot of fun.
Chris: I can’t answer that…. There are too many…
Shadow: He loves shouldering the pain of development. He is a total sadomasochist haha.
Felix: Yes! He enjoys living under the pressure haha
FM: What led you guys down this path of being artists for Apeiron?
Shadow: For me, I find, I can’t do anything else. I’m only good at one thing: drawing. So I have to be an artist until the end haha.
Chris: Actually…when I became an artist, I just want to make a great game. Because game is an interactive art. It’s not like other art. Other art is so passive, it just sits there and tells you what it wants to tell you. But games, games offer choice. Stories depend on players. And those interactions can help us learn about people.
Felix: I’m not going to give you an emo shit answer like them…
EVERYONE: …
Felix: (after a very long pause) … it’s all chaos, man. Butterfly effect. I just came to it. I’m not even an artist.
Felix: (super long pause and -_- around the table) … that is probably the most emo answer…
EVERYONE: Yea! GTFO!
FM: Woah. That’s some real shit right there. Yeah so I guess you guys are big gamers. Favorite games?
Chris: Dark Souls. Want to play Elden Ring but no time haha.
Felix: Metal Gear. And also — Last of Us, Part 1. The new God of War opening scene.. When he almost patted his son… EPIC!! ….Shit, is that emo again?
FM: You’re basically the King of Emo at this point haha.
Shadow: God of War, the new one…so good. The camera, the battles, WOW. Also Gundam SEED arcade game and…Pokemon. The original! I always wanted Pokemon Yellow as a kid but never got it…so sad….
FM: Ok we better wrap this one up, we’ve covered a lot of ground haha. Any final words? Spoilers for the fans?!
All 3: (Constipated look as if its a reminder of the deadline)
Frank: Shadow is coming up with a really badass boss, Chris is going to retouch every single detail on EVERYTHING until he deems it fit for official launch quality, and Felix will basically paint over everything again just when everyone thinks its ready. They will raise the bar ridiculously high for the rest of the web3 games and show the world what a web3 game “demo” can look like. GFG
FM: Well fuck, that sounds awesome. Thanks for taking the time to chat, gentlemen!
Hey guys! That’s all for this one. Got any questions for our wonderful Art Leads? These guys are a riot! Head on down to our Discord, Twitter, Telegram and you may find that they’ll drop by. But for now, we’ll sign off here.
And as always, thanks for reading, godlings. We’ll see you next time~