Jay O, creator of No Vacation for an Executioner

I first spotted No Vacation for an Executioner several months ago, on X, on a RT. I was immediately intrigued by its aesthetic and artistic direction, and PSX aesthetics still speak to me. So it was with great pleasure that I chatted with Jay O, the solo creator behind the game.

Point’n Think: Hey Jay and thank you for answering our question! First of all, can you introduce yourself for the readers who do not know you yet? 

Jay: Hi, Julien, thanks for the invitation! My name is Jay, I am a solo-game developer and a freelance 3D designer. I am making a game called No vacation for an executioner. It is a retro PS2 style action RPG. 

PnT: What made you decide to become an independent game developer? Have you always wanted to work in this field?

Jay: I always wanted to become a game developer or to do some jobs that are relevant to the game industry since childhood. I got a Playstation in my school time and played some very impressive games, like Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil 3 and Silent Hill, but as a school boy I totally had no idea how to make it. All I could do was just to practise painting, and to learn some basic programming. It seemed so far from the target at that time, I even lost this dream for a long time. I went to design school and became a designer, doing design jobs for about 10 years, until I played Bloodborne on PS4. It was so stunning! I felt all things came back again, so I started to learn how to use the game engine to make a game.

PnT: Why did you choose to develop games on your own? What are the advantages and challenges of this approach?

Jay: I think the main reason is that I prefer solo-working rather than cooperation. It makes me feel better. I can make every decision and control the details directly, because I have a quite clear picture of the whole game. Game development is a very ‘high coupling’ job, which means every element at the game is relevant to others so close. If I want to make a game with a very strong personal style, I think solo working is a better choice for me.

Co-working has its own advantages, as long as you and your partners are at the same channel, and have great understanding for each other. You can handle a larger or more ambitious project by co-working.  But solo working has nearly zero ‘communication cost’. 

PnT: Can you tell us about No Vacation for an Executioner? What is the game’s basic concept, and how did this idea come about?

Jay: It’s a retro PS2 style game about a frustrated executioner in the late 17th century. He fled from the gallows and it aroused the riot of the monsters, so he had to redeem himself, and was involved in a nightmare-like plot.The story was inspired by the historical fiction The Hangman of Paris written by Claude Cueni. It’s a book about the very famous Sanson family. European players may be more familiar of this job because of the history of middle age or the Great Revolution, but executioner at old times is still a role full of mystery for many people in the world. This book is unveiling the life of a executioners’ family. It was a hereditary job, but like a curse to every family member. This dramatic family existed in real history, which makes it absorbing.

Young Charles Henri Sanson didn’t want to inherit his family job as a hangman. He always wanted to be a doctor. But at the execution of the regicide Damien, he replaced his uncle and finished the cruel job, even though he wasn’t willing to. I started to imagine, what if he ran away at that time. How the destiny would be changed as (or not as) an executioner. 

I thought that it could be a new project, to trigger a new story, about 100 years before the time of Charles Sanson, happening in an imaginary country.

PnT: Why did you choose to mix Action RPG, Roguelike and Metroidvania? How do these genres complement each other in your game?

Jay: That’s because these kinds of games are always my most favourite games. I was deeply influenced by Resident Evil and Bloodborne. But I am trying to make some different game mechanics. The feedback I got from the demo players also showed that maybe it’s not so fitting the expectation of the games at this kind.

It’s not a very fast action game (though there also are some technic-limit reasons for solo-development). I want to make it more like a survival horror game, and fighting is dangerous like Silent Hill 2 or 3 on PS2.  Melee battle is tough, it encourages players to catch the right time to implement rapier attack.

On the other hand, I am willing to give more degree of freedom to players, that means you can still go back, and explore the place that you haven’t been, or repick the items that you missed. It’s more Metroidvania or Souls-like, but not so Survival-horror. The exploration would be fun in a world with enough secrets. 

PnT: Who is the enforcer, the game’s protagonist? Can you tell us more about his role, personality and design?Jay: The protagonist is an anonymous hangman at a remote town, doing his job according to the court’s order. One day he ran away from his job, maybe he saw something that others could not see, or maybe he was just vulnerable and felt sick of that. So, he was far from a perfect hero. He was just a normal man, with defects in character, and bearing huge pressures.

At that time people were afraid of hangmen, and also despised this job. At the same time, people liked to watch public executions. Hangmen were killing criminals by the order, but always thinking how to relieve the pain of them (like Charles Sanson). All things about this role were just so contradictory! So I try to put these paradoxes into one person.

