From Novice to Making an Official Ghostbusters Game in 1 Year

Today, we have a remarkable story to share with you. Lowkeylifted started using GDevelop in 2023. In 2024, he was hired to make an official game for the premiere of the blockbuster film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire!

Can you please tell us a bit about who you are, and what you do?

I'm known in the GDevelop community as LowkeyLifted. I'm a tech enthusiast, nature-lover and gamer, and more recently game developer from the United States.

I use GDevelop to work on my own personal projects, and contract with other individuals and companies to create games / interactive experiences that fit their needs. I've been using GDevelop now for roughly about a year and a half. I have my hands in a variety of different things, video-editing, game design, writing, audio editing, pixel-art.

LowkeyLifted's setup at home.

How long have you been using GDevelop? What are some projects you've done with GDevelop previously?

I found GDevelop back in the very beginning of 2023, it was right after New Years. I decided I was going to make a game, being super serious and driven this time as opposed to other times I had tried. That's what helped me make Dead Uprising: Zombie Survival.

It was actually my first project, in hind-sight very ambitious to not just start small like everyone recommended. I participated in my first game jam later on (GDevelop game jam #4 ranked 101st out of 216 entries) and other than a handful of highly secretive projects of my own, I have been doing mainly contracting work for others.

You recently created a game for the official premiere of the new Ghostbusters movie. That's fantastic! How did the opportunity come about?

I am always looking for people who need help bug-fixing or organizing their own code, or just want someone to make the game for them. I found this client through the GDevelop Discord server, in the looking for collaborations section.

All it takes is a message and being understanding of a client's wants / needs. This project was completely unexpected, and I am very grateful GDevelop allowed me to take part in such a unique project!

What were some of the challenges you had to overcome?

I had never made this type of game before, but thankfully I learned so much doing my first project and studying / learning the engine that most of it came to me naturally, I did encounter some problems.

The Ghostbusters game at the premiere. Created with GDevelop!

As far as the ghost movement was concerned and other small things but quickly overcame them, the game was put on a 30-ft tall screen in a very odd resolution which I was skeptical about at first, but after some tweaking ended up working flawlessly.

In the end we only had one or two days of testing so if any problems came up we had to react quickly to fix them.

Why did you choose GDevelop to make the game?

Since I was young I wanted to make games, it's always been my dream. I've tried dozens of different engines and programming languages. I regret not finding GDevelop earlier.

Once I found it everything just kind of clicked, this is the best engine for someone who is looking for a no-code engine. The condition / event system is intuitive and straight-forward.

I had previously messed around with Unity and Unreal, and GDevelop just felt right for my needs. This is also the engine I have the most experience with. If you are new to game development or that's a dream you've had for awhile, then you should give GDevelop a shot and really apply yourself into learning the engine. The possibilities are endless and anyone can pick this engine up and do amazing things with it!

How did the event go? Was implementation on-site easy? Did people have fun?

The event went great! People were amazed by having an interactive game related to Ghostbusters they could play on such a big screen. The team I worked with were amazing, they 3D printed a proton blaster that synced nicely with the game.

The Ghostbusters game was a success!

This was truly a unique experience for not only the people who got to play it at the event but also for everyone involved in putting it together. Having that large of a screen, a 3D printed ghostbusters blaster, and the design of the game all worked very well together to deliver an interactive experience!

What are you working on now? And where can people find you to follow your work?

I am mainly currently working on something I can't tell everyone about due to NDA, It is planned to be a Steam release. Along with other smaller personal projects of my own. I have an idle-clicker game on the back-burner, a rogue-like, and an RTS game that are all passion projects.

I have a personal discord related to all my game dev stuff: https://discord.gg/4meeVEaBZ9 that people can join to follow me, or if they have questions and want to learn I may be able to help.

I also have a website if they want to check that out or contact me about projects: https://www.grumpypotatogames.com/

This is my youtube channel if people want to watch the video I made about the project or subscribe to me to follow along. https://www.youtube.com/@GrumpyPotatoGames

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Thank you so much, Lowkeylifted! It's pretty incredible to see a developer go from GDevelop novice to making an official game for the premiere of the new Ghostbusters movie in just one year!