As you know this week is Day's Gone Week over at The Broken Road. For some time I have been an avid follower of VikingDad aka Kevin McAlister the man behind this community event. He is a virtual photographer and blogger who solely focuses on the Days Gone and President of the Mongrels community. I always admire such focus, having spent years and hundreds of hours solely on Skyrim myself.
Throughout this article we will find what drives his ambition and vision.
Throughout this article we will find what drives his ambition and vision.
Days Gone stands apart from other games on a personal level because of the story. The story resonated with me because the characters felt real. They had real emotions, real tribulations and behind all the darkness and chaos of the world lied the core themes of family, hope and trust. When you play this, you start thinking about how you would react if the world became like this. What actions would you take? How far would you go for your loved ones? Its games like this that get you thinking outside of the game itself.
Days Gone was ambitious and moved toward a new way of storytelling by creating this brand-new world, interwoven story lines and interactive open-world that comes for you at every angle. There are story moments in the game that players will remember for a long time. The technical feat that Bend Studio pulled off by having 500 Freakers on the screen at one time is something that hasn’t been done before. Days Gone is the start of what could be a long living PlayStation franchise and deserves to be mentioned in the top tier of games.
What drove you to start a blog focused solely on Days Gone?
The simple answer is, I just fell in love with the game. When I first created the blog, I just wanted a place to write and share my short stories within the Days Gone world. I also noticed that there wasn’t another outlet that focused solely on Days Gone, so I thought creating my own little corner could fulfill my own hunger for more of the game. As the blog became more known, it evolved to more than just writing short-stories and I started to include topics on the game, interviews from the team at Bend Studio, a gallery displaying my virtual photography and more.
How have you found the reception to what you have done so far?
Let’s just say I never imagined that this blog would have gotten this far. When I created this last June, I didn’t have a following on Twitter (maybe 25 followers?) and I didn’t have an Instagram. I was writing for myself because I was having fun with it. Days Gone is also where I first started the virtual photography art form. With the mesh of the blog, photos and posting my love for Days Gone it grew to lengths I didn’t expect. So, in less than a year I went from 25 followers to now almost 2000 with a blog that continues to have people visit it daily. However, numbers are not the measure for success. I just appreciate people reading my stuff, liking my photos and talking about the game to other like-minded people. I am blown away by the support I receive from Bend Studio, the virtual photography community and people not getting sick of me posting about one game! Also, I hold a monthly Days Gone virtual photography theme called VPDaysGone and each month I receive 100+ photos from the community and even a year after its release, I just get so happy that people still participate in it. As long as I keep having fun with it (as I am) I will continue and that is the type of reception that I focus on.
Having read your blog I was drawn to your interviews with Jeff Ross, Nathan Whitehead and Paul Deakin. How did it feel to be talking to some of the talent behind the games creation?
Within the communities that you are part of is there any one you would like to give a shout out to. Perhaps people that have been somewhat a pillar of the community or helped you on your journey?
The two big communities I am apart of and love very much is my Days Gone community and virtual photography community. Without the support of these two, my blog and photos would not be seen. They have all been so friendly and supportive of me since I began this journey last year and it makes social media so much fun. I have a long list of people I would like to give a shoutout to, but we could be here awhile! Instead I’ll just mention a few. One of the first virtual photographers I came across was @dotpone. I never knew virtual photography was even a thing until I saw some of his shots. From there, I explored a whole community of people who share the same interest. @musa_warrior_vp was another VP I came across early on. It was always a pleasure interacting with him and he always showed me nothing but support and love. In my Days Gone community, I must give a shoutout to my Vice President of the Mongrels, @sim_nell_vp. Its fun being able to nerd out together about the one game we love, ask for advice on each other’s photos and to have someone like me to help keep the Days Gone community together.
After I finished Days Gone, I was captivated by the story and characters as I said before. The game does a great job at setting world-building pieces throughout the world from environments, NERO recordings, collectables, and a starting point of two years after the world went to hell. All of this creates a sense that there is a bigger world at play here than what you are just doing with Deacon St. John. It reminds me of The Walking Dead and how they are building their own universe by creating spin-off shows, novels, video games and even movies. There is so much that can be explored and told through stories in this brand-new world of Days Gone. I began writing a few years ago and fell in love with creating my own stories. The more I play the game the more ideas I come up with, so yes you can definitely expect more stories down the road.
What is next for The Broken Road?
The Broken Road is just getting started! I do have a long-term plan in mind for the blog to evolve and improve. I constantly come up with more ideas. Being a perfectionist, my mind never stops! One thing that can be expected for the future at some point are more videos. The written format plays to a certain group of audience, so adding in additional content for people to consume is always a bonus. I have a couple more ideas that I don’t want to share quite yet, but I can say that when Days Gone 2 gets announced you will want to keep an eye on The Broken Road.
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