Before saving the world, he had to redeem himself from his dereliction of duty first, by killing the monsters, acting like a drowned mouse with a little bit of a hunchback. He is frustrated, controversial, always failed , not welcomed by this world, very lonely, only the crows are his friends. And you will determine his fate at the end.

(There is a detail. Unskilled execution will cause great pain to the criminals, it was represented at the game by a jammed slash, the blade stuck inside their body of monsters, so he has to kick it out. It was also described by the manga Innocent).

PnT: How did you design the game’s environments and ambience? What were your main inspirations for this dark, dystopian universe?

Jay: Personally I prefer games with a dark fantasy atmosphere and strong personal style. When I started my own game, it must be a game like that. The atmosphere is the priority in my game design.

Though it’s a fiction story, I studied a lot about the art style of the Baroque times, about the late 17th century and the early 18th century. The costume, architecture, and item designs are based on real history. The real design will make the game more convincing.

And I tried to use a bunch of shaders that I created to make them look unique. People may always think that the Baroque times are gorgeous, golden and shining. I try to make it in a pale and black-and-white tune (very risky trial!), so it will be very different from people’s imagination.

I think the reality is quite dystopian. AI is replacing human’s positions. The contemporary brain-science points out that maybe free will doesn’t. According to the evidences of quantum physics, we are living in a simulation world, etc. If we regard human history, it was already so dystopian, surely including an executioner living 300 years ago.

Many artists already did the dystopian works, like Goya and Beksinski. We love dystopian art, maybe it’s a metaphor for real human history. At least it’s more real than the utopian world.  I tried to use the art style to represent or enhance this impression of the realistic, dystopian universe.

PnT: What are the most important gameplay mechanics in No Vacation for an Executioner? How do you balance combat, exploration and progression?

Jay: Actually at the beginning I was not so clear if it was a souls-like game or a survival-horror. But now I can make sure that it’s a survival-horror game.

You don’t need to collect souls or money to upgrade yourself. All you can collect on the road are just various basic materials. You have to refine or merge them to get some useful items, like HP restorer or ammo.

And the fighting will be very dangerous. You have to avoid the unnecessary battle to survive and explore forward. The fighting logic is quite different from the Souls-game. To observe the environment, effectively consume supplies, catch the right timing at melee battle, are much more important than continuously pressing the attack button.

In some RPG games, if you can’t fix a puzzle, you will get stuck forever, very struggling, so you have to search the tutorial at google. I try some new concepts. You will have different paths to go through the game, some are very simple, but you have to pay something more.

There will also be some implicit puzzles, even you won’t notice. If you get the insight of that, the game will be much easier, but even if you haven’t noticed that, you can still go through, but it will be more tough. That Is what I mean, players have to observe the environment more than fight straight. I think it’s the most interesting part in the game and I hope that I can make it better.d

I want to hide much of the information and leave it to be unveiled by players like some retro games(I think it’s not a trend in modern games). If you observe well enough, figure out the mechanics by yourself, you may find that it will be more fun and surprising. I’m not sure if I can make it good enough, at least it is just the goal that I want to achieve.  

PnT: Can you tell us about the game’s bosses?

Jay: The end of the demo is very close to the first boss. The boss fight would be easier than the expectation. I want to scale down the difficulty difference between minions and bosses. Every fight is scary, but the boss fight would be relatively easy. I’m also very worried that the too tough bosses will make players abandon the game…

PnT: How do you integrate Roguelike elements into the game? Are there any permanent upgrades or one-off runs?

I think the Roguelike element in this game is that the enemy will be revived once you die. But the door you unlocked will be permanently unlocked. The demo showed a little bit about this mechanic.

There will be many permanent upgrades, but it’s unlike the souls-like game. You don’t need to collect souls or some others to upgrade. The upgrade items will show themselves on the road, you can consume them to be stronger. Or you can give them to someone to exchange more information and secrets, which leads you to different endings.

That’s the trick, in this game, things have their costs. Each weapon has its pros and cons. You will either be stronger, or get more information. It’s up to you. It seems complicated and a huge workload, while I have done a part of this mechanic, and it still needs so much testing.

PnT: How do you start creating a new game? Is it with an idea, an image, or a gameplay mechanic?

Jay: The beginning of last year, I was still learning how to write shaders. The ‘shader’ means there are some scripts that you can tell the graphic card how to render your 3D models and animations. Developers can use the shaders provided by the engine, also you can create them by yourself, which is more possible to create some unique styles. I was just testing some new visual effects and posted the first scene at X. Unexpectedly some players loved that.

