We’re back at the secret headquarters of the Earth Counter Invasion Force with Ivan Suvorov, lead game developer of [i]Iron Meat[/i]! This week Ivan goes into detail about the common enemy–or enemies?--in the game: [b]THE MEAT[/b]. [u][b]Question 1: How did the ideas for The Meat come to be? In other words, how did you come up with the idea for The Meat as this invading, global flesh plague that infects machines and people?[/b][/u] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/c79a59c36e36fc81bace0c11959269e552e6098a.png[/img] [b]Ivan[/b]: It all started with the truck story. I saw the works of Boris Grokh, and was inspired by some of his works. The very first "Meat Inhabitant" of the game was a boss truck, which I "took" from Boris's art. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/9dfc1fa4e167add96d0f276fbd6fa85ae0ed09df.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/7da96d6138a972a3603a408d36516d495245412f.png[/img] Initially, I wanted The Meat to appear only in the middle of the game, but in the end it turned out that it was more interesting for players to meet The Meat right at the very beginning. The story itself has already been created together with Retroware, rather, they even invented most of the story. But they started from the existing levels. The task was to figure out what was going on there. As a result, the plot is usually written and levels are made for it; in my game, it was the opposite. That is, there was a moment when everyone in the game was infected with The Meat, but there is no explanation for this. [u][b]Question 2: Can you describe what The Meat is and where did it come from in terms of the game's story?[/b][/u] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/e0ea3c38a8e90f357cd26ae9f60a619bc7a8a832.png[/img] [b]Ivan[/b]: It is an extra-dimensional alien life form that has been planning an invasion of Earth from its dimension for a long time. It was able to teleport a part of itself inside the Moon, where it grew and was discovered purely by chance before it gained critical mass. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/5ac321ebbcdfdce4b25fbd364ea17d5631ab49a9.png[/img] It has a "brain center," without which all other incarnations of The Meat are crazy monsters with the intelligence of a rabid animal. In the case of an infected person, the intelligence is no higher than a zombie, with some skills preserved (For example, running, shooting, somehow driving a car, etc.). They can act in sync only when the brain center exists. [u][b]Question 3: Who is Yuri Markov? And what is his motive?[/b][/u] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/a781415fe61d754e7ee031e6d34abd6ced6c3854.png[/img] [b]Ivan[/b]: To avoid too many spoilers, I will say that Yuri studied The Meat, got infected, and, through the portal, led the invasion of The Meat onto Earth. At the same time, The Meat Brain from the Moon also controlled the invasion, and revealed tons of The Meat hidden in the depths of the Moon. The Meat Brain also bombarded the Earth with Meat-infected pieces of the Moon (falling Meat meteorites in the game). [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36596640/be6c053835e515f98d71e6f57abea7f94afc966a.png[/img] We've got more in store to share in future updates! And be sure to download and play the Iron Meat demo available now!