Alain Lagacé (Bmc Studio) Interview
We recently wrote an article about Bmc Studio’s latest game Each Sale I Drink A Glass Of Water. We got in touch with Bmc Studio’s Alain Lagacé to get his side of the story.
What is Bmc Studio?
Well, it all started in 2015 when I made a school project which was Kimulator: Fight For Your Destiny and for no reason I decided to post it on Greenlight. It got a lot of attention and it was released on Steam so because of that I decided to just keep on making games.
All of your games are kind of jokey or seen as non-games so I wanted to ask why you make them?
With my first game that was a school project, at first it was just a video we showed the class and I added little bits of gameplay in it, then there were a ton of YouTubers who played it like CinnamonToastKen. I was 15 years old back then so I was like HOLY SHIT *laughs* and I continued to make games, because they are actually selling I don’t need to have a job. I am starting to have a fanbase, I have a Discord with like 500 people in it. There are a lot of people who are buying my game ironically but there are also people who think I am funny and they buy my game, there are also people who hate me so they buy my game, there are people who are curious and then there’s YouTubers who buy my game to laugh at me.
So what is your intent behind the games? Is it for people to hate you or to make people laugh?
I make them because I think it’s funny and there are a bunch of people who think it’s funny too but there are also people who think it’s not funny but they still kind of like it, like the guy who made the article. He doesn’t like my game but because of me he has stuff to write about so technically he likes it.
What’s your creative process behind making these games? What do you do in a day?
Well sometimes I wake up at 4am and start writing what I was dreaming, like the game Sanic The Hawtdawg: Da Movie: Da Game 2.1: Electric Boogaloo 2.2 Version 4: The Squeakquel: VHS Edition: Directors cut: Special edition: The Musical & Knackles. I couldn’t sleep so I just took my phone and started writing shit and decided to make a game with it. Sanic was actually a test because, sometimes I try to improve myself and make my game less shitty. Wild Time Travelling Clone Dancing is one of my best games, like one of the actually funny games but it sold really badly. I decided to make the worst game possible and it sold well so basically Each Sale I Drink A Glass Of Water is a test to see if I make the worst shit possible it’s actually going to sell compared to if I actually tried to make something good. Right now it’s working.
Well that actually leads to my next question, what was the idea behind Each Sale I Drink A Glass Of Water? How did you come up with it?
Well, I was like, would people actually pay money to watch someone drink water, and the answer is yes. I mean, I would also buy it. I just think it’s funny and it’s really stupid but at the same time it’s kind of fun. I dunno, let’s just see if it’s actually going to work.
Do you think it will?
Yeah, I mean right now it’s been an hour since it’s been up and it already has 20 sales, something like that.
How much do you expect it to sell?
It really sucks because you know it was removed from Steam? The first store page had 3000 people putting it on their wishlist, it makes me so angry. It was my most wishlisted game and I am sure Steam removed it on purpose because they never remove my games but that game was on the store page, in proper new releases and when it hit the store page I got a message from Steam saying it was removed.
Did they say why?
They said that it was because it didn’t have enough gameplay so that’s why I added the mini-game. None of my games have gameplay so like…*laughs* the gameplay comes from buying the game, you can buy multiple copies and that’s gameplay y’know.
So have you drunk 20 glasses of water?
Yeah, now I have to drink 20 so I am going to start soon. I’ve done one.
So, one of the things that came out of the previous GameGrin article was the idea that you would be drinking too much water and could potentially die, how will you prevent this?
*laughs* well, something the article got wrong, I guess they didn’t bother to read the old store page so that is kind of sad, but if you read it, it says if there are too many sales the video will be delayed. I might drink 10 glasses a day, maybe less I don’t know. I’m not going to kill myself by drinking water, I am just going to drink it normally and record myself. I’m going to have a countdown behind me with all the sales and how many I have drunk so far, so basically, I am just going to keep drinking until I don’t have any water left to drink. It could take three years, I don’t know. I am going to stop counting the games that I sell after one year but if I have to continue drinking water for three years who cares. At that point if I have to keep drinking that much water then I won’t mind. A lot of people on Reddit say if I have 1 million glasses of water to drink I am never going to do it. If I have 1 million glasses of water to drink I’ll have $3 million. I'm going to drink those glasses of water, who cares?
