{"id":135871,"date":"2026-01-30T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-196241"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:00:00","slug":"feature-you-do-feel-a-little-intimidated-brokencigs-discuss-being-scooped-on-their-game-concept-nycs-dev-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/01\/30\/feature-you-do-feel-a-little-intimidated-brokencigs-discuss-being-scooped-on-their-game-concept-nycs-dev-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: “You Do Feel A Little Intimidated” – BROKENCIGS Discuss Being Scooped On Their Game Concept & NYC’s Dev Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span> Image: BROKENCIGS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Behind every game is an untold story, and The Hilltop Funeral<\/strong> is no exception. From adjusting to remote collaboration to having their entire game concept scooped, the team at BROKENCIGS has gone through no shortage of hardships in developing their diabolical co-op coffin carrier.<\/p>\n

The Hilltop Funeral, which is currently available in early access on Steam<\/a>, sees two players piloting pallbearers carrying a corpse in a coffin to a funeral home. Tricky levels and puzzles require tight coordination to overcome while keeping the lifeless ragdoll body in its open casket. This gameplay is paired with a Tim Burton-esque art style, goofy dialogue teeming with dark humour, and a surprising story the developers are keeping tight-lipped about until the game\u2019s proper release.<\/p>\n

After letting us in on news that the game will receive Switch and Switch 2 versions, we sat down with director Luke Li<\/strong> and lead developer Cindy Fan<\/strong> to learn more about the game, their journey, and the realities of modern-day indie game development.<\/p>\n

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Nintendo Life (Tim Rattray): This may be the first time readers are hearing about BROKENCIGS and its games. Who are you and your studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BROKENCIGS\"<\/a>
Luke (left), Cindy (second from left), and the team at GDC \u2014 <\/span> Image: BROKENCIGS<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luke Li:<\/strong> I\u2019m Luke, the director and lead game designer on The Hilltop Funeral, and we are BROKENCIGS. We\u2019re a New York-based indie game studio founded two years ago. We create games based on our passion and what we like to reflect our team of diverse individuals.<\/p>\n

Cindy Fan:<\/strong> Hi, I\u2019m Cindy, the lead developer and a designer. First of all, Luke, we formed our company three years ago, because it\u2019s now 2026.<\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> Oh damn, it\u2019s already been three years?<\/p>\n

Cindy:<\/strong> It\u2019s scary to think about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that you noted your New York roots, as it\u2019s not a city that often comes up in talks of game development. Why choose to move there from China to develop your games?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> For indie developers in New York, people are more focused on working on something they feel they can express themselves with. I\u2019ve always felt that working on your own game meant that you\u2019re using it as a medium to say what you want to say, expressing your own creativity and ideas.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying Chinese indie developers are not doing that because I don\u2019t know a whole lot of them, but with the games [they\u2019re submitting to] publishers, it feels like a lot of the time people are just trying to make something that\u2019s going to blow up. And they keep doing that over and over, trying to make something that is in a popular genre and seeing if it all works, instead of making the game they want to do.<\/p>\n

With us, coming from China to work on indie games in America, the publisher [Wise Games] believed we could perfectly combine our culture, identities, and backgrounds as Chinese people with our experience doing game development in New York, resulting in something even better.<\/p>\n

Cindy:<\/strong> Where I live in Florida, there are few game developer events [unlike the many found in New York City]. Once you leave New York City, you realise how precious they were to you.<\/p>\n

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<\/span> Image: BROKENCIGS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That move happened during the development of The Hilltop Funeral, right? How did you adapt to remote work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cindy:<\/strong> Back when I first moved to Florida, I felt a lot of pressure being the only team member not in New York. It was back when we first formed the studio, and I had this feeling of, \u201cMaybe they will kick me out.\u201d I moved to Florida because one, the rent in New York is too expensive, and two, my partner is here studying at university. I had zero friends and felt that pressure of thinking I might get kicked out, so for the first few months it was really hard.<\/p>\n

We have this thing when we\u2019re working where we have individual Discord voice channels that we stay in while working. So, you can hop into another person\u2019s channel to chat with them. Once we figured that out, it felt pretty similar to being in person where I could turn around and talk to Luke. Now that we\u2019re used to that workflow, it\u2019s become much easier \u2014 for me, at least \u2014 to adapt to remote work.<\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s all interconnected here. There are so many events happening by Playcrafting<\/a>, GUMBO<\/a>, Wonderville<\/a>, and others. Slowly, you realise that it\u2019s a small but big circle of game developers in New York, since you meet someone at a random gaming event and find out they also go to this other thing you also attend often. It feels good to be a part of this community, whether it\u2019s Indie Game Dev Night<\/a> or Game Devs of Color Expo<\/a>. Every time we go to these events, it feels like you\u2019re part of it right away and that really makes us feel like we\u2019re making the right choice to be working on our dream games and pushing ourselves forward in a city that\u2019s full of so many talented people, resources, and opportunities.<\/p>\n

When we founded BROKENCIGS, it was recommended that we should found it in Delaware because of tax incentives. We were like, \u201cThat makes sense, but having your studio in New York, that\u2019s so much cooler.\u201d We are a New York studio, and it feels better [to be based here]. It turns out we made the right decision because without doing that, we would have missed out on so many opportunities that support New York-based teams only. We were really honoured to attend Tokyo Game Show with Empire State Development.<\/p>\n

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<\/span> Image: BROKENCIGS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the game. How did its development come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> [Our friend] Sam, Hailey \u2014 one of our artists \u2014 and I did a small project back in school that was very physics-based. It was sort of similar to what we have right now. What happened was that at the beginning of last year when we were working on Inkression, which is our ‘main’ game, we were very focused on trying to find it a publisher. During that time, we thought it\u2019d be nice to take a little breather and work on something that\u2019s lower pressure. We were feeling a lot of pressure with Inkression because the story is very serious, so we thought, let\u2019s focus on something that\u2019s more goofy, stupid, funny, and smaller in scope.<\/p>\n

So, we got in touch with Sam and told him, \u201cHey, we had this idea back in the day and we want to restart it and turn it into an actual thing. Would you like to work on this together?\u201d He gladly agreed.<\/p>\n

Right, the game is a collaboration between two studios, yours and Sam\u2019s [Fumigawa Studios]. This seems challenging given that most team members now work remotely.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> There\u2019s something incredibly encouraging about working with people outside our immediate team. They inject new character and insight into the project, opening doors we might not have seen otherwise. Of course, the challenge is finding the right balance. Every studio has its own priorities, and it’s our responsibility to manage that partnership with empathy. It\u2019s about finding that sweet spot where the game flourishes, but no one \u2014 on either side \u2014 burns out.<\/p>\n