EAST LANSING, Mich. – The conversation started, as many late-night discussions do, simply about life. Fueled by Taco Bell and inspired by Elon Musk’s recent goal of reaching immortality, the conversation between Shane Eatmon, Mike Kraft, Thomas Shevela and Cory Mazure focused on technology and its battle against nature.
That was years ago. Now, the four are still having the same conversation, but in a different light. The lifelong friends are working together to create their own video game. They call it “Fuzz”; a two-dimensional platform game, similar to that of the classic Mario series. Fuzz follows the main (and title) character through a series of levels in his fight against the ever-changing world of technology.
(Check out the "Fuzz" TikTok page here)
The origin story for Fuzz takes place long before the physical development of the game which began just a few weeks ago. Eatmon, Kraft, and Shevela met in middle school at L’Anse Creuse in Harrison Township, Michigan. Mazure entered the picture in high school. He attended L’Anse Creuse North while the others went to L’Anse Creuse Central.
Eatmon is the lead in the development of Fuzz. It was his idea to create a video game in the first place. After all, video games are what the four bonded the most over when they met. Eatmon is responsible for all of the game art and works with Shevela and Mazure on the storyline.
Eatmon’s inspiration for art comes from his mother. A professional painter who has influenced her son from a young age.
“When I was young, she painted my whole bedroom top to bottom with a jungle scene and I always loved that,” said Eatmon.
The nature vs technology theme of Fuzz is not random for Eatmon either. Art inspiration comes from mom, while the thematic inspiration comes from his dad.
“I’ve always had a love of animals. My dad has always had lots of animals around. He had like 20 snakes at one point that he was breeding, lots of fish around. So I’ve always had a close relationship with animals,” said Eatmon.
Kraft, Eatmon and Shevela live together in a four bedroom apartment just off of Michigan State’s campus while Mazure works on the game remotely as he attends Kettering University in Flint.
It’s easy and, perhaps, practical for childhood friends to grow apart as they age. However, for the four Fuzz developers, they came back together to work on what brought them together in the first place. Despite taking many different paths, they found their way back to each other.
Shevela tried his hand at acting. He even went as far as living out in California and going to school out there while acting in short films and theater. Kraft spent the first few years out of high school at Macomb Community College focusing on statistics. Eatmon even tried expressing his art through his own clothing brand.
The various paths that the group took adds some culture and differing perspectives in the production of Fuzz.
“Video game storytelling is obviously a lot different than film storytelling because you have to tell a story with a lot less dialogue and more so immerse the player so they’re actually playing through the story,” said Shevela. “The audience or player needs to be feeling what the character is feeling… they really need to feel it and have an emotional connection with the character.”
Kraft took a programming course over the last summer for the sole purpose of learning the required coding language to create Fuzz. He draws his desire to work on the game from his programming partner and best friend, Eatmon.
“I kind of grew more into video games because of Shane. I don’t know if he even knows that but it’s the truth,” said Kraft.
Mazure is the odd one out of the group. He doesn’t live in East Lansing with the other three, studies mechanical engineering at Kettering instead of Michigan State and in a few weeks will be heading to Germany as a part of a work term program. Despite all that, Fuzz would not be a successful operation without him.
He’s the project manager of the game and oversees the daily 8 a.m. meetings, Excel spreadsheets, outreach to playtesters and much more.
“Cory is the most organized person I’ve ever met,” said Eatmon. “We had to bring him on for his organization alone.”
Developing an entire video game with the slim crew of four friends is not going to be easy for the group. Long nights coupled with all the drama and madness that comes with college life will certainly make for an interesting and, at times, challenging group dynamic.
“We all have our best interests in mind. You know, we’re all looking out for each other… I definitely think that will reduce the amount of conflicts,” said Eatmon.
Fuzz may or may not work out for the guys in the end. No matter what, they will always have each other.
“Every single one of them will always have your back. No matter what,” said Shevela. “Shane is always going the extra mile. He literally picks out a day every week and he’s cooked dinner for us.”
From Taco Bell in Eatmon’s basement, to home-cooked meals in their shared living room. The Fuzz guys have been through a lot. Now, it’s about what’s next in their journey. At the end of the day, it’s not about making money or becoming famous for their game. The group just wants to be a part of something bigger. Something they’ve built.
“I’m most excited about creating something for people to enjoy, and building up a community is going to be a lot of fun,” said Eatmon.