You also said GameGrin got some stuff wrong, was it just the water or was there anything else we got wrong in the article?
Well, he said I made the worst mini-game possible; I don’t know where he got that but I don’t think he was thinking about that game because the mini-game wasn’t made by me. I just asked one of my friends who made a mobile game to let me use it as gameplay in my game.
He said “Titled Jetpackin’ Heat, the mini-game is—again, by the creator’s own admission—the “worse shit imaginable that can ‘count’ as a game”.”
Yeah, that’s not for that game.
Which game was that for then?
Well, it’s not out yet. When my game was removed, I was really pissed at Steam so I decided to make a new game, which had gameplay in really big quotation marks, that is what I was talking about, not the mini-game included. That was made by someone else and it’s actually not that bad, it’s just a little arcadey. I just think it’s sad because my friend who let me use his game was getting upset, I didn’t say his game was shit and he said that I did. It was CaffeineMeme, who helped me make the new Jekoos game. So, he can actually make games, I just upload videos and say they’re games.
How do you feel about some of the names being thrown your way like shovelware or novelty cash-grabs?
I mean, I don’t think it’s actually a cash grab or shovelware because people actually enjoy my games and my humour. Compared to someone buying an asset on the Unity store, I actually work for my games and I am going to record myself drinking water for a year and that’s actually a lot of work. I know it’s stupid, but I am actually going to have to do it. I regret saying it’s one year, I wish I would have said one month.
Yeah, it is stupid work, but it is work isn’t it. You're doing something.
Yeah and most of my actual games with stories are 10,000 to 50,000 words and after that I need to record myself, I need to edit the game and make it so even if it’s stupid it takes a lot of work.
So, I’m going to ask you the question that was at the end of the GameGrin article. What do you think of Each Sale I Drink a Glass of Water? Is it a stain on the Steam store? A harmless joke? Or an art project hiding multiple layers of social commentary?
It’s clearly the last one. I don’t think it’s a stain on the Steam store because it’s just for fun and if people don’t want to buy it, they just won’t buy it. If it’s on the main page of the Steam store it’s because people want to buy it, so it should be there and it’s just a stupid game, nobody is forcing anyone to play it. I keep seeing people saying that it’s a scam. I don’t think my game about me drinking water is a scam, I’m not lying to anyone, it’s me drinking water and that’s it. There’s a ton of people who say it is, I don’t think they know what a scam is.
You say it's clearly social commentary, what is the commentary you’re trying to make.
It’s too deep *laughs* I don’t know. Technically it’s a test to see if people will buy a game about me drinking water. It all started with a test and there are so many articles coming out and people wanting to interview me, you aren’t the first one.
What’s next for Bmc Studio, you said you were making another game but is there anything else on the horizon?
*laughs* Well, that game is already finished but Steam is being really annoying right now, since Each Sale I Drink A Glass Of Water they are taking so long to approve my game, I know they don’t like me anymore. Before all that was needed to be approved was a store page that had everything right on it and now they have an extra step, they are verifying it is an actual game and for this other game it’s been like three weeks for approval and normally it’s three days.
Have you tried going to the Epic Games Store?
Yes, they sent me a reply saying they don’t want my games. One of my games is an actual game. JekoosWare is my actual game based on the Jekoos game that was played by Dan TDM, the Jekoos game has 6 million views on YouTube. There are a lot of my games that have millions of views on YouTube. I know they aren’t my videos because other people are playing it but I feel like they are my videos. I have two studios, Bmc Studio and Bmc Games and JekoosWare is through Bmc Games.
Each Sale I Drink A Glass Of Water: The Game is out now on Steam.
COMMENTS
Acelister - 02:39pm, 29th May 2020
So I get gameplay every time I go to the supermarket? And online gameplay when I do my shopping online!
No, that's stupid.
Veldt Falsetto - 02:59pm, 29th May 2020 Author
Lol well, if you buy a game called "Every Time You Buy My Game I Give You Game"