Build a Rocket Boy Dev Details the Making of MindsEye's…

The upcoming action-adventure title MindsEye takes place in the near-future city of Redrock, a technological metropolis where drones and robots have optimized nearly every aspect of everyday life. But Redrock is far from the perfect place to live: the oppressive Silva Corp surveillance system monitors residents' every move, while the surrounding desert wilderness brings dangerous weather and climate shifts. MindsEye's world is a rich one that blends nature and technology to create a truly unique setting.

The Best War Games spoke to MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy about the creation of the game's world, a "near-future Americana" that feels bustling and alive but also fraught with danger. They discussed the artistic inspirations behind Redrock City, the player freedom emphasized by the Build.MindsEye system, which helps create a truly interactive sandbox, how protagonist Jacob Diaz's MindsEye neural implant influences gameplay, and much more. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

The "Near-Future Americana" Of Redrock City

Q: Can you speak about your general world-building process? What kind of research or creative influences helped shape the setting and tone of the game?

A: Our world-building approach has been anchored by three core visual pillars: a grounded take on modern-day Americana, the rise of advanced technology and AI, and the pervasive impact of more extreme climate change. These elements are interwoven throughout the game's visuals from environmental details to character development.

We’ve striven to create a city that feels alive and believable. It is an expansive urban landscape surrounded by desert and red rock mountains. The city itself is marked by distinct districts, corporate influences, and the visible integration of drones and robotics into daily life. Our characters reflect this world too from central figures such as Jacob, Seb, and Rigby to pedestrians going about their daily routines.

The city itself is facing the consequences of worsening climate conditions, where increased temperatures and powerful sandstorms have taken their toll, especially in the more deprived areas of the city. The effects of climate change play a role in both the setting’s atmosphere and its narrative tension, adding depth and authenticity to the world of Redrock.

Q: Did any real-world “smart cities” like Singapore or Helsinki play any role in Redrock’s development as a city?

A: Not really, Redrock City is a near-future dystopia set in America. It would not have made a lot of sense to take those cities as cultural references. AI does not make a city smart; social measures and good city planning do. Redrock City is very far from being a smart city. That’s what makes it so exciting to explore.

Our fictional city of Redrock is right in the middle of the desert, which makes it an interesting place from the start. You’ve got this high-tech city surrounded by vast open natural landscapes, unpredictable terrain, and that contrast adds a lot visually to how the world feels to play in. It’s a near-future city shaped by automation, where AI, drones, implants, and automation run most of the systems.

There’s also a distinct mood to Redrock: a cool, composed tension that gives the city its own personality. Moody nights, reflective surfaces, and the quiet sense that the environment is observing you all contribute to the atmosphere. It’s a familiar yet uneasy space - grounded, immersive, and full of narrative potential.

Q: Overall, how would you describe the artistic direction of Redrock?

A: The visual style of MindsEye is referred to as “Grounded Futurism.” It’s a style that blends near-future ideology with current-day realism, delivering a visual experience that feels both imaginative and relatable. Our aim throughout development has been to achieve a high-quality visual that resonates with players emotionally and aesthetically.

With the world of Redrock, we drew heavily from contemporary Americana, especially around Nevada and Las Vegas. This influence helped us craft a layered world filled with distinct locations, diverse characters, unique vehicles, and believable businesses, each adding to the city’s history and socio-economic context.

The near-future setting gave us some creative freedom to build on the rich foundations set above. This is particularly noticeable with how we represent emerging technologies and climate impact, whilst keeping the world grounded and immersive.

MindsEye Tells An Ambitious Story In A Technology-Centered World

Q: Furthermore, can you talk a little bit about how interactive the sandbox is? Are there a lot of interactive interior spaces?

A: The world reacts to your actions: drivers flee when shot (or they shoot back!), traffic reacts to accidents, there’s life everywhere... And, with the power of Build.MindsEye, it will get even more content as we go and as the community of builders grows.

There are also many interior locations we use for gameplay in the adventure that you’ll get to explore and mod using Build.Mindseye. We are also planning to add more after we launch.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the ambition at play in MindsEye? Why is this one of the dominant themes?

A: It’s quite simple really: we wanted to make a good and memorable game. Simple as that.

We have grand ambitions with Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye, and there are other important themes that we wanted to explore, but at the end of the day, our ambition has been and always will be to deliver a great game, good fun, riveting story and spectacle, something that you leave you with good (or bittersweet, sometimes) memories.

MindsEye resonates with our times: it’s about AI, it’s about big corporations, big egos, surveillance, and more. But at its core, it only has the ambition of giving our players a good time, creating fond memories, and the potential for more if you want to come back to it as a player or a creator.

Q: What was the starting point for the development of the story?

A: A lot of it came from just observing the world, how we behave, how we adapt, the things we choose to ignore or accept. When we started, much of the technology we were exploring felt like science fiction. But the world has moved quickly, and now it all feels a bit too real. That shift made the story feel more urgent, less like a projection and more like a reflection. The world-building was about striking a balance between believability and storytelling. We didn’t want it to feel traditionally dystopian. There’s weight to the narrative, but we also approached it with a sense of curiosity and even levity in places. It’s not just about what could go wrong; it’s about how someone like Jacob tries to hold onto his sense of self in the middle of it all.

Q: Considering the nature of the titular MindsEye implant, how psychological can players expect this thriller story to be?

