In case you didn’t know, we have had a long-term friendship with the now Co-Director of DreadXP, Hunter Bond. PAX East 2024, marked a new era for Dread XP with Hunter and his partner managing the studio. With new games set to come out later this year, we spoke with Mr. Bond about those projects, his time with Dread XP, and his side hobbies. The interview we are about to share with you is a highlight of who Hunter Bond is not only as a Co-Director of Dread XP but also as a passionate gamer as well. Here is that interview.
Hunter Bond Interview
Matt: Can you introduce yourself to those who don’t know you?
Mr. Bond: Hi, I’m Hunter Bond, one of the Co-directors here at Dread XP. I started being co-director about six months ago with Brian. We were working on a project before at Dread XP and we were asked to step in and take over as management. So this is our first PAX after putting it together and it has been nice to be out here.
Matt: Now what was the project you were working on for Dread XP? Has it been announced or can you not say?
Mr. Bond. No, we can; it is a game called Creepshow. Also, Brian made Mortuary Assistant, which is published by DreadXP. Previous to that, I just knew some of the staff and helped them on projects here and there.
Falling Up the Ladder
Matt: So we’ve known each other for years and you jokingly always say how you fell up the ladder. Would you like to share how that happened?
Mr. Bond: I joined the game industry over a decade ago working for J!nx the clothing company. My background was originally in photography. I worked for J!nx for a pretty long time and my fiance, Katie, is the reason why I met Beserk Studios, Just Shapes & Beats and Infernax. I was the marketing guy and I actually helped finish Infernax by working on the narrative and other things. They had the game in various stages of development. By the time we shipped it, the game had been in development for almost 11 years. During the pandemic, we kind of worked that all out with some 13-hour calls. I was doing that and then Dread XP reached out to me because of that. About six months ago, they wanted to make some changes and asked if we’d come in and help. What probably started out as an interim idea, now with the ball rolling, has kind of turned into more. We’ve been able to kind of prove we can do it. Also now, not like I’d want to leave.
Matt: Oh you are a hostage?
Mr. Bond: Yes, the best kind of hostage.
Moving to DreadXP
Matt: Now in that role, you have a lot of responsibilities and objectives. What have been some of the headaches or things you have had to adjust? Going from Berserk to Dread XP.
Mr: Bond: Berserk has a really interesting way of working as a company; everyone is so self-directed. We didn’t need to micromanage. I had to convince everyone that we needed to have a once-weekly meeting because I never knew what everyone was doing. Going from that to Dread was different. Dread XP isn’t a huge team on the publishing side. We brought on a couple of people. We have a full-time product manager. We have Justin who’s are marketing associate. We are a small team of 6 or 7 people. Going from a laid-back schedule to having people rely on me in order to help them do their job, it has been a transition but it has been worth it. You get to help a lot of people get their games out there; an example of that is Heartworm which is amazing.
‘Towards the end of last year, Heartworm had to be let go by its former publisher due to financial reasons; they actually never got to announce who their publisher was going to be. We were able to team up and were excited to bring them on because it was looking like they might have to kickstart which would have been a nightmare. Heartworm is awesome. That was the first game I helped sign as interim director.
Reorganization and getting stuff done, like this booth we designed and decided to rearrange to be more efficient; it is just a lot of work but it has been great, you know.
Couches for Dread XP
Matt: you have couches this time.
Hunter Bond: We do have couches this time. You can’t take the Berserker Studios out of me. I will always have couches and donuts deep in my heart.
Matt: What are some of the upcoming projects? Obviously, there is Heartworm
Mr. Bond: Heartworm is going to be coming out sooner rather than later. They are an Indie dev but their goal is within the next year. Mortuary Assistant Definitive Edition is going to be coming out simultaneously. There is a switch port and the original game will update for free. We have Dread Dilusion which is going to be fully launching soon; we haven’t announced a date but it will be soon. There is also Sucker for Love: Date to Die For that is coming out on April 23rd. We have Amanda 2 currently out in development.
Merch in the Future
Matt: You said you currently have merch for Amanda in stores, have you thought about creating merch for any of the other titles?
Mr: Bond: Yes, part of it takes time coordinating with them. We want to make sure it is right. We also have an online merchandiser we work with. One of the things past PAX is we want to work on bringing merch together
Matt: Thanks for the interview
Hunter: I’ll always talk to you; it was a pleasure.
