Interview with Izzy Penston, Co-creator of Interfectorem
What is Interfectorem?
Izzy: Interfectorem, which means "killer" in Latin, is a video game that I, along with three other girls, Avalon Brevik, Lucia Plymale, and Summer Benn, made a demo for while at a Girls Make Games summer camp. The demo qualified for "Demo Day" (where a winning game is chosen to be fully developed and released) in 2015, and ended up winning! The game follows Alis, a teenage sheriff-in-training, as she investigates her younger sister's murder. Huge shoutout to GMG for letting me run with that idea and for supporting a game with a couple of murders, and, of course, allowing a lot of blood and gore.
Where did Interfectorem come from? Where did you get the idea?
Izzy: I wish I could say it was due to my love for thrillers/horror, but I didn't start enjoying that stuff until recently although I suspect I always was weirdly fascinated by it. I think the idea pretty much just came to me more or less fully formed on the second day of camp. Of course, we tweaked it a bit, but for the most part, it's from that original idea.
What has being a part of something like Girls Make Games meant for you?
Izzy: When I first heard about the GMG camp I just thought it would be a fun thing to do over the summer but it changed my life in a really awesome way. Before Girls Make Games, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. I had some ideas but none of them really clicked. I knew I liked video games and writing but I didn't really believe that something so fun can be a real career.
So going to camp was really cool for multiple reasons. You probably can't tell, but I am in a wheelchair, and it was really great just to go to camp because I am not able to go to other camps. When you are sitting at a computer it really doesn't matter if you can walk or not which was very very cool to me.
