PAGE B8, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 20, 2015
Keizer illustrator’s 1st video game,
Paperbound, on shelves in 11 days
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
During the past 17 months,
Keizerite Mike Smith has
dedicated much of his time
to creating the characters for
a new video game, Paperbound,
that will debut on Playsta-
tion and Windows platforms
March 31.
In that time, he’s created
more than 15 gigabytes of art-
work (translation: a lot). But
there’s one, tiny problem.
“I suck at my own
game. Anywhere we’ve
shown it off, I
end up losing,”
said Smith.
Paperbound is
a four-person,
multi-player
fi ghting game,
which makes it
a challenge all
on its own. But
players also have
the capacity to
switching the gravity
mechanics while play-
ing, meaning attacks
can come from just
about anywhere.
“It’s like Super
Smash Bros. on
crack,” Smith said.
While Smith has not been
involved in the actual pro-
gramming, he’s designed ev-
ery character and most of
the background/battlefi elds
where fi ghts take place. The
characters are derived from
a few classical works and a
wholly concocted one.
“We’ve got people and
places from Journey to the Cen-
ter of the Earth, Dante’s Inferno,
the Egyptian Book of the Dead,
The Book of Five Rings and a
made-up book called Skull
Kingdom,” Smith said.
That’s meant everything
from Egyptian deities, to
mummies, martial artists and
devils have been brought to
life through Smith’s thick line
work. Some of his artistic in-
fl uences are Arthur Rackham,
Ralph McQuarrie and Moe-
bius (aka Jean Giraud), but
the place of highest hon-
or is reserved for Brian
Froud.
Froud is known
for his artwork featur-
ing fairies and goblins,
but gained prominence
working with Jim
Henson on the mov-
ies Labyrinth and The
Dark Crystal. The lat-
ter of the two had
the most impact on
Smith.
“It’s my favor-
ite movie and it
just left a mark on me.
It was scary as hell,
but it was the most unique
story I’d ever seen. Froud’s art-
istry in character design stuck
with me,” Smith said.
For a while, Smith enter-
tained dreams of working as
a muppeteer, but it fell to the
wayside after Henson’s death.
He’d failed art classes in high
school, but didn’t let it deter
him from pursuing his passion
in college.
“My training has been a
lot of self-training. I bounced
around from community col-
lege to community college. I
began taking fashion design,
but my instructors allowed
me to spin it into
costume design,”
Smith said.
When asked
to design a
sweater, Smith
put it on a Nazi
villain. When
asked to create
an actual costume
he made an outfi t
for someone to dress
as a salad.
He managed to get
some design work on a
fi lm around 2005, but
the project fell apart.
Faced with con-
tinuing to pursue
his passion for fi lm
or raising his kids, Smith put
his career on the backburner –
for eight years.
In 2013, he found himself
with more time on his hands
and decided to see if there was
still any interest in his par-
ticular skill set. He posted
some of his portfolio work
to an indie video game
website and was fl ooded
with 25 potential projects.
He narrowed those to three
and went with Paperbound, a
game spearheaded by devel-
oper Dan Holbert.
Unbeknownst to Smith
at the time, Holbert had
worked on two of his fa-
vorite games, ones that
brought to life the Trans-
formers cartoon of the 1980s.
Smith’s studio prominently
features a framed poster from
the Transformers the Movie.
With a project lined
up, Smith experienced
a crisis of faith.
“I had al-
lowed my talent
to go dormant,”
Smith said. “I got
this great opportu-
nity, but I was rusty.
I knew I knew
how to do it, but it
wouldn’t come. I had
to battle a lot of fear
and anxiety.”
He
plowed
through
with
some inspiration
from an unex-
pected source.
“When I took lunch
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Keizer artist Mike Smith at work on a background for Paperbound, a game set for release on the Playstation and Windows plat-
forms March 31. Smith supplied all of the character designs and many of the background illustrations for the game.
breaks, I began watching the
old Rocky movies on Netfl ix
in 20-minute installments.
Rocky IV (which features
Dolph Lundgren as Balboa’s
Russian nemesis Ivan Drago)
became my favorite,” Smith
said. “I bought the soundtrack
and cranked it when I felt
insecure. I saw all these chal-
lenges as Ivan Drago coming
at me every day. Some days
were terrible, but other days, I
knocked that guy out.”
Now he’s 11 days away
from a worldwide release of
the game.
The interconnected world
we live in meant Smith spent
much of his time working in
a vacuum. He is one part of
a fi ve-person team with three
members in California and
one in the United Kingdom
working on the soundtrack.
It’s left the days leading up
to release feeling more than a
little unreal.
“I’ve made posters for this
game, we’ve had people play
it. I played it with them. It’s
shown up on all the video
game websites I visit, but it
won’t be totally real until the
release,” he said.
If things go well, Smith will
continue creating down-
loadable content (DLC)
for Paperbound, but the one
thing he’d like to return
to is a children’s book he’s
working on. A project that
is completely his own.
“If Paperbound sells well
and we do DLC, I have to
stay open for that.” Smith said.
“But, Walter the Last Knight is
something I still want to get
back into. It’s really heavy on
the Froud infl uence with long
legs and distorted bodies, but
it’s my own fairy tale.”
crossword
Smith’s story seems to be
rife with inspiration for any
book, children’s or otherwise.