So this game came from my ‘shader learning test’. Though it’s not normal, but I don’t think it’s too bad. When finishing this game (next year), I will keep learning shaders or some deeper things about computer graphics techniques. Maybe the next game will also be born from the ‘shader testing’. The story and the game mechanic are the second step after the ‘graphic’ for me.

I think it’s an occupational habit of a designer. It’s an abnormal and risky workflow for usual game development. But at least it proved that it’s more possible to make a game with some strong personal styles. That’s just what I want.  

PnT: How do you manage all aspects of solo development (programming, art, design, etc.)? Do you have any tips for staying organized and productive?

Jay: I think the key is just to name the file and folder well. Sometimes I will make the file name very long to mark the important information on it. When referring to something in the code, use copy-paste rather than type it, to reduce the mistake. 

PnT: What tools or software do you use to create No Vacation for an Executioner? How do these tools help you realize your vision?

I use unity as the game engine for this game. The design tools are quite the same as I used for the design jobs, like blender and photoshop. Unity can directly read the blender file without any format exchange. It’s convenient.

Most unity shaders in this game are written by myself. These shaders have very rich dark tunes, and you can customize the low key texture. They help a lot to become the current vibe.

I finished the modeling, texture painting and animations in blender. And then I will do the material with custom shaders, and the lighting work in unity. It takes quite a long time for fine-tuning them, sometimes it will be over and over between blender and unity to make the ideal visual effect. 

PnT: How do you approach the creation of assets (graphics, animations, sounds)? Do you create them yourself, or do you collaborate with other artists?Jay: I am doing every asset by myself except the music and sounds. I will collaborate with music composers. I knew some musician friends while making the game, they are so gifted and I love some of their albums. But I haven’t made any decision about the music yet.

PnT: How do you test your game and incorporate feedback from the community? Do you have regular beta testers or playtesters?

Jay: When I started this game, I never expected that so many players loved this art style. It’s totally beyond my expectation even until today. I released the demo last year and keep getting some feedback from the steam community. Recently I opened the discord server, some players also gave me very useful feedback.

Though they love the vision, they are still complaining about the control, haha. I will keep improving. I think the demo will be updated several more times before the final release.

During the development, I knew many new friends that were showing their interest to join the alpha test. I also registered the Playtester.io website, but I haven’t got any feedback yet.

PnT: What games, films or works of art inspired you to create No Vacation for an Executioner? How are these influences reflected in your project?

Jay: There are too many inspirations for me. I want to share a movie named The Langoliers. It’s not high-rated or very famous, but it was just the nightmare of my childhood. It was so obsessive for me. I love cult movies, games, and horror art, maybe this film was the origin of it.

So I will be attracted to games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Bloodborne. I will always pay my respect to these games and horror arts.

PnT: Are there any developers or designers you particularly admire? Why or why not?

Jay: There are also too many. Particularly I want to share Suda Goichi, a very gifted producer who produced the Killer is Dead. I love it because of its surreal and insane art style.

In recent games, I love Moonscars because of its amazing artwork and visual effects. I love Alisa, because of its weird mystery horror vibe. 

PnT: How do you balance homage to classics (such as Metroidvania) with innovation in your game?

Jay: Many classical games have already become a ‘type’, like Souls-like, Roguelike, or Metroidvania. We can’t avoid designing the game in these big frames, but we can still do some micro creative design on it. In this game, the battle mechanics are quite different from souls-like games, but you can still notice that the vibe is paying respect to Bloodborne. If Bloodborne and Resident Evil didn’t exist, this game would never come out.  The puzzle mechanics are very different, but they are still within the range of the Metroidvania.

It’s very subtle and ‘high coupling’, but when playing in the game, players will easily find the homage parts and the innovative parts.

PnT: How far along are you in the development of No Vacation for an Executioner? What are the next challenges before the final release?

Jay: Until now I think I finished about 40% – 50% of the whole game. If everything goes well, it can be released at the beginning of 2026 as planned.

I think the biggest challenge is always about how to attract players to play through the entire game but still to keep the difficulty and the original game style. I keep getting feedback and think about this question everyday. Some mechanics are very different and deviated from players’ previous expectation about this type. I hope I can balance it better before the release.

PnT: What are your future projects after No Vacation for an Executioner? Do you already have ideas for new games or collaborations?Jay: Actually I haven’t any plans for the next game. I have some pictures in different directions in my mind, but I don’t know what to do yet. Even perfectly finishing this game is so difficult. I will focus on this game, and it’s getting closer and closer.