A: Our story has its layers, some of them quite subtle. There are strands of our story that are conveyed only through small hints in our cinematics, for example, thanks to the talent of our cinematics team and our actors.

But yes, of course, we play on Jacob’s psyche, what happened to him, how it shaped him as a person. Some of the choices he makes are questionable, and we want the questions about his motivations and mental state to be open questions really. That’s what makes our characters feel very human. They are all so imperfect, so selfish sometimes, and still, their humanity perspires through every cinematic shot, every line of dialogue. At the end of the day, an experiment certainly does not always enhance a person, and it does not always take a failed experiment to break them.

Q: How did you approach the integration of technology in both the narrative and gameplay loops? How did you go about making it feel omnipresent throughout Redrock?

A: As mentioned above, advancing technology is one of MindsEye’s visual pillars. From the very beginning, we aimed to make it feel omnipresent, not simply as a backdrop, but as something that actively shapes both the story and the player's experience.

Narratively, we introduce players to key pieces of tech like the Goldfield Lenz, a device that enables communication and navigation throughout the game’s expansive world. As the journey unfolds, players get hands-on with a range of electric vehicles. This starts with flying drones and electric cars and continues through forming a direct interface with a companion drone that becomes essential in the later stages of the game.

This technological presence extends into the cityscape and is visible in many areas of the living world. The player will see holographic billboards illuminating the streets, robotic workers maintaining urban spaces, delivery drones flying across the city, and robot security forces patrolling public areas. Massive tech companies have helped to reshape Redrock’s infrastructure, making it impossible to ignore how deeply embedded technology is now.

Q: How do player choices impact the storyline and character development throughout the game, if at all?

A: In short: they don’t. We are telling the story of Jacob in MindsEye. We have other ways of giving players the opportunity to live their own story with Build.Mindseye and with some very strong post-launch content.

Q: How did sound design influence atmosphere?

A: Sound design was essential in building the atmosphere of our game — it grounded the futuristic setting in emotional and physical reality. We used sound not just to support visuals, but to shape the player’s perception of the world. The low-frequency rumbles of distant industry, the hiss of malfunctioning tech, the eerie silence between firefights — all of it was designed to reinforce the tone of a world that’s advanced but unstable, alive but tense.

We leaned into contrast: oppressive soundscapes during high-stakes moments and stripped-back minimalism to heighten unease in quieter scenes. This dynamic approach to audio helped us guide player emotion and underscore the narrative themes — isolation, urgency, resistance — in ways visuals alone couldn’t achieve.

Ultimately, sound became the emotional compass of the experience. Sound design has drawn on near-future technological advancements that could happen in our lifetime. From this, it has allowed us to create a unique palate that creates a sci-fi feel but with reference to our current point in history.

We developed a proprietary audio propagation system (patented) to create realistic and immersive audio behavior in a dynamic world. The cinematic audio focus makes you feel part of a cinematic experience, with actors encouraged to act out the recordings physically to get a natural delivery.

Despite being a linear game, we drew lots of inspiration from the interactability of open-world NPCs. We've assembled a huge variety of NPC voices and used both AI and Scripted systems to create an immersive world that feels populated by real people going about their own lives.

The Future Of MindsEye

Q: Can you discuss the episodic approach? What does that mean for MindsEye exactly?

A: Not without heavy spoilers, no! But in essence, think of MindsEye as a universe that has its own mythology, and we want to continue building it.

Q: How does MindsEye integrate with the Everywhere platform, and what benefits does that offer players?

MindsEye leads the next evolution of game-building which we beta tested in Everywhere:

User-Friendly Tools: Intuitive world-building with simple 3D visual scripting, drag-and-drop asset placement, and AI integration
Collaborative Stamp Building: Effortlessly design, publish, and share new inventions asynchronously.
High asset portability allows dozens - even hundreds - of creators to contribute, remix public creations, and drive continuous innovation.

As with all new products, things evolve. Arcadia was originally envisioned as our creation platform, but as we continued developing MindsEye and building out Build A Rocket Boy's ecosystem, it naturally grew into something more focused—Play.Mindsye and Build. MindsEye.

For Build A Rocket Boy to fully realize our vision, we had to beta-test our AAA-creation system with a community of builders in real time and started with Everywhere while we were in stealth mode developing MindsEye.

Q: What tips or advice would you give to MindsEye players looking to utilize the creation tools?

A: Have fun with it. That’s the biggest thing.

Q: Can you talk about post-launch plans for MindsEye? What kind of updates should players expect, and is there any intended cadence for their release?

A: The MindsEye story campaign is a linear game with some exploration. However, we also offer side content that allows players to experience what would traditionally be known as an open world. With MindsEye, we’re doing something that has never before been seen in an AAA game, where our city serves as the backdrop for many different experiences - think of our city as a film set where numerous differently themed films are shot.

This first chapter does not branch storylines, but lays the groundwork for a long-term, multi-title narrative universe. Future installments aim to expand across multiple timelines, universes, and story arcs, enabling broader narrative complexity and convergence in the years to come.

Whilst initially players will be engaged with a story that curates the world and the experience as they navigate Redrock, they will get to experience a significant portion of the map as the narrative progresses, and we have a variety of different locations – both interiors and exteriors – for players to enjoy.

Eventually, we will open up the entire city as a gameplay space that players can use in ways they haven’t been able to before, as not just a place to enjoy our story but to also tell their own stories, and we think that level of freedom hasn’t been given to players before.

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